The fundamental contradiction of American politics
Everyone's idea of "what to do" involves presuppositions that "Omigod we've got so much to lose!" while at the same time what they're doing (or not doing) will cause them to lose what it is they most fear losing.
Example #1: driving around in fossil-burning vehicles with Hillary Clinton bumper stickers. Of course we must "do something" about climate change, and of course Donald Trump is a climate denier. But America's idea of "doing something" involves, from first to last, supporting pointless candidates such as Hillary Clinton, whose elitist attitudes and huge negatives are designed to keep voter turnout low and to keep public offices in the hands of elites. Clinton's idea of "doing something" about climate change, moreover, didn't amount to anything effective, maybe a few more solar panels beside the enormous fossil fuel subsidies. A real solution would at the very least would involve phasing out fossil fuels.
Oh, sure, the whole Clinton bandwagon process gave us Donald Trump as its result, but at least we put a Clinton bumper sticker on our fossil-burning vehicle, so we "did something." And hey, IBM told us we're getting a "smarter planet," so it must be true.
Meanwhile record rains deluge Houston, but that state went for Trump, so whatev, and all us nice wealthy California people have air conditioning (unless we don't), so we don't think much about record California temperatures either. Maybe we'll have moved to Alaska or something when it gets too hot to go outdoors.
Example #2: climate-change-denying anti-immigration folks. I really dig the Trump anti-immigration thing as a great distraction from the realities of climate change. Omigod they take our jobs away! I was just about to pursue a career operating a leafblower when some immigrant stepped in y'know. Does everyone here know what the world will look like with four degrees Celsius increase in average global temperatures? Everyone will want to move to Alaska, Canada, Russia, or Scandinavia. Florida will be under water; Texas will be a desert. Let's hope that in twenty years the nice Trumpies will be greeted with greater tolerance than what they dish out now, at that point when they try to sneak across the Canadian border to get leafblowing jobs up in Fort McMurray, if there's anything left of it by then.
Example #3: Folks who think we can't do anything because omigod the bad people will get all violent and stuff. Or they might make it into an exercise in fraud. Problem is, they're already violent now, and they hide behind a great shield of fraud already. Maybe the violent people legitimize it by joining a police force or becoming politicians or something. I'm sure it's nothing a little political timidity can't solve.
One recalls the 5th-century Roman Empire in the west. When given a choice between fighting the Germanic tribes or fighting each other, the Romans chose to fight each other, and the Germanic tribes took over. All the big industries disappeared; Ward-Perkins' The Fall Of Rome documents the results. Or the attitudes and behavior of the ruling dynasty in Constantinople at the beginning of the 13th century: to solve the problem of bad government, they invited the Crusaders into town and made fabulous promises to said Crusaders which they couldn't keep.
Today, capitalism, our planet's ruling faith now, has always been insane, but in previous eras this insanity could be pushed off onto other people and other lands. In this era its narcissism threatens the world with a downward spiral into complete desolation -- but omigod revolutions are too scary. On the other hand, the status quo's current trajectory is... okay, where were we? I'd feel safer if we gave up on capitalism the faith.
Our social strategies in light of our current scene are also a great source of amusement. No wonder George Carlin thought he was seeing the whole society circle the drain. Let's spend a lot of time alone, or on our devices. Or I know! Let's pick fights with each other on the Internet! Yeah, that's the ticket!
Comments
So what can we really do?
I would like to have the current political system blown up, burned down, destroyed somehow. Half of the time I walk with a cane. I cannot see myself leading the charge. Or even being in a physical charge. Facial bone fractures have left me subdued. And I fall down a lot. A body of bruises.
I am good at talking; who do I convince? Or prove wrong and change their thinking? And to think what?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I know I put it in the middle without warning.
But I did argue that "I'd feel safer if we gave up on capitalism the faith." Perhaps that should be the emphasis, demonstrating that there's no future in capitalism.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
Now you're talking.
We had capitalism under control and working for the benefit of most people instead of a few for roughly 30 plus some years. Takes a Democrat to screw a Democrat.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Capitalism doesn't work for the benefit of most people.
