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

Bruce E. Levine Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2011

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Get Up, Stand Up is a powerful call to action that inspires us to take our country back. . . . This comprehensive analysis of how modern corporatocracy robber barons stole the US (and most of the world) is a must read for all who resonate with Levine's belief that We the People have the power and the responsibility to overthrow the ruling elite."--John Perkins, New York Times best-selling author of Hoodwinked, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and The Secret History of the American Empire

As you read Bruce Levine's rousing Get Up, Stand Up, inevitably you will be reminded of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, which served as a rallying cry for the colonialists to take action against their British rulers. Today, Levine argues, Americans are ruled by a tyrannical "corporatocracy"-i.e. government by big business and for big business-and his analysis of why the American people remain so passive in the face of such tyranny is smart, lucid, and passionate. Readers will also find, in his proposals for how the "people" today can stand up and "do battle" with the corporatocracy, a stirring call for action that surely needs to be heard.--Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic and Mad in America

"In an era when most political commentary has degenerated into self-satisfied carping and smug Monday morning quarterbacking, Bruce E. Levine breaks out of this intellectual paralysis with a clarion call for a new kind of politics. Levine offers a progressive user's manual for reclaiming our government from the stranglehold of corporate greed and rightwing paranoia. As an antidote to apathy, Get Up, Stand Up is worthy of Bob Marley, which is very high praise indeed. Read it, absorb it, act on it."--Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor, CounterPunch, and author of Born Under a Bad Sky

"With this book, Bruce Levine reinvents the old saw 'the personal is political.' Healthy people make up a healthy movement, and Get Up Stand Up is full of both hope and practical solutions."--Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U and Generation Debt

"Over the years, I have been astounded at the way mainstream, hardworking, formerly self-sufficient Americans have meekly accepted being screwed by big business, Wall Street and their elected officials. I have wondered, why hasn't there been an uprising over the looting of mainstream America by big business and Wall Street, facilitated by Congress? Through his brilliant analysis, psychologist Bruce Levine explains the process by which mainstream America has become demoralized and docile, how those in power maintain that power, and what it will take to turn things around. Anyone who cares about the decline of mainstream America should read this book. Anyone who wants to do something about the decline of mainstream America must read this book."--Jim Gottstein, President/CEO Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

 
"We are living in a land in which corporate power buys as many politicians as it needs, unjust laws shovel money to the rich, and media substitute entertainment for information. Yet Bruce Levine dares to show how we can reclaim our deadened souls, regain integrity and passion, and begin to change a political system we have let numb us into resigned helplessness."--Rev. Davidson Loehr, author of America, Fascism, and God

 

"Bruce Levine attempts to wake us from our collective political stupor, our anesthetized resignation to corporate rule. Get Up, Stand Up inspires hope that together we can regain our self-respect and create the families, communities and, perhaps, the country we once dreamed possible."--Oryx Cohen, Director of the National Empowerment Center's Technical Assistance Center

"Bruce Levine's intriguing new book examines how emotional suffering is interwoven with political disempowerment. He has taken our discussion of mental health out of the doctor's office and put it back where it belongs: in the community."--Will Hall, host of Madness Radio and co-founder of Freedom Center


"Feeling politically demoralized? You're not alone. In his latest book, Get Up, Stand Up, Bruce Levine provides not only the diagnosis for our country's seeming paralysis, but also a very strong antidote."--Steve Clark, Walking and Bicycling Program Manager, Transit for Livable Communities, Minneapolis

About the Author

Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and has been in private practice since 1985 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His most recent book is Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite (2011). He is also the author of 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, and has authored a chapter for Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has been a regular contributor to AlterNet, Z Magazine, and The Huffington Post and his articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, The Ecologist, High Times and numerous other magazines. He is an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs and on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America. www.brucelevine.net. Visit Bruce's blog on The Huffington Post at www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (April 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603582983
• ISBN-13: 978-1603582988
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and has been in private practice since 1985 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His most recent book is Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy. He is also the author of Commonsense Rebellion: Taking Back Your Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy and has authored a chapter for Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has been a regular contributor to AlterNet, Z Magazine, and The Huffington Post and his articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, The Ecologist, High Times and numerous other magazines. He is on the advisory council of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, and on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America. www.brucelevine.net

