I’ll tell you what- A variety of stuff, all the way from progressive organizing and grass roots innovation to absolute E.H.M.I. (Extremely Ho-Minded Individuals!) running a muck and dragging the whole thing toward a downward spiral with senseless expression and unfortunately their own habitual stupidity in life. For instance, one guy disrupted the whole general assembly the night before running around hollering and blocking all progression by yelling out “None of this will work” and “The corporations are just using all of you” and “You cant get anything done with the same useless stuff night after night.” Since no one was engaging in forceful restraint, he just kept going until they gave him the mic. This was after everyone attempted to drown him out with a unified “Ohmmm.” Then when that had no effect but to get him more resistant, about twenty or so protesters tried to silence him with a gigantic unified hug. He was sort of stout, so he eventually pushed them off and said, “Get the f@* off me!” As if this wasnt hilarious enough of a social experiment in “loveology,” when he got back on the mic, he ranted about a bunch of senseless observations, occasionally saying something that landed with a semblance of accuracy.

After he finished, the testimonies and input resumed in the general assembly with very candid and touching sharing from some graduate students who had found a way to make themselves useful and productive developing green projects after searching for months without finding a job. But no one seemed to have a thrust toward pointing out that a coherent and comprehensive agenda needed to be forged and moved on swiftly to present to power structures (namely the city council and a specific list of corporations), or coming up with a plan to all but eliminate the senselessness that increasingly was starting to dominate the landscape. So it was evident to myself and I think many periodic observers and supporters who are experienced in true effective leadership processes, especially in an activism context, that this was not one.

I have been up to Occupy San Francisco and Oakland in the last two weeks and observed how different centers have a different feel and style of organization. San Francisco was truly hippie’ish and really struggling with leadership while catching beat downs from police regularly, while Oakland was large, more organized, more progressive, but definitely missing visible support from the working class. Therefore, it looked like a camp of mostly homeless and unemployed, strategizing their way toward further communal alliance, but acutely present that a police sweep was inevitable. They eventually got moved on hard core and now the controversy brews on. So both of those were very different from Los Angeles, which was initially sanctioned by the city council to be aloud to protest peacefully. Los Angeles had a “pass,” and has therefore been much more lax, filled with Ohmm’ing, yoga and blunt smoke.

I’m not mad at that, but after I screened Ghetto Physics last wednesday night to a very weary, but refreshingly re-stimulated audience, I got on the microphone and said, “its definitely necessary to acknowledge ourselves for creating a voice and a conversation through this movement all over the world that wouldnt have existed without it, but y’all aint out here to be silly and senseless. You are here to progressively forge an agenda and move with savvy and thrust toward not only building independently, but interfacing on an institutional level, with the power structures of this society, be they civic governing bodies or specific corporate entities. Then you must grasp the process of leveraging that agenda, period! Other than that, they’re going to sweep your ho ass outta here. You gotta wake up. You’re in the game!!!“ I think they definitely got it and I talked with many afterwards. The were definitely interested in workshopping around learning and evolving to deal with power dynamics in their own individual ways. But when I returned the next day, no one could even operate in an organized enough fashion to coordinate and show up. It was just gradually descending into chaos and disorder.

What has to be clarified is that the visual representatives at Occupy L.A. “99%” are showing all their dirty laundry as a group and that basically shows society that they are incapable, at this point, of demonstrating effective leadership skill. These hos need training from some real pimp activists to get in their hos asses about running around doin just the hippie style with some loving vibration and a peace pipe, letting idiots dominate the process and then thinking something progressive is gonna result. The non-hierarchical structure you are attempting to support emerging has turn from “holarchy,” (a term I learned from my wise friend Max Gail) to straight up “ho-archy!” (a term I made up myself after watching this craziness being made of a legitimate movement). The fact is, if you aint gonna select leaders or reps or captains to form a governing/organizing body, the you at least have to recognize the leadership principle! This means that there are those among you who have more experience in activism situations and organizing as such, or that are elders, or that just have more progressive and keener insights to share no matter what their age. That’s what should be yielded to if you arent going to select a hierarchical structure.

There isnt any way around taking on and handling power, even if your cause is to make sure that that power rests in the hands of the people of the community itself and its ultimate welfare. But you cant take on power effectively if you dont have a clue, or the savvy, or anyone experienced with doing that, because that act is in itself a level of real and total gamesmanship. So the sobering fact of the matter is, hos gotta learn some game if they wanna shift the game from these current ruthless corporate pimps who are fifteen and twenty years ahead of their ho asses in planning. Where are the revolutionary, benevolent, evolving avatar pimps out here to jump in this game??? If you are out there, I have a simple request: “Please Stand Up!” Too damn many of these hos are downright embarrassingly clueless and just plain giving me the blues. Pick up a dvd of this Ghetto Physics and get wit me… or I’ll catch up witchu. Peace

A little-known movie is getting lots of attention lately because of its suggested strategiesbeing used, knowingly or unknowingly, by participants in the ongoing Occupy Movement.

