The Illusion of change from a complex systems view
The last performance of our election theater has begun to wind down and the reviews are very amusing. So many otherwise discerning people are still seeing significant differences between the outcome we have and others we might have had.
Never mind the clear history leading up to this point. It is all new now. Alas, even more time and energy is being wasted recapitulating and speculating as Mr. Trump tries to figure out what he is going to do with this thing he has done.
The republican agenda has been before us for a long time. Mr. Trump seems to be confused about his own willingness to own it.
And of course the pundits who predicted dire economic consequences are also seeming confused as the system grinds on generating even higher stock market numbers. How can this be? I have explained again and again that specifics are next to meaningless in a system such as ours.
Even Bernie seems a bit confused as he speaks about the great gains we have made in human rights and our willingness to fight to preserve them. The BLM movement and the Water Protectors are not that convinced that we have come so very far.
I am reading a very well written book that seems to be the central analysis of this system of ours for any practical use of this time. An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz is a real treasure of historical perspective which puts the present mess into perspective.
Without making it explicit she traces our history from the beginning from a systems perspective. If you read her account of this country’s history, you will not be surprised by much of what is happening now. Unfortunately, the history she relates has been sanitized so much that few have the real story anymore.
Even the events at Standing Rock, as ugly as they are, are not nearly as severe as what was done over a few centuries leading up to this point.
In the same way the White Supremist Nazis we see up front are reincarnations of many of the founding fathers.
The neocons and the neoliberals are also a continuation of a long thread of ideas. Who would even think of questioning the Doctrine of Discovery that started all this? Yet it seems to be happening as we question tradition s like Columbus Day and Thanksgiving.
Who bothers to link the anti-Muslim sentiment to the Crusades? There is no doubt that there is a history there to make it all more clear.
Our dominant reductionist philosophy breaks history down into events thereby losing the process. That’s what allows use to repeat these useless struggles over and over again not seeing the continuity. Mr. Trump has exposed a great deal of what the “good guys” kept hidden and excused as isolated events rather than the manifestation of an ongoing set of doctrines.
White supremacy in its present form is no different in nature from the attitudes towards people of color that made Columbus and Jefferson and Jackson and so many many others able to persecute and murder thousand and thousands of people and not feel guilt nor shame.
You may feel good that we made some progress. I certainly do. What we consistently failed to do was deal with the root causes of what we struggle against. Mr. Trump has tapped into those root causes and may soon learn that he has a tiger by the tail. IT all depends on whether enough of us wake up and deal with the reality rather than the myth. That will take some doing. Let’s get to it.
Comments
I'm going to read that book
next up. I've read Zinn, both the History and the anthology of sources books.
There are days I wonder if humans are even capable of just living and letting others live.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
you must wonder?
history seems clear to me
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Agreed.
Humans are not capable of achieving anything but destruction.
A plague is the most apt description.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
??????
What other species has computers, literature, and space flight?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Computers and space flight, at what cost?
Wars, starvation, cancers, global climate change, economic inequality. Those are the by-products, in my view. The current patent system ensures corporations can stifle progress, else we would have clean flying cars already.
Did you see the most epic 405? I'd venture a guess that every one of those cars has a computer in it. California leads the way, to parking lots. lol
I don't think literature has such a steep cost. Computers and space flight I'd trade in a second for a little humanity. Oh well.
Peace
It takes a brave person to point out that toys for the boys has
come at a very high social cost. Good for you.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
"toys for boys" Well, "women hold up half the sky"
and probably at least half of the computer screens, so my bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_the_sky
Cheers
I still have hope once in a while
but it is getting more difficult. Point taken, LOL!
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I have a side interest in anthropology and have recently
read a bit about Neandertals, Denisovans, and other Homo Sapien branches and what might have happened to them. I laugh at many of the conjectures, as the logical conclusion is that the disease ridden, rapine, murderous, and rat-like breeding Homo Sapien Sapiens killed and replaced all of the other Sapiens.
Just as we do to ourselves and have done to indigenous folks everywhere.
ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ
on Democracy Now! this morning:
Why celebrate Columbus?
Because Columbus paved the way for our ancestors to come here from Europe. If you feel bad about that, feel free to emigrate to Europe.
If you don't have any European ancestors, the above does not apply.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
If our ancestors had gone to other places, would that
have been a tragedy, unless they had to escape where they were or perish and no one else would let them in? Barring that (which did happen), I don't really get the point.
This argument reminds me of the inanity spouted by forced-birth proponents: "What if your mother had aborted you?" Well, I guess there'd be no me, and I wouldn't be missing anything, would non-I?
