Good Book
It's not the Bible, ... but it's really a good book!
In 2002 I joined a think-tank called “Up The River Endeavors”, where the non-profit organization members worked together to figure out what we could do to ease the strain on our planet from our growing population.
One member of the group was a remarkable woman named Jamila Raqib. As Executive Director of the Albert Einstein Institution, she teaches Dr. Gene Sharp’s life-work on nonviolent actions used in political struggles worldwide. His research has guided many movements in the last 40 years about how to use non-violence to overthrow totalitarian dictators.
One of Gene Sharp’s first books “From Dictatorship to Democracy”, now called “How Nonviolent Struggle Works” provides examples of what we can do to help ourselves in a world where strong-men dictators run rough-shod over their people.
It’s not the Bible, but it’s really a “Good Book”!
GOOD BOOK
Read a good book. You should read this good book
If you live with a dictator! Dictator!
Read a good book. It can teach you how to overthrow him
Now or later! Why not today?!
Gene Sharp wrote a book that happens to be quite handy
With great reviews from Martin Luther King and Ghandi!
If you’re oppressed, this book is even better than candy!
So get two today, and give one away!
Read a good book. You can read this good book,
Overthrow him using only peaceful means!
So read a good book. Show the world that he is full of, …
Beans! Um-Humm!
You will learn to undermine his support systems!
And thousands of little ways you can resist him.
Dump him and all of the henchmen who assist him!
Read this good book, give that guy the hook!
Read a good book. You can read this good book,
When your country doesn’t know what else to do!
So read this good book! You can learn to topple, ...
“You-Know-Who!”
(Instrumental ~ whistling & spoons)
Read a good book! Read a good book!
You wanna change it? Then read a good book!
Read a good book. You will like this good book
If your leader’s kind of smarmy! Smarmy!
In this good book you learn to terrify someone
Who’s led astray the army! Army!
When your Dictator’s limited social skills get stranger
People who’ve read this, say that “it'll be a game changer!”
So don’t read it in public, ‘cause you might be in danger! Oh no!
And they’ll take you away! Before you can say, ...
Read a good book! Call the Einstein Institute and
Order your own good book today! Today!
Dial 617-247-4882
Liberate your country and you’ll feel o-kay!
Yes, read this good book so your pals and you
Can chase your yuc-ky old Dicta-tor,
Far a-waaaay!
Written by Peter Alsop, Copyright 2014, Moose School Music (BMI)
On ‘River Of Life’ - www.peteralsop.com
Dictators use fear and violence to squash resistance and control the press and protesters. When people try to fight violence with more violence, … as happened in Syria and many other places, dictators often have far more resources than the people. It doesn’t help us make the world a better place if we try to beat them at their own game.
So if we envision a dictator standing on a table with six or eight legs, they seem unshakeable. Gene Sharp shares non-violent techniques that will undermine the table legs that hold up the table! When the legs are weakened, the table topples along with the dictator. Dr. Sharp also emphasizes how vitally important it is for us to organize how the governance of the country will be managed when the dictator falls.
Gene Sharp’s materials were instrumental in helping organizers of the Arab Spring uprising. Jamila showed me how they had to package some of Gene’s DVDs in fake covers from Bollywood action movies, in case totalitarian authorities came into a movement organizer’s home looking for contraband materials. People have been imprisoned for simply having his materials in their possession.
In 2009, Jamila Raquib collaborated with Dr. Sharp to create a new curriculum titled “Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression”. The publication provides an in-depth understanding of nonviolent struggle that enables individuals to develop effective strategies for themselves and their efforts to make peace.
You can see Jamila’s Ted Talk about this work at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/jamila_raqib_the_secret_to_effective_nonviolent_resistance.
For free book downloads and more information go to: www.aeinstein.org.
Songs To Chew (audio podcasts)
It seems more like we’re going the other way. After four years of this we might not have a Democracy anymore. They might even tell us what books we can read or not.
A friend of mine in Texas who is smarter than I am says that Democracies don’t last. He’s studied History and Law and reads those kinds of literature . He’s a Democrat that lives in Texas and I’m a Democrat that lives in Orange County. It’s been difficult living here at times. In fact, they’re trying to take away some of my property after living here for 48 years .
Mark G😋