davydog

There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
— John Adams

The tree of liberty must be refreshed.
Everybody’s Column : The Buffalo News | Updated: 10/03/08 7:15 AM

Let’s see, we have a war in Iraq based on deception and suspect intelligence costing billions, a $700 billion taxpayer-financed bailout of financial institutions run by incompetent and greedy “captains of industry” with little or ineffective government oversight, taxes creeping up every year while personal worth tumbles and tens of millions of citizens remain without health insurance. Energy costs are skyrocketing, and pollution and greenhouse gases threaten the safety of future generations. And we have politicians so entrenched in the status quo that no bold initiatives are undertaken.

Thomas Jefferson stated: “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. . . . The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. . . . And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? . . . The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

It’s been a lot longer than 20 years; perhaps the time is getting closer.

Michael S. Albert, M. D.

Orchard Park

Tough Road Ahead

Bravo! That’s the rebellious spirit! Yes, the good ol’ U.S. of A. is dropping into a political and financial quagmire of our own making at the “free-fall” speed of an imploding twin tower, but better late than never, eh? Now that we’ve successfully transformed ourselves into a global pariah widely regarded as a dire threat to all known life–a significant come-down from the globalized, full-spectrum dominance “hyperpower” of the fondest neocon wet dreams–perhaps it’s good we’re taking ourselves down a notch or two, don’t cha’ think? Okay, maybe two trillion notches…

Then again, maybe not. Actually I’ve tortured myself for almost two weeks now trying to pull together this tedious little “essay” into some kind of coherence. But every day I make the same mistake by wading into the latest AmeriCrash weepings, wailings and gnashings of teeth and immediately find myself drowning in a most frightful data swamp. Electronic “sticky notes,” overflowing with web links and news snippets, clutter my computer’s flat screen monitor, while analog versions dangle precariously from its periphery. Strewn across my apartment are stacks of newspapers dating back two months or so. Among them are The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, my two dailies, the Portland Tribune, a local weekly, NW Examiner, a neighborhood monthly and Street Roots, Portland’s “street” biweekly. Partially-read books, like Polanyi’s Primitive, Archaic and Modern Economies, Illich’s Shadow Work, Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History and Pilisuk’s Who Benefits from Global Violence and War lie within easy reach, while scores of others, read and unread, sit in stacks on shelves ringing my living space. Scribblings on notepads and paper scraps cluttering virtually every flat surface in my apartment show evidence of my attempts to corral all this data into some kind of sensible order. One thing’s for sure, our society appears on the brink of some kind of epochal shift, and most of us seem as if we are sleep walking right into the abyss.

What we see is the result of a catastrophic loss of trust in the West. It goes well beyond economics and finance. It is the sincerity of political leaders of the West that is at stake. If those in power in Washington, London and elsewhere cannot be trusted on the critical matters of war and peace, law and justice and treatment of different sections of their own populations, their ability in other areas is bound to be questioned. The leaders of America and its allies have simply become captivated by a doctrine that leaves their economies at home, to be run by the large private institutions that they befriend, while they themselves go and fight wars abroad.
— Deepak Tripathi, The West is Broke: And It’s Not Just a Financial Bankruptcy

I probably haven’t helped my cause by frittering away countless moments on my two latest “fuck you” websites, Kill Wall Street and Democruptcy · Now! Nor with AmeriCrash, a site I’m actually trying to turn into a “helpful” resource. By the time I staggered into Friday morning (last week) and realized I’d squandered yet another week, I vowed to not check the news at all, or at least until I got something up on my blog. In spite of such honorable intentions, I quickly found myself engulfed in instant message “chat” with the International Voice Of Reason (IVOR) in Los Angeles, my brother Max in Shanghai, and my “NSA buddy” in the “Washington D.C. area” (who now claims he “no longer” works with the National Security Agency).

On the AIM “chat channel” IVOR–the self-proclaimed “greatest rock D.J. ever” and notorious abuser of battered turntables at LMU’s KXLU radio station–swapped jokes with me about satanic rockstars from the Reagan Revolution-era, “worst ever” songs (“rough gems” in IVOR speak) from yesteryear, the future President Palin (after McCain gets knocked off by dark forces from deep within the wretched bowels of FEMA’s evil bureaucracy) and the glorious exploits of once-proud ’70s-era Marxist “terror” gangs who freely roamed the European countryside in days of yore.

