Not so long ago, in a country not so very far away, The People lived. The People were known far and wide for two unique characteristics: a preference for diplomacy to settle disputes with their neighbors (despite a demonstrated reputation for being fearsome warriors) and being extremely generous (despite possessing great material wealth).
But as time went on, The People made a serious error: they chose to forget their past. They chose to forget the horrors of war and to convert them into children's games. They chose to forget their generosity to others, as it interfered with their spiritual journey from Plutolatry to Plutomania. They became very hostile to other people and other ideas. They turned their back on their world until they began to see it as a separate entity of easy prey.
The conquests did come easily at first, and the world was allied to the campaign in order to avoid becoming the next target. But with each subjugation, some of the coalition chose to end their compliant servitude in a quest intended to make all the world subservient to The People and their fantasies. Others left the assault when it became obvious that they would not share in the spoils. Others, still smarting from experiencing defeat for attempting to achieve this very goal, marveled at the hypocrisy and began to form their own goals to be realized at the expense of The People.
The People, mired deeply within the morass of their own misdeeds, failed to notice. They were too enthralled by the myths of their heroes: fierce hunters of predators from the safety of the skies who only confront the deceased with hand weapons once on the ground - the same way they wage war. This was seen as a weakness of The People, and weakness is what enemies exploit to achieve victory.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Les Slater
Realist,
As reality sinks in for more and more people, you seem to venture further into fantasy.
Les
2 - Joanne Huspek
Interesting. I don't know if the time is right to make the transition. Too many are holding on to the old ways.
3 - DaveNalle
It seems like a lot of folks, especially on the left, can only deal with the current situation through fantasy and fabulism, because they can't face up to the utter failure of central economic control and statism.
Thankfully, some people - mostly on what most would call the political right - are laying the groundwork for a more realistic future, ready to build on the rubble of the failed state.
Dave
4 - Realist
Please, Dave, you are making my sides hurt from laughing! Your error-filled commentary should read like this:
"It seems like a lot of folks, especially on the right, created the current economic situation through fantasy and fabulism, because they don't face up to the utter failure of removing economic controls and neoliberal business strategies.
"Thankfully, some people - mostly on what most would call the political left and center - are laying the groundwork for a more realistic future, ready to build on the rubble of the failed Reaganomic state."
You need to get out of that Armored Airstreamer of yours and rediscover life on THIS planet!
Oh - take Les Slater out with you.
5 - moon
I would like to know just what that groundwork for a more REALISTIC future entails.
I don't see anyone laying groundwork for anything except more hunger for most of the planet and more money being given to the ones who caused the economic crisis.
That's a future I don't care to see.
And, just in passing, how can one be REALISTIC while denying Global Warming and all of the other PHYSICAL problems that humans have caused on the planet.
It will shake us off like fleas--sooner rather than later. And that is REALISTIC.
6 - DaveNalle
Moon, thankfully you've opted out of any role in the future of the US by leaving the country.
You can sit down in Mexico worrying about your imaginary global crises and wringing your hands, while those of us still here in the US work on straightening this country out and finding real solutions to world problems.
And Realist, I'm glad I could provide you with a laugh, even if it's only the cackle of terminal insanity.
Dave
7 - moon
Nalle,
Wrong again--as I am still a US citizen I am just as rightfully opining about what has happened and will happen in the US as you are.
I do not imagine global crises. I obviously do not have to do that, as they are real. I also do not have the habit of wringing my hands.
No matter how much you choose to deny the reality in front of your nose, it is still there. And until you FACE that reality--as folks in the US did in the 1930s--it will not change.
From a posture of denial YOU are not doing anything to straighten out ANYTHING, nor are YOU finding any solutions to ANYTHING.
You are just talking. And talk, as we know, is cheap.
We have an expression here in Latin America for what you are doing: Intentar tapar al sol con el dedo (cover the sun with your finger). It doesn't work in Spanish.
And, as the shambles of the USA SHOULD indicate to any reasonably thinking individual, it is not working in English.
8 - moon
And just to put the content of this article in a global context--where it belong, in my opinion:
The Irani leadership has indicated their opinion that the crisis is a punishment from God/Allah for western greed and irresponsibility.
Of course they can say that because their economy is largely unaffected due to its high-intensity state ownership.
