5 Steps to Revolution

My Aug.18th blog post seems pretty prescient in light of what's happening now. Read what I wrote one month before the Wall Street was occupied. While I'm certainly no Nostradamus, I have been wondering "where the outrage is" for a long, long time. Actually, it's been almost exactly 11 years. My political conscience woke up in the year 2000 when a presidential election was likely stolen in my hometown. The funny thing is that I actually voted for Bush that year. Now, a decade into two horrific wars, I'm glad to see people on Wall Street, and on Main Street, America, fighting to eradicate our political system of corporate cronies.

 Having witnessed a semi-successful revolution in Egypt, there are 5 things that must happen here for any real change to happen.

 1. We need to define a singular, simple, and common cause. In Egypt, it was getting rid of a corrupt Mubarak regime. What is that common cause here?

 2. We need to reach critical mass.  The message must be broad enough to appeal to a larger section of society. This can't just be a hippy thing.

 3. We need to risk life, limb, and freedom for the cause. Self explanatory. We must believe wholeheartedly in the cause. The police must eventually switch sides and join the people.

 4. We need the military to support the cause. Soldiers are simultaneously our greatest heroes and the greatest victims of the last decade's flawed policies. They need to get behind the protests.

 5. We need to figure out concrete positive steps for how to implement that change on the day after. (This was not done in Egypt, and is the final, necessary step of successful Revolution)

Related articles

• From Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street | Amy Goodman (guardian.co.uk)

• Tahrir Square protesters send message of solidarity to Occupy Wall Street (guardian.co.uk)

• Occupy Wall Street Meets Tahrir Square (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)

• Egypt's Top 'Facebook Revolutionary' Now Advising Occupy Wall Street (wired.com)