Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program of Chomsky . . .

In the recent recall election in Wisconsin, exit polls showed evidence that overwhelmingly–70%–of the people who voted to retain feep Republican governor Scott Walker in power did so because they had been persuaded by saturation pro-Walker propaganda–funded by millions of dollars in campaign contributions from out of state–that claimed that dethroning this particular abject servant of Big Money in the middle of his term was somehowsomewhichway inappropriate, even though the recall was conducted according to all appropriate procedures required by Wisconsin law, and in the spirit of participatory democracy which this nation’s founders sought to infuse in the people of the new Republic they had made into a reality. Big Money recidivism triumphed. Democracy–not to mention decency–lost. The people lost–all but the boys with the cash, who are once again smiling on their way to the bank, salivating with anticipation over the new sugarplums of corporate tax breaks and subsidies for the 1% la Walker will attempt to throw their way come Christmastime.

Fatalism, deeply buried beneath layers of Right-wing, conservative disinformation,  won in Wisconsin (as it will, in all likelihood, one way or another, in the upcoming U. S. Presidential election).

But there are some who are not willing to lay down and die–not just yet. Hence IOPS–which stands for, depending on how you weigh your words, International Organization for Participatory Society, or International Organization for Participatory Socialism. Either way it’s different music for those who dance to a different drummer. And it’s all about getting involved–activism–imagining, organizing, building a better social order with participatory democracy as an essential cornerstone. And it is the antithesis of the Big Money propaganda that favored keeping Walker in his seat in Wisconsin, and may even be the antidote to such tragic deformations and trivializations of democracy.

IOPS. Seems like a good idea.

“One of the primary achievements of the Occupy movements, I think, was the spontaneous development of communities of support and solidarity, with direct participation and open spaces for discussion and interchange, and mutual aid in many dimensions. That creates bonds and associations, and changes consciousness, and could spark really significant and positive changes in the society at large. IOPS can aspire to carrying such achievements far beyond.”

“Chomsky On IOPS” at ZNet.