Greedy grabbers rule the world in order to get as much money as they can. What happens to The People is of secondary importance. These greedy grabbers have never been put under pressure by The People. 

Something went wrong and suddenly the financial crisis came around. The income of greedy grabbers went temporarily down but now they are again living as before.
The People paid the damage. Many lost their work and their houses and the income of most common citizens remained low. 

The greedy grabbers who caused the crisis can not repair it. They have no idea how a human society should look like. They live in a secluded group and when all is well in their group, they say all is well with humanity. They are not moved by for example the simple fact that still ten million kids die each year before they are five years old.
They are driven by money and they tell fairy tales by saying that the economy is growing though The People have less to consume. They base their economic calculations on what is produced (expressed in money terms of course) and not by what is used by humans. 

Here in Holland we have excellent drinking water from the tap. But the economy of the greedy grows when people drink water from bottles though this water contributes nothing to the well-being of The People.
When all people decide to eat less, when all McDonalds close, it is good for the health of the people but disastrous for the economy of greed.
Greedy grabbers earn money by building houses and they say the economy is boosting (their wallet becomes thicker). But when the houses are not used precious materials and working hours are wasted and cannot be used for useful products. The well-being of The People is not boosted.

It is wrong that the word economy is determined by money and not by the well-being of humans.  Profits from useless products go to the top, the costs have to be paid from below. But the economy is not guided by the happiness of common citizens. 

Greedy grabbers and their servants in governments, economic think tanks and universities use money as the basic argument to regulate the life of people. They never solve anything for the benefit of The People. The People do not exist in their calculations.  

When we, The People, want a New Humane World the target is clear, the extravagant living situation of greedy grabbers and their puppets. Actions against other targets will not bring a New Humane World nearer.

We can bring them down by invading their privileged eliteworld and preventing they can use their ill-gotten money. The slogan “Spending 200,000 euro in one year should be the limit!” takes away the reason for greed and opens the way towards a New Humane World.

In the New Era the interest of common citizens becomes the dominating factor.

I do not understand all these articles about politicians who take presumably wrong decisions. They only apply the basic rules on which our society is built. They never take decisions in contradiction with the dominating wish of the elite to have more (money) than anyone else. They talked a long time about a possible shutdown that should leave hundreds of thousands of civil servants without an income. The decision to save the corrupt and greedy bankers was made in a jiffy.

Germany is not bombing Libya but sends more troops to Afghanistan. What is the difference? The invasion is caused by the wish of oil barons to get more oil – or better said more money for the already privileged.

There is a discussion about animal rights but slaughtering animals is never animal friendly (I am not vegetarian). The owners of the meat industry want us to eat meat to fill their pockets. The Animal Rights groups only achieve that animals live more animal-friendly – but they are still killed.
The bombing of Libya is called human-friendly. Only humans who have been forced in military service will be killed.
Killing is never friendly. 

Maybe you want to eat meat, maybe you applaud the intervention in Libya, Afghanistan or Iraq, maybe you are opposed to these decisions. It does not matter. When you do not belong to the top, you have no influence on decisions based on the need of the elite for still more money. 

You may think that the world is wretched (I agree with that) but voting or blowing up the WTC does not change anything. The foundations of our society remain untouched, all decisions are based on the need of a few for more money. 

Actions of masspeople for different decisions do not change much. Some citizens are spared but elsewhere more common citizens are killed or remain in a miserable situation. The elite continues its life in the safe, secluded and comfortable eliteworld. It uses and inspires wars between masspeople to maintain the dominating rule to have more than any other living being.  

The masses are surrounded by a wall erected by the elite to protect its privileged position. You may fight inside the walls that surround us but you are never allowed to attack the walls to go to the beautiful pastures outside these walls. 

Politicians regulate the fighting inside the walls. By joining a political party you will not disturb the elite. Everything remains determined by the foundations on which our society is built, not on the well-being of humans but on money – and on the well-being of already privileged persons. 

You may strike for a few cents more.
You may complain about the misery in our world.
You may prove that politicians are corrupt.
You may participate in demonstrations.
You may vote or refuse to vote.
It does not change anything. 

The principles of the powerful elite are not changed and the misery of non-elite people continues. 

You may enjoy football but the players you like play next year for still more money in other clubs.
You may be terrified by crime but big crime is one of the pillars of the power of the elite and thus continues to exist. Billions of drug money are whitewashed by banks with the consent of the elite.
You may be terrified that the poor masses come to our world but as long as the West imports raw materials for low prices and support dictators over there, the poor will continue to come.  