Personally, I don't claim to see the hand of God or any other Invisible Hand in all of this.
Just as virtue is its own reward, so are greed and irresponsibility.
It's sad, though, that folks who were and are NOT cheerleaders for greed and irresponsibility get sucked into that "reward".
9 - Ruvy
Realist,
I see you are reaching into spirituality. Good. Atonement. Good. These are good beginnings. But you will need to think carefully, to feel carefully. The heart is most deceitful, and you need, in your effort to atone, to avoid that which you lust after with your eyes.
You will need to atone for sins that you knew you committed and that you didn't know you comitted - both.
My suggestion to you is to pick up the Yom Kippur special prayer book - if you are not Jewish, you'll need to look it up on-line - and read through the confession of sins - the detailed confession. Learn it. It is knowledge that will stand you in good stead in the not too distant future.
10 - Cindy D
Realist,
Another exceptionally good article. The links were effective and frightening. I was encouraged again though by the time I got to the optimistic ending.
Then I read Les and Dave's responses.
I think some people actually have to be set on fire before they can imagine what it feels like to be burning.
Our valued traditions speak to a loftier existence for all, and it should be our life's goal to see to it that our nation and our world is advanced toward its realization.
I love that line.
P.S. Joanne, gotta start some time. Its up to each individual.
11 - DaveNalle
Cindy, I've already been burnt up and emerged like a phoenix from the fire. Someday your eyes will be opened.
Dave
12 - Cindy D
Actually Dave,
My eyes have been reopened only over recent years.
13 - moon
I would like Nalle to tell us how he emerged like a phoenix. And from what purifying fire?
Sounds like a self-agrandizing fantasy to me.
14 - jamminsue
Ralist - excellent prose and your message is correct.
15 - Ruvy
Marthe,
I would like to know just what that groundwork for a more REALISTIC future entails.
I don't see anyone laying groundwork for anything except more hunger for most of the planet and more money being given to the ones who caused the economic crisis.
That's a future I don't care to see.
If money loses its value entirely, it won't matter to whom it is given. And that is what the future holds for those who would take from the poor to make them starve. They will take - and receive nothing. But what you are asking about is what we call in Hebrew tikkún 'olám, the repair of the world.
It will entail cleaning up the environmental mess that man has left, and will be much like a child being forced to clean his room after six millennia of letting it go to ruin. First there will be a disastrous war - and then we will see some kind of régime that supervises this cleanup round the world, from Iceland to Antarctica, and all points in between. Those of us who survive this terrible war that is coming will see the repair of the world we live in. And advancesd technology, some that is already on the shelf, and some that we can only imagine now, will make this world a veritable garden.
That, stripped of all of the religious symbolism, is what the messianic redemption will be all about for most people.
You may have already taken some steps to prepare yourself for this future. A long time ago, you sent me to a website to do just that. Maybe you remember. The good part of this article, and others like it, is that people are beginning to figure out that the crisis we face is a spiritual and moral crisis, not a financial or economic one.
And that is where folks like Dave Nalle, who appear unwilling to see the moral and spiritual crisis, can easily get left behind....
benatáyim, tzedaká matzilá et Haím - In the meantime, charity saves lives - including one's own.
16 - Les Slater
Cindy D,
“Then I read Les and Dave's responses.”
I can imagine what Dave finds fantastic in Realist’s article but mine only refers to the last two paragraphs. It is here where we find Realist referring to ‘we’ and ‘our nation’.
It isn’t ‘our’ nation and there is no ‘we’. It’s like using the phrase ‘our troops’. They are not ‘our’ troops. They are imperialist troops and we, you, me and the majority of the people in this country, have absolutely no control of how they are used. Similarly, it is not ‘our nation’. This nation is controlled by a handful of the super wealthy and will never let the majority exercise power peacefully.
We live in a class divided society where the ruling wealthy’s economic system, which is in a serious, deepening and irreversible crisis, is being laid on the backs of those that actually produce all the wealth.
We have seen how this ruling elite has been changing laws for the last decade or so to attack our living standards and gut our rights. This did not start with Bush nor will it stop with Obama.
We have no choice but to break with both Democratic and Republican parties and begin to build a workers party that will begin to build a movement that will remove the handful of playboys that are now running, and ruining our lives, environment and what democratic rights we still have. The ruling elite will resist. They now have the government, the schools, from K to post grad, the courts, police and the mass media. It’s a big job. Fantasies won’t cut it.
