Apocalyptic Cynicism

 

 April 1, 2022

Apocalyptic Cynicism

(Back a few months ago, I read Amid Apocalyptic Cynicism, Lets Embrace Radical Hope in the New Year, the name of an article in Truthout, authored by Henry Giroux, published January 5^th, 2022. I liked the idea of a new language though focusing on Hope to develop that new language seemed worthy of critique, or the need for further discussion. I shared that article with a couple of friends, and we got together on Zoom and talked about the article, hope, change, movements, leadership, and have continued to meet trying to look at what we, as progressives, radicals, revolutionaries have done in the past that’s been successful and what might work in the present to realize a new civil, social system that is both realistic and actual. A new language such as what’s come out of Black Lives Matter resistance. A new language that is defining of our continuing resolve as well as what we need to DO. Language without action is not enough. Action without cause is futile.

So, with all that in mind, we’ve set out some challenges. We’ve written some of our thoughts to share and would like to continue a dialogue regarding all the issues and challenges the world is currently facing- war, economic inequality, capitalism, fascism, all currently on the rise.

Since reading Giroux’s article, I’ve read others who are all thinking along the same lines- we cannot rely completely on old social theories, the world has not remained that static. Technology, though not the answer by itself either, has changed the scope and depth of both our dilemma and resistance.)

 

Let me say right off, I agree in principle, with what intellectual reasonings are mentioned in this article. It is a proper discourse to have of what, in essence needs to happen, in order to develop an action  vision of  CHANGE. Not simple nor easy.

 

Basically, I could be one of those apocalyptic cynics. That’s a new label for those of us who feel we’ve interpreted history as it was and not as we were taught it was and what we, the people, continue to resist and reject further attempts to reiterate American exceptionalism as real history. The acceptance of American exceptionalism as fact does  seem an obvious long march into a dystopian future,  apocalyptic, no, but dystopian, si.

This article by Henry Giroux is about radical hope vs cynicism and pessimism.

 

It’s true, some people are weary of their dreams and hopes being continually diminished and dismembered through what others might call a stark, dreary political, social and economic reality. But for leftists who always seem to fall back on hope and illusions and want to call up those two ethereal memes as way stations to actual progress, there always seems to be a never-ending, relentless onslaught against that real change we desperately need.  Yes, that could be cynical, I suppose, believing that what many call progress has always meant incremental, evolutionary political change, which on its face flies in the face of facts supporting a thesis there is no permanent change in human behavior regardless of how high and mighty puritan humans do get.

Every settler, every colonizer of every conquered country in world history has had the very same dream of, if not peace, at least, the dream of pursuing it. And nearly every one of those dream pursuits results in war, oppression, terrorism, genocidal practices in its pursuit of land, resources, revenge, democracy. Much of our dreams and wants come out of an already developed, socialized belief of “getting what you deserve.” Whether working for it or being denied it, most people in the western world, whether rich or poorer believe in some sort of “exceptionalism. The medieval religious belief that wherever we are, we are the center of the universe. Even in the modern scientific concept of the universe, we look out at the night sky and it’s hard to understand how very small and insignificant we are.

So it isn’t the apocalyptic cynic who continues to manifest a mundane and inane concept of a future destined to be no better than the present , nor no better than the past from which it arose, but the continued denial of progressives who arrogantly feel, much like their settler predecessors, that dreams come true because we wish them to be rather than built with our hands, minds, hearts and a lot of sacrifice.

Hell, what ripped the dreams from even our own time? The women’s movement is torn because leaders can’t agree or accept that one or two could accept the teachings of Muhammed over Zionism.

How many early attempts on communes or alternative communities have been upset because one individual disagrees with another individual, or someone commits a crime against one of their own and how do we judge or enforce? Then there is the money, fairness, socialism, diversity, all those things that make our reality and commonality. How about the food? Meat vs PETA. Our own “community” is at war with each other.