When not exchanging giggles with IVOR I worked my Yahoo IM line, attempting to “smooth-talk” my “NSA buddy” for help with snagging a consulting gig. In a relatively calm and peaceful mood, “Derwood” (his more prosaic alias; the 6’4” barrel-chested goliath-with-the-1000-yard-stare earns “Darrell the Serial Killer” in more pensive moments) quickly dashed my hopes for immediate gainful employment, citing “too many companies chasing too few opportunities” in the security biz. Perhaps my letting on that “I don’t have any actual skills, but can usually talk without slurring, when I’m not drinking that is” failed to inspire confidence that I could pass the stringent requirements necessary to award me a high-level security clearance.

Finding no easy money within reach, my wallet and bank accounts empty, and the image of my new “home” under the Broadway Bridge leering at me from the very near future forced me to confess to “Derwood” that “I might find it necessary” to move in with him, his wife and kids soon and asked if he and the family would “relocate to Portland to make my transition a little easier.” “D” quickly demurred, explaining that Portland’s economic viability is looking iffy for the foreseeable future, then began steering our conversation towards the upcoming election and the ongoing financial meltdown.

While I fretted over impending financial collapse, looming martial law and several other “chicken little”-type concerns, “Derwood” maintained an admirable stiff upper lip, a Pythonesque “always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life”-ism, speculating that the ongoing financial catastrophe would stabilize soon. Then he began musing on how an “old Texas lefty” like himself might fare as America’s ongoing transition into “Socialism” fell into place. I felt guilty about breaking his muse, but couldn’t help pointing out that the “clinical term” for America’s newfangled brand of “Socialism” is actually “Fascism.” In no apparent mood to argue, “D” acknowledged its uncanny resemblance to “Mussolini-style Corporatism.”

Even so, “Derwood’s” confident analysis was that American society is “slowly” transitioning “leftward,” rhetorically asking if “anyone could’ve even dreamed about electing a black man president twenty years ago.” Hating to splash cold water on “D’s” optimism, I still couldn’t help but observe that “Obama is not elected yet” and–despite his consistent assurances to Wall Street and the Pentagon that he’s thoroughly in their pockets–“must still traverse a treacherous gauntlet from election day until the end of January 2009.” “D” allowed this was indeed a legitimate worry. I asked him if a “graceful collapse” of the American Empire were possible. “D” reluctantly admitted that “it might get a little ugly” before the relentless march of time sweeps away the crash-and-burn wreckage from America’s hyper-consumerism.

Taking another stab at groveling for a job, I told “D” that I recently picked up a musty copy of O’Reilly’s Spidering Hacks found nestled amongst all the other outdated titles gathering dust on the cheap racks of Powell’s geekshop. I reckoned this immediately qualified me as an expert “surveillance technician” and asked “Derwood” to let me test the “surveillance superbot I was fixin’ to build real soon” by scanning “big oil’s corporate databases” for evidence of marketplace malfeasance. “D” politely shot down my worthless “brainstorm,” hinting that a number of government agencies are already looking into big oil’s multiple shenanigans, then quickly dropped the subject. I assured him that I was “just teasing anyway,” adding “the last thing” I needed was that industry seeking revenge by ordering their “oily goon squad to shove an Abner Louima-style toilet plunger up my ass. Besides, the least they could do is put a condom on the damn thing,” I reasoned. “D” admitted that the oil companies could “play a little rough” at times, then signed off to get back to his “real job.”

That’s about when I noticed my brother Max chiming in from Shanghai with a “Yo Gro!” through an open Gmail chat channel. I responded with a quick summary of all the market meltdown research I’d done over the past couple of weeks, then messaged him links to several related YouTube videos. Seconds later, Max messaged back YouTube China’s announcement that one of ’em, “The inevitable day the Dollar crashes,” was “not available” in the Middle Kingdom. Meanwhile IVOR–apparently still on a roll from all the earlier “commie chat”–amped things up considerably with an over the air (via web stream for those of us outside Los Angeles) call to arms. Proclaimed the imminent launch of his own revolution, IVOR vowed to give it teeth by recruiting “West L.A.’s best army ever.” At long, long (much too long) last, revolution is literally “on the air.”

