Jack Burns Lives!

Energy and Democracy

A little over a year ago, there was much hope in America. Many people falsely believed they’d elected “their guy,” a man that would fairly represent the average, standard fare citizen, if there is such a thing. Our first black President. A community activist, liberal and Constitutional scholar. Someone that would stand up against power and bring reform. Healthcare for all. Close our illegal prisons and bring the troops home.

But now, it seems as if the sun is setting on those hopes and what we really have in the White House is just another power broker beholden to the whims and wishes of an elite cabal. The war effort is expanded. The healthcare “debate” began with secret meeting of insurance executives and the President. Single payer was never even on the table. And now we have the latest slap across the face, the President’s plan for addressing climate change and energy independence, the cornerstone of which is an aggressive expansion of nuclear energy.

As we ponder this recent announcement, it might be helpful to take a short stroll down history lane and have some honest talk about what got us into this mess.

The government is pushing nuclear for two reasons. The first reason, the one they’re telling the public, is to help combat global climate change. To curb our use of coal, surely a nasty thing, responsible for all sorts of issues, not the least of which are dangerous levels of air pollution. At one time, you could see over one hundred miles from the Anakeesta ridge in the Smokies. Today, thanks to TVA coal fired plants, you can see about twenty-five miles on average. It’s damaging flora and is a health hazard for humans, especially those with asthma and other respiratory issues. Burning coal is bad, and the only people that are defending it are people in the coal industry and Republican sycophants.

But the real reason the government is pushing nuclear, however, is money. It’s a nice little deal for businesses like The Southern Company, which will receive over $8 billion in government guarantees. Venture capitalists and bankers won’t touch nuclear, and the reason is nuclear projects typically end up going about 250% over budget. They’re big losers for years, but thanks to savvy lobbyists, a small group of people have figured out a way to get the tax payer to fund the bill.

It’s sorta like a bailout. Remember those sweetheart deals the big banks and GM got at your expense? Isn’t it funny how the government bails out major corporations but when you need help, as in health insurance, it suddenly becomes a “socialist” plot?

But back to the mess. The energy conundrum. What are we facing such massive problems with energy?

Well, there are several reasons, but primarily two really big ones. One, the industrial, capitalist machine itself, that ever growing, energy hungry behemoth that has to keep growing exponentially in order to meet Wall Street expectations. It’s a ravenous beast with a non-sustainable appetite, and it requires a strong central government and centralized energy systems to keep it moving along. We created the real Frankenstein monster, and as with Mary Shelley’s story, there’s really no hope for a happy ending.

Secondly, there’s too many people. We passed the point of having a sustainable population a long, long time ago. The United States alone has over 300 million ravenous users of energy, very few of which seem willing to turn down the thermostat, open the windows or god forbid, hang clothes out on the line. We’re energy addicts that keep hitting the button, like a lab rat addicted to cocaine. We’ll keep on going until we kill ourselves.

But now, instead of searching for real solutions, we’re slamming down the accelerator and going in precisely the wrong direction. We’re moving toward more centralization, more corporate subsidies and dumping more resources into a completely unrealistic alternative. Not only is there not enough money to build the number of plants required based on energy projections, there aren’t enough qualified engineers. We frankly don’t have the money or the people, and there’s still no answer to the issue of waste disposal. It’s all a big lie, sold to conservatives and liberals, that will do little more than give billions of dollars to corporations.

Yes, there is a solution, but to understand the solution you have to understand a few things about how the United States and capitalist society works and how humans lived before the advent of state societies.

First of all, let’s stop fooling ourselves about our country. What we need to do, as Edward Abbey once said, is follow the truth no matter where it leads us. If we have the balls to do it.

Let’s start with our government. The United States is not a democracy and never has been. It’s a Representative Republic where the only people really being represented are the wealthy. The people that run it are selected in a process dominated by wealth. If you don’t have money or can’t raise prodigious amounts of money from wealthy benefactors, you don’t gain admission. And if you make the cut, the price of your admission is being beholden to your benefactors. Yes, there are a few exceptions, most notably Dennis Kucinich, an honorable man that’s consistently marginalized and unfairly labeled because he tells the plain truth about things.