We can argue or discuss civilly how to build a dream but a dream will not be built and sustained without common people doing all the jobs that really sustain us while every progressive wants to be an autocrat, bureaucrat, or holograph and not a carpenter or truck driver, maid or grocery clerk.

Let’s face it, people don’t want their basic beliefs, which in most cases came from religious, textbook learned remnants of our upbringing, yet our , solutions rather than being inclusive, are always so atomized. Why?

Because we live in a society that is consumer choice based, a media crazed, authoritative state where for most progressives relegated to being able to discern between values of homes, cars, children’s education, and political issues, have been so entrenched in American settler values, are unable to dig their way out of the real intellectual and moral cages of their own making. Acknowledgement of one’s inability to escape the circumstances of one’s oppression is only the first step in realizing what needs to be done, and then, of course, you have to do it.

Calling other revolutionaries ‘apocalyptic cynics’ then calling up an old, new vision based on hope and dream or even a belief in revolution, because revolution is what it is when anyone is attempting to thwart long-standing institutional oppression. It is a complete denial of so many intelligent people who have expressed similarly cynical views.

Cynics or lovers of false realities shouldn’t really impede a revolution without a gun. After all, talk is cheap, intelligence is a dime per dozen, but it does take a revolution to make sure that the lowest on the economic scale, the ones with the least power, are content to continue to make the beds, cook the food, take care of their families, stand in factory lines, butcher or grow the food, transport and all the other millions of little jobs necessary to run a society. Very few work for theirs and their families survival and security with the revised axioms of economic and political theory in their heads.

If anyone thinks continually going left, however it is currently defined, gets you anywhere other than a square or circle, depending on the geometry of your trends, only gets mired in old, tired constructs.

The use of words such as create, vision, compassion, equality, democrazy, hope, motivations to embrace, resistance, to ponder, long for, fire in the hole, empathy, don’t produce new language. They only make us believe there is an inevitability to what we want, need, or desire.

The truth is we can fail and will fail if we don’t go on a different path, a path that is both simple and social, practical and powerful, active and thoughtful. Aren’t we already overburdened with the stuff of academic thinking? 

 

Reclaim history? Let history be what it is, a resource, a sinkhole for all the bad ideas that have become our reality, cage, and refuge for the knowledge that people used to overcome and physically resist as well as die for something better.

Mass movements? Oh, what failure has that been. A more benevolent imperialism, a better social media campaign, the wanting of middle-class values for everyone? Impossible.

What happened to “build locally, think globally?” Real cynics will say what good does it do to grow your own food if you can, support those near you who do, organize neighborhoods around basic and essential needs of communities- health, food, water, education, safety (law enforcement as well as improvised social networking), and love, because  real cynics remind us, there’s the big bad wolf of capitalism, the violence of racism, corporate personhood (ownership), worldwide catastrophe (war, disease, climate change) always at the door.

We need to go from rationalizing to actualizing. It’s the real cynics who can’t believe organizing communities are enough because their ideas are always bigger than what’s possible, aiming high, shoot to the pie in the sky.

Believe me, as my apocalyptic cynical vision creeps along, it’s going to be hard to even get too far from your community in the future as resources and fear will keep us chained. Living under global capitalism, fascism is pure survival. We need to organize real alternatives to that survival. Farm co-operatives and the support system to go along with it. Urban co-operatives based in providing food, water, healthcare, childcare.

 The only apocalypse is the one caused by capitalism, deterioration of institutions its based in,  nations divided, assaults on the reality of climate, infrastructure deterioration, travel restrictions, inflation or recession, all these are like putting a herd of zebras into a cage of lions.

"The new year should be rooted in dreams that reject a vision of the future as simply a continuation of the present."

Yes and No! This is a quote that is especially disturbing, simply hoping for all these changes is a vision of the future, a continuation of the present. That’s all Hope is about, a sucker fish attached to the shark. It’s part of the present package.