Everything turns around money.

TV, sport, bonuses, corruption, gambling, rising prices, advertisement industry, overproduction, financial crisis, it is not for the benefit of The People but for making money.
The elite is always in the centre. In the eliteworld everything turns around money – you do not talk about it but you possess it.

The money virus has also penetrated the massworld. When we do not destroy this virus misery continues to exist.
For real change we must put pressure on elitepeople who maintain this domination.  

Do me a pleasure, point your arrows at the real culprits. And by arrows I do not mean words but an invasion in the eliteworld to make life in that world impossible. When the powerful greedy rich cannot anymore live their privileged life they will take different decisions.

Down with any elite!

- March 26 2011 --

Not left, not right but …… autonomous

Most revolting people In Tunisia and Egypt were only dissatisfied with their life and with society. Leftists, rightist or fundamentalists were a minority. But when The People are not anymore on the street, political groups fill the vacuum and political leaders acquire powerful positions. The People again become secondary citizens.

Politics is a game played by people with power and people who want to have power. In our society power means money. Our world is controlled by money, not by the idea that all people have the same status.

Left and right are words that belong to politics.
Leftist citizens try to improve the situation of the poorest part of the population. Rightist citizens try to defend their own (subordinated) position by blocking the way up for other citizens who mostly come from other countries. But some rightist politicians suddenly give The People more freedom while some leftist politicians are racists. Just how the wind blows means for them, just how the wind blows money and power in their direction.

Common citizens may vote, they may be a member of a political party, they may be rightist or leftist, it is of no importance. Elections are a game that gives The People only the illusion to have some influence.
Problems of common citizens can only be solved in a New Humane World that is not dominated by privileged people who think in the first place of their own comfortable situation.

Problems that cannot be solved in the present society do not interest me.
I do not want to be a spectator or a participant in this democratic circus. Everything is ordered and decided in places where common citizens are not welcome.
Therefore I am not left nor right.
I am autonomous.

To get a new society in which many problems can be solved we must get rid of the persons who cause these problems. Rich greedy grabbers think of their own life and wallet. They promote problems to set the leftist part of the masses against the rightist part. Because when two dogs fight for a bone the third dog runs away with it.
In a new society differences between groups of citizens will be solved in a different way. There is not anymore a third dog that profits most from these contradictions. There will be enough bones for everyone and the need to fight for more bones than you can eat has disappeared.
The first task is therefore to remove all greedy grabbers from their powerful and lucrative positions. Then we can solve the current human problems. When money is replaced by the idea that all people have the same status most existing problems will disappear as snow disappears when the sun comes up.

Elitepersons acknowledge that they only can continue to rule when The People fight each other. In Egypt and Tunisia some results were achieved because the masses were united. Alas political powers took the lead and the positive results will only be temporal. Political leaders prevent that people solve the biggest problem, the dominant role of money and privileged persons.

The New Culture of Resistance aims to put pressure on the (private life of) leaders who use the political game to deceive citizens. The goals in the struggle for a new world originate not in the political world but in that part of society where the greedy spend the fruits of their surplus of power. To have more than anyone else is the cause of most human problems. The People must prevent that the grabbers use their surplus money for their own benefit. “Spending 200,000 euro in one year should be the limit!”.
The implementation of this idea makes it impossible for the greedy to use their money for goods, services and places that are only reserved for this tiny group.

When excessive money cannot be spent anymore the road opens for other ideas to inspire society as the idea that all people should have the same status.
How the new future society will be organised is the task of citizens who live in the future society. Our task is to open the way to that society and to dream of a fundamentally different world in which living people take first place and not dead money.

Down with any elite!

-- Februari 18 2011 --

Nothing really changed, only masspeople died. 

In Tunisia something happened that nobody had foreseen.
Why did it happen and can we do it again elsewhere?
But we have to do it better. You can’t make a revolution by demonstrating on squares, you have to attack and remove all people with power (and money) who rule the country.  

Hundreds of masspeople died, thousands were wounded and many were arrested – and I have not heard of any compensation.
Some very greedy elitepersons were thrown out – with enough money to be rich forever.
The new elite can rule without opposition and become as corrupt, rich and greedy as the ousted ones – or do you think The People can stage another round of demonstrations.
The People got some hope and they will return home and work even harder – for the benefit of the new elite. 

It is sad, as sad as in Egypt or Yemen.
For real change you must attack the centre of power that is in the hands of a small group of people with money and power.
The Tunisian actions belonged to the Old Culture of Protest that asks and not to the New Culture of Resistance that forces.  