Ideology apart, (United States) power is based on two threats. The first is intervention from the sky by the most heavily armed state in the world. One could call it Threat B52. The second is of ruthless indebtment, bankruptcy, and hence, given the present productive relations in the world, starvation. One could call it Threat Zero.
— John Berger, Written in the night: The pain of living in the present world.

Storm the Bastille?

Again, Jefferson’s Quote: God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. . . . The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. . . . And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? . . . The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Jefferson had many faults, but as American revolutionaries go, he was the real deal.

Now is the moment for responsible citizens of the United States of America to organize an economic, political and social rebellion. Recent passage of the monstrous Wall Street bailout legislation, against overwhelming public opposition, has since coagulated into a sort of universally-recognized “last straw.” A signpost lit up by a thousand candlepower spotlight. This bright light illuminates a clear reality from which most Americans have long averted our gaze. Our government, including its paymasters in industry and finance, has historically regarded the electorate as “the great unwashed”: a massive herd of docile “consumers” worthy of no more than benign contempt. Somewhere along the path towards the globalized, Pentagon-enforced consumerist utopia branded “The American Way Of Life,” our masters’ contempt for us metastasized, becoming malignant.

It happened the moment a horrifying image began flickering across the fetid “consciousness” of our most masterful manipulators: What if the unwashed started to wake up? What if the worshipful trance most Americans share with their TV screens, held by a force greater than a thousand tractor beams, began losing its grip? What if their usual mode of unwavering apathy and domesticated servility weakens, becoming less certain, more unstable? Obviously such possibilities point to potential outcomes our masters can only find intolerable. All of which must be stopped. At all costs.

“So,” you might ask, “what are we supposed to do, take up arms and storm the Bastille?”

No.

Is mutiny ever outmoded in situations of oppression and madness, of rupture between rulers and the ruled? … Acceptance of the legitimacy of Power, indifference to Power’s deviations and passivity in the face of Power’s threats against external enemies seem to have peaked. Polls show that more and more people believe that Power gone mad has to be put aside. The eventual end of acceptance and passivity could result in a kind of explosion the world has never seen. Clash between people and a corrupt system appears inevitable.
— Gaither Stewart, Taser Jolts On the Road Toward Mutiny ‘Hope is not enough!’

Eventually people are going to find out how it is that they have been ripped off so grossly. At that point the expression of the voice of the people will move from the sedateness of the ballot box to the get down and dirty level of the streets. What is important is that people’s wrath is directed toward the right target. There are many easy yet wrong targets such as neighbours, other races, immigrants, religions etc.

The right target is governments. The criminality and breathtaking greed of Bankers and Wall Street, that has brought the whole western world to its knees, could never have happened without the legislative complicity of government. Our western system of governments, not just the American system, are rotten to the core. Definitely the American system is more corrupt than any other, but that is only a matter of degree, not of standard.

It is time for a revolution, but not just more of the same old mindless and horrendous violence of the 20th Century, with its pointless wars. Another century spent fighting wars to determine which is the best form of total government control of monetary and fiscal affairs would likely see the end of the human race. A pox on all of those governments. The original Constitution of the United States of America would be a good starting point, but with changes sufficient to ensure that the errors of the past could not again happen.

It is time for the second American revolution. America is the only place with the tradition of freedom and the intellectual underpinning (not to mention the arms) to make it happen. There would be many willing and happy to come and help. There must again be a beacon for freedom in the world. The fight is not just for the future of America, but for the future of the world.