There’s nothing about actual change in Hope. 

I believe in community because that’s the place, home, where anyone can look around and find answers to their concerns. Sure, getting involved in the school isn’t as good as establishing your own school, or getting the city to build a community project isn’t as good as having the ability or means to build it yourself.

There are many people working toward the same end. The good end, in thousands of communities across this land. Let actions be our guide and drive rather than what politics seem to be. Think outside the box. Act, resist, and build the revolution you want to see.

Authoritarianism and Fascism

 

Authoritarianism and fascism.

Fascism is not the end of result of political, social and cultural adversity, but a process of interacting authority for controlling the public political narrative that is left up to the independently contrived efforts of those personalities espousing political power as a solution to all political, social, cultural, and natural contradictions.

The doctrines of fascism are mainly opportunistic and have little to do with the contrivances of constitutional, legal, or other acceptable or traditional methods for enacting change.

In this way fascism is a revolutionary premise for both right- and left-wing efforts to enact radical change. In pre-mussolini italy both socialists and fascists marched and rioted, sometimes within blocks of each other. Both explored and improvised by marching, striking, violence toward each other, against government, at the same time as appealing to a generally inactive, stagnant public to act. Most modern day dictators and even progressive power seekers utilize these tactics, donald trump being the most representative of the current power seekers, utilizing a specific form of misdirection and misinformation campaigns, proxy violence on the street by gangs and agitated followers, misuse of legal and law enforcement institutions, etc in order to create an atmosphere of confusion, delegitimizing the established political structure.

The belief that the two opposing users of a fascistic approach have opposing views is a complete outlier because neither the left nor the right have any conception, though they say otherwise, of how to build a new society of their liking in the midst of the capitalistic nightmare everyone lives in.

The fascistic mentality then becomes more an exercise in violence, destruction of mostly symbolic representations such as small business, chaos in the public sphere, similar to construction conglomerates tearing down to the ground the old to build the new obsolete with the same ideas and worn-out fixes.

One good example of this is our freeway system originally designed to move people quickly from place to place but almost immediately inadequate due to the number of cars and people so now transportation engineers run in place trying to add lanes, widen streets, do this do that, while in the meantime slowing almost to a standstill every five or so the publics need to get somewhere they really don't need to go.

But its not just cars that we unnecessarily rely on but of course, the oil we ride on, in the industries we depend on, the agriculture we need, the weapons we have to defend ourselves from the primarily russian hordes knocking on our shores.

Its our greed, our fear, our stupidity that sweeps us into the trash heap of timeless lost causes. 

Fascism and all of its mindless, deconstructive tendencies is merely one facet of an anti-revolutionary future because we've allowed authoritarianism in many forms, christian and other religious belief systems that make no sense in a modern world, a disbelief in radical change because we're all so fearful of giving up what we actually don't need, such as old ideas of authority and who or what we need to listen to.

I was watching abc local news the other night and there was a string of repeated anti-abortion advertisements during the commercial breaks that i haven't noticed anywhere else yet. For those, like me, who believe that california represents the most influential, though maybe not yet the most progressive, state in the us and this gives it a secure place in the fight against this growing lawless and violent nation, might start noticing that the fight will be pressed from the likes of florida and texas, the two main opponents of any liberalization or progressive values in america.

 

Are the congressional investigations into january 6^th merely a sideshow to prove how in america democracy and justice exist, yet time and time again the wealthy and powerful cohorts of this insurrection and other political Anti-heroics consistently go free, if they're ever held up to their misdeeds at all.

Biden and the democrats are continually trying to re-educate us in the principal that political power is maintained by hope and faith in stagnated legislative procedures rather than executive decision making, before the regulatory legislation of the last several decades was laid to waste, the lack of preparation for the enforcement of regulations portended the demise.

 

All those out there playing in the fringe between the animal world, believing they are genuine advocates and supporters of animal and natural world issues are being attacked by animals like tourists.