The problem will not be fixed within the United States because the problem is not bounded by the geographical United States.
A national Utopia was Hitler’s idea. Any solution based on ‘our nation’ or the national ‘we’ is not only a fantasy, but a reactionary one.
Les
17 - troll
I agree with all of Les' comment except for his implied 'belief' that some centralized 'party' will do anything more than use government to enforce a new class based system of exploitation
spare us 'dictatorships' of any stripe
18 - Dave Nalle
So, Les would like to remove the skilled and qualified oligarchy which runs the country and replace it with an unskilled and unqualified oligarchy.
Doesn't seem like a winning formula to me.
Dave
19 - Les Slater
"So, Les would like to remove the skilled and qualified oligarchy which runs the country..."
Skilled and qualified? Haven't you been paying any attention to where these skills and qualifications have brought us?
Your solution is another Utopia, a 'pure' capitalism that never existed, and never will.
20 - Cannonshop
would it be too much to note that Bipartisanship has finally, at last, been shown to be both sides getting together to screw the rest of us?
21 - Les Slater
Cannonshop,
Your bipartisan ‘both sides’ vs. the ‘rest of us’, seems to have the germ of an agreement with much of my #16. No?
Les
22 - Clavos
troll:
Dead on.
Les:
Your solution is another Utopia, a 'pure' capitalism that never existed, and never will.
As troll so aptly pointed out, neither will a workers paradise...
23 - Les Slater
Clavos,
“troll:
“Dead on.”
Presume your referring to #17 where troll agreed with my #17, except… Do you really agree with that as your ‘dead on’ might suggest? That would be interesting, indeed.
troll,
You will note that in my #16 that I never suggested that a ‘centralized party’ have ANY dictatorial powers. I didn’t suggest any centralized party run the government.
I believe the working class has a right to form a party that will fight to be a majority party, or at least the largest minority, in a coalition, with other parties representing the exploited, which sets its own priorities, and to make and enforce laws, to realize those priorities.
Are you opposed to such?
Les
24 - Cannonshop
#21 Not exactly, Les, the problem of corruption, in my view, is the centralizing of power. The more power you concentrate, the more likely it is not only to corrupt those you've given it to, but to attract the corrupt from the rest of society. At this point in history, we have a horribly risky thing (the Patriot Act, a writ of imperium that luckily enough, Bush isn't imaginative or clever enough to exploit to its fullest potential) compounded with another risky situation (The decision by both political parties to subsidize the incompetence of the financial sector in exchange for a piece of the action-using OPM).
The very dangerous condition is thus: Barack Obama's clever, and ruthless enough (demonstrated by his fast rise in the Chicago political scene-one of the most corrupt and vicious in the nation) that unlike "W" he's LIKELY to use both to their fullest extent to guarantee his own and his party's benefit and control.
AND he'll be able to do so, because he will have not only a compliant congress, but a compliant Media, and a huge number of supporters who will not question, much less oppose, him doing so.
Including you.
Government is a dangerous thing-it must be powerful enough to serve, yet limited enough that it does not become the Master. Obama's promises carry the threat of unlimited mastery and unchecked ambition, his 'support network' shows absolute loyalty and absolute ruthlessness, and the normal mechanisms to check these are actively on his side, and unlikely to change sides.
I wouldn't have nearly the problem I have with him, if Congress hadn't renewed the Patriot Act, if the Media weren't utterly in the tank for his election, and if his supporters bothered to think about what they were supporting, what they were justifying, and what,in the end, they end up standing in favour of.
Fact is, unchecked power, with an opposition that fears to speak, is going to be abused, and the likely outcomes are not good for anyone that doesn't already have lots of money offshore and a place to run.
25 - Les Slater
Cannonshop,
Your ‘not exactly’ is not a ‘no’. I find I agree with much of what you say, including, the 'including you'.
On one point I find you having the same fears as troll and Clavos, that of a dictatorship worse than we have now.
We are faced with much more than a theoretical question. It is a question of our survival. If we can’t deliver on beating this back, fascism will come to the fore, also we face the prospect of being dragged into a third world war.
I’ll point you to my #23. Do you oppose the right of the working class to organize to defend itself?
Les