Watching a system fail and wondering about why people are so blind
There have been those who have at least the perception that if Trump wins the "American system of democracy" will be finished. The problem with that is that it is finished whether or not Trump wins.
The widespread blindness to this failure is part of why it is happening. Take this sham election, for example. Want to guess at the number of people who still see it as a demonstration of working democracy?
Meanwhile we have had the latest wave of new observations that show our climate system is also terminal. The number of irreversible positive feedback mechanisms that have kicked in or will kick in no matter what we do at this late date are enough to verify that the human species is a cancer on the planet system.
Jill Stein's message is being lost in the context of the phony election. Bernie's is history and largely forgotten. Donald Trump continues to get far more attention because he has mastered the American Tee Vee mentality and is manipulates it well.
So those of us with any measure of clear vision are forced to sit on the sidelines and wait for the fiasco to end to see if any real consideration of our huge problems is possible.
I have lost any vestige of optimism. As the flyer for our book says:
The inescapable conclusion is that, barring a cultural metamorphosis that breaks free of deeply entrenched mental frames that made us what we are, continued development of the Global Economy will lead inexorably to the collapse of civilization.
I like to be correct when I say such things but not this time. Being correct is too painful.
Comments
I think this is how it feels before everything changes.
The energy around the world is palpable and ACC is focusing the under 30s globally.
The previous democratic demographic inevitability has been diverted into 3rd parties by the Dem primary. Even if Trump delays it one more cycle.
Watch ACC rampage to the #1 political issue that sweeps away the old political order within the next 10 years.
[edited to fix acronym]
APG?
I need a program to help me keep up with all the abbreviations.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
Tunnel vision this morning - should be ACC
Abbreviated AnthroPoGenic instead of Anthropogenic Climate Change. Guess which piece I'm focused on.
Big carbon polluters pay big dollars to instill doubt so that
there will be inaction toward stopping CO2 and methane pollution.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, only 90 entities, which includes the giant petro corporations and coal companies, have contributed 2/3 of the industrial carbon pollution over the past 250 years. These entities have a monetary interest in avoiding being held accountable for this devastation and are using Tobacco's model of paying pliant scientists and scientific organizations to sow doubt on climate change.
Tobacco was held accountable - more or less - and now Big Energy, which also had internal prior knowledge of the harm they were causing, has to be held accountable. So far, the sham scientific "studies" and front groups have allowed members of Congress and administrations to express doubt about human caused climate change and no progress is being made and is not being contemplated by those who control the political economy of the world.
Real uncorrupted science has spoken and the Anthropocene concept replacing the current geological era is heading toward worldwide official acceptance among the professionals in geology and related fields.
Those who block action are committing a crime against humanity and the biosphere, in my view.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
It is difficult to be optimistic.
The more we learn about the interconnections and inadvertent consequences of our all consuming lifestyle, the less likely averting a disastrous conclusion to human's reign as the crown of creation appears. Adding willful ignorance and the global economy's insistence on a continuing return on it's 'investments' doesn't help either.
By the time we collectively understand how fucked we are, we will be well and truly fucked, beyond any hope of redemption.
Hopefully, humans will not figure out how to colonize any extra terrestrial spaces in the interim.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
Because Americans care more about:
Bradgelinakardashiancyrus and other celebrity type "news" than they do their own children's future with a dying planet.
We'd rather build walls than bridges.
We'd rather stuff our faces than feed another.
We'd rather kill women and children so we can sleep better at night knowing we support the trooooops.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Couldn't agree less.
As I said below, the majority is with us. The problem is not primarily opinion, belief, or thought; the problem is the lack of power. And fear.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
There are a bunch of us.
But we haven't yet figured out how to work around the Establishment. We're trying all kinds of things, but we're not there yet.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
The problem is we live
with the most powerful and ubiquitous propaganda apparatus in the hands of people indifferent, if not outright hostile, to nature and humanity. Our fault has been in letting it go on as it has for way too long. And not focused on changing control in the least.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Yes. I often wondered how it felt
To be in Europe in the lead up to the war (II). Would I have seen it coming (in time to get out)? Was it a topic of conversation amongst people? Did it catch people by surprise?
We will be facing something much much larger than a world war if we continue on our path. We will have big big zones of uninhabitable areas on our earth. And what will happen to the people who live there now? Will we treat everyone like we have treated the escapees from the Middle East?
Will we be able to live in large cities? And if not, how will people get the skills needed to live comfortably without ... When we have not practiced these skills for a few generations?
In the 70's, I and many people went 'back to the land'. I lived without electricity for 10 years and learned ALOT. About how to and about myself and what could make me happy. I share your pessimism about how things will turn out in a crises and in chaos. We have wasted what little time we had to relearn what will be needed.
First up, stop doing what we are doing now -in nearly every way.
"The Man Without Qualities" by Robert Musil is a novel set in
Austria just prior to WW1 and it gives a wonderful account of people living and dwelling on things of small consequence when the Great War is looming around the corner. The 1995 edition published by Knopf is very good I think.
