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: 

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Patterns of Reistance

 

Patterns of Resistance: The Resistance History of the United States (Part 1)

by C. A. Matthews

In last week’s article I promised to provide some patterns of resistance to defeat the patterns (or poetry) of chaos that our oligarch rulers practice. Did you start reading Tad Stoermer’s The Resistance History of the United States like I recommended? It’s okay if you didn’t. This article won’t ruin your read later by giving out too many “spoilers”. (You’ll still want to read the book.)

And don’t worry if you’re not American or have much knowledge of US history—many of the examples Stoermer uses to illustrate the different patterns of resistance aren’t commonly known by most Americans. It’s sort of the point of the book. The oligarchy, the billionaires who essentially rule us all, have been keeping these kinds of historical examples quiet since day one of the United States. They really don’t want Americans (or anyone else) to know how often and how well ordinary people have resisted their abusive, authoritarian power. So, even if you’re not a history buff, I know you’ll find the stories Stoermer tells very eye-opening and enlightening.

First a quick recap of last week’s post about the oligarchs’ pattern of control or“the poetry of chaos”. Things may appear chaotic in the world, but upon closer examination we can define predictable patterns of behavior by the oligarchs who cause the “chaos” that keeps us feeling overwhelmed and incapable of fighting back.

I summed up the oligarchs’ pattern in a three step process... (Read summary in the full article by clicking the link below.)

...Stoermer describes nine resistance patterns or principles in The Resistance History of the United States that We the People have used and can continue to use to take on the oligarchy. I’ll provide a short synopsis of each, but I encourage you to read the book to gain deeper understanding from the historical figures’ stories. It will make more sense to you to learn who it was that used a certain resistance principle, how they used it, and how effective it was in their resistance.

Stoermer tells us that these principles/patterns don’t have to be practiced in any particular order, and they don’t all have to be used all at once. Revolutionaries/resisters are free to pick and choose what works for them in their particular situation...

 

To learn all about the patterns of resistance (and how they were used in US history), please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 585th 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 at 1-800-379-2679.        

 

Chaos: The Preferred Pattern of Control

by C. A. Matthews

Sometimes life on Earth appears to be a chaotic mess. There is war and genocide here, there, and everywhere. There is discord and division around every corner. There seems to be no end in sight to global death and destruction. Nobody could possibly be in control of all this confusion.

But what if I told you there are a relatively few powerful and wealthy individuals (oligarchs) manipulating our current hellish timeline who thrive on chaos as a way to keep us under their control? Here’s an analogy to make my point clear.

Will the Hero Get There in Time?

You might have seen a scene in a film or a stage play where the hero is running upstream against the flow of traffic on a busy city sidewalk. There are literally people everywhere. The hero can barely breathe as he pushes his way through the crowd going in the opposite direction. And to make matters worse, he’s on the clock—can he get to the train station in time in order to stop the heroine from leaving town before he can tell her that he loves her? The stakes are high and the situation seems impossible. Maybe he should just give up and give in to fate and let the girl go?

But just when things seem to be at their most trying, there is a ray of sunshine. Our hero looks up and spies the heroine trying to fight her way toward him. Eventually they meet, kiss, and start their lives together. All the fighting, sweating, and swearing turned out to be worth it. They marry and live happily ever after. The end.

Now, to the untrained eye, all the chaos and the momentum of the crowd the hero is fighting against seem impossible to overcome, but the person who choreographed the scene knows better. All the pandemonium has been carefully planned out. The extras portraying crowd members have learned their “steps” or blocking well.

The extras are put into groups, and each group is directed how to act whenever they encounter the hero. “Jostle him, trip him up, block his view of the train station,” are the directions given. Behind the camera or curtains, multiple stage managers watch the action carefully and cue each group of extras as to the exact second (or beat of the song in a musical) they are to enter the street scene. More signals from the sidelines will tell the extras how fast or slow they are to make their way across the set.