— Sam Mathid, It is Time

A wiser approach is to first recognize that the formerly “non-negotiable” American Way of Life is poised to take a precipitous plunge. When? Who knows? But troubling signs indicating it might happen sooner rather than later appear with increasing frequency. The current “market meltdown” supposedly requiring an immediate trillion dollar taxpayer-funded infusion is merely the latest, albeit very high-profile, sign. Assuming you’re an American citizen, the intention is to extract that unimaginable sum from the hides of you, me, and each of our children, grandchildren, and who knows how many more generations down the line. Who gave anyone the authority to sell us all into intergenerational servitude? Here’s the awful truth: we did. We bought into a “greed is good” get rich quick megabucks warmongering consumer mindless pathetocracy that now marches home to roost. It’s the pet fox we’ve idiotically adopted, and we’re still its frightened little chickens.

But never fear, America is still number one! In fact, while we’re being sold into servitude, don’t you consider it perhaps a wee bit troubling that the United States holds the world record for locking up the greatest number of its own people? With 2,299,116 people behind bars, United States–with less than 5 percent of the world’s population–warehouses nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners, or 738 of every 100,000 inhabitants. “Communist” China is runner-up, taking a distant second place prize with 1,565,771 of its people under lock and key. It’s worth pointing out, however, that China has four times the population of the United States. Venezuela, a country U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice characterized as waging an “assault on democracy,” (yet was praised by the European Union Election Observation Mission for its “high turnout, peaceful nature, and general acceptance of results” of its December 2006 presidential election) imprisons 19,853 people, or 74 of every 100,000 inhabitants. In other words, the freely-elected president of the country Barack Obama characterizes as one of the oil-rich “rogue states” that pose a challenge to US energy policy presides over a country that jails about a tenth of the per-capita population compared to the United States, the world’s number one jailer and a “democracy” whose current president was installed by a Supreme Court decision in 2000.

Next, become acquainted with your neighbors. Meditate on the deeper meaning of “neighbor” as implied in “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Maybe you can’t stand your neighbors, but what will you do when you find that you’re livelihood depends on your ability and willingness to find common ground with them? What happens when this consumerist bubble economy—allowing each of us to delude ourselves into thinking our neighbors don’t matter—finally collapses under its own dead weight? Your job goes away. Supermarket shelves become bare. Foreclosure deprives you of your shelter. Under such circumstances, wouldn’t you agree that good relations with your neighbors might be more beneficial than not?

If not, you could just go back to watching “Survivor.” Ooops! But what happens when your big-screen TV is broken and the cable is shut off. Looks like you’ll have to watch “Survivor” in real life. Don’t worry, under such circumstances “Survivor” will appear in ultra real life at a neighborhood near you. Very near you. In fact, one of the best things you can do for yourself right now, before the major chaos ensues, is to turn off your goddamn television. And leave it off! After all, have you ever wondered why Americans are considered the “most brainwashed people on the planet,” with the possible exception of North Koreans?

Greed: It stands at the beginning of every boom. Without it, there would have been no Roaring Twenties that led eventually to the Great Depression. Without it, there would have been no New Economy, the wild times of the dot-com era in the late nineties that led to the crash of 2000. Without it, investment banks and hedge funds wouldn’t have seen the market for credit packages and derivatives driven to insane heights – a market that is now collapsing and may possibly take the world economy down into the depths with it. Greed is not only at home with both large and small investors, but also in many businesses where executives enjoy obscenely high salaries while wanting to pay their employees third-world wages.
“The Myth Of The Market” | U. Schäfer | Sueddeutsche Zeitung | 4 October 2008

The Widow’s Mite: Granny takes it in the chest as Congress authorizes trillion dollar Wall Street bailout.

All choices in the world depend on this; you choose between your brother and yourself, and you will gain as much as he will lose, and what you lose is what is given him. How utterly opposed to truth is this, when what the lesson’s purpose is to teach is that what your brother loses YOU have lost, and what he gains is what is given YOU.
— A Course In Miracles

For those of you who self-identify as “conservative” (evangelical, fundamentalist, etc.) “Christians,” please take another look at your Christ’s actual behavior. Not meaning to offend, but perhaps you can explain how “strong on defense” (i.e. warlike, aggressive, eager to slaughter your “enemies,” etc.) aligns with the unmistakable message Christ brought to you. You might also consider pondering how your “socially conservative” agenda (i.e. virulent condemnation of homosexuals, abortionists, “illegal aliens,” and so on) ignores Christ, who asks you “why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Will you stop furiously flipping through your bibles, looking for justifications you can twist into self-righteous rationalizations for ignoring Christ’s ultra clear message? You say you’re “Christian.” Are you for real, or not?

