A Modern Declaration of Independence

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer

Bangkok, Thailand May 25, 2011 – The current system, domineered by corrupt, career politicians and the corporations and banks that manage them like a troupe of actors, seeks to monopolize power on all levels. We are witnessing a “global government” taking shape, with “global institutions” that make decrees, laws, and even war not based on the greater good of humanity, but for the greater good of a corporate-financier oligarchy seeking to spread their power and influence to the four corners of the globe. They have done so under the poorly dressed guise of “human rights,” “freedom,” and “democracy.” As the cheap veneer that covers their true designs peels away, we are outraged but perhaps at a loss of what to do.

We are witnessing the destruction and despoiling of Libya, US-funded uprisings creating unmitigated chaos across Syria, a fake-revolution destabilizing and threatening the future of 80 million Egyptians at the hands of a US International Crisis Group stooge, Mohamed ElBaradei. And while disingenuous pundits still try to convince us that these are real revolutions and that real change is around the corner, we are on a road that leads to nothing more than absolute subjugation, exploitation, and inevitably much worse.

We have been convinced through a lifetime of lying manipulative media and our sabotaged education system that change comes only through a ballot box, hoisting up placards, and street mobs. In reality, elections are rigged – and whether the actually mechanics of the elections are rigged or not makes little difference when all the candidates are sponsored by the same corporate-financier interests.

Like a theatrical performance, the same manager presides over all the actors on the stage in a story that is ultimately a work of complete fiction. Likewise, street mobs are easily manipulated, generally led by the very people protesters think they are “rising up against.” Emotions run high, and the energy of the people is easily harnessed as a further means to the global elite’s ends.

Real power lies not with political office, but rather in the ability to actually, physically do something. In fact the very definition of power is the “ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.” When a politician says to build a bridge, it is not he who builds it. Rather it is engineering firms who have the tools, knowledge, and means to literally, physically shape the world around them. When a politician sends his nation to war, it is most certainly not he who fights it, rather the military and its soldiers, the industries that arm these soldiers, the logistical networks that transport them to the front line, and the corporations that feed, cloth, and shelter these soldiers. When a politician makes any rule, regulation, law, decree, or proposal, it is never he who actually “does” it.

Corporations like General Electric, Monsanto, DynCorp, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Wal-Mart, Exxon, Google, BP, and AT&T most certainly have the “ability to do or act” and literally change the face of the earth. In fact, the vast majority of the rules, regulations, laws, decrees, and proposals, that our politicians feign to have developed on their own, come from think-tanks funded by and representing the collective interests of these very corporations. They literally fuel society, move mountains, bridge rivers, manufacture machines that dominate the air, land, sea, and even space, hold dominion over our means of communication, and oversee the distribution and sale of nearly everything we use on a daily basis. That is power.

Any means of protest or “change” that does not undermine or affect this current balance of power is nothing more than a superficial, ineffectual, and ultimately futile exercise at best, and a self-defeating, counterproductive, co-opted acceleration of humanity’s consolidation and control under these global corporate-financier interests at worst.

Changing the Balance of Power

To actually change the balance of power, we must understand how the global corporate-financier elite have accumulated so much power to begin with. First and foremost we the people have paid into centralized mega-businesses for generations, funneling our work, savings, attention, and our dependency into the hands of the wealthy elite. Secondly, the global elite have augmented their positions in society with self-proclaimed authority, a myriad of rules, regulations, laws, pomp, and decrees that protect their various rackets and monopolies. They have also completely infiltrated and commandeered the political system. The United States federal government for instance, is increasingly demanding state and local governments become beholden to them, thus defeating the whole purpose of having a state and local government in the first place.

Quite obviously then, to change the balance of power, the solution must address these two factors. First we must end our servile dependency on consumerism and the “paying into” this corrupt corporate-financier system. Humanity as a whole is endowed with tremendous creative abilities – consumerism negates these abilities and reduces us to mere human-livestock. We must become producers once again, particularly in America where the nation was built on production, industry, creativity, invention, and rugged individualism. Second, we must recognize the “corporatocracy” as the illegitimate parasites that they are, and render moot their ever growing list of laws, rules, and regulations designed solely to protect their own interests at the cost of society and the world as a whole.

It Has Already Begun

The control of agriculture is one of the fundamental sources of power. Agriculture feeds, clothes, shelters, and even fuels society. It is something that we cannot do without, and depend on for our health and our very survival day to day. It is one of the first logical aspects of the current paradigm one should consider “taking back.” And taking back people are.

It began in Sedgwick, Maine, where a local ordinance was passed protecting local farmers and markets from federal regulations designed entirely to destroy localized agriculture on behalf of mega-corporations like Monsanto, Cargill, and Syngenta. Rather than asking permission, the good people of Sedgwick, Maine simply declared their sovereignty vis-à-vis a state and national government that has long outgrown its mandate. The neighboring towns of Penobscot, Blue Hill and Trenton followed suit. Douglas Wollmar of Trenton, a local farmer who helped push through the ordinance in his town, cited Thomas Jefferson who said, “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves,” in regards to shifting the unwarranted influence and power of the federal government back into local people’s hands.

In the spirit of Jefferson’s words, the “Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance of 2011” clearly and unequivocally declares its sovereignty in all matters regarding local agriculture in what can be called a “modern Declaration of Independence:”

“We the People of Sedgwick, Hancock County, Maine have the right to produce, process, sell, purchase and consume local foods thus promoting self-reliance, the preservation of family farms, and local food traditions. We recognize that family farms, sustainable agricultural practices, and food processing by individuals, families and non-corporate entities offers stability to our rural way of life by enhancing the economic, environmental and social wealth of our community. As such, our right to a local food system requires us to assert our inherent right to self-government. We recognize the authority to protect that right as belonging to the Town of Sedgwick.

We have faith in our citizens’ ability to educate themselves and make informed decisions. We hold that federal and state regulations impede local food production and constitute a usurpation of our citizens’ right to foods of their choice. We support food that fundamentally respects human dignity and health, nourishes individuals and the community, and sustains producers, processors and the environment. We are therefore duty bound under the Constitution of the State of Maine to protect and promote unimpeded access to local foods.”

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