Since I wasn't aborted, if my ancestors had gone to any of a score of other countries, presumably I'd have come of age in another language and culture and been as fine with those as natives of those places are. There's no shortage of societies that have higher happiness quotients than ours.
Equally silly is your 2nd sentence, a version of the hackneyed middle finger often hurled from self-designated "patriots": "Amurrica, love it or leave it!" Seriously? This site expects more originality than that. Or at least more depth. But perhaps you didn't know?
btw, few of us can emigrate to Europe even if we wish to, unless we have a job there or can buy our way in for long-term residence. In many countries, things get dicey in the fine print; non-resident visa status isn't secure in these times.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti
Sorry you hate your ancestors.
This sort of crap is why the general public ignores liberals.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
This too shall pass.
People sometimes get this way on Thanksgiving, which is after all, the ultimate celebration of White Nationalism.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I would suggest you read the book
the author points to. And what an eye opener it is. I'm not good enough to put it in full context but that book, that actual history, shows just how we've come to that "love it or leave it" attitude here in America and just how willfully blind that type of argument really is. Yes, many of our ancestors were also used in the genocidal battles against the original peoples due to harsh economics mostly, along with displacement from their own lands, but that really doesn't excuse what was done in the name of Manifest Destiny or the Discovery Doctrine. The way Christianity has been used to perpetuate it, while surprising to some extent, is hardly shocking. Look how even today our wars are supposedly blessed by God? We say we represent goodness and light, all under the guidance of a loving God, and yet we perpetuate illegal wars to steal resources all over the world. And for many decades, not just recent exploits either. Our very founding is dependent on just that.
And when she points out the parallels to the British conquest of Ireland and Scotland, the same was done to many of our ancestors that they turned around and did to Indigenous people here. Can all that be excused because they were our own ancestors? And I think I figured out one of mine was one of the first wave of Scots-Irish who gleefully violated territory that belonged, by treaty, to Indigenous people. I don't hate that ancestor for coming here, but I'm not proud at ALL of what was done. Only by facing that reality can we hope to possibly change any of that behavior. We're still doing it, so we really have learned nothing.
Great book, by the way. I read it over the holiday weekend, fitting time I thought.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
A couple of comments with a comment on your last point
first.
Wait, are you really saying
Love it Or Leave it?
I do feel bad. Genocide makes me feel bad.
Leif Ericsson got here first (from Europe),
but the real discoverers were some anonymous people who filtered across from Northeast Asia about twenty thousand years ago.
There may have been others in between - every few years somebody brings up the possibility of the Chinese, or the Egyptians, or the West Africans, or the Irish monks, or whoever, having gotten a look-see and/or staying to contribute to the local culture.
Maybe we should just call it "Discovery Day" and be done with it.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I wonder if I discovered your house, killed you so I could have
it if you would want a day to celebrate?
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
The Toltecs
In south central mexico were definately African. They proceeded the Zapotecs in the modern state of Oaxaca. Their decendants still live along the coast in round houses made of native grasses that are nearly identical in construction to those found in Africa.
I thought that was the Olmecs?
Those stone heads with their curiously African-oid features....
Getting to the New World is only half of it. The other half is getting back with the news and encouraging others to come and see. Leif Ericsson got back all right, but he couldn't convince enough people - and what nobody knew at the time was that a stable colony in North America would have been the salvation of the Greenland settlements. They would have had somewhere to go, or at least resources to draw on, when the Little Ice Age descended, instead of being isolated to starve and freeze.
Ah well, it would probably just have been the same horror story five hundred years sooner, and with a Norse rather than a Spanish or English accent.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I think we should move it to Election Day, give people a day off
to vote, and call it Democracy Day.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I didn't know we had Trump supports trolling here
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
It isn't just the republican agenda, the democrats are in on it
This article talks about the Deep State or the COG (continuity of government)
I have proposed that TPTB decided that Trump should be the president so that he can continue to divide the country and while we are busy fighting against each other, tptb steal us blind.
The author tells about everything that is happening now in the country from the militarized police force, the school to prison pipeline to the endless wars which costs $15 billion per month or $20 million per hour.
That's a staggering number, isn't it?
$20 million per hour.
Just think what that money could do for we the people instead of the MICC which continues to grow by adding new players all the time.
Dawg help us if there is another 'terrorist' attack.
Look at what the last one cost us .
No matter which candidate wins the presidential election, this shadow government is here to stay. Indeed, as recent documents by the FBI reveal, this shadow government—also referred to as “The 7th Floor Group”—may well have played a part in who will win the White House this year.
To be precise, however, the future president will actually inherit not one but two shadow governments.
A very interesting article about how the president is basically just a figurehead.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/26/a-deep-state-of-mind-americas-sha...
