The media blitz which followed the police raids at Occupy Oakland served as a kind of memento mori to the corporate powers-that-be. In some sense, it was the massive deployments of tear gas, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets that proved what everyone had been suspecting: Wall Street, the banks and the political institutions who take from their coffers are all scared.With offshoot demonstrations popping up in over 82 countries worldwide and more than 1500 individual occupations, the high rollers who gambled away our economy have become the proverbial deer in headlights. And the police, tasked with serving this establishment and trained only in responding to violence, are confounded by the nearly uniform displays of non-violence exhibited at the Occupy protests.It’s through this fog of paranoia that they react, intent on shifting their own fear back onto the demonstrators through displays of force. Obviously it takes a lot of moxie to stand one’s ground to such acts of authoritarian might. But even without risking injury to overzealous riot squads — as critically injured Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen did — there are still many nonviolent ways to continue spooking the financial elite, and they’re all sitting in your mailbox right now.If you’re living in a shared, rented apartment in a popular borough of a major city, your mailbox is probably filled to the brim with credit card and checking account offers from banks. In my case, they’re being addressed not just to myself (I have never had a credit card in my life, and I don’t think I ever will) but to a number of past roommates who have long since flown the coop to greener, hopefully rent-controlled pastures. But as the guy in the video above points out, people like myself are actually sitting on a gold mine of 100 percent legal, non-violent civil disobedience.Remove return envelope.Fill envelope with the requested forms, left blank. Extra Credit: Add something flat, the heavier the better (like a roof shingle or block of wood), accompanied by a message of protest. No need to include any personally identifying details.Mail envelope (Make sure it is prepaid). Remember to include the pre-printed return address in the window on the front of the envelope.Banks lose money, pay shipping costs for excess weight. BONUS: You recycled some paper that would have been trashed otherwise.Yes, the individual costs to banks are negligible. But it’s easy to imagine how, if done in volume, this could become a deviously simple and effective method of giving those financial goons who crashed the economy a good ‘ole H’ween scare. Without running the risk of arrest and/or ruptured body parts.
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