Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite

by Bruce E. Levine

Polls show that the majority of Americans oppose recent US wars and Wall Street bailouts, yet most remain passive and appear resigned to powerlessness. In Get Up, Stand Up , Bruce Levine offers an original and convincing explanation for this passivity. Many Americans are deeply demoralized by decades of oppressive elitism, and they have lost confidence that genuine democracy is possible. Drawing on phenomena such as learned helplessness, the abuse syndrome, and other psychological principles and techniques for pacifying a population, Levine explains how major US institutions have created fatalism. When such fatalism and defeatism set in, truths about social and economic injustices are not enough to set people free. However, the situation is not truly hopeless. History tells us that for democratic movements to get off the ground, individuals must recover self-respect, and a people must regain collective confidence that they can succeed at eliminating top-down controls. Get Up, Stand Up describes how we can recover dignity, confidence, and the energy to do battle. That achievement fills in the missing piece that, until now, has undermined so many efforts to energize genuine democracy. Get Up, Stand Up details those strategies and tactics that oppressed peoples have successfully employed to gain power. We the People can unite, gain strength, wisely do battle, and wrest power away from the ruling corporate-government partnership (the "corporatocracy"). Get Up, Stand Up explains how.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Psychology, Activism

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2011

About the author

Bruce E. Levine writes and speaks widely on how society, culture, politics and psychology intersect. His latest book is Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite (2011). Earlier books include Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (2007) and Commonsense Rebellion: Taking Back Your Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy (2003).

A practicing clinical psychologist often at odds with the mainstream of his profession, he is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, CounterPunch, AlterNet, and Z Magazine. His articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, Truthout, The Ecologist, High Times, and numerous other magazines, and he has contributed chapters to Writing without Formula (2009), Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Depression (2009), and Alternatives beyond Psychiatry (2007).

Dr. Levine is on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, and he is an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs. A longtime activist in the mental health treatment reform movement, he is a member of the International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry as well as MindFreedom. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America.

Bruce E. Levine was born in 1956, grew up in Rockaway in New York City, graduated from Queens College of the City University, and received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati. He currently lives in Cincinnati with his wife, Bon.

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book at Skylight today, after initially putting it on a display I made to highlight publishers participating in the Green Press Initiative (of which Chelsea Green is one). I started to read the introduction and realized, in a mix of shock and delight (with just a little dismay), that half the book I've been trying to formulate and write myself for the past 6 months was already sitting in front of me. The same quote I centered part of my introduction and thinking around (from Lawrence Goodwyn's The Populist Moment) was there, in Levine's introduction, staring straight up at me.

Given that, I'm obviously quite curious about where the rest of the book goes. Hopefully will have a full review soon...

Update, 5/29: I finished this the week I began reading it, and have since recommended it at Skylight. This is my shelf-talker in the store:

"Why don't Americans fight back against state and corporate abuse? Levine manages to examine and critique our "learned powerlessness" with a great deal of understanding and compassion, and provides some excellent ideas for how we might regain individual autonomy and collective power."

If interested, you can read excerpts from Levine's book on his blog at: http://brucelevine.net/category/bruce...

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this 2011 book was enlightening - although sometimes a slog. The author is trying to draw an analogy between self-empowering individual psychology and that of a group. This analogy is quite effective, and he draws together many strands into this argument of encouragement to all who many challenge the status quo and hope for a more humane, less cruel society.

The point of this book is that mega corporations and wealthy donors have essentially taken over government, and run society to benefit themselves, while leaving crumbs to everyone else. It is extremely difficult to change this status quo, since all the levers of power (government, the media, etc) are in the hands of the elite. However, the author doesn't end on a note of hopelessness - as the quote by Abraham Lincoln attests. Ten years before the Civil War, Lincoln doubted if the Southern slave-ocracy would ever be overturned because of the Southerners standing to see their wealth - as embodied in their slaves - multiply in value once territories were admitted as new slave States. Southern greed he thought then was far stronger than Northern Abolitionist morality. Nonetheless, slavery was eventually abolished.

