Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Stumbling Towards Catastrophe

Humans; the sort of humans who either listen to Glenn Beck, or who were saddened at the fall of Eric Cantor, and the sort of humans who support Barack Obama and nod sagely when the read the New York Times editorial page, are driving us to disaster.

The moral depravity of supporters of Israeli genocide against the Palestinians, whether in the comments section of the National Post or the CBC or the leaders of all of our political parties, is a sign of our inability to achieve peace. To live in peace. To not kill ourselves.

The crisis in the Ukraine, between the detestable US-American ruling class and the detestable Russian government of thuggish oligarchs under Putin, is going to heat-up thanks to the nonsensical drivel coming from media mouthpieces for US-American imperialism. Putin is a gangster. But even gangsters (or especially gangsters) recognize power realities. Russia could not afford a quarrel with the United States. Therefore Putin is acting reasonable in this context. Our braying jack-asses like stephen harper and John Baird might find themselves partially responsible for a nuclear missile attack on one of the world's cities if this confrontation goes too far.

We can't even stir ourselves as a people to rally around the limited democracy we have. Disgusting apologists for harper cheered his contempt of Parliament. Disgusting Liberal partisans excused McGuinty for his contempt of the Ontario legislature. NDP stooges contort themselves into defending every betrayal of the values of the grasssroots committed by one of their failed provincial governments. They'd surely be capable of doing the same if ever it came to that.

And, I was condemned for my pessimism in a series of content-free critiques. But the fact remains that we, the Left, have failed and are failing to do much to reverse these patterns. We're so weak and despised that our own political parties consider it a worthwhile achievement to betray us and mock us. It's a sign of "political courage" to dismiss our calls for economic justice and to instead, pursue self-destructive austerity policies that only benefit banksters. 

Well, fuck all that. I've decided to focus on a cause in the 3-d world. Public transit. Not because it's the most important thing in the world to me. But because maybe there I can achieve a victory. Maybe there, on that limited field, I can see if doing things differently, on a larger, more activist scale, I can achieve a victory and then point to how those tactics can apply to other things. 

Because it's pretty clear to me that we're stumbling towards multiple catastrophes, economic, political, ecological, if things don't change.

11 comments:

greg said...

I've been trying to figure out if guys like Glenn Beck actually have a belief system or just like to argue/talk. I realize this topic is old. Many articles discuss Harper's actual beliefs-for example. Some say it doesn't matter if they believe it or not. I think it matters. ON the other hand, how long can you talk out of your ass before you look stupid. As well, it's possible that the right wins more because they are so much more convinced. The left says "I don't have all the answers." I realize this is old stuff, but the right gets to repeat the same crap.

Good luck with the transit thing!!

I think that's three topics. Recipes are next. Recepes? Rascipies? Should I be afraid to show ignorance? Don't raise your hand in class. Don't ask stupid questions. Be afraid.

Edstock said...

"Because it's pretty clear to me that we're stumbling towards multiple catastrophes"

Yup. But the solutions are here, it's the challenge of organizing the will for change.

But whether we organize effectively or not changes are coming and the Koch Brothers and the rest of the multi-national oligarchs cannot stop them because they cannot stop themselves.

When American disparity of wealth exceeds that of Tsarist Russia, it's not if, but when there will be a "re-organization".

The problem has all manner of possible considerations that could affect the shape of this change.

For example, Moore's Law is alive and well, and IBM says it can keep it so for another decade. So what? Well, it means that 15 years from now = an instant = the "expert systems" or early-level Artificial Intelligence is going to get rid of jobs the way voice mail got rid of receptionists and answering-machine manufacturers.

Well, when the jobs disappear overnight, and people have another 30-40-50 years to live and their kids will live to almost 2100 — and maybe 40% of the jobs have disappeared? Things will be crunchy, unless changes are made.

A decade ago, I defined the challenge this way: two hundred years from now, historians will say that the importance of 9-11 was that the US tightened its internal security so much that it delayed the Second American Revolution by about seventy-five years.

Ten years later, IMHO, it'll be here a lot sooner.

thwap said...

Edstock,

I think we'll have some sort of disaster and that the financiers are going to destroy their own civilization.

Stage 1 after the crash will be the surviving billionaires forming their separate enclaves with everyone else living like Mad Max.

Stage 2 will be the enclaves degenerating with those on the outside hungrier and weaker.

After that it's anyone's guess.

Because more people listen to Alec Jones and Glenn Beck than to us.

thwap said...

Grassroots Beck and Harper fans really believe that shit.

harper, I don't imagine he believes in much of anything. Tony Blair, he really believed. Obama has probably deluded himself to believe his own insanity. At least half the time.

"Savi Ruchi" on my blogroll has lots of good recipes.

thwap said...

Grassroots Beck and Harper fans really believe that shit.

harper, I don't imagine he believes in much of anything. Tony Blair, he really believed. Obama has probably deluded himself to believe his own insanity. At least half the time.

"Savi Ruchi" on my blogroll has lots of good recipes.

Anonymous said...

Pertaining to Israel and the Middle East, here is an interesting letter penned by sci fi legend Philip Dick after the bombing of the Osirak reactor many moons ago. http://www.karmamole.com/septic/philip-k-dick-on-israel/

Kev said...

I have to agree thwap, we are headed for a spectacular crash on multiple fronts and while we have the tools and knowledge to avoid this the level of denial is far too great to allow us to deploy them until it's too late.

In fact it may already be so

greg said...

Here's a taboo topic. Can we forgive guys who used to be "linked to" radical groups but now run perfectly good used car shops. At what point do we stop checking to see if they are making things in the back room. I mean, the government must have half the country under surveillance by now. And what's with the guy who escaped prison after serving 14 years. Isn't that enough time? I guess he did kill his wife. Maybe she was really annoying.

.Did I really write this stuff? I don't think I'll send it. ..

thwap said...

anonymous,

Thanks for the link. It's arguable that for Israel, weapons will prevail. But they have made themselves detestable in many people's eyes.

kev,

That's the level of concision I was trying to achieve.

greg,

Many of Israel's "founding fathers" were terrorists. Canada is the product of British and French imperialists.

I haven't heard about an escaped convict who killed his wife and I don't know why you typed that stuff at the end. I found it offensive.

greg said...

Thanks for pointing that out. Sorry about that.

greg said...

Sorry about that. I was way too casual with the comments.