The movie, Ghetto Physics, produced by William Arntz and E. Raymond Brown, author of Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up said the Occupy Movement is an expression of a power dynamic in a societal energy field that launches back when power structures from the top engage in manipulating and disenfranchising folks to the point where it is so far out of balance.

“People respond out of collective pain as well as a lot of information they are privy to in this high-tech age. So occupy is a primary illustration of the physics, or workings of energy in the shadows around group power interaction,” said Brown. The Occupy Movement has been defined as an international protest movement primarily directed at social and economic inequality.

In 2010, Brown and Arntz produced this docu-drama structured as a mix of actual interviews, enacted narrative and animation sequences. It initially ran in a few movie theaters in urban cities. Brown came back to D.C. as part of his “Occupy Movement Tour” and showed it to a crowded audience at a new progressive radio station in Anacostia.

The film used the analogy of the pimp and prostitute “relationship” to illustrate the larger metaphysical picture of human power dynamics worldwide. Something Brown hoped will ignite the consciousness of all people, especially those who have been regulated to the bottom.

“Ghetto Physics can become a powerful tool to exact the re-education of a truly free society for all Americans where every citizen becomes responsible for his or her actions and accepts fully the stewardship of this Nation,” wrote Shirley Martin, executive director, Skipp Pearson Jazz Foundation, after she viewed the movie.

Brown, a Los Angeles native, sought to broaden the understanding of these forces for urban minority students by bringing the principles down to the most basic terms.
Brown explained, “The systems of domination, involve manipulation and coercion by the powerful, who use vulnerable people in a game to be exploited as pawns for the economic benefit of the dominators.”

“The only real hope for the world’s ho’s to escape pimp bondage is to transform the self and ultimately society.” Brown continued, by rejecting victimhood and suggested reframing the inner reality. “In this way, the newly empowered can seize control of the game.”

“The film is supposed to be an operational model to stimulate critical thinking,” the producer said. Brown explained about the dynamics of the game and how it [game] originated as an expression of human “archetypes” which he described as “the threads that make up the narrative.”

“This ideal of masses of people self-empowering to reject continued exploitation would be exhibited in practical terms by the occupy movements, especially involving Blacks and other minorities,” said Brown.

Brown believes Blacks are not represented in the Occupy Movement because with the use of technology everything has just dramatically shifted so far on us. “The game of power is vastly different and much more sophisticated. So we are not caught up with the level of evolutionary savvy we have to come with,” said Brown. He suggested, “We need to be on the technology and utilizing it toward building our organizations. But the fact is, we are a people still entrenched in dogmatic, painful and dysfunctional thought systems or paradigms. We gotta evolve ourselves fast to stay with the game.”

Community activists, Malik Farrakhan, executive director of Cease Fire Don’t Smoke the Brothers and Ron Moten, cofounder of Peacoholics, both reacted to the film.

“It breaks down the system in street terms which is something that must be done when you are trying to reach the masses,” said Farrakhan.

“This is just what we need to wake certain people up. So many of us are being pimped and act like we don’t know how to get out of it. I’m tired and eager to move. But the Occupy Movement protestors are not reaching out to us and they certainly can’t tell us what to do on our own turf,” Moten said.

In fewer than six months, the Occupy Movement has reached 900 cities in America and 96 countries. Brown continues to visit Occupy Movements across the US, showing the movie and engaging participants in dialogue to help fuel the fire.

Researcher DeRutter Jones provided additional material to this story.

A no BS look at money, materialism, media, politics (poli-tricks), healthcare, sex and society and all the games we are taught to play for the advantage of the 1% monied classes, GhettoPhysics: Redefining the Game is an in-your-face exposé that will wake you up to what’s been goin’ down— and it will coach you on how to go about making the changes inside you that will enable you to regain your personal power and make a difference in the world. Featuring colorful graphics, interactive links, exercises, resources, and quotations from modern iconoclasts from hip-hop artist KRS-One to global economic hit-man insider John Perkins, GhettoPhysics is an entertaining wake-up call to action you won’t want to miss!

$7.99 Instant Download PDF Version

Inspired by the Arab Spring movement, using social media as we, the 99%, take action against the greed and corruption of the 1%.

Ghetto Physics was written and directed to discuss these very topics that are changing our world today. To engage in this vital movement – Ghetto Physics would like to assist.