There could be upward of a dozen or more extras groups in a film scene or only four or five on stage in a play or musical number—not the millions it seems to be. The chaos viewers think they see is anything but. To the trained eye, it is pure poetry in motion. And it is this “poetry of chaos” that the oligarchs who rule over us excel at.

The following are examples where this “poetry of chaos” has been used recently...

 

To read some current-event examples of this "poetry of chaos" and learn how to discern its pattern, please copy or click on the following link: 

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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 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! 

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Our Children Are Not Disposable Playthings For The Ruling Class

by C. A. Matthews

Butch Ware, the Green Party candidate running for governor in California, made a statement about the recent Epstein files dump that sums up what I and many others believe:

x.com/ButchWare

As Governor of California I will direct the Attorney General to immediately open investigations into any and every California resident mentioned in the Epstein files.

Human trafficking, s*xual abuse of children, women…humans…by powerful people demands accountability. They must face the consequences for these heinous, unspeakable crimes.

The Democrats and Republicans are protecting the billionaire predators that own them.

With God as my witness, I will go to WAR on p*dofiles and traffickers.

Our children are not disposable playthings for the ruling class.

His last sentence really says it all: Our children are not disposable playthings for the ruling class. It demonstrates just how the corrupt capitalist system operates. It allows the members of the ruling class, a.k.a. the elite or the oligarchy, to use human beings seen as inferior as their “playthings” and then casually dispose of them when they’re no longer wanted.

We’re so advanced now in the West that we’ve become willing to let the wealthiest and most powerful of our society abuse children in the most heinous ways purely for their own sick enjoyment. Those who possess large quantities of currency or positions of power know that only they are entitled to act out their most horrific fantasies with impunity.

Is it any wonder now that Western capitalists support a live-streamed genocide in Palestine? What’s another dead child to them...

 

To find out what we can do to protect ourselves and our children from the pedo-protectors and the abusers of the ruling class, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 557th 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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This Is How You Do It

words and photos by C.A. Matthews

It’s more than a song title—it’s how we’ll win this thing.

The most common reply I get whenever I post a blog or make comment on another’s blog about this topic goes like this:

“Well, since you’re so full of ideas—how the hell do we pull this off? How do we get rid of the raping-pedophile-fascist-imperialist-capitalists-in-power? Because if we can’t get rid of them, then what’s the use of pointing out how evil and corrupt they are? Learn to live with it, [insert insulting epithet here].”

It is tiring repeating myself constantly, but if that’s what it takes I’ll do it. Our planet and our children’s futures depend upon this current generation of human beings doing the right thing and getting it done.

Perhaps words alone are not enough to make an impression on some minds… Here are some photos from a recent “ICE Out!” march, an organizers’ fair, and a “No War on Iran” protest along with a brief explanation of what I’m talking about.

First off, we need to organize. This is not a dirty word. Here’s an explanation of what it means...

 

To learn more about what it means to organize versus mobilize, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 556th 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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Revolutionaries Don’t Ask Permission

by C. A. Matthews

The kids in Minneapolis get it. They stood outside the hotel where ICE agents were staying and made noise all night long. Loud noise. Deafening music and consistent shouting. All. Night. Long. No sleep for the killers and kidnappers of ICE allowed.

The kids didn’t ask for permission. They didn’t care about violating a noise ordinance or getting arrested. They just wanted ICE gone. For good. For the family of Renee Good. For the good of the community.

This is what Revolution is all about. It’s about doing good for the sake of the community—not the billionaire oligarchs ruling this fascist state.

Revolution is not about doing nothing and taking the shit dumped on us. It’s about shoveling that shit right back into the faces of those who wish to bury us. We bury them instead until the threat is no more.

I think the constant following and videoing of ICE agents in Minneapolis will wear the bastards down in time. They will leave town and avoid the upper Midwest from now until their ultimate demise at our hands. So keep it up, kids! You do us proud.

More Americans need to demonstrate the same bravery, the same courageous bloody-mindedness of the Minneapolis protesters...

 

To learn more about what it means to be a revolutionary, please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 554th 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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