The novel is said to be unfinished but since we all know how WW1 started and the unprecedented carnage that resulted, I feel the novel is finished.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Have you been in Gerrit's diaries?
He has a resilience series going--I bet your knowledge and experience would be very valuable.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Read "In the Garden of the Beasts"
by Erk Larson. It's about the American ambassador and his family living in Berlin from 1933 and
1937. Let's just say the handwriting filled up the entire wall. The thing that struck me was the casual brutality that started to permeate through the society.
That is what makes Donald Trump so chilling at his rallies when he encourages people to beat up anyone who doesn't agree.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Tue, 09/27/2016 - 2:56pm —
Tue, 09/27/2016 - 2:56pm — Phoebe Loosinhouse
Phoebe, you always hit the spot so precisely!
The casual brutality that ultimately permeates brutality from the top down and in social engineering.
Rather like Hillary in claiming that a Mayor who withheld evidence of police murder of citizens to cover this up so that it could continue - and was also one of her creatures - was fit to retain his office. And in people being forced to live with even already-banned industrial exposures which will sicken and damage/kill them because industry cost-saving/profit is more important than human and environmental health even in democracies - this being forced upon them by their political representatives.
These are all manifestations of fascism... the corporate government against which your more enlightened Founders sought to protect you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhG-vLZrb-g&list=RDaCyGvGEtOwc&index=27
Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Goin Down
(Sorry about the Youtube, still looking for an alternative, if anyone knows of one?)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
book rec
Phoebe, The Blue Salon and Other Follies, by Vernon Katz, is an even better book about the same period. Truly excellent. I have met Vernon (who lived through it) and can vouch for him completely. A marvelous human being.
You could not be more wrong.
I wish that would make you feel better.
As long as TPTB can/could keep the general population fat dumb and happy, even if it involves said population along with the governments of Western uoıʇɐzılıʌıɔ being coerced into assuming stunning amounts of debts in order to maintain and expand all manner of creature comforts and indulgences to maintain that illusion, then everything was just ducky.
I blame inertia. The settled inertia of the professional class who have theirs and perceive change as more catastrophic than planet death, though it lurks in the back of their minds, surely someone will fix it. I blame the myriad false religions peddling non-sense to the fearful while the religious leaders profit handsomely, making sure their bible prophecies are fulfilled as though they were following an instruction manual.
Well, there is plenty of blame to lay.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
True, but for one thing
We are actually in a larger majority than we have ever been. Between 55% and 60% of the population agrees with us about both candidates, about the corruption and failure of the system. A surprising number agrees with us on the issues as well.
Our tendency to be stuck in 80s and 90s thinking, when neoliberalism was much more plausible and popular and we were in the minority, is, IMO, a mistake.
Now whether that matters or not, and how much, is an open question. But the issue isn't, for the most part, people being blind; I'd say, going by the polls, that only around 40% of the American population is blind--and the polls may be biased and overstating the numbers of true believers.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Everything I have read supports your statements. People in
the USA have progressive ideas and positions on a very wide range of issues and 55% to 60% is the range I too am seeing.
The simple fact is that the majority of people just plain don't count in our political culture which most definitely extends into the court systems.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
This is *it*.
The simple fact is that the majority of people just plain don't count in our political culture which most definitely extends into the court systems.
This is the heart of it. Right there.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It's not easy for Americans to get up in the morning and
once again realize that they mean less than roadkill to those in charge of the global political economy.
"I'll vote them out"
Your vote won't be counted
"I'll protest on the streets"
You'll be pounded into jelly and thrown in jail to rot.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I feel pregnant with metaphors of cracks in dams widening
LOL! I have been pregnant, but not like that!
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Well, at least here I do not
Well, at least here I do not have to shout till I am blue in the face regarding the collapse of the eco-system, the economic system and the political system. There was so much possibility with things back in my youth, but as time grew by I saw that the least of the tech was used and made as toys to pre-occupy so many. Now while a majority still sees the need for fixing things, does that majority contain the money needed? does it have the power? does it have the will? And keep in mind that we do not want or need a over-arching single, monolithic style of rule as the Neo-Lib/cons push.
But even if we regain some semblance of democracy, as Don points out, what good is it all as the ecosystem crumbles around us? What good will it be to have a just society just in time to see it go out, snuffed in a metaphoric description, like Krypton?
No, I do not see Earth shattered into dust, but the total collapse of the air/water/land systems that sustain the species dying out will doom factions into doing what is accelerating the downward spiral, as war has a manifold impact on environments.
Carbon increase due to factories manufacturing weapons, weapons used exuding their own fuel burning carbon smoke, the dust and pollutants released when bombs and missiles and artillery go off. Farms turned toxic and churned, thus leading to starvation as in the end of the World Wars. shortages of foods as the soldiers must eat to fight. water supplies polluted from bleeding soldiers and rotting corpses. And these wars will be so that they ironically can "secure" such land and water resources, and it will all be impactful on air quality.
