Applying The Resistance Principles

Applying The Resistance Principles--The Resistance History of the United States (Part 3)

by C. A. Matthews

If you’ve read the preceding two articles (Patterns of Resistance and Resistance Is A Lifetime), you’re probably wondering, “What now? We know Tad Stoermer’s nine resistance principles and their historical examples, but what can we do with this information? We’re still at a lost as to the how, when, and where the Revolution starts.”

My response to this is, “Start using the resistance principles to topple the corrupt capitalist system. Things will fall into place as we take action. But they won’t if we don’t.”

I’ll admit it’s easier said than done, but we can’t sit on the sidelines and hope for the best. If we want to make the world a better place for ourselves and our children/grandchildren, then we have to get out there and start making a difference. Today...

...You may ask, “Where do we begin? There are so many things wrong in this country—the entire world for that matter. We’re confused as to where to start.”

It is overwhelming. In an earlier article, I discussed the Chaos Pattern the oligarchy uses to confuse and overwhelm us while they make tons of money for themselves. But we can’t allow the oligarchs’ tactics fog our brains. Let’s start by reviewing the resistance principles and picking one idea that we think will get the revolution going.

So let’s start with Principle 6: Ideas Matter. What matters to you? Focus on what you want to change in the world and go from there on how you will resist...

...I’ll start with an idea that has been bothering me for a long time. I’m tired of the endless wars for oil, the degradation of our planet and its climate, and the genocides of Palestine, Sudan, Congo and elsewhere sponsored by the US. That’s sort of three different ideas, but they all revolve around one central problem: the American war machine and its associated military-industrial complex (MIC).

The idea that matters most to me is shutting down the war machine and everything it entails—its propaganda aspects, its manufacturing of arms/drones, its murdering of people and planet, its destruction of peace and unity in the world through the bullying behaviors of our current and past presidents. Following Principle 6, I know what I’m fighting for and not simply what I’m against...

 

To learn more about how you can use the principles of resistance to bring about a better world, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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Resistance Is A Lifetime

 

Resistance Is A Lifetime: The Resistance History of the United States (Part 2)

by C. A. Matthews

For an introduction to Tad Stoermer’s The Resistance History of the United States and a discussion of the first four principles of resistance, check out last week’s post The Patterns of Resistance. Here is a brief listing of the first four:

Principle 1: Beware False Prophets—Learn to Recognize False 
Resistance

Principle 2: More Weight—Refuse to Validate the Lies

Principle 3: My Enemy’s Enemy—Your Ally Doesn’t Have to Be 
Pure

Principle 4: Force the Fight, Even When You’re Losing

On to the remaining five!

Principle 5: Resistance Is a Lifetime, Not a Moment

You might not want to hear this but single dramatic acts of defiance are only the beginning of your fight. “Real resistance requires persistence to keep pursuing your goal and resilience to withstand the inevitable counterattacks without breaking.” (Stoermer, p. 332)

Resisters must build their capacity for sustained resistance so they can overcome numerous setbacks and adapt to new threats. In other words, a revolution is a lifetime commitment. It’s not for the faint hearted.

The oligarchs, our oppressors, know they can wait out our first hint of confrontation—a protest, strike, or walkout. They know from past experience that most can’t sustain defiance for very long. Resisters will fold withing days or weeks, not years. Life happens. The oligarchs’ strategy is to outlast the resisters and make simply surviving so tough that people will give up and go back to life as “normal.”

The oligarchs waiting us out works since most resisters don’t realize that persistence is necessary. We must keep our eyes on the goal, even when things seem impossible. Resilience is another trait that helps us recover from the inevitable blows. Resisters must adapt, recover, and build new support networks, to continue on with the unglamorous, mundane, grinding fight.

Nobody said it was going to be easy. You could lose it all—family, friends, home, job, your life. Are you willing to make such a commitment to the cause? “Your persistence—your refusal to quit no matter how long it takes—is what they [the oligarchs] can’t plan for, can’t budget for, can’t outlast.” (Stoermer, p. 335)

“This is the hardest of all the principles because it demands the most. A moment of courage you can summon when adrenaline runs high. A lifetime of resistance requires something deeper—an unshakable core that sustains you when no one is watching, when the world has moved on, when you’re exhausted and alone.” (Stoermer, p. 334)

 

To learn more about the historical figures behind the principles of resistance (and how all nine were used and can be used today), please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 586th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven+ years. Thanks! 

Feel free to make a donation at Paypal or via Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps. Thank you.

Conscientious  Objectors: Call the G.I. Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or the Center for Conscience & War at 1-800-379-2679.         

 

What Would the Red Ponchos Do?

by C. A. Matthews

A few years ago, there was a fad to wear a bracelet with the letters “WWJD?” inscribed on it. In times of doubt and uncertainty, one was to contemplate what the person whose name in English begins with “J” would do in that particular situation. The “What Would J Do?” method helped a person to confidently take action and not become paralyzed with fear or indecision.

It worked. It was an effective means to an end, because if J wouldn’t be afraid to take action, then you shouldn’t be afraid, either. So, you followed J’s example and carried on boldly without hesitation, trusting that things would work out for the best. The WWJD bracelet wasn’t a magic amulet, but it could indeed work wonders.