1. Download the poster with the wise words from Lo Da Show.
2. Print it, and put it on a stick.
3. Upload a photo with you and the sign from your phone to us via twitter, facebook or email.
4. Get your FREE DVD! (we will contact you with the details)
5. Stand Together!

We will only grow stronger in our solidarity and we will be heard, not just in New York, but in echoes across the world.

Won’t you Please Stand Up!

Then one day he decided to take a deeper look at the terminology and the interesting power struggle that existed between these two archetypes.

According to Mr Brown, who with William Arntz created the documentary ‘GhettoPhysics’, in every situation there is a ‘pimp’, who sells their vision of business, and a ‘ho’, who does all the work. The unconscious dynamic can be found everywhere from the streets to the classroom and the corporate boardroom. It plays out in politics, business and even race relations.

The language can also be seen through shows like MTV’s ‘Pimp my Ride’ and songs like ‘Big Pimpin’ by popular rapper Jay-Z, said the 49-year-old.

Mr Brown, a veteran music producer, will be on Island tomorrow afternoon to introduce the film to students at the Bermuda College and later to the public at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute at 7pm.

There will also be a free screening at The Chewstick Foundation on Court Street in Hamilton on Saturday from 4pm until 7pm. Brought here by campaigning group Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB), he will be opening up a dialogue about the power struggles that exist locally and around the world.

CURB president Cordell Riley said he learnt about the film during a conference on white privilege in Minneapolis last April.

Scores of filmmakers were there, but Mr Brown was one of the few who had a completed project. Mr Riley said: “He only showed about 30 minutes of the documentary and then opened it up to discussion.

“It was definitely provoking how power plays out in the community and the world and how that impacts individuals.

“Race was just a small aspect of that. Racism is a form of power keeping one group in their place, so to speak.”

Mr Riley said he hopes the free screenings can help people realise they “have power within themselves to make change”.

“That is the message you get in terms of how does power play out. Are you buying into it? What are some of the manifestations of power we buy into from a powerless point of view? “The message is we have to opt out of it if we decide [we want to change].”

Mr Brown, from Los Angeles, worked as a music producer for almost 25 years before penning his first book ‘Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up’. He used that research as a basis for ‘GhettoPhysics’ and went on to get input from activists such as Princeton University professor Cornel West, rappers KRS-One and Ice T.

He also gained more than $1 million in financial backing from Mr Arntz, whose own small documentary ‘What the BLEEP Do We Know?’ grossed $11 million at the US box office.

According to Mr Brown, race and other social divisions have created a problematic situation in the world today.

“In my opinion there is one race, the human race. All this dividing us up into sectors or categories other than for history and background is pointless. All it is, is a game used to divide people.”

He said it was important to facilitate a paradigm shift to dissolve the power structures that have been defined for us.

While this is his first visit to Bermuda, he admits he is excited to see how locals respond to the nature of the ideas in the film. “I hope that the people get stimulated in terms of the possibilities of their creative knowledge and their ability to creatively think,” he said.

Through gaining a deeper understanding “a shift in a positive direction is possible”, he said, “but we are going to need to upgrade our tool kit”.

Mr Brown encourages people to see the film and get involved in the discussions.

“I believe people will have a good time because there is humour, there is a story, there is a narrative that is woven through it that has some dramatic art to it. So they are going to have a great time as they watch this engaging movie. It deals with some raw and stimulating stuff, but in a very positive way so they can look at making their world better.”

Bermuda Royal Gazette

In the ghettos, prostitution is referred to as “the game.” Thing is, “the game” isn’t limited to the streets. It’s goin’ down all over the world. An in-your-face wake-up call, GhettoPhysics shows how the game is played—from the corner offices of Wall Street to the inner sanctums of every world government, from the red light districts to the living rooms of our white-picketed houses on Main Street.

African American philosopher/filmmaker E Raymond Brown plays the cocky “Professor,” serving up the bitch slap to a class of clueless and (initially) indifferent students, explaining the metaphysics of the game. “It’s all about makin’ you think a certain way,” he says. Through a series of interviews, animation and dramatic sequences he reveals not only how the game works in politics, global economics, technology, media and entertainment, he points the finger at the global power brokers pulling the strings, making the rest of us mindlessly dance to their tune.

The film includes interviews with notable entertainers and modern thinkers, such as Dr. Cornel West, Ice-T, KRS-One, Too Short, John Perkins, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, William H. Arntz (Co-Director) and Norman Lear. Of course, it also includes a colorful contingent of street characters with names like Filmore Slim, Hook da Crook, Mac Breed and Lo Da Show.