Of course I welcome that the Tunisian masses became active but must we enjoy that the only result is that a new greedy group replaces the old one?
The new leading group was already powerful because they could order the police to stop shooting people. In the past these people supported the cruel president and don’t believe they suddenly became decent. Do not think that the industrialists who filled their pocket at the cost of the living conditions of common citizens will change their old habits.  

The Egyptian military intervened “to safeguard the country” and some demonstrators approved. But they safeguarded their own position. The ultimate goal of power is earning money, now and in the future. The elite decided that the continuing presence of some presidents (in Tunisia and in Egypt) was contrary to their interests. The spontaneous uprising was used to remove the too greedy presidents from their high positions, the rest could continue to be greedy.  

New weapons to prevent that any elite uses the country for its own benefit were not developed. Leaders were asked to behave decently, they were not forced to become human. By using outdated and insufficient actions a more humane world never can be reached. 

The People must realise that it always turns around power, money and the people who have power and money. When the centre of power is not attacked any new leader will again enrich the own group because there is no opposition. Everywhere people are ruled by greedy and cruel leaders. And it takes many years before dissatisfaction becomes so huge that a single event can trigger an avalanche and The People rise up again.  

Still it is interesting what happened in Tunisia. The People looked subdued, looked to accept the oppressing inhuman system. But a small deed caused chaos as has already been described by the Theory of Chaos. The flapping of the wings of a butterfly over Brazil can cause a hurricane over Cuba. But not all butterflies cause a typhoon. The copycat method of burning yourself in the hope change occurs did not work in other countries.  

The Theory of Catastrophes teaches that a jump in human development can occur when The People become active. By using old methods of protest, asking for a change, fighting with the police etc. change will hardly occur. In Tunisia part of the elite could usurp power by agreeing that the top elite had to be ousted. In Egypt the military remained powerful and only removed some people at the very top. The People did not have the energy and the right idea to remove any greedy, cruel and selfish elite.
The two Theories can be used to get better results.

The right tactics were not used. 
There was a short period of chaos and thus the possibility something really new could be born. Then the police reinstalled order. Who ordered them to act and what kind of order they bring about? Of course not an order from which a New Humane Society can arise. Some new greedy leaders came out of the shadow to establish an order that resembles very much the old order.

This new group of greedy leaders benefits most. Remove anyone who is not right and honest. Only then you get real change. 

Without the clear goal to undermine the (money) power of the greedy rich, we remain in the Old Culture of Protest.  

Down with Any Elite

Some people call the demonstrations about ten years ago against the WTO a success but I see only hurt and imprisoned activists while the train with powerful people continues its planned course. After the big demonstrations in Seattle and Milan the movement lost its momentum.

The successes of the old culture of protest have been very meagre.
People mostly tried to change one (often little) aspect of our society by asking and not forcing powerful persons to change their decisions. In strikes where more people’s power is used it was neglected that successes could easily be turned around as is now clear in the present financial crisis.

Of course there are sometimes small improvements but the old culture does not have any influence on the big line. Everything remains decided by the importance of money, power and the people who possess money and power. Common citizens are of less importance. When the top is booming, some crumbs fall down on the table of the people. When the economy goes down even the crumbs are eaten by the top-people.
There is still too much trust that decision-taking people are working for the interest of everyone. When the importance of power, money and rich greedy persons is not attacked any action will in the end be in vain.

But The People know and after a few not very successful actions many citizens withdraw from politics. Why should you risk anything when results are disappointing? The old culture of protest has failed to bring fundamental change. A new culture is indeed needed.
That the old actions do not lead to a nicer society is not strange. The same leading people (and not only the bankers who caused the crisis) remain on top. Even when leaders give in to some demands of the people their position is not changed and they will try to restore the situation that is damaged by actions of the People. They are never pressurized and their position remains secure. Nearly all actions take place on squares and in streets where leaders never come. The goal of most old actions is more to inform fellow-people than to improve society and remove failing leaders.

We have the same common dreams but the fight for the realisation of these dreams has hardly started. By the way, fighting belongs to the new culture of resistance, not fighting with the police but fighting against those leaders that in the first place enrich themselves and put the interests of The People at a very low place.

Leaders are never told that their career will be terminated when they refuse to do what The People want.
Removing wrong leaders from high positions is in accordance with the new culture just as the words in the article say that: “….we have the solutions, but they are not being heard. We must cause enough disruption that our voices and our solutions cannot be ignored”.