Religion is the first phalange.

We know what we don't want, don't need, don't have but do we have the slightest idea of what we can do, won’t do, or can’t do. How many barriers of tradition, institutional stagnation, bad ideas and beliefs are what's keeping us from move on.

Thank you george monbiot.

The Enemy Within

The enemy within

Yes, Merica is always at war, engaged in war, prepared for war, starts war, but where is the real battlefield?

Right here in Merica's homeland. Where every day there are casualties, deaths, threats from weapons of war wielded by an unrecognized, ill-defined enemy, embedded it's own citizenry, embellished by illusions of grandeur and arrogance.

This enemy can only be characterized by it's motto, "I have the right to defend myself", a microcosmic variation of the larger nation's mantra, "we have the right to defend ourselves."

In Merica, self-defense and security are of paramount concern. A nation filled with laws on the books but one of the most lawless places on earth, plenty of opportunity for greed, corruption, capital adventurism, and, of course, lawless defense of the right that makes might.

We are rafah.

Our nation will only protect its corporate, nationalistic, and imperial interests. It is time we, the real people, defend ourselves. Don't Give Up the right to self-defense, Resist.

Yes, there are so many things in our personal lives that may interfere in dedicating ourselves to the denunciation of those who are terrorable, masterminding and enforcing terror around the world.

But it is our personal lives that are the ultimate revolutionary weapon. We don't need guns, we dont need THEM. Don't buy, dont believe, don't participate. You can still take care of your mother, educate your children, go to the grocery store, take a vacation, dance, even pay your taxes, BUT NOT FOR THEM. 

Maybe the one of Jesus sayings was "Give unto caesars what is caesars, give unto god what is gods"

What is gods? Well, historically, THEY have made themselves god and convinced us that what they represent is god, or god gives THEM the right to do whatever they do. 

Do you think thats true?

Does god really have a tribe, a religion, a nation it favors, like a jealous, trite, envious fickle child? Every civilization has risen on that principle, god protects, god is us, we are gods children.

No, we are not gods children. God is not our nation. Having the most powerful military nation on earth does not prove gods favorite nation. Civilizations come and go. Go visit the ruins of both modern and ancient Iraq, Turkey, Khartoum, Africa, Western Hemisphere, Southeast Asia, everywhere.

Technology is the only significant difference between the old and the new, but not the evolution of Man. There is hardly any difference between the governance of the Pharoahs, Aztecs, Grecian and, now, the Western civilizations (including the US).

Everywhere civilizations and gods have gone, the people (which is us) have suffered and not been allowed to succeed. We were converted, subdued, oppressed, enslaved, massacred.

Oppression happens in the mind, destroy freedom in the mind. Not the Merican type of freedom where we supposedly should believe we deserve anything we want (our very wants created by THEM). But the freedom to live our life, free from the imposed beliefs in what THEY say are, or should be, our desires, wants, and needs. Those things aren't ours, they are THEIRS.

Free your mind and you will be free. Our minds have been collecting trash, like the rest of society. How many times has anyone said when looking at an homeless encampment, why so much trash?

Its almost a sociopathological entrapment of the Merican dream.

Its all they have. There's a certain amount of comfort in it and when its all you have, a little comfort can go along ways.

Well, my friends, our heads are just as bogged down with all the philosophical, intellectual, socio-political trash, were no longer able to make sense of hardly anything, except if we relent and try to accept what we know isnt true or bullshit.

What real choices do we have? Take sides in any war, invest in the stock market, worry about our children's future, be anxious about our communities, worry, worry, worry.

I' m not saying Dont worry, be happy. Im saying, Figure Out Yourself, Then Happily Resist.

My Debunking

 

Sometimes i think its my sole purpose in life to debunk commonly held beliefs. It does take a certain amount of arrogance, i suppose, to do this but i also think that its those commonly held, yet unproven, beliefs are what hold us back from, not only self-realizations about the world we each live in and for, but also which keep us as human beings from ever understanding the dire dilemna we are in.