That's not its function. Capitalism might incidentally benefit some people at some times and some places in its trajectory (and following its trajectory is how you know capitalism for what it is), but that's different. The key to survival today is in performing a global social drama which results in something other than capitalism coming out the other end.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
Capitalism claims to be efficient,
but in fact is highly inefficient. Look at how much waste is produced and always has been, in order to maintain profits.
Furthermore capitalism is, I would argue, almost criminally inefficient in its' attitude towards people, whom it regards as interchangeable. Because of this attitude, that workers are interchangeable, square pegs in round holes are so common one could almost call the ignoring of a worker's individual talents and temperaments SOP.
Feudalism, in contrast, and mind I don't want to see feudalism rise again, is almost devastatingly efficient especially in its distribution of jobs and "fiefs". Under feudalism, the guy who knew how to craft arrows was set to do that job and no intriguer nor bossy cow could hope to unseat him. Work not directly controlled by an overlord was organized into guilds, which set prices, and if you wanted in, you had to be accepted by the guild, usually after serving a 7 years apprenticeship. No just arriving with a hoard of
cousins and undercutting other people's livelihood.
However there are other systems; one I recently heard about is called democratic syndicalism.
The point at which I am trying to aim is that IF you can convince a large enough number of people that they can make decent livings doing the work that they actually love and at which they are proficient, as opposed to what some ignorant apparatchik assigned them, usually on the basis of personal appearance, personality or status ranking; IF you can show them a viable alternative to the present day toxic and soul destroying office or workplace; AND IF you can demonstrate that they won't starve or be dispossessed from their homes, THEN people might be willing to put their faith into a peaceful transition to a better way of organizing our economy.
Some ideas which could places to start:
Guaranteed Annual Income, you know, like rich guys and gals have while they are going through law or medical school.
Some kind of rent control or upper limit on housing and utility prices so people can afford to live decently. One idea is a ban on absentee ownership of rental property, which would at least keep speculators out of rental housing.
Mary Bennett
@Nastarana Those claiming
Those claiming capitalism is "efficient" do so by measuring profits.
It's completely circular.
The first thing I need to do is awaken.
Only if I am awake and open to the many ways my acquired biases and preconceptions keep me living in a very limited and tightly circumscribed reality do I begin to have the possibility to rid myself of the very comfortable illusions that I cling to. Failing an effort in that direction it is a near certainty that what will follow will be only what I already know.
We are not free, mostly because our our own choices. It is easy to follow, to believe, embracing what we already think we know. I seek the comfort of belonging to a larger group, one which I am already largely in agreement with. This is human nature, and I am human. I am not free. I do not see a complete reality, neither do I welcome the profound discomfort of being open to new ways of seeing and understanding.
Along with a sense of humor and appreciation of irony, great courage is required to even begin the work of real change. Mostly I continue to serve the limits that I know and love, and resist my own awakening, like those chained and watching shadows on a wall in a cave. But hey, it's a beginning......
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
We don't choose alienation.
This is why I go after capitalism. The primary feature of capitalist life is alienation -- that we don't control our work processes, that (unless we retreat to artisan life, and only a few of us can afford to do that, and the forces of production aren't compatible with it in an overall sense) what we do for money isn't really us.
The promoters of the system like to talk about life expectancy, standard of living, and so on, and all of that is true, but there are still a very large number of people who are shut out of the system (William I. Robinson argued that it was a third of the human race), and alienation means that people still don't have control, so that there's still slavery in the world for instance, or that predicting the future is about extrapolating from trends more than it's about an appreciation of the enormous creative potential of billions of people. You know they have that potential -- but omigod trends. And the most significant of these trends is abrupt climate change, or maybe it's only number two if you consider economic stagnation. The elites have had to continually rework economic indicators to preserve the fiction of economic growth.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
Heh!
Mother Nature got a fever. Soon to be a stark raving delirious "full kill the beast mode" b word.