As for you god-forsaken “liberals,” “progressives,” “radicals,” “anarcho-greens,” or whatever egopathic self-identity you’re enamored with at the moment… It’s certainly true that a handful of you genuinely live up to your principles, and even a few more of you are doing good work and trying to make a difference. As for the rest of you: for shame! Isn’t the fact that our country has slipped, almost unnoticed, into increasingly aggressive fascism on your watch all one needs to know about your “effectiveness”? We can no longer take comfort in the illusion that 21st Century American fascism is merely name-calling. Now it’s for real. On its current trajectory it’s likely to degenerate into an even more virulent totalitarianism. If you had any remaining doubts, the recent Wall Street bailout fiasco that was shoved up America’s ass despite popular opposition should have instantly obliterated them. If not, do your own research and get up to speed. Quickly.

To point an accusing finger at the “apathetic masses” for our predicament is a fraud and a cop-out. Name one industrialized society, historical or current, in which its majority weren’t willing to close their eyes, bow their heads and dutifully follow the agenda set by the dominant overclass. Did you expect a different reality this time? Why waste even one moment whining about it? Blaming the “radical right” for this catastrophe is just as useless. You must surely realize that the portion of the “radical right” who are actively engineering the fascist coup are purposeful in their chosen engagements. They believe it’s a good thing. They’re happy to pilot their blitzkrieg into oblivion. Why do you believe that sneering at them and calling them names will make them feel guilty and change their minds? When they notice you at all, it’s merely to laugh contemptuously at your pathetic, impotent antics.

And blaming the portion of the “radical right” who are lost in their own religious delusions is worse than useless. Apart from their manipulative leadership, many of these people actually experience great pain and suffering. Some have lost any real hope, apart from their perceived “faith.” This often leaves them vulnerable to the relentless assault of the poisonous, pernicious dogma they’re subjected to. The cognitive dissonance they must clearly experience when exposed to dogma that has grafted some kind of evil Antichrist message onto a potentially enlightened spirituality would be hard for any human to deal with. Do you think that attacking them will make them your ally? Even if you’re an atheist, why don’t you consider adopting a “conservative Christian” and then attend Sunday school with them each week, striving your best to behave in a genuinely “Christlike” way in order to show a good example?

Okay, I’ll admit to hypocrisy and all-around assholism on that last bit of bombast, knowing in advance that it’s doubtful I’ll ever be able to “practice what I preach” and adopt my own right-wing Christian. The best I can expect to ever do is to attempt to set a good example. And to try and avoid useless attacks. And if you, the “progressive liberal” ask “well then, why the hell are you attacking us, asshole?” I have a ready answer: You already know everything I said is true. Or at least you should know. In my own unpleasant way, I’m just reminding you of reality.

I have great respect for American democracy and its Founding Fathers. But I can’t help recall the fact that not only did the American people fail to dissuade their commander-in-chief from launching a totally unjust war but they rewarded him with another term in office. And today the same US wars have contributed to the bankruptcy and meltdown of the greatest economic superpower the world has ever seen. You shall reap as you sow. What goes around comes around. If this isn’t natural justice, what is?
— Aijaz Zaka Syed, Poetic justice in US meltdown.

As for all you postal workers, cops, fire fighters, diesel truckers, construction workers, supermarket clerks, stay-at-home moms, soldiers, working stiffs, and other hard-working, “middle Americans,” ding-ding! Time to wake up and save America. Did you think a bloodthirsty squadron elite commandos from the Woodstock Generation was about to force-march into battle and save the day for you? OK, please stop giggling hysterically and pick yourself up off the floor. Joke’s over, and we’ve got work to do.

What!? You’re reaching for your weapon!? Are you really a standing member of some “well regulated militia”? No? Then don’t be an idiot. Start running around like some dipshit Rambo and you’re just gonna get your dumb ass slaughtered. Or if you’re “lucky” you’ll find yourself licking your many wounds between “waterboard treatments” at Abu Ghraib, America. And do you really want to turn your neighborhood into Little Fallujah, USA?