Take for instance, the belief that good overcomes evil. This belief is riddled with the rapid fire of religious and spiritual hope, more or less, justified when common people had, and continue to have, one recourse and shelter from the onslaught of Men's ability to usurp the collective spirit of hope and turn it into their own pleasure-greed, power, domination-and convert the power of a just and omniescient god into the cynicism of violence without repercussions.

When i was a young man i read Exodus, the story of the fight for the state of israel. The story was the gallant and heroic epic of the men and women who helped realize the state of israel.

It always seems to be that those who fight for freedom tend to, once accomplished, turn the screws on freedom in order to preserve the underlying lie freedom hides.

Leon Uris didnt say much in the course of his novel about the lie behind the fight, the lie being that the heroic men and women who believed god was on their side and that lie is the basis of all men's justifications for violence and retaining power.

It's apparent that jews as well as christians and every other religion and sect don't rely on god to save anyone anymore, there is only faith in military might, might makes right and what they believe meets god's approval, rather than the wasteful nature of prayer and patience to get what you want. Why wait for prayer when anyone can get what they want, when they want it?

HPD-Historyonic Personality Disorder

 

We’re all imbued with HPD, make the best of it. After all, even as history and hysterical march onward together hand in hand, like lemmings to the sea, leaving even the most temporarily celebrated of us long dead, cremated, flown, blown and dispersed, like common stars, there are more of them than grains of sand on all the beaches in our world, you know?

If stars can be so commonplace then certainly, we, as lonely billions can stand out and up while we can, in gods flighty hand, we will be replaced,

By the ticking sands of time, only momentarily remembered by others dreams and awakening crimes.

 

There’s not a nation in the world in which you can loudly criticize the government, including this one, my country tis of thee, America is my country, my stamps prove it. I get the proofs before i open my eyes,

Imagine it, i am stamped, "grade a prime us merican citizen material (provided i pass the gender, race, class, and immigration tests with high marks). SATISFACTORY! 

I am a veteran yet no matter how loud i protest, i can do nothing to change my country's imperial designs.

I am impotent, unable to stop my country's long, historical march toward promotion of war.

So long sen sanders. Your generic “Israel has a right to defend itself”, put you back on the shelf of all settler mentality

I want to ask democratic liberals who once again will be/ are faced with the so called a democratic choice DILEMNA of a fascist like trump and an always on the fascist cusp like biden. Will you once again try to elect the closeted democrat simply because it’s the lessor of two evils. 

When does democracy begin, anyhow? 

Welcome people to the historyonics of america. From the institution of slavery, to wounded knee, to the trail of tears, to the assassinations of king, malcolm, kennedys, the acceptance of apartheid, segregation, lynching, and the wars of attrition, of revenge, the lies that proceeded them.

And the god almighty refrain, “We have the right to defend ourselves.”

Let’s see how far our government is willing to go for the sake of MONEY?

But don’t wait for it.

Vote No!

God's Special Little Beast

 

God’s Special Little Beast

Karl Marx was probably a genius, as Charles Darwin probably was also. Anyone who can go against the mistaken assumptions of what was current popular trends has to either be a genius or a fool or both.

So here I go, being foolish or a genius, but certainly not trendy.

Marx and social thinkers like him, including anarchists all made the mistake, continue to make the mistake of assuming that consciousness (or knowledge) overcomes the time constraints of evolution. Evolution, on the other hand, doesn't involve itself with time. It's purely opportunistic and has no particular end game in mind, no preserving of the human race because it is chosen or thinks it is. Humans like to believe we have some special purpose, after all, why are we here and since we seem to be the only species that asks itself that, or tells itself it has some special significance, we conclude it must be because of a god’s preference or because we have a special purpose. Unfortunately, that prospect has no proof whatsoever and is only substantiated because religionists and nationalists give credence to it and incorporate it into their social, cultural, and economic institutions.