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Some of us believe that until the very
Last week leading up to Nov 8th, the plan was to get Hillary into office. Almost every news station and network with the exception of Fox was pushing for Hillary. Even "The National Review" pulled for her. but something happened and the election results did not turn out her way.
Some of us also believe that the Deep State is the one who sees to it that the election results are what they are. Nothing is left to chance - if the Deep State had wanted Hillary on Nov 8th, we would be seeing her planning for her inauguration on Jan 21st, 2017.
It should be pointed out that even Fox was hesitant in pushing for trump. At one point, some three weeks prior to the election, a panel of conservatives was saying that neither candidate was satisfactory. And then a few days later, some Fox Talking Head slipped up and stated that due to their not wanting the Trade Agreements (what they call "Free trade") neither candidate was a good fit for the nation's highest office.
Apparently Hillary mentioning how she wanted to give the TPP some tiny tweaks scared the beJesus out of them and they wouldn't approve of her on that count.
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.
Fox News beleived a Clinton pledge?
What were they smoking?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I know, I know.
They must be the only folks who believe her, outside of total Hilbots.
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.
Some of us believe in Santa too
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Carol, something else must have changed for the
Deep State to change their minds about allowing Hillary to become president.
I'd sure like to know what it was.
Maybe they saw how much better Trump would be at dividing the country then Hillary would.
Or they saw that the republicans could own all three branches of government and that would work out better for them?
Did you read the article?
I hope that people do, it's great.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Maybe the fact that several of
The generals who support Hillary are totally heated up over the excitement of a war with Russia and that made The Deep State hesitant to hand the Oval Office over to her. And one of Hill's generals even published a book in which he revealed that the best possible scenario for that war would be for the war to start in 2017.
It should go without saying that the only winner if there is a war between the US and Russia would be China.
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.
My views are the republicans
My views are the republicans worked very hard and invested in controlling the state legislatures and governorships in the states needed to win the election. Once they gained control of those states they went to work to control the election outcome with various means to alter voting. Shutting down voter registrations, voter ID laws, changing early voting schedules, decreasing efficiency in targeted precincts etc. Democrats failed to deliver quality policies and programs that effected voters positively in these particular states while pretending they did combined with not controlling the election process cost them the election.
Yes there certainly is a TPTB, just not sure they give a hoot which party wins since neither will stand against the TPTB to defend the citizens.
Agreed. And, the Republicans want a Constitutional Convention
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Not sure how thats going to work out for them
Seems to me beating the stuffing out of the government has become the new in thing for all sides.
So I think I'm going to go pull a pillow over my head.
So in case this thread and essay aren't depressing enough, there's this piece of good news.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Looks like our book is pretty much on the mark
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
The Old Movie Channel featured
"The War for Chile" the other night. Over four hours long, it chronicles what happened after that nation's progressive movement elected one of their own to head the nation.
And a sorry tale it was. I don't think I have ever before watched another full length documentary wherein one of the film's camera men gets killed, while filming the movie, but his recording of his death ends Part One.
The main moral of the bloody and tragic tale is that as long as there are many people in RW Parties that are happy with their lot, and an American CIA to help front monies to those people's military representatives, then it doesn't matter how big a progressive movement you have. (And as Sen Sanders would comment - their progressive movement was YUGE!)
One other take away - getting guns out of the hands of the civilians NEVER has any happy endings. The film's directors and producers were careful to include the passionate pleas of women from the many workers' villages, stating that without any guns in their possession, it was easy to know what their fate would be.
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.
ortiz-dunbar's xlnt book
thank you for helping publicize rosanne dunbar-ortiz's excellent book, an indigenous peoples history of the united states
must-read for anyone who cares about justice
that said, i must admit i'm disturbed about some comments on this thread
"love it or leave it?" really? how did you happen to steal, er, "discover" this blog?
i'm totally upset with the dominating culture of the united states of america, now more than ever
but i worked for six decades to help make this place better, and i'll be damned if i'll tolerate anyone telling me to leave
nor am i ashamed of my ancestors, many of whom owned slaves and all of whom came from europe
i'll recommend another book, edward ball's slaves in the family
edward has a great attitude about slaves in his family: "i'm not responsible for what my ancestors did; but i am accountable"
the context for this was his family keeping secret and shame for many decades that his ancestor was the largest slave trader in the country
contrary to feeling ashamed, i feel incredibly privileged to have been born in the golden age of the middle class, even knowing that my middle class affluence was secured from the pain of black slaves, the murder of indians, the suffering and disrespect of indentured women, spat-upon irish, and others
if we have these so-called "conversations" we will stay divided, possibly forever, and what's the point in that?
one more book to recommend: james loewen's lies my teacher told me
enjoy yer turkey sandwich and invest in mayonnaise