Chomsky on May Day: If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions

i'm inclined to think we're at that point...

noam chomsky...

People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning. For example, Ronald Reagan designated what he called, “Law Day”—a day of jingoist fanaticism, like an extra twist of the knife in the labor movement. Today, there is a renewed awareness, energized by the Occupy movement’s organizing, around May Day, and its relevance for reform and perhaps eventual revolution.

If you’re a serious revolutionary, then you are not looking for an autocratic revolution, but a popular one which will move towards freedom and democracy. That can take place only if a mass of the population is implementing it, carrying it out, and solving problems. They’re not going to undertake that commitment, understandably, unless they have discovered for themselves that there are limits to reform.

[...]

Perhaps sometimes the system will accommodate to needed reforms. If so, well and good. But if it won’t, then new questions arise. Perhaps that is a moment when resistance is a necessary step to overcome the barriers to justified changes. Perhaps the time has come to resort to coercive measures in defense of rights and justice, a form of self-defense.

[...]

If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.

i am not now nor have i ever been in favor of revolution... the history of the world is littered with revolutionary legacies that have turned out to be worse than the insanity they were meant to remedy... even the "soft" revolutions we've seen in recent years have spawned regimes that, while well-intentioned at first, have ultimately resulted in the same old super-rich elites calling the shots... however...

given the current state of world affairs, i'm strongly inclined toward a need to wipe the slate clean and start over... i've thought that perhaps a constitutional convention for the u.s. might serve that end but that is really only taking the idea of reform to a more advanced level and that's not even taking into account that our rulers would never allow it to happen...

so, what's left...? i'm not sure exactly what form "eliminating the institutions" might take but i think it's rapidly becoming the only viable option...

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