As an Anglo European white guy from a very long line of white guys, I want to thank all the brown, black, yellow and red people for a marvelous three-century joy ride. During the past 300 years of the industrial age, as Europeans, and later as Americans, we have managed to consume infinitely more than we ever produced, thanks to colonialism, crooked deals with despotic potentates and good old gunboats and grapeshot.
Yes, we have lived, and still live, extravagant lifestyles far above the rest of you. And so, my sincere thanks to all of you folks around the world working in sweatshops, or living on two bucks a day, even though you sit on vast oil deposits. And to those outside my window here in Mexico this morning, the two guys pruning the retired gringo's hedges with what look like pocket knives, I say, keep up the good work. It's the world's cheap labor guys like you -- the black, brown and yellow folks who take it up the shorts -- who make capitalism look like it actually works. So keep on humping. Remember: We've got predator drones.I remember reading that Bageant was living in Belize back around 2011, but I was sad to learn only today that he left us sometime during that year. I was moved by his articles because I think he and I were very much alike. I even thought about moving to Belize among several other places like Mexico and Ecuador--anyplace to escape brainwashed Americans. (Thank god that I was able to live in Canada for four years shortly after "9/11" when in the US a softer, although more effective, slide toward fascism began!) So, I am posting this as a token of appreciation for all of his writings.
Anyway, I thank the serious activists at Titanic Lifeboat Academy for this post. They tried in vain for many years to teach their fellow Americans about the environmental crisis we were facing and the necessity to live more simply and ecologically.