Oceans dying reduces the production of food and air as 70% of our air is made by phyto-plankton which spreads oxygen into the waters as well as the skies. we are cutting and burning down the forests that make the other 30% of oxygen for us, and we share that diminishing air supply with our fellow species, factories, and vehicles that use the fossil fuels we all were made to believe would free us.
At present, the future for the coming and growing generations is more warring, starvation, dehydration as they are made to work till they drop or fight wars to grab what is left as they gasp their last for air that is getting worse to breathe. Dark I know, but it may wake folks up to the shitstorm that is just about here.
The question remains if Humanity will make it past 2100, or die out around 2060?
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Ursula LeGuin tells you where that ends, if humanity survives
Total authoritarianism, total control over every bit of remaining resources and every aspect of everyone's lives, in a bleak grey ruined world. The Dispossessed, Ambassador Keng's speech, pp. 279-280 (Avon paperback edition, 1974).
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Ursula
One of the literary giants of Science Fiction I grew up on. And such books sadly predicted such dystopian futures oh so bleak to live in for the sake of a story, a warning, as well as entertain us. A shame it is becoming reality.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
As I believe has been
As I believe has been previously posted on here? (may have been on the Progressive Wing which unfortunately often isn't accessible to me anymore) more recent indications of a far faster snowballing of ecological die-off and slowing of ocean currents than were thought extrapolated, in updated calculations, to an inability for the Earth's life-support system to produce oxygen sufficient to sustain life within 90 years at current rates.
This indicates, of course, increasing difficulties in breathing and maintaining basic functions far sooner than the 90 years given, I suspect even without the increasing degree of industrial air pollutants remaining in the air without the natural purifying systems operating at current levels taken into account.
With the unlimited industrial/military pollution and destruction demanded in the Trojan Horse 'trade deals' under totalitarian corporate law, these points will be reached far more rapidly even if nukes are not involved, as is currently being set up in preparation for the passage of this, where the militaries, human and other resources of the betrayed and economically captured countries are to be used to militarily capture or obliterate other people's countries, with several strong enough for self-defense (Russia, China, Iran - in that latter case defended with conventional weapons only - and possible others, such as Pakistan,) slated to be nuked by the US, and with defensive/retaliatory nuclear strikes likely to also take out much of North America, the multiple targets and return strikes causing sun-blocking nuclear winter and radiation to complete the eradication of complex life/oxygen production from an already failing system far sooner yet.
If any corporate or otherwise TPP-supporting candidates gain the US Presidency to ratify the betrayals Obama's shoving through, and all of the traitors involved are not promptly tried independently at The International Criminal Court and imprisoned for their crimes we might not make it through the next few years, or even past the Clintons gaining office.
Americans voting for evil or again accepting the results of electoral cheating without a fight means that the best we can probably hope for is to die instantly by being directly under one of those nukes...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
And the scientists apologized
And the scientists apologized for having hidden the facts that things are in worse shape than when they first reported things were bad. Hence why I gave around 2060 for the timer. I would prefer to be wrong and that someone comes up with a solution and things change for the better, but so far the patterns show the worst of Humanity and that the leaders and Oligarchs are headed to extinction level crashing of the eco-system.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
I hear you, shipmate.
That's why I continue to work as if the Green Party had one little fucking chance in hell of winning this thing.
I realize I look like a fool sometimes but I've decided that being a fool is a small price to pay for trying to save everything.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
optimism
"I have lost any vestige of optimism"
so have i, don, much to the consternation of cheerleaders
i am guided by an excellent definition from cornel west:
"the difference between optimism and hope is that optimism requires evidence" (this last word delivered black preacherly style: "évi-dence")
so i always have hope, even cockeyed hope
but, the logic of west's definition indicates that the difference between pessimism and cynicism is that pessimism requires evidence
and, in my view, there is a dismaying plethora of such evidence
my method for nurturing hope and fending off cynicism is to attend to my personal power and help others with theirs
And we didn't even
get a thank you. "Thanks for playing (nicely). bwhahahaha." I was talking with a customer at my pob today. I see this guy about once a month, or so. He's 5 or 6 years younger than me, a '50s Boomer like me. "Did you see the debate?" "Nah," I said, "I can't bear to watch the bull$h!t."
"They're going to steal it. Are stealing it. Nobody's paying attention. And there's not a fucking thing we can do about it."
"About sums it up."
He wasn't talking about the election, he was talking about the country. And "They," of course, being the Ubers and Filthys (as I call them). The uber rich and filthy rich. aka "the one percent." How long we got, you think, before the country's toes up? Twenty years? Not that long, he said, as he walked off to buy a paper.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
"and wondering why people are so blind"
yes this is where Im at too, and its really painful and dreadful.
We do know why many are so blind, its because theyve been blinded most of them. The propaganda machine is so fully embedded. I could go on and on but I dont really have time for it today. And IM quite late to this essay.
Ive had this video in a tab open for days. Like a lifeline. John Trudell speaking in 1980. Talks about power.