Chapter 19 of my book “On Violence and Democracy” (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/Violence.pdf) is called Creative Disturbance. It is in agreement with the idea to cause disruption. To get a New Humane World, the old culture of protest is not strong enough. The wrong actions are carried out around the wrong subjects. Most actions are still guided by the idea that new elections will give change. “Politics is a game played by people with power. By elections you are asked to choose sides in false conflicts. We are given the illusion of choice but as long as those in power do not lose their control, the choice we made only influences our life and not the life of the people in power.”

In the New Culture of Resistance we must point our arrows at powerful people and care for it that they lose control. That has never happened in the old culture.  It is neglected that power is not unequally distributed because the system is wrong but because the people with power are left untouched.

Many say that power is in the hands of a few concrete persons but in the action world this small fact is not translated in actions. My idea that there should be a “Spending Limit of 200.000 euro in one year” gives the possibility to prevent that powerful people can spend their ill-gotten money and we attack the basic idea (money) that causes much misery on our world.

When we dream about a New Humane World all actions that do not contribute to that goal have to be abandoned.

-- December 20 2010 --

Growing acceptance of spending 200,000 euro in one year is the LIMIT!

The idea of a spending limit of 200,000 euro is in the first place a guidance for action.

It is not right to say that the rule should be implemented. Implementation is done by governments or other institutions not by The People.
Implementation of a credit card with a maximum of 200,000 euro demands an  controlling apparatus and leads to more bureaucracy and corruption.
New rules do not make the world better. The crisis showed that any rule can be changed by the same people who implemented the old ones. The People have no influence on these decisions. New fundamental ideas are needed. 

The new idea becomes accepted when The People prevent that the tiny group greedy grabbers that can spend more than 200,000 euro in one year can use their surplus money.  

In the present situation the activity of The People is restricted by boundaries set by people who are hardly influenced by elections.
It is even worse as one of my contacts wrote:  “By elections you are asked to choose sides in false conflicts. We are given the illusion of choice but as long as those in power do not lose their control, the choice we made only influences our life and not the life of the people in power”. 

I propose to block the possibilities of the very rich to spend their surplus money. Their private living sphere will also be disturbed and the idea will grow that money is not the ultimate driving force, the ultimate goal of life. People will start to accept the “Spending Limit” with the background idea that we may get another world.

One of the advantages of my idea is that small people can become active on the time, the place, the method and the subject they want.
The spending limit only touches people in power and actions will not disturb the life of common citizens. Only the Happy Few are targeted. The sale of petrol, the use of public transport, the possibilities to buy the first amenities of life etceteras, must not be disturbed.  

Most current actions influence only the life of common people.
I applaud that so many people actively support Wikileaks. But actions around Wikileaks touched only the financial system while the opponents directly targeted the private life of the initiator of Wikileaks.
In Nigeria more than seventy percent of the population live below the poverty line in spite of the billions earned in the oil industry. Sometimes the Nigerian government is accused but the top of Shell continues to live its luxurious life while Shell has a vice-like grip on the country’s oil wealth. Shell and the government of Nigeria are two sides of the same coin. 

Whatever action should be undertaken, it should always be directed at top people and hardly touch common people. 

There will be unexpected partial results but real change only occurs when the right situation is created by the activity of many people as I described in my last letter about jumps in society. http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/200,00017..htm. Jumps are an important part of my proposal. An athlete can train a lot to become better. But he will never know when he will break the world record. Only when all conditions are right, the record will arrive. We can make the right conditions to enter a new phase in the development of mankind.  

A New Humane World will not be created overnight, it demands active common people. Actions connected to the Spending Limit will give unexpected results in the present time. The idea is a guideline for people where, how and who to put under pressure. It brings the chance for a fundamental change closer. Attackers and attacked change because the dominating position of money starts to disappear when it becomes inconvenient to have too much money. When you cannot spend money anymore why should you strive to get more.

That can never be achieved when people let themselves be represented by other people who are under the decisive influence of the elite that is neither bothered by elections, nor by common people.  
When all energy of common people put into elections or in actions against dead buildings and institutions is used in actions against powerful people, change is around the corner. That is still an illusion. I propose different actions that give better results than past actions of which results can be turned around by powerful people. 

When you are dreaming of a New World, do not let reality disturb your dreams. Try to influence reality and refrain from doing anything that does not bring your dreams closer.
That is not easy because you have many dreams that are sometimes conflicting. But let your dreams decide what must be done. And do think sometimes about that New Humane World in which even dreams will be realised that can hardly be dreamed of in the present world.

-- November 21 2010 --

The gradual way to improve life of all people is failing.