Photo courtesy of Russ Bo.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars critically important April 26, 2011

By David C N Swanson

Format:Paperback

I've struggled with how to answer what I think of as the "But why don't we all just kill ourselves?" questions that really started coming up in speaking events in 2009. In the guise of asking a question of an author, people cough defeatism all over the room by declaring everything hopeless and citing some of the supposed reasons why. How does one respond? Telling people they're mentally damaged doesn't seem an ideal solution. Telling people success is right around the corner is dishonest and unpersuasive. I'd prefer ultimately to see people able to do what needs doing and enjoy it regardless of whether success is visible on the horizon or not. I'd like to see us motivated by morality. Similarly, I think the peace movement's focus on the damage wars do to Americans is off-track, as U.S. wars do ever less damage to Americans while killing ever more people. Unless we learn to care about non-Americans, our military will destroy the world. But how do we get to the point where people are motivated by morality, or even by a combination of morality, expectation of success, excitement, solidarity, and peer pressure? The same facts can prove that change is hopeless or guaranteed; the choice comes from inside each person. How do we make it the right one?

This is where Levine's book begins to point us in some very useful directions. We need to develop individual self-respect and collective self-confidence, Levine writes. We need to unite as anti-authoritarians, regardless of other differences. We need to learn from immigrant groups that have been least infected by our culture of disempowerment. Many factors are working against us: long work hours, lack of health care, and lack of job security or home security.... Psychologists now drug people who display signs of anti-authoritarianism, which is treated as a crime. Our prisons are packed with some of our society's most rebellious, and therefore useful, members. We're administered every greater doses of television, which is ruinous regardless of the content:

"Researchers confirm that, regardless of the programming, viewers' brainwaves slow down, transforming them closer to a hypnotic state. That's part of the explanation for why it's so hard to turn the television off even when it's not enjoyable -- we have become pacified by it."

While watching all that television, we fail to talk to each other and build friendships. Increasingly, Americans live alone and lack confidants, something online social media provide only a false sense of. If we had more friends we would be more active citizens. We have learned helplessness, writes Levine, comparing us to a group of dogs in an experiment who were conditioned to believe they could not escape an electric shock and who then failed to escape even when an easy way out was made available. Read more ›

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I've been looking for June 1, 2011

By J. A. Hansen VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I'm a political activist and over the past ten years I have been active in everything from fundraising, campaigning, protests and some civil disobedience. All along the way I have always struggled with the question of how to get more people involved and willing to care enough to do something. I was especially perplexed over how to unify my 'left' and 'right' leaning friends and family as we all agree on more than a few issues.

I was skeptical when I first ordered this book as I have read others that claim to offer a way to unify those not of the ruling class and have fallen far short, as they usually try to push a single idea from either the right or left. The first few chapters were nothing less than an epiphany for me. I was so excited my wife thought something was wrong at first. The only way for me to describe what just the first few chapters did for me is to say they were life changing. The rest of the book offers nothing less. After reading this book I have had conversations with friends and family that before only ended in arguments that now ended in a mutual understanding and in most cases agreement.

Perhaps this was just something someone who grew up in the punk scene needed to read to understand that calling for the death of the government and anarchy in the streets is not the way to unite the common people against the powers that infect our government and seek to destroy our liberty and ability to think for ourselves. Either way, I love this book and the simple message it contains and highly recommend it for anyone looking for ways to unite especially those that are of differing political views against those that seek to destroy our liberty.

"Who are the real Patriots? Who are the real Traitors? Who will stand up? Who will be the new leaders?... If you love this country, take it back, from those who will destroy it. Protest is patriotism!" Read more ›

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fight de novo Gilded Age May 16, 2011

By The Spinozanator VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

What we have in the US is not a democracy - rather, according to Levine, it is a corporatocracy. Corporations have even recently been granted "citizenship rights" by the Supreme Court.