FUD + COG = FUBAR

Let’s imagine a harrowing scenario: coordinated bombings in several American cities culminating in a major blast–say, a suitcase nuke–in New York City. Thousands of civilians are dead. Commerce is paralyzed. A state of emergency is declared by the president. Continuity of Governance plans that were developed during the Cold War and aggressively revised since 9/11 go into effect. Power shifts to a “parallel government” that consists of scores of secretly preselected officials. The executive branch is the sole and absolute seat of authority, with Congress and the judiciary relegated to advisory roles at best. The country becomes, within a matter of hours, a police state.
— The Last Roundup: Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?

In July 2007 and again (in) August (2007), Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon and a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, sought access to the “classified annexes” of the Bush administration’s Continuity of Government program. DeFazio’s interest was prompted by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (also known as NSPD-51), issued in May 2007, which reserves for the executive branch the sole authority to decide what constitutes a national emergency and to determine when the emergency is over. DeFazio found this unnerving. But he and other leaders of the Homeland Security Committee, including Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, were denied a review of the Continuity of Government classified annexes. To this day, their calls for disclosure have been ignored by the White House. In a press release issued (August 2007), DeFazio went public with his concerns that the NSPD-51 Continuity of Government plans are “extra-constitutional or unconstitutional.” Around the same time, he told the Oregonian: “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right.”
— The Last Roundup: Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?

“Yeah, but won’t it be dangerous to stand up against the machine?” Time to cut the sniveling wimpery! Of course it’s dangerous. But look on the bright side: we all gotta die someday. It’s our luck of the draw that our country fell into tyranny on our watch. Actually it’s not “our luck” but our inattention, ignorance and downright stupidity that allowed this. Our nation’s founders predicted this would happen, and now it has. Boo hoo! Whenever you watch your political “leaders” shit on the Constitution, you should understand that despotism will soon follow. It’s at that moment when it becomes our duty as citizens to stand up and challenge it, not run and hide like some frightened poodle.

But don’t get carried away, our politicians didn’t screw the Constitution by allowing “fags” to marry, “illegal immigrants” to “invade the country,” coddling the “liberal media,” or running afoul any other dumb-ass prejudices you may or may not harbor. They did it by subverting the Constitution. By forgetting that “We the People of the United States” have “unalienable Rights,” (which include) “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They lost sight of the fact that they derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”

For now, though, you can forget about brandishing your “cherished rights” in the delusional hope they’ll defend you against a tyranny the American people have already invited through the door. You think Americans still have any functional rights? Please curb such delusional assumptions before you provoke death by laughter. That’s considered 2nd degree murder. We Americans have been too busy jacking off with our TV remotes while our “elected” cowards in legislatures and their sociopathic puppet masters in corporate boardrooms have continued pissing all over our supposed “rights.” The only “rights” we can claim right now are those we’re willing to stand up and fight for.

Put another way, law is a tool of the state. The state’s laws unfailingly conform to the demands of forces that wield the most influence within the state, or exert the greatest pressure upon it. Those forces govern the state’s entire machinery: its laws, governments, institutions, major businesses, finance, etc. The United States Constitution is a document made available to U.S. citizens to study, understand, possibly improve and certainly make use of. It is a guide, an agreement, and a contract we have with our government. It points to what we can and should expect from our government, and places the responsibility on us–we the people–to nurture, protect and enforce it. Just as constitutions are created, they are also destroyed.

Laws and constitutions aside, the state is a machine. A non-living entity. Like a company, church, school, economic theory, political party, financial system, pentagon or any other institution, the state is a tool. The responsibility for using such tools wisely belongs to living people. Failure to carefully exercise this responsibility is the worst folly.

The point…is that the major economic benefit of machines continues to accrue almost solely to the ownership class. Not to the humans who are replaced by machines.
Urban Survival | Thursday, November 6, 2008

By itself, the state will not safeguard laws, constitutions or any other contracts it has with its people. The people must do that. Guarantees, responsibilities, laws or agreements might be spelled out on paper. But the state guarantees its living constituents nothing. It demands only its own continuance. Living people endow the state, corporation, church or any other such machine with a pseudo life at our peril. Once given its so-called “life,” the machine seeks to protect itself. It will stop at nothing, even if it must destroy the living beings who breathed “life” into it. Thus it reveals itself a suicidal machine; in destroying its creator, it destroys itself.