There are so many interesting passages in this book, such as:

"While a charismatic politician can still garner a large turnout of voters who are angry with whichever party is in power, the majority of Americans appear resigned to the idea that they have no power over institutions that rule their lives."
"Elitism - be it rule by kinds or corporations - is the opposite of genuine democracy."
"A corporate-government partnership that governs society is a corporatocracy."
"After George Herbert Walker Bush left his CIA director post in 1977, and before becoming vice president under Ronald Reagan in 1890, he was on Eli Lilly's board of directors and lobbied hard on behalf of Big Pharma (for example, for special tax breaks for Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical corporations)."
"The problem of rule by a corporatocracy is that it creates disproportionate power, the antithesis of democracy."
"...when debate turns to mutual antipathy and divides anti-authoritarians, it plays into the hands of the elite."
"The protesters [at the 1999 Battle of Seattle] did not oppose international trade per se but opposed the model of free trade that favored the corporatocracy and shafted the rest."
"...a quote by [Battle of Seattle]protester Eric O'Neil, a member of Laborers Local 256: "The TransAtlantic Business Dialogue is making a global sweatshop out of the economy of the world."
"In 2000, ... with increasing disgust for pro-corporate agendas of both the Democrats and Republicans, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader received 2.7 percent of the total vote, almost three million votes."
"In retrospect, it is much clearer to many Americans that the election of Barack Obama was evidence not of people rising up against the system but of how marketers could exploit Americans' hopelessness to sell a candidate."
"...in this case [of Latino activists and their supporters protesting anti illegal immigrant legislation in 2005 and 2010], the people who are most active in pursuing social justice make up a group that has been least socialized by American institutions and culture."
"...when it became clear that television could be used to help cement rather than challenge the values of industrialization, moneymaking, and consumerism, the corporatocracy ensured that television viewing increased."
"One method of breaking individuals and populations is social isolation. When people are kept isolated from one another, they will not have their doubts about authority validated."
"Economic reprisals can also break the resistance of rebels and terrorize anyone else considering rebellion. The US government-corporate partnership's response to Cuba is an example of reprisals that have actually cost businesses money in lost financial opportunities in Cuba itself. But these reprisals have continued because it was deemed more important to send a threatening message to the world, which helps to ensure that labor and resources in the rest of the Americas, Africa, and Asia remain inexpensive and accessible to US corporations."
"...by criminalizing and incarcerating people who are using psychotropics illegally, authorities control a potentially rebellious population."
"Lies control people in a variety of ways. To the extent that people are controlled by lies, not only do they comply with the liar's version of reality, but by losing connection with reality, people lose a certain wholeness and the strength to resist. Or people can so overreact to liars that they distrust everyone, which makes it impossible to form democratic movements."
"Communist Party was a great Orwellian name for an institution used by Soviet elitists intent on depriving their population of any decision-making power."
"Whatever the content of the program, television watching is an isolating experience."
"Researchers confirm that regardless of the programming, viewers' brainwaves slow down, transforming them closer to a hypnotic state."
"Television viewers are mesmerized by what television insiders call "technical events" - quick cuts, zoom-ins, zoom-outs, rolls, pans, animation, music, graphics, and voice-overs, all of which lure them to continue watching even though they have no interest in the content. Television insiders know that it's these technical events (in which viewers see and hear things that real life does not present) that hypnotize people to watch. "
"Television is a "dream come true" for an authoritarian society. Those with the most money own most of what people see. Fear-based television programming makes people more afraid and distrustful of one another, which is good for an authoritarian society depending on a "divide and conquer" strategy. Television isolates people so they are not joining together to govern themselves. People become broken through both isolation and sensory derivation, and television creates both."
"...television, similar to psychotropic drugs, has enormous adverse effects, and so we may want to think long and hard about just what benefits we are receiving from any particular program content."
"Michael J. Bugeja, a professor of communications at Iowa State University and author of "Interpersonal Divide; The search for Community in a Technological Age,"... ....believes that texting or tweeting in the presence of another person sends the message to that person that someone else is more important."
"...e-mail is often a bad medium to sort out differences."
"In a fundamentalist consumer society, what is it "reasonable" to pay money for? Drinking water. Exercise. Meeting other people. Communicating with other people. Health. Sleep. Energy. Death. It is also now "reasonable" for parents to pay to make their children more manageable and thereby not create tension for authorities. In fundamentalist consumerism, one buys anything that makes one feel good and not feel bad. When one is living in a society in which virtually nothing is considered taboo to buy and sell, one is living in a fundamentalist consumer society."
"Fundamentalist consumerism permeates the entire economy and culture, and so there is no one person or even one group that we can overthrow to end it."
"The loss of self-reliance creates a loss of individual self-respect."