Aside: Unfortunately, if corporations really were people, under scrutiny, they would be diagnosed as sociopaths. By their very charters, they are legally bound to consider profits above all else. As a matter of fact, they can have NO motive other than profit. Every action taken (no matter how altruistic that action is made to look) has to ultimately be a search for profits. Otherwise that corporation is subject to litigation by its shareholders. This sociopathic mindset rubs off on the corporations' directors, its lobbyists, and the politicians it buys. (See "Corporations: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power," originally a book, then adapted to DVD format; both available on Amazon).

Back to the book:

Chapter 1: "The People Divided Versus the Corporatocracy in Control" - There are revolving doors of employment between the government and the "industrial complexes" - subdivided into the "military-industrial complex," the "energy-industrial complex," the agriculture-industrial complex," the "financial-industrial complex," and the "pharmaceutical-industrial complex." I'm sure there are many others of lesser importance. They may fight each other in various turf battles or over which one's going to get the biggest government subsidies, but they are alike in how undemocratic they are. It's the general populous who suffer.

Chapter 2: "Are the People Broken?" - "In other periods of American history when corporate-government policies have led to economic disaster, there was civil unrest, and the corporatocracy truly felt threatened........the corporate elite on Wall Street - especially those responsible for bundling subprime mortgages into mortgage-backed securities and creating other `financial weapons of mass destruction' that resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930's - must have breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing how timid America's reaction has been."

Chapter 3: "Prelude to Battle" - Levine almost loses me in this chapter. He dwells on a variety of depressing situations: That there used to be an era where the corporatocracy owned only one of the two major parties; that college students today graduate with debt that takes decades to pay off; that businesses simply violate labor laws and are not prosecuted; that the corporatocracy's anti-union public relations campaign has been so effective; that it is "reasonable public discourse in the United States to question whether people who lack money actually deserve health care"; etc, etc, etc. It's depressing because it's all true and all demoralizing: "For many Americans, the Democratic-Republican contest is analogous to World Wrestling Federation matches, with fake public posturing of animosity between opponents who really care only about money continuing to flow into their industry."

Chapter 4: "Energy to Do Battle" - Levine draws on his PhD in psychology. He advocates what he calls "liberation psychology," "individual self-respect," and "collective self-confidence" as necessary ingredients if power is ever to be wrested from the elites. Not that he's wrong on anything, but again, Levine almost loses me again.

Comment: I have very mixed feelings about this review and this book. First, I agree with almost everything Levine says. I am relatively new as a progressive. I consider myself a conservative guy and until 10 years ago I favored the so-called conservative party. One day, though, I lined up the platform items of one party versus the other and found out I was a progressive. I further decided the word "conservative" was a misnomer when applied to the Republicans. To further my liberal education, I read a book on the history of Wilsonian democracy, listened to Krugman's "Conscience of a Liberal," and became a big fan of Olbermann, so this book is now right up my alley. But the book thus far has not provided much in the way of hope for fairer governance. Finally there's Chapter 5.

Chapter 5: "Winning the Battle" - A great chapter - not entirely optimistic, but does offer solutions - for the country, for various groups, and/or for families or individuals. In my opinion, this chapter should have been half the book and the rest of the book edited to stress the positive. Levine mentions significant victories for various progressive movements and scatters them throughout the book - these stories could have been given more space. He contrasts FDR's "bring it on" speech - openly challenging the corporatocracy - to a speech by Obama about similar subject matter - wimpy by comparison. In my mind, I see Obama speaking like the progressive I would like him to be (and that he really may be but doesn't think it'll fly) - then I think, well, maybe this is all that can be done right now - FDR didn't have a FOX news channel to fight.

Despite what I might have wanted this book to be, it is still a "5 star." Most middle class families are so busy just trying to get by, they don't study the issues enough to realize they are being duped by the elites and their corporatocracy media machine - and they end up voting against their own interests. There don't seem to be enough authors like Levine around. Read more ›