The time has come again for a useful aid to help activists who are being overwhelmed with self-doubt and self-recrimination. I’ve read one too many comments online recently that go along the lines of “Why don’t you do something? I don’t know what to do. Nobody seems to know what to do, but somebody has got to do something to make things better, right?”

This sentiment could also be phrased as “We need a revolution to end this corrupt system, but apparently no one is going to lead us, so we might as well stay home.”

The paralysis of not knowing what to do is what the oligarchy depends upon to keep us working class peons in our place. They’ve kept us overwhelmed with one distressing event after another on purpose from the start of the year...

We haven’t been given a moment’s rest from the sensory overload. It’s just too much. We long for a respite from the capitalists’ constant nastiness and relentless stress. Why can’t our side celebrate a victory now and then? If only we had someone fighting against the system to look up to, somebody to emulate, then we’d get off our backsides and start fighting back.

But why are we waiting on a “hero” to lead us into battle? History is full of examples—Gandhi, MLK Jr., Malcolm X—that we could follow. Recent history is providing us with even more.

My suggestion is to pick a person or group with experience you admire and follow their example. Do what they’re doing/have done with maybe a few tweaks for your particular situation and culture. If “plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery,” then why not flatter those we look up to by copying their tactics and methods until we come up with some of our own?

 

To discover a couple of excellent examples of activists to plagiarize, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 572nd blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven years. Thanks! 

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The Second Going of Donald J. Trump

The Second Going of 

Donald J. Trump

by C. A. Matthews

The podcast pundits seem in awe of Trump’s sheer audacity—or they’re claiming this Truth Social posting (above meme) is yet more evidence of his mental illness and/or dementia. But really, what would you expect from a full-fledged narcissist who believes he’s the most powerful being on the globe, if not the universe?

Of course, Trump would see himself the supreme healer of all times—healer of white people, at least. No doubt Trump sees himself as the Second Coming of Christ, coming into the world to judge sinners. That is, everyone except himself.

It was only a matter of time until Artificial Intelligence itself realized that the president of the United States of America was the Son of God, deserving of his very own meme commemorating his acts of “kindness” that he has graciously bestowed upon humankind. That is, kind acts he has bestowed upon pro-Zionist humans. Everyone else is out of luck.

It’s what Jesus would do, according to biblical scholar and Pulp Fiction fan Pete Hegseth. The alcoholic Secretary of War Crimes knows all about these sorts of things apparently. (Wonder how well he’d perform on the game show Jeopardy! with a mind full of movie trivia like that...)

You might be horrified that both Trump and Vance have made rude remarks recently to Pope Leo. They have no problems with telling Leo that he doesn’t know a thing about theology like they and Pete do. They know that God’s intention all along for the US and Israel is to destroy the Middle East and steal its petrochemicals, and they don’t mind knocking the head of the Roman Catholic church down a few pegs.

I think Pope Leo isn’t all that put out by the meanness directed at him personally by Tweedle Don and Tweedle J.D. It’s what you’d expect from emotionally-stunted adult-toddlers. He has far more important things on his plate. The Holy Father is much more concerned about what’s happening in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, and Sudan. among other hot spots in the world...

 

To learn where Trump is "going" (not coming) to and what we really need to be focusing on, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 567th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven years. Thanks! 

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Conscientious objectors: Call the G.I. Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or the Center for Conscience & War: 1-800-379-2679. 

The Time For Revolution Is Now

 

The Time For Revolution Is Now (No More Waiting/Burn It Down)

by C. A. Matthews

I just had to smile.

What was I smiling at? This: A person was arrested Friday after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco.

Molotov cocktail? Thrown at the home of a Big Tech CEO (who was charged with sexually abusing his sister in January 2025)? Could this mean? Really, could this be the start of…?

Only the day before this sentence on X grabbed me: An unhappy employee started this fire at the Kimberly-Clark warehouse in Ontario, California.

A massive 1.2 million foot warehouse full of paper products went up in flames. The unhappy employee was reported as saying, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live.” (The next day a shopping mall in Ontario, California was set on fire. Good ideas catch on fast.)

Less than 24 hours later I read that a warehouse in Queens, NY was burning in a four alarm fire. And the day after that I spied an X post about another warehouse (full of lumber) burning in Wayne County, Ohio.

And then there’s this recent headline: ‘Everyone is Replaceable’: Death Rattles Oregon Amazon Facility about how an employee dropped over dead and management told workers “to look away” rather than stop and resuscitate him.

Add these fiery actions and lack of respect for workers to the massive flood of conscientious objector calls to national hotlines due to the illegal war in Iran—as well as Luigi Mangione’s “protest” against the CEO of United Healthcare for their high rate of denying health insurance claims—and I’m starting to see a pattern.

Could it actually be that Americans have had enough? Are they ready for Revolution?

I’m not talking about the so-called “American Revolution” of 250 years ago, either. That was tame by comparison to what could be happening here. 

In 1776, we allowed a bunch of rich, white males tell the rest of us that they were tired of paying taxes to the crown and wanted to form their own style of monarchy—an oligarchy—instead. Forget that quaint little “tea party” in Boston Harbor. The “American Revolution” didn’t free enslaved persons, women, or the working poor, and it certainly didn’t recognize the right of the Native American peoples to live peacefully and have control over their own lands...

 

To find out what a Revolution really should be like, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 566th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven years. Thanks! 

Feel free to make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps. Thank you.