"How did fundamentalist consumerism come into existence? ... It was quite consciously manipulated via advertising by the burgeoning financial elite in the late 1800s and early 1900s. While advertising had previously existed, a different kind of advertising was necessary in order to sell things to people that they really didn't need. This kind of advertising needed to be more psychologically astute. Far less important than the intrinsic value of the product was what psychological need it could satisfy (for example, the need to be modern, cool, young, hip, attractive, and so forth).
"In his 1928 book "Propaganda," Bernays was essentially trying to sell propaganda as a good thing."
"In the United States, it is "normal" for its population -- including its children - to be increasingly assaulted by sophisticated psychological techniques aimed at manipulating and controlling them. In American culture, for example, there is no shame in being a person who manipulates children into pestering their parents into buying things that they don't need."
"The practices of fundamentalist consumerism weakens and disconnects people by obliterating self-reliance, alienating them from their humanity, and promoting self-absorption."
"It is a goal of tyrants to have a population terrified, without self-respect, without group support, and without a family to fall back on. It is the dream of all control freaks to have those whom they wish to control be completely dependent on them."
"Another nail driving into the coffin [of unions] has been globalization agreements such as NAFTA (signed into law by Bill Clinton in December 1993), which have given corporations a great deal of leverage to break unions, as corporations can more easily relocate their factories overseas for more inexpensive labor."
"The greatest fear of the corporatocracy is working people uniting to overthrow them, and so the corporatocracy has always waged a battle against unions on every front."
"If working people are not inching closer to genuine democracy in their workplace - for example, gaining increasingly more representation and power on a corporate board of directors - but are instead accepting the hierarchical top-down control as a permanent reality, then they are losing individual self-respect and collective self-confidence."
"What Paul of Tarsus (in the first century after the death of Jesus) was to the dissemination and legitimization of Christianity, Ayn Rand (in the last half of the twentieth century) was to the dissemination and legitimization of money-ism and selfishness. Rand authored "The Virtue of Selfishness" and other best sellers..."
"Money-ism is especially malevolent when it attacks societal forces that have potential to be liberating. ... liberating spiritual revolts begun by Jesus and other rebels eventually morph into organized religion, which then is driven by money and used by the elite as an "opiate of the masses."
"The corporatocracy desperately wants its employees to comply with their hierarchy, to passively submit to authorities regardless of respect for them, and to perform meaningless activities for a paycheck."
"Transforming knowledge that could be shared easily through simple language into something esoteric accessible only by the elite is anti-democratic in its nature."
"...egomaniacs tend to be more colorful, bizarre, and possibly even violent - and those characteristics get good ratings. ...the corporate elite know that egomaniacs will use reckless tactics designed more to receive attention than to achieve actual victory; the resulting failures and negative public reaction are victories for the corporatocracy that diminish the collective self-confidence of the rest of us."
"...in this war, human relationships are vitally important. It is in the interest of the elite to keep people divided and to keep them distrusting one another."
"People who are abused learn helplessness about relationships."
"Americans have become increasingly separated from one another, and isolated people are far easier to control."
"People who have community care about something beside their own loneliness."
"With genuine community, people build trust, and they discover they can function effectively as a group. This is the beginning of the path to gaining collective self-confidence that they can overcome the elite."
"The word anarchism is routinely used by today's mass media synonymously with chaos, but for philosophers and political scientists, anarchism means people organizing themselves without authoritarian hierarchies."
"The corporate elite relishes the role of the US government being seen as the tyrant. Every tyrant wants to demonize some other entity - be it an institution or a people - so as to deflect rebellion against itself. In reality, one major role of the US government in the corporatocracy is to serve as a scapegoat to deflect rebellion against the corporate elite."
"Hillel, the great Jewish scholar who lived around two thousand years ago during the time of the Roman Empire's domination... said:
If I am not for myself, who will b for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
And, if not now, when?"
"...when individuals follow Hillel's advice to care about both self and others, they gain greater wholeness and strength, and they are more capable of uniting with others."
"On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1914, ... British and German soldiers and officers in the filed spontaneously created their own truce."
"Again on Christmas Eve in 1915, German and British as well as French troops climbed out of their trenches, declared a truce with each other, and exchanged gifts."
"What frightened the elite about these truces created by the men i the field was not the truce itself. ... What frightened the elite was that the men in the field spontaneously took power and created the truces. That's democracy, and that is terrifying for the elite. If democracy can break out on the elites' strongest turf - the military battlefield - then it can break out anywhere."
"The elite will always want hierarchical, top-down decision making with themselves at the top, which is why they are so comfortable with the military, and why the World War I Christmas truces shook them up."