When in the next fifty years improvements remain slow and gradual, millions of kids will still die before they are five years old. Other misery as hunger, poverty or wars will continue to exist.
A big change, a sudden jump in the development of humanity is needed.

Jumps are highlights that make life worthwhile. They are necessary to reach higher planes that cannot be achieved on a slow and gradual way. 

Revolutions are political examples of jumps.
The idea that another world is possible was implanted in the Chinese minds during the Revolution. It is an important reason why Chinese society is advancing much faster that the Indian one where no jumps occurred.

Inventions and new ideas can also cause jumps. Electricity, aeroplanes or internet became in a few years common items that changed life.
On a small scale, birth and death, marriage and divorce, getting diplomas or emigrating to other countries suddenly change life in an unexpected way.
Life may not be better but is certainly different. 

Jumps are often caused by the efforts of a single human. In science Copernicus is a striking and splendid example how a relatively small contribution (the earth is turning around the sun instead of the sun turning around the earth) has had a deep impact.
But new inventions and ideas do not fall from the sky. Einstein could not have developed his Theory of Relativity in the time of Copernicus. Many people contributed to the development to reach the jumping point by working out existing ideas, increasing general knowledge and wondering what should be possible. When the situation was ripe Einstein gave the last contribution that caused a jump in science.  

“The flapping of the wings of a butterfly over Brazil can cause a hurricane over Mexico” is one of the basic ideas of the Theory of Chaos.
You cannot predict when a jump takes place and what happens after a jump. But many small efforts of many humans can improve the conditions for the opening up of the road towards a new, unseen and advanced world.

The French mathematician René Thom invented the Theory of Catastrophes in which jumps and the conditions that can lead to a jump play a crucial role.Especially in our chaotic world jumps can be brought about.
One of the most important conditions that holds the present world together is the existence of an elite of privileged people. When this binding force is weakened jumps become possible. That was proven by the Russian and Chinese Revolutions that took place in a time when the binding force of the elite was weakened by World Wars.

Also in more peaceful times The People can undermine the binding power of the elite to bring a jump closer. One of the means is the implementation of the idea that “Spending 200.000 euro in one year is the Limit!”. When the idea that money rules the world withers away because the elite cannot spend its surplus money, new chances on a sudden fundamental change will arise.
When the reason to be active is not anymore the acquiring of as much money as you can, when human values are starting to get the upper hand, the world will be at the brink of a jump.

New possibilities will arise and misery will disappear because greed and misery are two sides of the same situation. Greed of the Few causes the misery of the Many.  

WE can break down the possibility that the elite uses our money for its own benefit. Then suddenly the happiness of all people will become the driving force to advance humanity. 

SPENDING 200.000 EURO IN ONE YEAR IS THE LIMIT!

-- October 25 2010 --

Microsoft had to pay an enormous sum of money for violating anti-monopoly laws.
WRONG. Directors of Microsoft signed the orders and should be fined. 

Western armies are attacking civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WRONG. Generals give the orders and should be called to account.  

Nike and Adidas should be paying too low wages for too long work.
WRONG. The directors of these multinationals are the culprits.  

Governments decide to lower the pensions of old people.
WRONG. Ministers sign the laws that rob people of a well-earned comfortable old age. 

The government gave billions to the banks.
WRONG. Directors of the FED proposed, Obama and his team endorsed and the directors of the banks pocketed all that money. 

The FED must be abolished because it takes wrong decisions.
WRONG. The leaders of the FED take decisions that hurt common citizens. 

Banks pay their directors too high bonuses and too much money.
WRONG. The CEO of a bank signs the cheques for the greedy bankers.  

Multinationals, factories, armies, governments, banks don’t do anything, it are dead entities.
Decisions are taken by powerful greedy humans who are very much alive.
Those people act in the wrong way, therefore they should be targeted.

It is not the system that is wrong, the fault lies fully with elitepeople who use the system (any system) to enrich themselves.
The greedy top acts fundamentally wrong. They want in the first place to fill their own pockets disregarding the plight of the vast majority of common citizens. (and they have made a system that makes it easier for them, to amass lots of money).
The arrows of dissatisfied and frustrated citizens should not be directed at dead entities. Any damage caused to buildings, institutions, installations, factories, army camps or government property will be repaired by money that in the end comes out of the pockets of common people.
The same is valid for all these efforts that want to change the system without changing the power and the mentality of those people who now use the system for there own benefit. 

I repeat the central question:
Why do these already very privileged people do what they are doing?
And I repeat once again the simple answer:
FOR MONEY!! 

