An Alternative Manifesto of Occupation. The old system has returned. Over the past few decades, it has slowly crept up on us unawares. We now live under a new system of lords, royalty and priests.

1. Overthrowing the New Feudalism
An Alternative Manifesto of Occupation

2. The New Feudalism
The old system has returned.
Over the past few decades, it
has slowly crept up on us
unawares.
We now live under a new
system of lords, royalty and
priests.

3. The Old System
Lords held the right to property
while the peasants worked for
them in return for protection
and the use of land.
Royalty held political power and
ruled the kingdom with the
support of the lords.
Priests provided divine
justification of the nobility and
the royalty‟s right to rule over
average people in jargon they
could not understand.

4. The super-rich are the new
lords.
This small group controls most
of the world‟s wealth and
property. They also control the
political system through the
application of their wealth.

5. Politicians are the new royalty.
They need to work for the
agendas of the super-rich in
return for the financial support
they need to consolidate and
maintain their power.

6. Economists and academic
“experts” are the new priests.
They justify the actions of
politicians and business
executives with a complex
mass of theoretical jargon that
most average people do not
have the time to study.
It is only accessible to those
who make careers out of it.

7. Observation
Any system of political
oppression is perpetuated by
the collusion between the three
groups that control the
following three ingredients:
money, power and knowledge.

8. Principle: Money = Power =
Money = Power
All money is power. All power is
equivalent to money.
Money has worth because it has
power to get things you want.
But if you already have the
power get what you want, it is
the same as having money.
Whoever has one, can use it to
get more of the other. The rich
grow more powerful; the
powerful grow richer.
Quote:
“To turn $100 into $110, is work.
To turn a $100 million into $110
million, is inevitable.”

9. Argument
Knowledge = Power.
But power is relative. It is only
useful if you have more of it
than others.
Therefore possession of
knowledge that is not
accessible to others is power.

10. Example
In an agrarian society, a person
who can predict the amount of
rainfall each season has power.
But only if the knowledge of
how it is done is kept secret.
To maintain the power, he has
to mislead the others. He will
claim favors from the gods
rather than revealing the
weather signs he looks for.

11. Theory
Oppressive systems are
inherently unstable
A system where a small
minority holds most of the
society‟s money and power is
not stable.
The population always
outnumbers the elite.
Rebellions will emerge with
time.
But only if the people know
what is going on…

12. Knowledge as the key to
perpetuating power
Deny people knowledge of the
system. Limit this knowledge to
experts.
Make the knowledge
inaccessible: use a dead
language (e.g. Latin); use
technical jargon; multiply the
complexity of the system so
that it takes years of study to
understand it.
Dismiss challenges to the
system as uneducated or
uninformed. Dismiss alternative
ideas as „fringe‟ or „crackpot‟.

13. Argument: The failure of
capitalism and socialism
Both incorrectly focused on the
distribution of money.
The real issue is the distribution
of power.
The proper system is one where
money can buy anything except
votes.

14. Argument
Any real distribution of power
has to take place away from
authorities and to individual
citizens.
Power transfer from one
authority to another authority
(even if more regional) cannot
be considered genuine
distribution of power.

15. Decentralization of Power
Power is always exercised by
individuals, not groups or
entities.
When one says “government
has power”, it is those
individuals within the
government who actually have
it.
Decentralization of power
means limiting the maximum
amount of political power that
can be held by any individual
human being.

16. The Invasion of the
MBA/Harvard Types
Early business leaders were
experts of their domain – cars,
steel, electricity, computers.
They had no MBAs. Modern
business “leaders” are experts
in something called “business”
and know nothing about their
domain.
Argument
There is no such discipline
called “business”. It is a
concept used by those with no
hard skills or domain
knowledge to take over
businesses built by past
leaders.

17. Harvard/MBA Types – The
Methods
Downplay the hard skills they
do not have – accounting,
engineering, design, logistics.
Glamorize “soft” skills –
marketing, communication
skills, “teamwork”, branding,
“making deals”, “risk taking”,
“strategy”.
Instead of building one‟s own
businesses, use MBA
credentials to gain entry to
businesses already built by
past business leaders.