"Following Nixon's decision to use army troops to break the [1970 USPS] strike, many postal workers throughout the country began to return to work, but New York city area strikers remained steadfast - perhaps these mostly ethnic postal workers had been least socialized to compliance."
"...the [National Farmers] Alliance [and Industrial Union] developed an extremely powerful mechanism for recruitment: America's first large-scale working people's cooperatives, which ultimately attracted hundreds of thousands of farmers. The Alliance cooperatives were large, well thought out, and well organized."
"Populists attempted to create cooperative credit institutions, and they also created a cooperative insurance plan that gave farmers a much better deal than that offered by large insurance companies."
"Populists had other credit ideas but they were up against an American oligarchy that did not want them to succeed, and so the Populists were unable to sustain a non-exploitative credit system."
"This real-deal populism - the sense of ownership of government - has been replaced with a bastardized populism that makes government the enemy without recognition that it is the control of the government by large corporations that is the underlying problem. If we are not controlling government then the corporations will control government; and if there is no government at all, then corporations will directly control us. The real-deal populists at the end of the nineteenth century wanted to control government and to use it to severely restrict or eliminate the power of the financial elite."
"In genuine democracy, one is not forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, each of whom receives millions of dollars from corporations and wealthy individuals."
"In "Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America," sociologist Frances Fox Piven details "the nature of disruptive power" and describes the use of disruptive tactics in fomenting the American Revolution, the Abolitionist Movement, and other social and political movements. Piven argues that "...ordinary people exercise power in American politics mainly at those extraordinary moments when they rise up in anger and hope, defy the rules that ordinarily govern their daily lives, and, by doing so, disrupt the workings of the institutions in which they are enmeshed."
"Generally in American history, the tactic of armed and violent resistance by people against the elite fails and has been exploited to frighten the public into demanding "law and order," thus leading to greater authoritarianism."
"The 1894 Pullman strike led to a nationwide boycott by workers on all trains carrying Pullman sleeping cares, resulting in the use of twelve thousand federal troops to put down the strike; strike leaders were jailed. The modern corporatocracy had emerged, and by the end of the nineteenth century it was clear that a major role of the US government was to serve the interests of the corporate elite."
"During the 1930s, fear among the the elite of revolution and the abolition of capitalism was significant enough that this era became one of the few times in American history in which non-elites gained substantial economic reforms. These reforms included relief programs reaching 22 percent of the US population, the National Labor Relations Act providing legal protections for strikers, the Fair Labor Standards Act establishing national minimum wages and maximum hours, and Social Security legislation, among others."
"Those who signed on to fight the American Revolution believed that they were fighting for democracy. But following the defeat of the British, the American elite created a Constitution and national government with the essential feature being, as [sociologist Frances Fox] Piven notes, "to wall off from electoral influence those parts of government hat performed functions essential to a commercial economy."
"When working people forfeit the threat of surprise work stoppages, companies are able to build up production reserves and sit out strikes."
"Major corporate interests were at stake in the Iraq invasion, especially those of the energy-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex. Another role of the US government -- along with deflecting criticism from corporations and putting down uprisings -- is to wage wars deemed useful to the corporate elite."
"...the corporatocracy loves to divide and conquer, and racial strife makes it difficult for the poor and working class to unify and fight together against the elite."
"The Amish and Mennonites produce, and Shakers in their time did produce, the kind of skilled craftsmanship that creates a great deal of self-respect."
"Maybe one day, when enough of us regain collective self-confidence, "no tuition" will be restored at excellent public university systems such as the City University of new York, and no tuition in public universities will be the rule throughout he United States. No young person should have to deal with student-loan debt. It would be a simple matter of government shifting the money that it is now spending on private contractors in unnecessary wars."
"Less than a decade before African American slavery ended in the United States the idea of abolishing slavery seemed like an impossibility for most Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, who even doubted whether it would be possible to stop the spread of slavery. In 1856, he stated: "The slaves of the South, at a moderate estimate are worth a thousand millions of dollars. Let it be permanently settled that this property may extend to new territory, without restraint, and it greatly enhances, perhaps quite doubles its value at once. This immense, palpable pecuniary interest on the question of extending slavery, unites the Southern people, as one man. But it can not be demonstrated that the North will gain a dollar by restricting it. Moral principle is all or nearly all, that unites us of the North. Pity 'tis, it is so, but this is a looser bond, than pecuniary interest. Right here is the plain cause of their perfect union and our want of it."