The solution is simple. Let we care for it that they cannot use their ill gotten money. Then leaders will not anymore be dominated by money but by the idea that all people should have the same status – in the first place a decent life.  

SPENDING 200,000 EURO IN ONE YEAR SHOULD BE THE LIMIT!

-- October 17 2010 --

The American bankers get this year more than 100 billion euro. Many writers will again comment, analyse or criticise this fact but that will not stop the money flow to a few privileged people.  

Often I am fed up with articles that analyse what is wrong in our society. I want to do something with these facts!
I propose a guiding slogan Spending 200,000 euro in one year is the LIMIT! Too much money is the deeper cause of too much misery.

Maybe criticism contributed to the end of the Vietnam War but the top hardly listened. History repeated itself in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fundamental change did not come any nearer and new wars are around the corner – about water, oil, Iran or Korea – wars that must continue the dominance of the West. Hunger, poverty and misery have also not disappeared.

Only analysing what leaders do is not sufficient. The central question should be: What can we do to increase the chance to get a better world.
Spending 200,000 euro in one year should be the limit! forces leaders to listen. Then we advance on the road to another world without interference from people up there who have their own agenda.  

What WE CAN DO is a difficult question. It is connected to the central problem why the elite continues to rule the world.
All proposed solutions have failed.
Revolutions occurred in many countries but only brought a new elite in power.
Some people try to get new leaders but these new forces always have more interest in their own life than in the life of common citizens.
Sometimes new political parties are founded but the past shows that all these parties hardly changed our wretched world.
Still others want people to write to elected representatives – though this has not given much positive result in the past.
Many good-willing people want to demonstrate, boycott, sign petitions, feed and teach poor people etceteras though again the results have been very meagre.
Then there are people who are building their own better society though in the past the big world often invaded these happy enclaves.

All these activities only soften the harsh sides of the present world. A fundamental change from a world dominated by money to a world where people are the most important beings will never occur. The centre of power is analysed but never attacked.

All activities are based on the idea that when enough people ask leaders to change their decisions it will indeed happen. But people at the top do not read the analyses and comments and are protected from the masses by politicians, the media and in the end by security forces.

Critical articles undermine the trust in political leaders. Still less people vote for parties in the centre of the political power. In The Netherlands the parties who had been in power since the masses got the right to vote got twenty years ago 80 percent of the vote, in 2010 it was hardly 50 percent. 

The mentality of The People is changing, it is a first step to realise that we have to take power in our own hands.
But The People still have to take new steps on the road that leads from the present miserable world to a New Humane World.

I read hardly anything about what YOU AND I CAN DO. The road to a New Humane is not opened.
Writers do not wonder if leaders listen to The People.
They do not question if their analysing and criticizing has results.
They do not have any idea how to implement their criticism. 

Many wise words have been written about the causes of the financial crisis but the greedy grabbers are still on top. I have not seen any action against people who were the cause of the misery. Not from trade-unions, not from political parties, not from juridical powers, not from sympathetic analysts. The creators of the crash have remained untouched.

To change our world something new is needed.
SPENDING 200,000 EURO IN ONE YEAR SHOULD BE THE LIMIT!
I ask all good-willing analysts and commentators to include in their articles what common citizens can do.
Do write about what WE CAN DO to stop the greed and the wish to get still more money at the cost of the life of other people. 

ONLY DIRECT PRESSURE ON THE LIFE OF THE HIGHEST LEADERS WILL BRING CHANGE.
200,000 EURO IS THE LIMIT!

-- September 27 2010 --

Do something weird and get seemingly impossible results.  

The demand that nobody should ever spend more than 200,000 euro in one year is not a Utopia.

A Utopia is a clear but far away goal. The way towards this goal remains vague.
My goal is vague and far away but the road to the New Humane World is clear, concrete and enjoyable.  

Thomas More described in 1516 a Utopia as an imaginary island with a perfect social and political system, an ideally perfect place of things.
That is neither possible nor wanted. Societies move, change and improve. Creative people produce fundamentally different New Worlds. 

Utopians are ardent but impractical reformers who do not know how to accomplish their ideals. But the road to the New Society is more important than the goal, only movement can bring an end to the present untenable situation.

On this road some characteristics of the future society develop. One of these characteristics is the importance of small independent active and changing small groups (see Alternating minorities versus a democracy based on majorities, http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/catastrophes10.htm). Those groups are not dependent on orders that come from above. Individual people independently select the time, the place and the subject in which they want to be active. 

