Attitude Adjustments

This video is of the well-organized Zapatista movement taking over a military base in Chiapas, a state in Southern Mexico bordering on Guatemala. Lately I've been feeling down about power structures and social movements, and thinking that it just doesn't matter what the people think, that those in power and those who are entrenched by the spoils of their avarice will always have the upper hand, as they own not only the means of production but also the military and the police. I've worked with and been a part of social justice movements in the past, and it has proven to be an amazing education not only about politics and history, but also about what's important to me in my own life. For me, Freire's idea of praxis is about living your values. If you don't like multinational control over other countries, you don't buy their products. If you don't like how Wal-Mart has ruined small businesses in rural areas, you don't shop there. If you don't like Coke's politics, you don't buy Coke or Sprite or whatever the hell else they buy and bottle and sell under their labels. I try not to be too self-righteous as I find that repellent in others, but I do try to live the way that I see myself as positively impacting my world and the people around me. In my cyclical way of living and thinking, I'm beginning to get back to seeing grassroots movements as being absolutely critical nodes of resistance to corporate control over the most minute facets of our lives. Could just be the Foucault I've been reading lately, who says that power relations move upwards, and that confronting them in our personal lives is the best way to attack them in the larger structures that seem to control and limit us everyday. Check out this video of indigenous and rural people organized under the Zapatista movement taking over a military base. The only guns I see are held by the (scared shitless) soldiers that are overcome by these men, women, and children. Great scenes at 1:50, 2:40. and 3:20.