[Margot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Levine is at his best when he's offering a compassionate account of how American political malaise is not the result of people being ignorant, stupid, lazy, or immature, but because they have no reason to believe that there are meaningful actions they can take. He's at his worst when flirting with conspiracy theories about how the elites deliberately use television or psychiatric drugs to turn people into zombies. The demonization of the "corporatocracy" is shrill and unnecessary.

Despite that, I came away thinking that learned helplessness is useful framework for thinking about the consequences of the consolidation of wealth and power (also, incidentally, why academia can be such a morale-killer). His thoughts on student debt servitude seem especially prescient. He also offers some good suggestions for how to help people rebuild the self-respect, energy, and solidarity they need to fight back.

So, worth reading if you can withstand sentences like this: "While people certainly can resist the cheap-stuff propaganda and not worship at Walmart, IKEA, and other big-box cathedral--and stay out of the path of a mob of fundamentalist consumers--it is difficult to protect oneself from the slow death caused by a consumer culture."

[Virginia Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting thesis by a psychiatrist that diagnosis the population of our country with syndromes associated with severe abuse, which is a fitting and clarifying definition by one whose specialty it is to know. Comparison t of 2 party politics to World Wrestling Federation matches for their sincerity which is apt.

"An unhealthy society is one which creates mutual hostility and distrust, which transforms man into an instrument for use and exploitation by others, which deprives him of a sense of self, except in as much as he submits to others or becomes an automaton." - Eric Fromm

Through out there is advocacy of morale building as a centerpiece to positive change. "Writings for a Liberation Psychology" by Martin Baro are cited, as "ignoring the human needs for fairness, social justice,, freedom and autonomy etc".

"NOT EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED COUNTS, AND NOT EVERYTHING THAT COUNTS CAN BE COUNTED." Albert Einstein

Mentions the Fellowship of Intentional Communities, Western Governors University as partial optional strategies and work by Anya Kamenetz, organic co-op farming, and the National Cooperative Business Association.

Noncompliance, one of my favorite actions, is defined as mental illness in oppressive societies. Mea Culpa. In "The Night is Dark and I Am Far From Home"Jonathan Kozel details how our educational system's primary curriculum is compliance, at the expense of learning more useful skills.

Zombification as a strategy for implementing tyrranny! We all know this now.

Please excuse, these notes are backwards and mostly for my own use

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love learning as I read, and I learned a lot. Levine put populism in perspective for me, including historical perspective...he reviewed and discussed several historical movements and was able to analyze their successes and failures.

I think I appreciated most his mental health point of view as he talked about personal and collective self image...That helped me solidify my own commitment to being vocal about education 'reform' blunders. I can see my friends and I beginning to coalesce around our core beliefs.

His discussion of the corporate world's control over American life was maddening...I see it so much clearer now...I don't know how to change it, but I DO see it.

Levine often mentions his own background in the health industry...I truly appreciated his discussions of mental health issues and insurance reform concerns.

This was not what I expected -- it was more and less. I didn't expect the rich historical background, but I think I did HOPE for more specifics about how to organize to make a difference.

[Justher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read on the fatalism that has swept America. Levine does a great job of incorporating his experience as a clinical psychologist. At times his comparisons may seem a bit far-off, but he is quick to explain his rationale in a clear and concise matter. Overall, Levine excels in explaining how the American people have reached their current state, but could do better to expand on what actions could be taken now - especially in the age of new media.

