Fight the System
By Wade Lee Hudson
HolisticDemocracy.org
 

The System dominates the world. It reaches into every corner and into our hearts and minds. It tries to control everything and everyone. It's a self-perpetuating Top-Down Machine, operated by puppets on top who look down on those below — disrespecting, manipulating, exploiting, using them. We ordinary people often submit to the existing order, even glorifying the Machine's operators, worshiping celebrities who "make it," or looking for a Savior to make everything right.
 

We reproduce the Machine every time we disrespect another's essential humanity, dominate someone unjustifiably, hate an "enemy" so much we wish them dead, or stop trying to understand others.

Many people push back against the Machine, some from inside it, others from outside. Health care workers, public servants, teachers, religious leaders, and many others help people cope and improve their lives.

Ordinary people commit random acts of kindness. They reach out to strangers in need, vote, and try to stay educated. They go to protests or write their Congressperson. They care for their families and build bonds with a few close friends. They respect themselves as they respect others. They form co-equal partnerships, "think together," and decide what to do as a team. They honor Mother Nature, seek to live in harmony with the natural order, and work to preserve life. They pursue truth, promote fairness, and love beauty.
 

These compassion-minded people belong to the Bottom-Up Community that counters the Top-Down Machine. If it united, it could build enough power to balance the Machine and confine top-down power to what's justifiable, the way legitimate authority intervenes to stop real harm. 
 

Moving in this direction is simple. Gather a few trusted friends and affirm these principles:

• Everyone is created equal and deserves respect for their essential humanity.

• Everyone should be able to make ends meet.

• Our social system is rigged to benefit the few at the top.

• Society needs more bottom-up power.

• We support one another's personal growth.

• We promote compassionate improvements throughout society and within ourselves.

• In these ways, we affirm holistic and systemic reform.
   

Then meet regularly, weekly or monthly. Break bread. Speak from the heart. Discuss a reading, a video, a song. Acknowledge your weaknesses and mistakes: Perhaps arrogance led you to disrespect someone. Perhaps a lack of self-confidence kept you quiet when you should’ve spoken. Perhaps a judgmental gut reaction shaped your action. Perhaps self-centeredness fed a depression. Perhaps you tried to dominate others when you could’ve decided together.
 

The examples are many. The Machine seeps into our souls in mysterious ways; its conditioning is relentless. Facing these realities isn't easy — it's often painful and disturbing. But doing it confidentially, in a "holistic circle" with a few trusted friends, can help. You can support one another in becoming recovering authoritarians.
 

These circles can then multiply. Members can leave to form new circles with other friends. They can publicize their efforts and inspire others to start their own circle. Existing groups — such as book clubs and church social action committees — can become circles too. Circles can link up and send representatives to a Network of Holistic Circles, meeting quarterly to share reports, brainstorm, and support one another.
 

This Network could support a "movement of movements," uniting the Bottom-Up Community in actions rooted in Kingian nonviolence — campaigns aimed at winnable demands directed at Congress, one at a time, continuing month after month until each is resolved in victory or defeat, at which point the movement takes up the next demand. Through it all, members of the Network of Holistic Circles strengthen themselves and prepare for whatever comes.