For 30 years, greedy, callow, ignorant financiers, supported by no less callow politicians from all the political parties, have proclaimed the wonders of financial innovation and how proud we all should be of the City of London. The price tag for their behaviour is an economic calamity. We should never have bought such snake oil. The consolation in these dark times is that we never will again.
— Will Hutton, Without real leadership, we face disaster.

“We don’t need gourds to swim.”

Almost everyone in rich societies is a destructive consumer. Almost everyone is, in some way, engaged in aggression against the milieu.
- Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality

While eyes were on the absurd charade of the ‘threat of Islamist terrorism to western civilisation’, the real doomsday scenario that poses a far greater threat to western civilisation…was gathering pace right next to Ground Zero, in Wall Street.
— Madeleine Bunting, Faith. Belief. Trust. This economic orthodoxy was built on superstition.

“No necesitamos tecomates para nadar” is a Mexican-American proverb that translates into “we don’t need gourds to swim.” Its another way of saying that “we are capable of doing things through our own means.” At one time Americans understood this concept, or so legend has it. No more. According to our betters we not only need, but must have an “American Way of Life.” This deadly “way of life” is dictated by criminally insane corporate executives, felonious financial sorcerers and corrupt casino capitalists, and is codified by their boot-licking lackeys in the legislature.

As for our participation, we the American people are instructed to just shut up and do as we’re told. We’re told to “support our troops” as our Pentagon continues its catastrophic rape, pillage and plunder across the globe. We’re told we must “protect America” by obliterating the Bill of Rights and making the United States the first nation in world history to craft an official torture policy. We’re told we are “defending our freedoms” as the United States takes top prize for the astronomical number of its own people rotting away in a vast archipelago of jails, prisons and “privatized” dungeons. And the world’s jailer may be just warming up. Just why do you suppose all those KBR detention camps were built? As a sort of “humane society” for folks cast out of their homes by the mortgage meltdowner, perhaps?

Evidence that the American empire is collapsing is clear and abundant. Our “elected representatives” are too beholden to their well-heeled paymasters to bother with the concerns expressed by ordinary American citizens. In the name of “maximizing profits,” our country’s top executives scheme night and day for new ways to screw us over and sell us out. Clearly Wall Street will never pass up any opportunity to shake us down and clean out our pockets. Don’t you think it’s time we ditch these assholes and fend for ourselves?

What kinds of alternative, locally-based “economic opportunities” can we normal citizens create for ourselves in order to provide for ourselves, our families and our communities? How can we take control over our own livelihoods? In other words: how can we feed, shelter, educate and employ ourselves in a way that doesn’t rely on supermarkets, factory farms, landlords, financial services, mortgage brokers, schools or “employers” to deliver these “goods”? How do we create not just a government, but also an economy “of the people, by the people, for the people”?

The “goods” we are talking about are basic staples of life. Somehow we have debauched ourselves so utterly that we’ve allowed corporations, banks, government agencies and other malevolent monsters to deliver these essentials in a manner suitable only to their demonic interests, not ours. For instance, if your employer decides it’s no longer in “shareholders’ interests” to keep you on the payroll, you quickly find yourself bereft of income. At that point, you’re either going to find a way to replace it or not. After you run out of cash, another disinterested party–your landlord or some anonymous mortgage holder–will tell you that you can no longer live in your home. Can’t feed your family because you have no food to put on the table? Go tell your sob story to Safeway and see how far that gets you. You have little or no say over your livelihood, and must instead rely on the mercies of the “marketplace.” Your designated “marketplace role” is to tremble in fear beneath the monster’s economic guillotine. To beg for mercy as the monster imposes the sting of starvation’s lash. This is an insane way to live.