Good advanced thinking on what to replace Capitalism with but
isn't the answer to killing Capitalism to simply stop consuming? In conjunction with that withhold our labor? And then finally, withhold our treasure (taxes)? Another diary, may have even been yours got me thinking about the fear of what I have left to lose. Given the anti-human nature of the federal legislature and many state legislatures laws are being proposed to be changed to make protest illegal. To simply peacefully protest may be illegal therefore participating in such results in an over zealous militarist law enforcement reaction for which I may lose my life, or the ability to continue my ability to move from my home to my job. I refuse to call it "freedom" for I am not free as the job under which I am enslaved because I need the health insurance for my family and the income to support that family (I am big fan of universal basic income and as Nastarana explains, caps on costs for things of basic life necessity). If I lose my life my "beneficiaries" of my said death lose benefit because I participated in an illegal protest. So I do not physically resist because it is not really me who suffers it is my loved ones. I resist in the small ways that I can. I don't buy new clothing or household items. I either grow or buy from local food sources and those types of things. If we had a country of people doing these small things I think it would start to have some impact.
After reading Big Al's comment in another diary that it is futile to work within the system I agree we must destroy it. The question is by violence or more peaceful means such as boycotts. Or as many have pointed out Mother Nature seems poised to make the decision for us.
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
Any and all means.
Learn by doing. Find the most pernicious aspects of the system and contradict those. Exercise our collective creativity! Find sources of wonderment in the universe and follow them. Survive! Encourage happy togetherness that is something more than a family or a corporation or an academic department.
Oh and yeah the goal is to end the fossil fuel era.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
Credexit is what you are talking about.
And less consumption. Much less.
More repair, repurpose, recycle, before replace.
Lead a cash existence. Buy local. Do not patronize corporations.
Also, since Corporations are people, conversely, people are corporations. Therefore, since Corporations can deduct all costs of doing business from their income, so too should people/corporations.
Items such as housing, food, clothing, transportation, even vacations (business seminars) would be deductible from your tax liability.
Of course, this would collapse our government overnite.
On the bright side, our military machine would have to come home and be mothballed.
With a credible boomer fleet backed up with an equally credible attack submarine presence, the two oceans on either side of us would be all we need for protection.
Corporate America would collapse with no military to provide them with free muscle to savage the planet and its resources and peoples.
Would life in America get tough. Yeah, it would. But with millions of climate refugees pouring across our southern border we will not be able to afford a global military force or Corporate welfare anyway.
Life IS going to get tough no matter what.
We need to get rid of the dead weight NOW!
That dead weight is Corporate America and our bloated military machine.
IMHO.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Is collapsing the Military possible?
With the drone and robot technology being developed I can see a future depicted in "The Terminator" where death and destruction is inflicted upon citizens of the US and the World by total automation. Yes I believe it is very likely life will get tougher. I think it's pretty tough now especially for those at the bottom rung. But everytime I see F18s flying overhead I think we'll at least they didn’t bomb us today!
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
National strikes might become possible
not now but as more and more folks get fed up. Such as, off the top of my head, stay away from the grocery stores for one week, organizing potlucks in the meantime. In a way something like this is already happening; lots of folks are voting with their nonexistent wallets, and big boxes are going out of business or closing stores. Such a tactic might not be as difficult as it might seem because we are already awash in stuff, and plenty can be had 2nd hand.
I think some people tried a boycott Black Friday last year, and BF, and Xmas sales have been falling steadily for some time, I believe.
Mary Bennett
Years ago, “Adbusters” popularized International Buy Nothing Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day
If you mean me, I think I was clear in saying
that I object to the risk because it is not worth the reward.
Show me a reward worth working for that will result because of Confederate statues being taken down or getting Nazi rank-and-file fired from their pizza jobs--as opposed to, if you really want to mix it up with those people, demanding of the federal government, from every corner of the nation, that it go Elliot Ness on the white supremacists who have infiltrated American police forces. At the very least, that would discomfort both Donald Trump and the Democrats.
"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
Your thinking is reductionistic.
You imagine that every action is taken all by itself, without any accompaniment, and that everything else will stay the same.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
@Cassiodorus That's because these
That's because these actions keep getting taken, and everything else does stay the same.
"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
No, everything isn't staying the same.
People are organizing. That's what my previous diary is about.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
As far as revolutions being too scary
you're goddamned right they are, given the level of weapons and surveillance tech the other side has.