We are aware of what Mother Nature can provide or can take away and what we, ourselves, can do for ourselves and create through technology. We can believe we're capable of doing anything, at least, only within the societies that foster that notion because right now most modern civilized societies feel they can guarantee the future, so those who are relatively comfortable can and want to believe it must be true because they can see the damage that Mother Nature brings down in societies which struggle to recover from any disaster. If everything was left to the whims of Mother Nature that would probably be true, but unfortunately, there are societies which create their own chaos by believing in some sort of religious or political destiny or fate for their way of thinking. Thus, one group of humans create scarcity, genocide, chaos on other societies without Mother Nature lifting a stormy finger.

That's the part of evolution, our evolution we can't ignore. Neither can Marx nor Darwin nor the Pope. 

 Of course, there are millions of like-minded people who don't just accept anything they were taught. Sometimes their resistance is "intuitive' and sometimes it's historical, where they just know from experience what is lies from what is accepted truth.

The problem is with Marx or with Darwin, everything falls back on some form of magical realism, such as a dictatorship of proletariat or simply the theory of evolution itself changes over time toward some sort of prophesized perfection but evolution never creates perfection because Darwin is right that the weak won't survive simply because they are in a time and place that does not suit them. In another time and another place, it may be different. 

Religions rely on the notion that no matter what, God will take care of us, but in all honesty have you ever seen anyone, except extremists, rely on God's will. It's impossible. Religions and nations soley rely on the premise that it isn't prayer that saves us, but superior armies? All theories end up sounding like another version of the apocalypse or of the human supremacy theory most religions foster. If we apply proper evolution to Marxian revolution we're probably being more accurate in our assumptions about how the future will look, in human terms. 

There can never be a perfect society that continually "progresses" without limits imposed on population growth, resource management, instilling co-operation between all members of the species. On the other hand, social theory cannot create a perfect society any more than evolution can create the perfect human being to manage all that perfection. Most of the current charlatans, called politicians, generals, and preachers understand this so are constantly reminding us that until the day comes (which it never will, as they well know), we should rely on them to keep it sorted out for us. It's like inviting a tiger into your home and family to maintain order.

Humans have already bypassed the opportunity to live in a sort of paradise which the Earth is but living in an environment that is both sustaining (benevolent) and dangerous(contradictory) but then again, A paradise which also has the dire wolf, the cold, the hot, the waterless places, the ever- changing world is a living maze of survival tactics.

The truth is, we’ve replaced illusions about security, safety, even normalcy in the hands of people who care little about the future of society in general and who only care about their own well-being.

Truly, a people of survival of the fittest. All the great philosophies have assumed the that all greatness comes from some sort of benevolent, authoritarian personalities and moved rapidly away from the belief we “are all god’s children.” All bastards of luck, chance, and whimsical contradiction is what we are.

We can’t go back to where we (humans) were, back to before societies were over run by brute force, shoved off lands people grew up on, the little paradises where humans had carved out their niches, their places that had meaning. In just fifty years I hardly recognize Sacramento. Change is not necessarily good. In fact, the only thing one can say about change is it happens, that’s all.

Our social, cultural memories have been consistently washed away. We’ve made the old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt” a normalcy, all we’re left with is a form of nostalgia about our past. All the social media venues continually expose the fact we have to all keep moving en masse through time, pushing and shoving, trying to keep up, forward we must go, hardly looking back, fearing if we do we will turn into a worthless pillar of salt. Yet, those in front, those who have chosen to lead us, are as fearful and blind to what’s ahead as we are but cannot stop, like lemmings we eventually will reach the cliffs edge.

 

The future could be a tremendous bust.

 

If the rational mind is merely the culmination of a new type of teeth and claws then evolution doesn’t lead us anywhere. Even the most skeptical among us has to understand that whetyher or not it was given to us or we transformed into it, we can think our way out of extinction, but we better put away the guns first.