18. Harvard/MBA Types – The
Methods…
Gradually displace managers
with domain expertise with
more MBA types. Domain
experts tend to see through
MBA style management and are
considered a threat.
Claim that “brand” is more
important than product/service.
Delegate all value generating
work to domain experts and
make oneself responsible for
“strategy”.
Fail at strategy and blame
“market conditions” for losses.

19. Harvard/MBA Types – The
Methods…
Hire consultants to mask lack of
understanding of the business.
Outsource to mask inability to
manage a full supply line.
Mergers and acquisitions used
to mask inability to build new
business areas, lack of R&D
and not knowing how to re-
invest profits.
“Cost cutting” to mask lack of
revenue growth.
External trainers and “team
building” to mask inability to
build employee capabilities.

20. Harvard/MBA Types – The
Methods…
Create a culture where people
are made to believe that
business is about mergers,
acquisitions, “making deals”,
“strategy”, impressive
presentations and not the core
business.

21. Corporate CEOs and boards of
directors
They often sit in each others
boards of directors and have
attended the same ivy league
business schools.
They will always pay each other
large bonuses and severance
packages.

22. Corporate CEOs and speculators
Speculators and hedge funds
become large shareholders of
corporations.
They influence CEO and board of
directors to increasingly focus on
short term increases in stock
price (e.g. spending on
marketing), at the expense of long
term assets, R&D, personnel etc.
Speculators cash in by selling the
stock once the price reaches their
targets.
CEO collects a bonus and departs
the corporation with a good
reputation before the stock price
starts falling.
Repeat cycle till the corporation
faces bankruptcy.

23. The Old Boys‟ Club
The players
CEO‟s, business school alumni,
politicians, regulators,
economists, diplomats, boards
of directors.
The methods
Assume positions of power and
influence within business
schools, corporations and
government.
Trade favors with old
classmates and alumni.
Create entry barriers to
“outsiders” by creating an
exclusive network.

24. The Revolving Door
The players: High level
corporate executives, bankers,
politicians, regulatory agency
officials.
Politicians: Serve as regulators.
Create regulations favorable to
corporate interests in return for
various favors. Leave political
careers and get hired as
consultants, executives or
lobbyists for friendly
corporations.
Corporate executives: Retire
from posts and join government
agencies that regulate their
industry. Create favorable
regulatory environment for
former employers.

25. Economists
Justify government and
corporate actions with
theoretical jargon that is
incomprehensible even to
educated members of the
general public.
Shift the blame from politicians
and corporate executives to
jargon: market conditions,
inflation, interest rates, money
supply, volatility, liquidity,
consumer “confidence” etc.
Justifies amongst other things:
deposit insurance, fractional
reserve banking, fiat currency,
deficit government spending,
high debt.

26. Bankers
The Fractional Reserve System
allows bankers to eat their cake
and have it too – to say that
they are holding your $100
deposit while actually holding
only $10 and lending $90 out to
someone else for interest.
That someone else pays the $90
to someone and he too deposits
it in another bank, which in turn
lends out $81 of that, so on and
so forth.
Now there is more apparent
money in circulation ($171) than
there really is ($100).
The lower the reserve rate (e.g.
10%) the more profits the bank
makes.

27. Deposit Insurance & “Too Big to
Fail”
Fractional reserve banking is a
high-profit, high-risk venture. If
most depositors try to withdraw
their money at the same time, a
bank run occurs – the bank has
no funds at hand to pay
because most of it has been
lent out.
Instead of the bank absorbing
the losses due to its risky
practices, bankers get the
government to use taxpayer
money to protect them. This is
called “deposit insurance”.

28. Deposit Insurance & “Too Big to
Fail” – Cont.
Bankers can gamble with
depositor money knowing that
the government will bail them
out if they lose.
This entire process is justified
by various theories produced
by economists and is
perpetuated by the revolving
door.

29. Campaign Finance
The super-rich will always beat
average candidates because
they can out-advertise them.
How can a representative
democracy represent the
average person if it is
composed of people from a tiny
minority of super-rich? Do such
people represent you?
Spending money to buy votes is
not “freedom of speech”.

30. Corporate personhood
Argument: Corporations are
collections of individuals
activing collectively, and
therefore should not be denied
the rights afforded to
individuals under the
Constitution. Without it,
corporations will not be able to
enter contracts, participate in
legal proceedings or pay taxes.
Counter-Argument: Corporate
personhood absolves
executives of accountability. It
is always individual human
beings who act or commit
crimes, but it is the
“corporation” that pays. A
corporation cannot go to jail.