"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
I'm sure that climate change apocalypse
will be a far more comforting outcome.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
@Cassiodorus Global warming is an
Global warming is an existential terror I live with every day. But in order to do anything about it, a revolution would have to succeed in seizing power in no more than two years. The former UN climate chief says the world has three years to do something about climate change. I don't see a chorus of climate scientists contradicting her. Or anybody outside the far right contradicting her. Therefore, in order for revolutionaries to do anything about climate change, the revolution would have to be over and power seized in no more than 2 years, so that radical action could be taken on climate immediately. Even if you gave yourself a year to institute the correct policies, you'd still be turning a very large economy on a dime-it would take at least six months, probably more, to have the policies put in place and institute a scrupulous set of pretty draconian enforcement techniques.
I don't see anything that suggests that, even if it were possible to create a traditional populist revolution in this country, that we could create it, kick the ass of one of the most powerful military machines in the world--a machine that is best at killing militarily weaker foes using inferior weaponry, which means it would be great at killing us--end the current political system, institute a new one, create the policy, and create the massive enforcement infrastructure necessary for rigorous enforcement of the policy, in two and a half years or less.
In my opinion, there are three ways we could get out of this without ending in complete ecological systems failure or nuclear fire:
1)The 1% could decide not to destroy the world.
2)Saner 1%-ers could figure out how to stop the more insane and murderous portion of their class, which would include somehow stopping them from using their nukes if/when they felt their back was against the wall.
3)Highly digitally-skilled people, including especially those inside organizations like the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI, but also those inside Big Data corporations and those who are working on their own, could stop Big Energy, Big Guns, and Big Money from destroying the world. Big Data is like Switzerland in the second World War. They are the place where all the powers stash their treasures. Ironically, the security state's propensity to make software insecure on purpose so that they can get in whenever they want to has created a bit of an Achilles heel. This is the only soft underbelly the powerful have, as far as I can see. And they know it. That's why they drove Aaron Swartz to suicide, that's why they put Barret Brown in prison, and that's why Edward Snowden is their enemy #1. That's also one of the reasons they hate Assange.
If option 2 or 3 happened, *then* members of the 99% who are not highly digitally skilled or in a position to sabotage the powerful from within their own organizations would have a role to play and things to contribute. Therefore, the best thing we can do under these circumstances is to make it so that we are as independent, sustainable, networked, well-organized and close-knit as possible so when that moment comes, if it does, we are ready to move. And if that moment never comes, what remains of our lives will be better, healthier, more pleasant, and possibly longer if we are 1)as sustainable as possible, 2)as independent of the corporate machine as possible, 3)as well-organized (by which I mean ready to initiate or respond to action) as possible, and 4)as close-knit as possible (challenges like these require solid relationships).
That's the only move we have left other than one or another form of suicide, because even in the unlikely event that We the People could somehow pick up our guns and overthrow both the government and the money men--both corporate and financial--we couldn't do it in time to save ourselves. We needed to be doing this back when I was trying to reform the Democratic party with Howard Dean. Or maybe when I was stupidly voting for Bill Clinton.
I didn't know he worked for people who wanted to get us all killed. Not in 92, anyway.
"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
.
Yes, all the nice people who presume alienated labor and more capitalism for the world (i.e. the continuance of a situation in which everyone is so involved in "earning a living" that they've really got no time for thinking differently) have placed a time limit on what we can do. Thank goodness I'm not one of them! I'm also glad that my definition of "revolution" is not narrowly focused upon "seizing power" (nor for that matter is it narrowly focused in the way that the John Holloway perspective is focused).
I'm sure that if they can't defeat the tiny Taliban after nearly forty years of asymmetric war in Afghanistan that destroying a global revolution would be a piece of cake for them. Or maybe not.
Perhaps if you went back to voting for the likes of Bill Clinton you might be able to see what you missed in switching over to a different position that, like the previous position, doesn't seem to be helping you.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
The Crusades as a Religious Institution Certainly Has Some
resonance with the corporate crusades of the 21st Century.
Interesting that modern day corporate capitalism resembles both religion and mercantilism. Something funky with that. The Divine Right of Kings ain't far behind that; it follows, methinks.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu