Holding our institutions accountable is an exercise in peace and the goal of social activism is realizing and achieving peace, whether it be activists or the people that they advocate on behalf of by giving them a voice.
Repeace expands the concept of peace based on a unique linguistic interpretation and on simple observations of world events.
Millions of human beings around the world are demanding accountability from our complacent governments. We need them to govern with transparency and justice. Capitalism has failed to create progress, opportunities, and benefits for anyone other than the 1% who rule the world and shamelessly and intentionally play unconscionable games with the majority’s livelihood for a profit. Unfortunately, profits have been put before people for quite some time now. There is a pervasive and reckless disregard for the 99%.
The current world revolution is driven by the spirit of peace and justice, but humanity is incapable to seize its force because the ideal of peace has always been defined as the exact opposite of wars and its iconography is too outdated and narrowly associated with the anti-Vietnam War and nuclear disarmament era.
Ideas and movements need an identification in order to materialize. As much as the Occupy movement has sparked a worldwide chain reaction, the identities of these revolutions have become disconnected. They have different names in different nations. Cultural differences, various conditions and definitions of freedom of expression, and the existence or non-existence of military regimes in each nation puts the Occupy movement into many different contexts.
However, the common underlying thread of many of these national demonstrations are the demands for accountability from our corrupt institutions in order to reclaim our power.
Many different kinds of social movements, revolutions, and trends have NAMES (e.g. political parties (Democrats, Republicans), the Industrial Revolution, and the Atomic Age) AND they are also driven by ideals, such as justice, progress, health, sustainability, equality, and technology. What determines the nature of the ideal behind a revolution is a perceived and universally agreed upon need for that ideal or a chain of discoveries that spurs progress and evolution.
This revolution is undoubtedly caused by immediate fears revolving around the entire future of humanity. Every nation, regardless of the individual events that sparked the demonstrations, have very similar grievances in regard to their basic needs and rights not being met, such as a lack of jobs and financial security, the skyrocketing costs of education and healthcare, distrust in our institutions, the endless environmental catastrophes, and an ever increasing disregard for the rule of law as well as the consequences for the crimes committed by the establishment, and the unreasonably enormous burden that individuals have to bear in light of the deteriorating circumstances. Moreover, the growing effort to repress citizens' legitimate anger by criminalizing it through surveillance measures is further proof that our democracy is being hijacked.
Nowadays, our countries are being ruled by fear, whether it is in the form of our legitimate worries surrounding a bleak future or the ways that we are being victimized by our governments. The signs are everywhere and thus the ideal behind humanity's unified struggle is peace!
When most people hear this, although they can't deny it, they feel that nothing can be accomplished through peace. They are figuratively and literally stuck in this impotent notion that peace is something invisible, unattainable, and ineffective, especially when the corporate owned media is constantly going out of their way to downplay and misreport this revolution.
The biggest ideal of humankind, which is peace, cannot be attained unless we free our minds from the idea that peace is associated exclusively with the anti-Vietnam War movement and allow ourselves to look at peace from a different angle. Re-framing the concept of peace and adding to the "peace brand" is not just necessary, it's actually happening right before our very own eyes, whether we see it or not.
People across the world are fighting for peace and justice for the most diverse reasons, and the conflicts that produce fears and worries are not represented by loaded weapons or bombs, but by empty promises and institutions in disarray. People are demanding accountability to get... peace and justice. This Peace movement, which we named "Repeace" (Realize Peace) movement is under way in Egypt, Yemen, the UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Israel, the USA, and many more nations. Once we give the movement a name and stance, we help tens of millions to identify with and unite around it.
Repeace was a creative idea at first, and now it's just history unfolding. The simplest of things is often the most difficult to do, adopting an idea. But, when you think that ideas rule the world, not leaders, it's worthy trying to embrace simple ones if they may bring us unity and real ... peace. Let's take this idea and change the world now.
"He who molds the public sentiment...makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make." Abraham Lincoln