31. A corporation cannot have a
political will. The individual
members of the corporation
can.
The political will of the
“corporation” is actually the will
of its top executives, not its
employees.
Individual members of a
corporation already have
constitutional rights by virtue of
being individuals, regardless of
their membership in the
corporation. They do not need
to be represented twice.

32. Capitalism ≠ Corporate
Feudalism
Under proper free market
conditions, the distribution of
wealth should be roughly
proportional to the distribution
of skills in society.
The economy should be
dominated by small and
medium businesses.
Claim
Today, a few large corporations
are using political power to
suppress competition from
smaller, more numerous
competitors.

33. “Terrorism”
The present definition of
terrorism allows governments
to label almost any opposition
as “terrorism” and use
extraordinary measures to
suppress them:
“Premeditated, politically
motivated violence perpetrated
against noncombatant targets
by sub-national groups or
clandestine agents.”
Do not allow popular uprisings,
revolutions and rebellions to be
labeled terrorism. Terrorism has
more to do with motivation than
methods.

34. Copyright
Copyrights are used by large
corporations as both a source
of easy money and as a legal
weapon.
They have lobbied and
successfully increased the
original 25 years to almost a
100 years today.
Record labels and movie
studios profit for close to a
century without actually
contributing anything new to
society after the initial release.
Copyright revenue is used to
lobby for more copyright
extensions.

35. Patents
Patents are not about
protecting an invention. That
can be already achieved by
keeping the invention a trade
secret.
Patents are a mechanism to
encourage inventors to share
their discoveries with others
who can develop it further and
create derivative works.
At the same time, for about 20
years, the inventor can recover
his R&D costs through royalties
from other manufacturers.

36. Patents
Claim: Patents have become
weapons at the hands of large
corporations.
They hire large teams of patent
lawyers to patent even the most
trivial inventions. Small
inventors do not have the
money to do this.
Large corporations also use
patents to prevent innovations
by competitors – they sue
claiming patent infringement as
a tactic. Whether the case is
won or not, a product can be
delayed.
Instead of encouraging
innovation, patents now stifle it.

37. Media – Bias by omission
Large media corporations are
owned by rich media moguls
who have their own party
affiliations.
Views and events that threaten
the established views are
ignored. Ignoring a viewpoint is
far more potent than attacking
it.

38. The Demands

39. Ban lobbying
Do not confuse lobbying with
the right to petition. The U.S.
lobbying industry spends about
$30 billion per year (over $200
per voter).
Citizens of a senator or
congressman‟s constituency
should be able to petition
him/her once they have a
minimum number of signatures.
The difference between good
and bad lobbying has been
muddied. Ban everything
except the above.

40. Shut the revolving door
Ban government officials,
senators and congressmen
from consulting for, or
interacting in any way with
private corporations or
institutions.
Ban regulators from joining
private corporations after their
tenure.

41. Abolish corporate personhood
This is both extremely high
priority and extremely difficult.
All contracts should be between
human beings – in the case of
corporations, executives. If the
executive leaves, contracts
should be transferred to his
replacement.
Legal liability of decisions will
rest with decision making
executive or committee. Only
financial liability will rest with
the corporation.

42. Overhaul campaign finance
When running for public office,
candidates have to temporarily
forfeit free speech rights.
No candidate may use private
funds for advertising once
candidacy is declared.
Candidates require set number
of signatures to receive
campaign funds from
government.
Corporations may not partake
in the political process. Only
individuals that make up the
corporations may do so.

43. Implement 100% Reserve
banking through IT
A bank should not let
depositors‟ money gather dust.
But at the same time, money
cannot be in two places at once.
Develop an “instant” fixed
deposit scheme:
Depositors can block any
amount from their savings at
any time for any period
(preferably through an internet
system). Bank can lend out only
such blocked funds. Depositors
cannot withdraw these funds
until maturity.
Interest is earned, but no risk of
bank run. No inflation of money
supply.