Sunday Morning Sermon-written in 2012

 

 Another The More Things Change, the More It Remains the Same History

The Contenders

Yesterday Gingrich won the SC Primary thus throwing another monkey wrench into the Mitt Romney Presidential nomination race. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for this pitiful bunch of presidential contenders. it's the worst bunch of characters I've ever seen. And to think one of them will be the nominee running against an unpopular but relatively nice guy who has done nothing to change the conservative think tank called america. When the chips are down the money will go with the incumbent.

But wait.

I've been wrong before. OK many times.

In 1968 I was running with a liberal crowd, which is the only name that passes for revolutionary change in this nation, and we were amassing hundreds of thousands of people at demonstrations, pep political rallies, and concerts. The liberal agenda was on the march. Anti-war, civil rights, abortion rights, women's rights, we were on the move.

Then along came john- the "silent majority". Nixon won that election and got to be the one to initiate a new neocon and neoliberal philosophy together. Make very heavy war in Southeast Asia while opening trade doors with China, our supposed archenemy and the future of capitalism.

I never thought it could happen. I was surrounded by my liberal compatriots but evidently, we were surrounded by the silent majority. Like the old joke about the lone ranger and tonto being surrounded by indians. The Lone Ranger turns to Tonto and says, “Looks like we're surrounded friend. What do you mean "we" kimmosabe? Tonto replies.

And so it is with this. I thought George Bush was too dumb to be President too. People would see through him but he was in the right place at the right time.

I think he was a dupe for forces way beyond his control but he knew how to stay in the game and not fold. Obama is the same way. He uses the popular moment and runs with it.

One lesson learned for me is that I have no idea what or who is controlling this country. The political philosophy running this country is akin to believing in a religion. Some things you accept because even though you don't understand it, there is someone who says they do, and they're kind of like you in appearance so you accept what they say.

Who are these contenders?

They are the ones like all the others who bring us every day to the new world order. The new world order brought to you through legislation, corporate/bank risk economics, neoliberal political philosophies as manifested by the ongoing war and domination philosophies of the western world nation. All this is backed and supported by military and law enforcement agencies worldwide since they all have one thing in common-to protect those who have from those who want.

There will never be a change in Personnel who transpire to change policy. Homeland Security has made real change impossible, if it ever was possible, by going through a statutory legislative process. This is, of course, intentional. If Sept 11 was a surprise, it should be more of a surprise at how quickly and easily any semblance of democratic principals were put aside, and this will be forever. The fact that you or me are still able to say fuck you to the government is not proof we still live in a free society. We do not.

Think about this when looking at your choices for president.

About 1271 government organizations and 1931 private companies work on counterterrorism, homeland security in 10,000 locations across the US and 854,000 people hold top secret clearances. if you wonder what all these people are doing, figure there are 50,000 intelligence reports.

These Republican candidates are the epitome of this new society. If there is any sympathy from me to anyone it is to Obama because until he really does prove that he is a true fascist like his republican counterparts I believe that like or unlike Sept 11, the economic crisis that exploded in our midst nearly four years ago is another "accident" that happened to set a course that Obama became mired in from his first day forward.

These four jokers-Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul- will only entertain us until the next big crisis is foisted off on us. Probably Iran.

(2024 note- Or Ukraine, or Israel, or climate change, or Trump)

 

The Prophet of Dystopia At Rest- An Answer to a Question of Integrity

 

Yvon Grenier- Associate Professor of Political Science at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, former editor of Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

The Prophet of Dystopia at Rest: Margaret Atwood in Cuba

Atwood allowed herself to become a compliant guest in a country that checks almost all the boxes of totalitarianism, minus extensive terror: a single-party state, no rule of law, arbitrary arrests (2,000 of them during the first eight months of last year), stultifying media (even Raúl Castro says so), and a regime of censorship that allows no freedom of speech, association, and only limited freedom of movement; a country with half-empty bookstores selling the same few official writers and hagiographies of the dear leaders.

