The Black Panthers and Community Healthcare

David Trammel's picture

A thought-provoking video on the Black Panthers' aproach to community healthcare in the late 1960s.

https://youtu.be/4e7gm5JZc9M

Some of the most successful counter-authorities organizations understand that taking steps to help out your Base, that is the people you are fighting for, meet their day to day needs, like medical services, schooling and providing food and water.

(I initially wanted to write "terrorist groups" but then that just parrots the narrative that many oppressive governments throw at groups which protest their abuses. People in power often abuse that power and seek to color those that oppose their abuse as illegitimate. A Green Wizard must remember that "snarl words" serve no purpose.)

I believe that the Palestinian organization Hamas does the same thing, funding hospitals and clinics. I have read that some of the criminal gangs in the Brazilian slums do the same. A friendly local population comes in handy as a watchful Auxiliary, capable of being eyes and ears in the event the Authorities come into your territory.

Perhaps Green Wizards will learn to copy that behavior in the Future.

Since I am a writer, I sometimes imagine where this whole project of establishing the groundwork for later Green Wizards to help in a 22th century "World Made Harsh" will lead, if at one point there won't be an off shoot of martial Green Wizards.

Perhaps something like the Knights Templar, which I have recently read were initially formed to protect the travel routes of pilgrims to the Holy Lands. Their chapter houses were usually set at intervals, so that travelers could find a safe place to rest. It was this system of interconnected way stations, which helped the Templars gain power because this system became a safe way to send money over distances. You paid the local branch and they sent a letter of credit (not the actual gold) via messenger to the one you wanted to pay.

I could see a loose knit association of local GW Towers evolving in a similar fashion into a larger regional organization.

While I am hoping that I can over the next decade, with the help of everyone here, create a series of books that will serve as the foundation of a Green Wizard's library, in the centuries to come, if among the "GW Grimorie of Plants", and "of Animals", and "of Appropriate Tech", and "of Ham Radio" there won't be one book that is kept in the Tower Master's (or Mistress's) private office entitled "The GW Grimorie of War"?

That was a cool video. I have nothing but respect for the Black Panthers because they actually did things to help their communities situation. Thanks for sharing.

Justin Patrick Moore's picture

Hmmm. This made me think of the books of Robert Greene, whom some think of as Machiavellian. I liked his book "Mastery" very much but is the only one of his ouvre I've read. Still, these books by Robert Greene might be good for the political/warfare/strategy side of being a GW (see esp. the 33 Strategies of War):

1998 The 48 Laws of Power (with Joost Elffers)
2001 The Art of Seduction
2006 The 33 Strategies of War
2009 The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)
2012 Mastery
2018 The Laws of Human Nature