44. Eliminate short term CEOs and
short term shareholder power
Only shareholders who hold
long term stock (say, that
cannot be sold for 5 years) can
vote.
Pay a large chunk of a CEO‟s
remuneration in the form of
long term stock options.
If CEO leaves early, or the
company‟s stock price falls
over the long term, he will lose
financial benefits.

45. End secrecy and surveillance
Dilemma: There are things
about national security that
citizens have a right to know
but foreign nationals do not.
How to make this happen?
Dilemma: Should law
enforcement preemptively
monitor criminal activity? Is
prevention worth the risk of
putting surveillance at the
hands of the government?
For any given federal secret,
there should be at least two
reviewers from each state
(representing the two main
parties) with clearance to
review it.

46. A swifter justice system
Argument
The more time passes between
crime and punishment, the less
of a deterrent it is.
No case should be held up due
to a lack of court dates. Victims
should not languish in courts
for years.
Keep pouring resources into
the justice system until the only
thing that limits the speed of a
case are the legal proceedings
themselves.
Bring information technology
into the deliberation process.

47. Non-financial penalties
Fines encourage rich criminals
and penalize poor ones. An
expensive legal system does
the same. Fines cause the rich
no harm.
Fines should be there to
compensate the victim, not to
penalize and deter the guilty.
All crimes should carry a
personal penalty component
that cannot be bypassed by
paying money. The guilty must
personally submit to the
penalty.
Possible: Community service,
banning from certain activities,
civic detention, prison

48. Disregard the economists
Economists failed to predict
every major economic crisis
and repeatedly dismissed
anyone who correctly predicted
it.
Economics as a science is still
where chemistry was when it
was alchemy. Economists
cannot even agree on what the
fundamental principles of the
discipline should be.
Do not trust a group of
“experts” who trust their
mathematical models more than
their own senses.

49. The Methods
Succeeding where traditional movements fail

50. The Basic Principle of Protest
“The tyrant has only two eyes,
two hands and one body, no
more than is possessed by you.
Where has he acquired enough
eyes to spy upon you, if you do
not provide them yourselves?
How can he have so many arms
to beat you with, if he does not
borrow them from you? The feet
that trample down your cities,
are they not your own? How
does he have any power over
you except through you? How
would he dare assail you if he
had no cooperation from you?”
-- Étienne de la Boétie
The Discourse of Voluntary
Servitude

51. Do not talk sense to the money-
power elite
They already know what they
should not do and why. And
they don‟t care. Talk sense only
to voters.
Those in power only respond to
power – power to unseat them.

52. Ignore the nerve center, attack
the immune system.
Ignore the leaders – politicians,
business leaders – they will
ignore protests as long as they
can get away with it.
Target the foot soldiers, cronies
and collaborators
All armed collaborators who
instill fear in their fellow
citizens under the aegis of law
enforcement, national security.
Riot police who shoot and
arrest protestors, secret police
organizations that spy on
opposition groups. Their
salaries and equipment are paid
for by taxpayer money.

53. Foot soldiers, cronies and
collaborators
Gather evidence – their faces,
their names, where they live.
Shun them from society – they
have to live among you; their
children have go to school with
your children; they have to
attend church with you; shop
where you shop.
When regime change comes, try
those who shot protesters for
murder; others for attempted
murder, assault, abuse of
power.
They cannot both oppress
society and be a part of it.

54. “Just Following Orders”
Do not allow the Nuremberg
defense.
Armed personnel who used
force against citizens will
always claim that they were
“just following orders” once a
regime has fallen.
“The justification for acts done
pursuant to orders does not
exist if the order was of such a
nature that a man of ordinary
sense and understanding would
know it to be illegal.”
The threat of
prosecution/execution should
make any foot soldier,
collaborator think twice.

55. “Sic semper tyrannis”
A Latin phrase meaning “Thus
always to tyrants”, said to have
been uttered by Brutus during
Julius Caesar‟s assassination.
Subverting the democratic
process of a nation is a serious
crime, on par with, if not worse
than murder.
Seek maximum penalties
including life imprisonment and
execution for leaders of
oppressive regimes and their
foot-soldiers.
“Unless a few heads fall
occasionally, the rich and
powerful tend to forget their
place in society.”

56. Ignore all secondary issues
temporarily – environment,
poverty, disease, war – all these
are either caused or made
worse by one thing: the mixing
of money and politics.
Do not ask for sweeping
reforms. Select several, very
specific reforms that have very
specific implementation steps.
Maintain relentless pressure.
Ask for nothing else, accept
nothing else.