Why do we allow monstrous, Borg-like machines to burden us with unacceptable risks, all in service of the machine? Shouldn’t we concern ourselves instead with our own needs? These same lifeless creatures dictate how resources are managed (food, housing, education, property, money, etc.), so we living humans are forced to keep scrambling and do machine’s bidding merely to survive. As these lifeless Borgs become even more oppressive and corrupt, living, breathing people are left with little recourse beyond just refusing to budge one more inch. Can we unassimilate ourselves from this oppressive Borg, or has “resistance” indeed become “futile”? If now is not the time to stand up and stop this death machine, when is?

Here are two suggestions: Instead of allowing an employer’s whim to determine when your income stops, turn the tables. If your employer wants you gone, make it a mutual responsibility between you and the employer to ensure that you are suitably employed elsewhere. Once you’re transitioned into your new job, your old employer can then hand over the responsibility of your paycheck to your new employer. And what can one say about the “morality” of a society that deprives even one of its citizens adequate shelter? If your landlord or mortgage holder no longer wishes to shelter you, make it also a mutual responsibility to find you a suitable new shelter. Of course, there’s always the option of pedaling your bike over to West L.A. and signing up for IVOR’s “best army ever.”

Empire’s Bubble

The neoliberal revolution…brings a cataclysmic shift in power relationships…and an equally cataclysmic transformation of societies. The power shift can be compared to a corporate reorganization. Think of a conglomerate which is made up of a number of semi-autonomous companies. Then one day the CEO announces that he’s installing a centralized administration to micro-manage each operation, disempowering local managements. Pre-neoliberal Western nations were like the semi-autonomous companies; globalization strips them of their autonomy and relegates governments to the status of Mandarin functionaries–subservient to the WTO/IMF administrative regime and to the whims of corporate operators, banks, and financial traders.

The so-called War on Terrorism, while doing little to thwart dedicated terrorists, serves very well to enable this new scale of mega exploitation. First-world expectation levels have moved down a notch or two on the Maslow scale, descending to concerns with bare survival and security. This has created a climate (in the “land of the free”) where the Constitution can be abandoned, and Gestapo-style arrests and arbitrary executions can be carried out.
— Richard K. Moore, “How we came to live under fascism…”

But will anything we do actually “work”? At this point, is it even possible to “save America” from ourselves? One supposes that anything is possible. At this point it’s probably a long shot though. May as well not lie to ourselves. History seems to show that when a society reaches a certain level of social decay, there’s often not much hope of any real turning back. The society becomes so insane that it conjures up its own death wish. Think back to Nazi Germany. Some historians have speculated that Hitler could have “won” had he done this, stopped here, not invaded there, etc. That bogus “analysis” entirely misses the point. Nazi Germany was doomed escalate its culture’s murderous insanity until such point that its destruction was guaranteed. Maybe Americans can pull back from obliterating ourselves. Maybe not. It certainly won’t happen if we continue failing to exercise our “citizenship responsibilities” effectively.

One obvious tool any “responsible citizen” toolbox must include is a reasonably accurate understanding of the world around you. It’s an essential, Constitutionally-mandated requirement for good citizenship. It helps keep you from becoming one of the “people” who is fooled “all the time.” Yes, it’s a challenging tool to acquire, but made much easier by chucking your television out of the nearest window, refusing to tune into any radio broadcast supported by advertising or corporate sponsorship, and setting your personal opinion aside in favor of your informed understanding.

If you observe a religious faith, go deeply into it. Get to its core; discover its true essence. What is the essential message your faith offers you? How have those who present themselves as your faith’s “authorities” corrupted this message? What you will find might surprise you. You can also benefit by carefully evaluating the attitudes and perceptions expressed by your global neighbors. A great place to start is with the Watching America website. Ouch!

This wordy, nearly unreadable blog post is one way I attempt to “preach” what I “practice.” Sure it begins with sophomoronic “humor” and quickly slides into shrill invective before collapsing into an incoherent puddle. I do what I can; so can you. Nobody has the authority to demand that you exercise your “good citizenship” brilliantly. But if someone does, you might consider giving your middle finger a long-overdue workout, and reinforcing your gesture with a few choice syllables.

So be brave. Take a stand and “strike” while our proverbial “iron is hot.” Miracles can happen. If so, it is we the people who must make our own miracles. There’s no time to lose.