People who only ask for improvements are time and again deceived by leaders pursuing their own interests. Despite the beautiful words of the UN Millennium Goals ten million kids are still dying each year before they have reached the age of five. It is a Utopia to think that lasting improvements can be reached when you are only active within the boundaries of the present political system.
To change society people have to try something different against leaders who cannot solve big problems as hunger, poverty and war.

People differ from each other but they should have the same status, a decent life. Actions must not be restricted to mass movements in which everybody is expected to do the same as his neighbour. Self-imposed leaders later reap the best fruits for themselves.
When unique people use creative and weird tactics that opponents do not expect, they become a force that cannot be defeated. 

A simple quotation from Gandhi points to the road towards a New Humane World: “There is enough resources in this world for man’s need but not enough for man’s greed”.

People should act against greedy grabbers that appropriate a too big part of the production for the own group.
I propose actions to defeat the greed.
Think what rich people do with their surplus of money. Buying ten houses, private planes, living in five-star hotels, flying to the moon, driving in exclusive and expensive cars, acquiring expensive gadgets etc.
By undermining this life the secluded, privileged, prosperous, safe and exclusive eliteworld will disappear. This concrete goal has nothing in common with Utopian ideas. 

Actions should only be directed against people who prevent that we enter a world without hunger, poverty and wars. That tiny minority usurps too much of the resources of the world. It is necessary to creatively disturb the life of the greedy who prevent that all people have a decent life.  

People will walk towards a New Humane World behind the banner with the guiding slogan that “SPENDING 200,000 EURO IN ONE YEAR IS THE LIMIT” This idea will inspire the creative activity of people who refuse to live in our present unfriendly world. 

A Humane World it is not a Utopia, WE CAN DO IT!

-- August 28 2010 --

Take the benefit away and the reason for greed disappears.

The world is motivated by money, not by the idea that all people should have the same status and thus a decent life. The most awful consequence of this domination of money are the ten million kids that die each year before they are five years old.
The domination of money should stop.   

This cannot be done by prohibiting high earnings. Time and again it is proved that financial instruments as taxes have not much influence on the earnings of the rich (and the criminals). The income of the top one percent of the population is increasing faster than that of the other 99 percent.  The world of the rich, the eliteworld, is hardly disturbed by measures taken by their servants on high posts in the government and the (financial) industry where the People have no influence. 

The eliteworld is a quiet and safe world, well protected from invasions of masspeople who live in the often harsh massworld.
Change will not occur when the eliteworld is not invaded, when the elite can continue to live its exclusive and privileged life.
Only when the eliteworld is made uninhabitable, when chaos starts to reign in the world of the rich, the chance on a fundamental change will grow.

Therefore I called my last book “From Chaos to Change, entering a New Era” in which money is not the driving motive. You can download the book for free on http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/chaoschange.pdf You can get a signed paperback copy by sending 10 euro via Paypal to downwithelite@gmail.com 

But how can the masses disturb the eliteworld?
We do not need to analyse how the elite has continued to reign for many centuries.
We do not have to analyse why the elite takes the wrong measures. 0n the contrary, they do it quite well – for their own benefit.
These analyses are made many times but it did not change the domination of the rich over the masses.
We only have to look at how the elite benefits from its domination, how they use the benefits. Then the conclusion is evident. 

The reason of the domination of money is the possibility of a few privileged and powerful persons to acquire items that common people never can buy.
Not only gadgets as a watch of a million euro but also houses as castles, private planes, exclusive education, excellent medical care, etceteras.
In short, anything you can buy when you spend more than 200,000 euro in one year.

Spending 200,000 euro in one year should be the limit! 

These benefits can be disturbed. When the disturbance increases the elite will realise that they have to live a life that is comparable to the life of common citizens, who have reasonable medical care, good education, a house in which you cannot get lost, standing in the queue when you are going to your work and a cheaper watch that also tells you exactly how late it is.  

Individual differences remain to exist and will even increase when they are not anymore drowned by the quest for still more money. Money eclipses creativity because all activities are dominated by the question “What is in it for me”.
Activities should be guided by the idea that anything done must be good for humanity, must be fun or interesting to do, must promote special human characteristics as inventiveness, creativity, pleasure and curiosity.

Pleasure and curiosity are already sufficient reasons to restrict spending to 200,000 euro in one year.

-- August 9 2010 --

Some facts supporting the idea that spending 200,000 euro in one year should be the limit

 3 to 5 million dollar will be used for the wedding of Chelsea Clinton with investment banker Mark Mezvinsky. Two million dollar will probably be paid by the US Taxpayers as Secret Service costs for protecting former president Clinton and foreign heads of states under the 500 guests. The wedding cake cost only 11.000 dollar (that is about 20 dollar for one piece of cake for each guest) but the display of flowers is a little costlier. For any single one of the 500 guests 5000 dollar of flowers are displayed, bringing the total amount spent on flowers to 250.000 dollar.
You may calculate how many kids that now die before they are five years old could be saved with all this money.