57. Appeal to other activists
Understand: The money-power
elite stands in the way of
solving many of the world‟s
problems. They keep
redirecting resources and
political power away from real
issues to their own interests.
No matter what you stand for –
ending famine, environment,
human rights, disarmament –
the root cause includes mixing
of money and political power.
All activists should pool their
resources and form a common
front to fight this. Nothing will
work as long as the money-
power link exists. All other
causes are secondary.

58. Organize
Consider organizing yourselves
into a caucus structure. The
smallest possible unit is a
group of 3 individuals who trust
each other. Conflicts are voted
on. No deadlock since odd
number.
A possible hierarchy: next level:
3 groups of 3 = 9. So on and so
forth. At each level, a unit has
one of three votes.
Groups that work with each
other should be linked by at
least one pair of members who
know and trust each other.

59. Communicate
Communication and publicity
are two different things. Keep
private communications as
private as possible.
Meet in person when phones
are monitored. Use phones
when neighborhood is
monitored. Use the Internet
when both are not possible.
Peer-to-peer communications
(whether electronic or not) are
better than using third party
networks (e.g. telephone, ISP).

60. Educate
In the early stages, educating
people privately is far more
important than publicity.
Publicity works against you if
your bark is bigger than your
bite.
Never preach, debate or berate
friends with opposing views.
Win the person, not the
argument. Learn the art of
asking questions that answer
themselves.
Know true stories to illustrate
every point you have to make.
True stories hit harder than
statistics or theory.

61. Swarm
A government that relies on an
illusion of democracy rather
than overt violence cannot
arrest 10,000 of its own citizens
without breaking the illusion.
Do not protest randomly. Pick
smaller targets first – corrupt
local officials, crackdowns,
unlawful arrests and
imprisonments.
Cultivate good relations with
honest elements within the
police and armed forces.

62. Target individual humans for
criticism – never corporations,
institutions or concepts.
Crimes are committed by
individual human beings, not
entities or concepts.
When accusing, accuse the
guilty person, not his
organization or his beliefs.

63. Attrition vs. Paradigm Shifts
Those in power will ignore non-
disruptive protests as long as
they can.
People holding boards are not a
threat. Popular voter
dissatisfaction is also not a
threat if all major parties
represent the same status quo.
What is needed is an abrupt
shift in the political paradigm.
Unseat and prosecute those
who hold illegitimate power.
Find non-violent, but highly
disruptive ways to hurt
illegitimate power at every level.

64. Out-vote the money-power elite
Protests alone will fail because
politicians know they can
deliver their campaign
messages if they spend enough
money.
Ignore EVERYTHING that come
out of politicians‟ mouths for
the next few elections. Judge a
candidate‟s convictions based
solely on where his money
comes from.
Get as many people to follow
this strategy as possible.
Achieve multiple upsets across
as many elections as possible.

65. Vote for fringe candidates
Calling candidates who are not
part of the money-power elite
“fringe” or “unelectable” is a
weapon.
Disarm this weapon by voting
for fringe candidates. It is
riskier to let the “mainstream”
candidates keep winning than
to vote for wildcard candidates
with unproven track records.
Any potential disruption caused
by such candidates is worth the
risk.

66. Corporate executives, Economists,
Super-rich Experts
Destruction of legitimate businesses Justify economic schemes of politicians and
Draining profits for bonuses and severance corporate executives with theories and jargon.
Breaking honest employees Criticize and drive away new ideas and theories.
Contributing to political campaigns Make the “system” incomprehensible to the public.
Controlling candidate agendas
Lobbying to subvert laws and regulations
Infiltrating regulatory agencies
Acquiring public money through various schemes
Use legal tactics to undermine competition
Politicians, You
Support groups
Discard traditional methods of protest
Use money to dominate elections Ignore the experts
Pass money-power-elite-friendly laws Organize and educate yourselves
Help cover corporate losses with tax money Target and shun foot-soldiers and collaborators
Use police/military force against opposition
Monitor opposition in the name of fighting crime Temporarily suspend all other causes and
and terrorism focus all available personnel and resources to
Destruction of the economy through debt and breaking the money-power link
inflation