By Harrison Tesoura Schultz Ph.D.
I wouldn’t have to worry about my student loans, unpaid bills and delinquent income taxes and rising rent any more if I could get just one Federal Reserve Note for every time I hear someone say “The NEED Act sounds great! But it’ll never happen.” Or “It’s too good to be true.” “Congress will never pass it.” As if we naively expected the United States Congress to enact our legislative demands without a fight. As if the completely abstract “State,” “The System” or even the actual “Money Power” that we are all either unconsciously or unwillingly enslaved to is anywhere near as powerful and as impervious to grassroots change as Hollywood and our mainstream media would have us believe. Resistance is fun not futile. “Those who are peaceful and indifferent are forgotten,” according to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “they never know the fighting joy of living.”[i]
Take for an example an article that Erving Goffman cited from The New Yorker in his landmark text Asylums which described how the New York City Police and Fire Departments, along with the Department of Water Supply, Gas, and Electricity conceded defeat to the swarms of anonymous children who ‘wrench’ open fire hydrants to recreate and cool off from the summer heat. The authorities provided special perforated hydrant spray-caps to reputable groups and individuals as a compromise to the children to preserve the city’s water supply.[ii]
Occupy The NEED Act 