Since corporations seized the helm of America's ship of state in 1865, they've never let go. That's the Main Reason our world looks and smells the way it does, almost everywhere, today. More than three times more PEOPLE have died since then, in open warfare, 'covert actions,' and other acts of piracy, than in all the previous history of what we fondly call civilization. Congratulations. Where's the memorial for all these millions?
Back then, as the Military-Industrial Cult, firmly rooted in slavery, spread across North America, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Polynesia, the Mideast, and the Orient, there was still room enough in our world to sweep the growing heaps of 'collateral damages' under the rug and hide the stench. Today, running short of elbow-room and resources, amid accelerating extinctions of ever more species, some Humans actually stir with awakening recognition and begin to wonder, 'What's that horrible smell...and where is it coming from?'
Hamlet was puzzled, too. Shakespeare presented 'Denmark's' rank aroma as a stark warning. Today, again, the horrors of corruption on high are upon us, and no amount of dithering inaction is going anywhere but further down the road to hell on earth. Maunder on, useless, about 'to be or not to be,' or...snap out of it and BE for all you're worth. And Good Luck; you're going to need it.
A breath of fresh air is getting damned rare in an atmosphere where common sense is so scarce. No amount of wishful thinking or creative nostalgia is going to get us out of this mess. The utmost courage and greatest strength will only continue to get us Nowhere, faster, unless they bring us to ask the Hard Questions, and come up with real, honest answers.
For instance: Q: What does an ostrich do about quicksand? A: Not very much...and not for very long. Presently, the great quandry in the public arena is, "How do we get 'our' economy 'back on track?'" The only possibility of reaching a fruitful answer in this case is to realize that this is the wrong question, to start with. No honest answer can come to such an erroneous question. So, what's wrong about it, exactly? Everything.
Trying to puzzle out our economic mess with 'How do we get our economy back on track' is delusional and diversionary. This is not our economy, Virginia! If we actually had a system for the exchange of goods and services for our mutual benefit, based on values defined by Human needs and skills and talents, it would look a lot different, last a lot longer, and smell a lot better. But we don't. Calling the present economic arrangement ours is very like the slave regarding the chains at wrist and ankles and brains as his own; there is no direction to Freedom from such a place. Every element of this vast apparatus we're conditioned to call 'our' economy, including ourselves and our participation in in, are parts of a machine devised solely for funneling all wealth, resources, and power into the hands of fewer and fewer, faster and faster. Trying to get this troublesome machine, which has made all this mess from the beginning, 'back on track' is not just fruitless on the face of it, but clinically pathological behavior, repeating the same tragic actions and expecting different results.
The point here is, this loud and poisonous disaster machine was derailed at the start, for gain, for the very fewest possible to benefit. Efforts to get it back on track (1) perpetuate these inherent catastrophes, and (2) divert us from positive optional courses. There's just no real future in it, not in this biosphere.
'Thinking outside the box' needs urgently to be something more than a catchy phrase; it must again become a living, breathing habit. This ability is not just a sign of individual intelligence, and a charasteric of our species, we've become Human because of it, and won't be without it (plus a lot of Luck, Providence, the Grace of God in Her Infinite Wisdom, and so on...).
Is there even a whiff of real, positive, HUMAN change in the air today, anywhere? I'm really glad to see there is. You'll be damned unlikely to get wind of it from the corpirate 'news' outlets, but there are indeed increasing causes for optimism. Prominent among these fresh scents of Freedom is the emergence of the 'Arab Spring' movements in the Mideast. These popular uprisings, in countries and circumstances unlikely enough to be seen as miraculous, are certainly cause for hope. Further, they have led to similar mass demonstrations of public outrage and determination in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (the 'PIGS' outpourings), and now even the Occupy Wall Street event and its spread to more than 60 other U.S. cities. We can't yet know if these sweet breezes will actually clear the air, but they are a great relief, just as they unfold. To these PEOPLE we owe much gratitude, solidarity, and support. To the corpirations, bankers, and puppet-masters who've created all this mess and turmoil for cash and prizes, we owe NOTHING; THEY OWE US.
No comments:
Post a Comment