25 million euro was seized from criminals by the Dutch police in 2009.
But it is near to nothing compared with the 12 to 20 billion euro that is every year earned with criminal activities in The Netherlands. The crisis seems to have hardly any impact on the stream of criminal money.
The crisis forces (they say) the new Dutch government to spend less money in the coming four years, about 18 billion euro. These spending cuts will be paid by common people. Lower wages, higher taxes, less social security, worse medical care  for needy people, deteriorating public transport, a higher pension age etceteras. You will not find an income cap for bankers in the list of spending cuts.  

You may wonder why not all the money stolen by criminals (and bankers of course) is confiscated, then the world of the common man will be rosier. 18 billion in spending cuts in four years could easily be financed by confiscating illegal money, only a third or a fourth of the money acquired by illegal means should be enough.
It will only happen when nobody is allowed to spend 200,000 euro in one year (still a lot of money for someone belonging to the masses). 

A former president who spends five million on the wedding of his daughter differs not much from criminals who spend too much money on comparable items.
In both cases you can speak of crimes against humanity. 

Legal and illegal money streams are connected because the money world is a closed shop, where citizens may not enter. Rich people, leaders of banks and other financial institutions, CEO’s of multinationals who manipulate the flow of money do not want that others interfere with their dark practices. This money world is the exclusive elite world of the Happy Few where citizens who do not possess a million or more are not tolerated. An open door should show people what happens there, how legal and illegal money are intertwined, how the welfare of humanity is an empty word in these circles.

Only a spending limit of 200,000 euro in one year will open the road to a New World in which all people have the same status and the same possibility to be free and happy.

-- August 4 2010 --

The end of crime by limiting spending to 200,000 euro in one year.

Greed, the quest for still more money than you ever can spend, is the prime motive for crime – and for the objectionable behaviour of for example top-bankers. They should also be called criminals.  

When I travelled through Colombia there was crime on the streets. A couple was attacked by some youngsters in front of the door of our hotel but luckily when I arrived they choose to run away. Small dangerous and annoying crime. Mostly because petty criminals also want to have the money big criminals obviously possess. Only money can bring them forward in our society. Criminal activities are their only way to get a nice car, women, booze and drugs. They know some of their kind have made it big and they want to copy them. Many of the small fry are arrested and detained in too crowded and harsh  prisons. But new recruits are plentiful not in the least because the economic-financial crisis makes life more difficult. Crime is one of the ways to escape the futureless life in dreary shanty towns. Just outside Bogota I saw the other side of crime, huge castle-like mansions where people live who have made it big. It is not important if their crime is connected with drugs, smuggling people and weapons, plain corruption or white-collar misdeeds. Here you see why crime is thriving – and not only in Bolivia.

It is always the same reason: MONEY!
The solution has of course to be found in the realm of money.
Therefore I propose a spending limit of 200,000 euro in one year. 

In the drug trade billions of euros are pocketed by a handful of leaders. Just like bankers and other greedy persons drug traders want to spend that money on exclusive items. They want to distinguish themselves from the rest of the world.
The repression industry hardly arrest the leaders behind the curtains, the bankers, the white washers, the expensive lawyers, the organisers, the financial experts or the manufacturers of materials necessary to produce drugs.
Of course some stupid leaders are arrested but the prisons are overcrowded with small dealers and users. They do not organise the transport and the distribution of heroine from Afghanistan. Only the top has the capital to organise. In the synthetic drug market small people cannot buy enough PMK – it has even become difficult for the big ones. But the big producers of XTC can change to for example saffrol.
To combat the way how to make XTC has proven to fail. Lasting results can only be obtained by giving attention to the human factor, by looking at the reason why people organise the production and distribution of drugs. Now the producers of acetone, saffrol or PMK are never touched in their lavish life for their involvement in the production of drugs. 

The rich top can go on living their luxury life at the cost of the lives of millions of masspeople. Nobody does anything against them, they are accepted in higher circles. And when you have arrived at the top you are safe when you have enough money to stay at the top. It is an exception when a top-person is removed from the world of the prosperous Happy Few. 

When there is a limit to spend 200,000 euro in one year most of these problems will be solved. But only when the expensive, exclusive items that only can be bought by 200,000-plus people cannot be bought anymore.