I’m going out on a limb here but I am going to assume Yvon writes under the auspices of the Catholic Church, either as a Catholic community member or as an affiliate of the Catholic University he represents.

So if you think my “going out on a limb’ discredits me then please don’t torture yourself any longer by continuing to listen or read. That’s probably what I should have done when I read this article in the Quillette, not being familiar with Canadian conservative intellectual propaganda. This type of “intellectual” arguments are reminiscent of William F. Buckley, who of course, was very intelligent and literate and arrogant, as if speaking from a well- known position of cultural elite superiority and always above the fray emotionally.

The gist of this article is really not about Margaret Atwood’s literary career but more about the jealousy of people who think that a writer who is successful writing, in this case, dystopian novels, should understand like her critic understands, you cannot rest and enjoy Cuba without knowing the horrible conditions underlying there, as represented by said critics noble expertise of Cuba’s totalitarianism.

First of all, let me say that all the apologists for America’s treatment of Cuba, the sanctions, the fostering of plain ol ignorance of Cuba’s past prior to those mean, nasty Castro brothers all relies on those few remaining wealthy, dying refugees from the revolution, much like the English supporters in America before it was America, the ones who didn’t support the American revolution and in the end returned to England  destitute and without rank or power.

In other words, critics of all these changes that take place in former or current American colonies and ghettos must maintain the purity of the American state they live in, or Canadian-American exceptionalism, as in the case of Yvon Grenier.

It is truly ironic that with the uncovering of thousands of Native born children from their unmarked graves recently because of the Catholic Church’s high and mighty supremacy over God’s little children, forced education and pedophilia, not to mention an historical record of sanctioned hysteria throughout it’s genocidal, war inducing, and power seeking in the name of Jesus. What false is buried here in a Canadian conservative criticizing a novelist about visiting a country which even if you count the ones the US and Canada say you can visit ranks no where near the top of the list of failed and failing democracies, if that can be said at all. Does the writer (Yvon Grenier) not want Atwood to write about dictatorships until she understands things the way the writer wants her to? Does he think she’s breaking Canadian law or just want Canada to punish her. Or someone else to punish her for being intellectual dishonest.

It really seems the writer wants us to believe that even her choice of good literature isn’t up to his standards.

My God, can I say that as an atheist, she writes Fiction, doesn’t she? I guess if she were Hannah Arendt, she could argue with Mr Grenier on equal terms, political dystopia in America vs dystopia of the Catholic Church. If there ever was an institution whose dire outlook on the world has brought the world to near moral extinction it is the Catholic Church. And being the atheist/anarchist I am I can say I don’t care that Yvon or the Catholic Church he probably represents exist, I just don’t think people should pay them the regard they believe themselves to deserve.

 

Fbi spy

News feb 2023

If anyone thought the fbi stopped spying on activists after their destruction of the black panther party and anti war activists or after the chief henchman- j edgar hoover-not gonna happen, never happened. Now the fbi has raised its ugly head in the black lives matter and if you think thats all they spied on, never gonna happen, never happened.

Theyre out there, watching, taking notes.

And if you think those notes are never going to be used, then you are mistaken.

The government is watching, always watching, and always has been.

Like racism, domestic surveillance can be taken for granted.

Are there any courageous cops? It appears not. The corruption in policing extends beyond its community violent, gangster mentality.

Modern Policing as well as modern gunman mentality comes out of southern militia patrolling and trolling for escaping slaves and family values. Later, the police became first line defense for political corruption, mafia and gang influence, and almost completely immune from judicial review.

In other words, policing institutions, like racist, economic institutions, are exempt from any real public oversight or criticism.

They are not free of the already institutionalized codes of conduct or ethics established by the status quo.  They are servants of the law of the day, no matter whether any law is morally or humanely right or wrong.

Sent from my iPad