"A regime, an established order, is rarely overthrown by a revolutionary movement; usually a regime collapses of its own weakness and corruption and then a revolutionary movement enters among the ruins and takes over the powers that have become vacant."
Americans are always revolting. It's just a matter of what they're revolting against. Give an American something
to kick about, some grievance to repulse, and he's happy as a lark.
Of late, Americans have fallen onto bad times because we've lost all sense of direction in our
revolting. So, as usual, I am going to provide the answer: A New Revolution.
We need something Spectacular, a really New concept of Revolution. What have Americans revolted against?
- The British (the First Revolution)
- Spatial restrictions (the Westward Expansion)
- Bad Times (the 1929 Depression)
- Our principles (the last fifty years).
We're in such deplorable straits these days because we've revolted against all our original Ideals: an informed electorate, government by consent of the governed, honesty in government and electorate, and freedom through unity. Keeping ourselves informed,
free, and the rest, was too hard - so we revolted against the whole shebang. Result: a nation of revolting people who only watch TV, play video games, and think and do whatever we're told.
So what should we now revolt against?
Our revolting selves, of course!
What does that mean? I'm glad you asked. It means that we must now make Common Cause against all the laziness, lack of
self-discipline, and loss of moral fibre that we've instilled in ourselves.
As we could expect, while we common people have been revolting and rebelling against our National Character, some uncommon
people - uncommonly good and uncommonly bad - have been responding to this imbecility and infantalism. While America
Slept, while we were acting like infants, attacking anything and everything, expecting the world to give us whatever we wanted,
blaming our culture for our revolting selves, others have been busy.
If we act like infants, we will be treated like infants.
Thus far we've been lucky that our rulers have treated us fairly well. But our luck couldn't hold out forever, and it looks like now
we may get what our nation's plutocratic rulers think we deserve: complete loss of freedom.
Fortunately, my Astounding New Revolution can save us in the Nick of Time.
If Lippmann is correct, that a nation collapses of its own weakness and corruption and a revolution
enters among the ruins, what are
the Ruins? What powers have become vacant? Almost everything is in ruins; almost all powers are vacant.
So we'll have to sell our New Revolution to ruined, vacant Needy people. And we can scarcely create any
worse havoc than we now
suffer. But unfortunately, the idea that they're vacant is missing in vacant people. And without any
desire for anything but Ease and
Comfort, they won't want to revolt against their revolting selves. Fact is, they'll likely turn up their noses
at our Humanitarian Efforts.
So now what?
Man has always depended on a Captivating Myth to give him Vision, to explain Life to him, and
embolden him to face Life's
Challenges. Most of the Old Myths are timeworn and hackneyed, so what New and Vibrant Myth could do
the job? What contemporary
Mythos has all the necessary ingredients of Magic, the Filling of Old Vacancies, the Gaining of New
Powers, and Cleaning up Ruins?
Right, THE WIZARD OF 
Using this myth as the basis of our New Revolution may sound absurd, but you forget the unbounded credulity and lust for
mystification most people suffer from. The Wizard of Oz is made for our purposes.
We'll announce our New Revolutionary Programme of Study in the Oz Mythos. Fortunately we have available to us both the
original book by L. Frank Baum and the
version. For purposes of Amazing and Confabulating people the Hollywood version is, of course, vastly
superior.
Now for the Official Meaning of the Oz Mythos. We'll explain that people in our culture have Lost
Their Way in a Twister of Self-
Satisfaction and Infantile Willfulness. We are now Over the Rainbow and don't know how to Get Back
Home Again.
As people, we are Vacant. Like the Scarecrow, we lack any ability to think for ourselves, heads full of straw. We have no Heart -
as Empty as the metal chest of the Tin Man. We are Cowardly Lions, afraid of our own shadows.
So who can help us Regain Ourselves and Find Our Way Home?
The Wizard of Oz!
But who is the Wizard of Oz?
You!
Who else? And no one is better suited to the part.
What kind of man was the Wizard? Well, not a
bad man, just not a very good Wizard. But kindly intentions, a flair for extemporizing, and an ability to explain even what you
yourself don't understand, can do a lot.
Certainly our nation could be no worse off with a Wizard like you - in place of the short-sighted leaders we now suffer under.
What Elemental Delusions must we Face in ourselves to accomplish this Impossible Task? The Delusions:
- that we really are a democracy
- that liberty is concerned only with political, and not economic, equality of opportunity
- that people "can long enjoy more liberty than that which their intelligence and morals entitle them."
By Facing these personal Delusions we would begin to re-instill in ourselves our national principles and begin to build liberty in
both the political and economic spheres - the most Urgent social tasks of our era.
