New (old) Ideas
I’ve got bad news for people that expect substantive, even minor, changes after the Democrats win the White House.
As we often say in the South, it ain’t happening.
Dennis Kucinich, The Party’s lone voice in the wilderness, is just that. Alone. The rest of the candidates are so pathetically robotic and programmable it’s sad. They’ll say whatever they believe you want to hear and are just another group of mainstream politicians that look the part but can’t play the role. The whole party, in fact both parties, are on autopilot, feeding the public an endless stream of sound-bites and meaningless drivel designed to keep the public enthralled but confused and completely in the dark.
But why is this a surprise? It shouldn’t be. The history of our nation has been fairly consistent, despite the ruse that there really are significant differences and choices and that our nation is a democratic liberator of tormented, needful people. From day one it’s been about land grabs, protecting large, private properly holders and establishing a firm foothold on this continent, even if it we had to resort to genocide or ethnocide for us to achieve our god blessed manifest destiny.
From there, the emphasis shifted beyond our new acquired shores, to imperialism and expansion in the age of industrialism. The greatest threat the world has ever seen, capitalist imperialism, fueled by the insatiable greed of militarized, growthmaniac economic cultists. And of course it wasn’t uniquely American. Others got in on the act, too. By the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Europeans expanded their colonial empire by perhaps as much as ten million square miles and 120 million people. Britain annexed approximately thirty-nine separate areas, France added three million square miles. Germany, Belgium, Italy and Russia followed suit. Once we finished with our own Civil War and reconstruction, we took possession of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii in a bloody Darwinian free for all.
So, it’s not just America, but America is now and by far the number one bully in the school yard.
Fast forward to 2007, and it’s obvious not much has changed.
“There is no feature of history more sad, no phase of human nature more dismal, than that innate desire in a man’s heart to rule over his fellow men. This ambition has been the curse of the world.”-Sarah E.V. Emery, Imperialism In America
The Democrats can’t stop it. The Green Party can’t stop it. It will end, but not because of men and their ridiculous political parties.
You see, once the Wall Street sponsored growth machine started rolling, it became a runaway profit train requiring constant growth to fuel it and keep the passengers happy. No one wants to hear about the value of their precious nest eggs declining, but that’s exactly what will happen if growth ceases. Home values plummet. Stocks. Funds. The public is so completely conditioned to the idea that zero growth means death that it’s completely off the approved topic list. It’s unconscionable to even consider the notion of “no more growth.” Instead, now that people are beginning to get a clue that there’s a problem in paradise, we’re being offered some fresh buzzwords and propaganda. “Smart growth.” “Sustainable growth.” “Controlled growth.” Basically a bunch of bullshit terms coined by clever but duplicitous con men trying to make a fast buck off the the suddenly fashionable notion of being “green.”
You may say, “why on earth would you want people to lose their savings and nest eggs? Their fortunes?”
Well, I’m not talking about savings. I have no problem with people saving money. But making tons of money off of real estate holdings, stocks, fund and bonds that require infinite levels of growth is killing us. I can tell you with great certainty that Wall Street and economic performance, as we now know it, requires infinite growth in a world of finite resources. It’s not sustainable which, simply put, means it cannot continue forever. It requires prodigious amounts of fossil fuel that is getting harder to come by and more expensive daily. It requires a lot of water in a world of shrinking aquifers. Even more people in an already crowded world.
The ugly but inescapable truth about all of this is that it requires unparalleled levels of militarism to support it. New markets. A military-industrial complex so completely interwoven with other aspects of the economy that it’s unfathomable to think that the increased growth can continue without increased militarism. Militarism needs new enemies and no one is better at empowering people that will eventually become enemies. Noriega. Hussein. Put ‘em power and watch ‘em do their thing.
Then we have to “liberate” people from the very power we put over them. Feed the masses. Spread some democracy. As Mark Twain once said, “The long spoon is the bayonet.”
The Democrats, sadly, do not and will not allow it to end because they’re getting filthy rich just like their Republican cousins. They’re rich because of this machine. What makes you think they’ll dismantle the very machine that put them in power?
But as was the case in 1899, when the American Anti-Imperialist League justly but unsuccessfully denounced and condemned U.S. foreign policy in the Philippines, anti-imperialist/militarist opposition falls on deaf ears. Polls show increasing disfavor for the war in Iraq and for U.S. foreign policy overall. Yet, all we get from the once exciting notion of a Democratic Congress is additional support for the war in Iraq. (I wasn’t excited or fooled. Most were.)
Look beyond the war to some pretty simple economic issues. Candidate Clinton and the expansion of corporate crafted NAFTA. A stated Democratic policy of returning to a period of “record economic growth” and expanded government services. Expanded services (national health care) means higher taxes, because not a single dime being spent on the war machine will ever be diverted to pay for health care. They’ll just take more money, and not just from their rich friends. (Despite what they say.)
“The absorption of unemployment and the maintenance of an adequate rate of profit would thus require the the stimulation of demand on an even larger scale, thereby stimulating the rat race of the competitive struggle for existence through the multiplication of waste, planned obsolescence, parasitic and stupid jobs and services.” Herbert Marcuse, A Guerrilla War Against The Establishment
So, the beat goes on. The beast grows even larger. My question is why do people continue to look in the same old places to solve problems that are over a century old? Where’s the logic in this?
The only solution to the whole sordid mess is grass roots, consensus based democracy. Community based governance within a bioregional framework whereby a steady state economy operates within geophysical and biological constraints. A sustainable community that doesn’t use natural resources faster than can be replenished. Working within and depending on the existing system is one of those “you can’t get there from here” scenarios. It’s doomed to fail.
Take heed. The Wall Street juggernaut is in trouble because it’s running out of cheap fuel. Peak Oil alone could eventually bring it to its once mighty knees because the entire economy is propped up by cheap oil. Shrinking aquifers and global climate change will also force change and eventually, humans will relearn the practice of living in place. That, or as I’ve said a million times before, they’ll cease to live.
Have you heard the Democrats offering any viable solutions to Peak Oil, water depletion and global climate change? Hydrogen cars? Windmill farms? Solar? Are you kidding me!? Yeah, they throw the “N” word around every so often, and when they do, they show just how completely ignorant they really are. What about how they plan to keep the economy growing without militarism? They don’t talk about that so much because it might scare the living shit out of voters.
But we don’t need them. Don’t get sucked into believing the constant stream of mumbo jumbo you hear from political parties. They offer no solutions. We can get started today building infrastructure for the future. The first step is education. Educating yourself and others. Step two is action. Step three is watch the change spread. Spend time in your garden, on your bike, talking to neighbors, walking in the woods, going to community meetings, protecting local places. Make sure you know how to grow food, hunt, fish, dress game and repair things. Get a canoe. Learn how to use a bow. Teach your children these things. Stockpile some ammo if it makes you feel better.
The solution to our problem(s) lies in our own hands.
haven’t watched the news in 3 days…feel fucking great. It’s amazing how much better you feel when you aren’t paying attention to how fucked we are…ignorance really is bliss sometimes.