[Bjorn Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Get Up, Stand Up" has the feeling of a breakthrough book. This country swims in complaints about political apathy and laziness. Very few writers or talking heads endeavor to find out why.

Though Bruce Levin's writing is a bit repetitive at times, it is also capable of gorgeously humane sequences, such as in the opening section:

"All of our experiences are limited, and so none of us has all the answers. The spirit of democracy is one of mutual respect and confidence that others can have truths and solutions that any one of us may not have yet considered."

This may seem like an obvious statement, but it comes on the heels of the author's discussion of the divide between comfortable majoritarians (what Levine calls the anti-authoritarian) and afflicted majoritarians, who have been through significant pain, including violence, abuse and/or poverty. Afflicted majoritarians may seem passive and self-destructive (through drugs, etc.), but they have a tremendous amount of awareness and insight about their political station in life and ideas for improving our democracy, and may view using drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc., as destructive diversions, yes, but also as a way to avoid homicide, suicide or clinical lunacy. One of the book's purposes - finding ways to eliminate divisions among majoritarians - is as noble a cause as one could find.

And so it fits perfectly with the growing Occupy movement, which is having the effect of comfortable majoritarians seeing what involved homeless people really need and all the current machinations - like growing college and health care costs - that stand in the way of tens of millions of Americans:

http://johnhively.wordpress.com/2012/...

This in the shadow of our two major parties completely bought out by the wealthiest among us.

Levine takes it straight to psychologists and talking heads, those people who talk about problems instead of empowering individuals to do what's best for themselves.

The strong theme of the book is to get away from thinking that elections - with both parties bought out by wealthy special interests - will lead to positive substantial change. As every cycle passes, the system works less and less for average people. Obama is the new Nixon. Every president is a war president. Every president is an expensive health care president, a holed-up in DC while good jobs go away president, a let's find more oil president, etc. etc. Any momentary pauses in a downward trajectory is not progress.

"Get Up, Stand Up" makes clear that most victories, large and small, build the movement. Do whatever makes you feel good, gives you the self-worth needed to energize issues and movements. So many great things happened when no one thought they could. Levin's book is full of examples but is one person's experiences, one person's outlook, one person's view of history. I would have liked some current stories about individuals who are making a difference for themselves and others, so a new edition with a chapter on Occupy would be a great next step.

What we do today happens when we finish books and find a greater consciousness, join any like-minded yearning for a better life on this planet.

[Adam Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary book. Levine's book is an act of populist ecumenism, an attempt to get populists of all stripes to work together and stand up against the corporate-run governmental system. He is a psychologist, and so a bulk of the book analyzes how the populist majority in America are neutralized and kept powerless. He believes that the entire population has learned helplessness and is being psychologically abused by the elites. When we believe we cannot change things, we give into depression and easy distractions to self-sooth our distress rather than fighting back. Vital reading for any populist dissatisfied with the way things are and wants to know what we can do. Highly recommended.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I read this. It re-affirmed action that I have taken part in within my own neighborhood. Twice in the last five years, the neighbors have "taken on" City Council and through attendance at City Council and even a "peaceful protest" complete with picket signs on I-35 we kept a field across from our houses from being rezoned to land that a car dealership wanted. We don't discourage new business, but that was not the type of business that the neighborhood wanted. I'm ready for the next time we have to fight City Hall after reading this.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this lived up to its title. I don't have any more concrete ideas on how to defeat the corporatocracy than before reading it. It does provide some understanding of how the elite got so much power and the history of populism in the United States. so if you've never read any Howard Zinn, this book could still be useful to you. A few inspirational ideas of entities trying different approaches were given at the end, but at least one I consider a fraud. NACA is not a group of "bank terrorists" trying to help struggling homeowners, for that you want Occupy Homes.

[Sheila Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some great anecdotes and stories for increasing my anger with how our systems are run. I could certainly relate to some of the feelings expressed, and I appreciated feeling united. I have ear-marked some of the later pages and plan to go back to study the ideas for how to move forward in the best possible way.

[Jay Turley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly difficult to read because of the light it shines on corporate control of government and the subsequent powerlessness, hopelessness, and apathy that it incurs. Yet the final chapters provide tools for combating this along with a modicum of hope. Well worth the read!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally a book that gives me some hope for the future of political activism in our country! Very well written and worth reading.