Then we'd realize what Good Witch Glenda told Dorothy: that we've always had the power to Go Back Home again. And when
we all realized that There's No Place Like Home - we'd all wake up back in Kansas.
That's what I call revolting!
Of late, Americans have fallen onto bad times because we've lost all sense of direction in our revolting. So, as usual, I am going to provide the answer: A New Revolution.
We need something Spectacular, a really New concept of Revolution. What have Americans revolted against?
- The British (the First Revolution)
- Spatial restrictions (the Westward Expansion)
- Bad Times (the 1929 Depression)
- Our principles (the last fifty years).
We're in such deplorable straits these days because we've revolted against all our original Ideals: an informed electorate, government by consent of the governed, honesty in government and electorate, and freedom through unity. Keeping ourselves informed, free, and the rest, was too hard - so we revolted against the whole shebang. Result: a nation of revolting people who only watch TV, play video games, and think and do whatever we're told.
So what should we now revolt against?
Our revolting selves, of course!
What does that mean? I'm glad you asked. It means that we must now make Common Cause against all the laziness, lack of self-discipline, and loss of moral fibre that we've instilled in ourselves.
As we could expect, while we common people have been revolting and rebelling against our National Character, some uncommon people - uncommonly good and uncommonly bad - have been responding to this imbecility and infantalism. While America Slept, while we were acting like infants, attacking anything and everything, expecting the world to give us whatever we wanted, blaming our culture for our revolting selves, others have been busy.
If we act like infants, we will be treated like infants.
Thus far we've been lucky that our rulers have treated us fairly well. But our luck couldn't hold out forever, and it looks like now
we may get what our nation's plutocratic rulers think we deserve: complete loss of freedom.
Fortunately, my Astounding New Revolution can save us in the Nick of Time.
If Lippmann is correct, that a nation collapses of its own weakness and corruption and a revolution enters among the ruins, what are the Ruins? What powers have become vacant? Almost everything is in ruins; almost all powers are vacant.
So we'll have to sell our New Revolution to ruined, vacant Needy people. And we can scarcely create any worse havoc than we now suffer. But unfortunately, the idea that they're vacant is missing in vacant people. And without any desire for anything but Ease and Comfort, they won't want to revolt against their revolting selves. Fact is, they'll likely turn up their noses at our Humanitarian Efforts.
So now what?
Man has always depended on a Captivating Myth to give him Vision, to explain Life to him, and embolden him to face Life's Challenges. Most of the Old Myths are timeworn and hackneyed, so what New and Vibrant Myth could do the job? What contemporary Mythos has all the necessary ingredients of Magic, the Filling of Old Vacancies, the Gaining of New Powers, and Cleaning up Ruins?
Right, THE WIZARD OF
Using this myth as the basis of our New Revolution may sound absurd, but you forget the unbounded credulity and lust for mystification most people suffer from. The Wizard of Oz is made for our purposes.
We'll announce our New Revolutionary Programme of Study in the Oz Mythos. Fortunately we have available to us both the original book by L. Frank Baum and the
version. For purposes of Amazing and Confabulating people the Hollywood version is, of course, vastly
superior.
Now for the Official Meaning of the Oz Mythos. We'll explain that people in our culture have Lost Their Way in a Twister of Self- Satisfaction and Infantile Willfulness. We are now Over the Rainbow and don't know how to Get Back Home Again.
As people, we are Vacant. Like the Scarecrow, we lack any ability to think for ourselves, heads full of straw. We have no Heart - as Empty as the metal chest of the Tin Man. We are Cowardly Lions, afraid of our own shadows.
So who can help us Regain Ourselves and Find Our Way Home?
The Wizard of Oz!
But who is the Wizard of Oz?
You!
Who else? And no one is better suited to the part.
What kind of man was the Wizard? Well, not a bad man, just not a very good Wizard. But kindly intentions, a flair for extemporizing, and an ability to explain even what you yourself don't understand, can do a lot.
Certainly our nation could be no worse off with a Wizard like you - in place of the short-sighted leaders we now suffer under.
What Elemental Delusions must we Face in ourselves to accomplish this Impossible Task? The Delusions:
- that we really are a democracy
- that liberty is concerned only with political, and not economic, equality of opportunity
- that people "can long enjoy more liberty than that which their intelligence and morals entitle them."
By Facing these personal Delusions we would begin to re-instill in ourselves our national principles and begin to build liberty in
both the political and economic spheres - the most Urgent social tasks of our era.Then we'd realize what Good Witch Glenda told Dorothy: that we've always had the power to Go Back Home again. And when we all realized that There's No Place Like Home - we'd all wake up back in Kansas.
That's what I call revolting!
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