Within the facade of democracy stands a revolving door where Washington and industry tycoons effortlessly rotate back and forth playing on both sides of the fence. You get to Washington and help enact policies and laws friendly to business then you go back to business and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Or, become a lobbyist and represent your corporate buddies back to your friends in Washington. Dick Cheney, the former Haliburton tycoon, is perhaps our most glaring example.

Those in power have no responsibility to follow the will of the people once “elected” into office. Their only responsibility is to make their benefactors and friends even wealthier and maintain centralized control. And thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision, elections in the United States will now be further dominated by corporate wealth.

Of course, it wasn’t always this way. At one point, even on this continent, there were truly democratic (anarchistic) societies that not only did not develop state-level, centralized authoritarian social structures, they actively guarded against centralization of political and economic power as a form of social stability. These societies attempted to stop precisely what we’re trying to accelerate.

Humans lived in anarchic societies for tens of thousands of years, until the development of state-level societies coincident with agriculture and domestication, within the last 10,000 years. Examples of these on our own continent are the Nez Perce, The Manitos of Northern New Mexico and even the Chirachua Apache. Other examples outside of North America are The Piaroa and The Tiv. While state societies grew and overtook neighboring non-state societies, non-state societies that remained undisturbed did not develop state-level social organization. Even non-state societies existing today have complex social mechanisms to guard against acquisition of centralized power by any individual or sub-group.

In contrast, state-level societies and centralized authoritarian social systems create conditions of inequality (think healthcare and energy) that support exploitation of humans within a society and non-human species and habitats in bioregions where societies from. They require centralized energy systems, like nuclear or hydroelectric power, subject to concentration and commodification so as to remain under the control of the central authority. Therefore, state-level society cannot be maintained for any length of time without creating conditions resulting in its decline and eventual destruction. Frankly, our current form of societal organization is a brash start up if you consider all of human history, and it doesn’t appear that will last for very much longer.

Edward Abbey gave the current system another 100 years back in the ’80′s, so maybe (if we’re lucky) we only have 80 or so odd years remaining.

The twin challenges of global climate change and Peak Oil were created by exploitive state-level societies. Therefore, they can ultimately only be met by a return to non-state social organization and decentralization. This will result from social breakdown as energy depletion reduces state society’s ability to support large populations in an industrial, centralized authoritarian social structure. There is, however, good news. Preparation for the inevitable is actually very simple is already underway in communities all over the world. The creation of community associations, gardens, cooperatives, greenways and point-of-use energy systems. Anarchism, specifically social anarchism, that dirty word that unnecessarily raises so many eyebrows, is alive and well and taking place as we speak.

Nuclear is the antithesis of decentralization, and therefore democracy, as it only represents an expansion and strengthening of the current centralized system. Nuclear energy only benefits the elite industrialists that control it.

It’s opposite is renewable, sustainable energy sources which are dispersed, available to all, most efficiently used at point of need, on small, scale specific use applications. Appropriate technology means appropriate to its place of use and the nature of the resource. Solar and wind are dispersed resources, so must be used in dispersed applications. Building huge solar and wind farms and distributing the resulting electricity on the grid is an absurd misapplication of technology. Again, as we spin down from industrial civilization and return, inevitably, to local production for local consumption, we will also, of necessity, return to local dispersed energy sources that are not suitable for concentrated central control.

Like it or not, anarchism is the only form of human social organization amenable to decentralized power sources. It encourages self-reliance and self-responsibility, self-knowledge, democracy, community and mutual aid. An anarchist society is not built on appeal to central authority. Anarchy is built on personal responsibility, first and foremost, democratic, consensus decision-making and community. And as we come down off the peak of energy availability, we will also come down off the peak of coercive, central authority.

Much credit goes to Michael Lewis on this piece. He’s been writing and speaking on this subject for many years. Many of the ideas and words are his….