We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 5, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, February 5, 2021

CounterPunch runs Urie's articles occasionally to demonstrate their radicalness, but this is all pretense. Usually they post articles that support the ruling capitalist class with emphasis on criticisms of the government. However, the legitimacy of capitalist classes is increasingly being called into question and doubts are rising. The people at CounterPunch don't want to be left behind. Worse yet, nowadays pretense is omnipresent in our capitalist culture.
Because the rising capitalist in the 18th century had a sufficient answer to the existential quandaries of humans, and the rule of a small group of aristocracy, which based their rule on inheritance, whose ancestors had conquered lands and enjoyed papal support for their rule, became no longer viable. Capitalists were able to attain state power based on individual "ownership" of economic property. This class took power away from feudal authorities and soon learned that "ownership" of economic property brought other rewards such as political influence. Under this class's system of capitalism, economic property became a commodity to be purchased in some market; and today this class has, through the consolidation of property into a few hands, taken control of many nations.
Starting in the late 20th century, capitalist classes used feudal inheritance laws to consolidate vast economic properties. They soon saw opportunities in other nations to acquire property which gave them more influence within their native countries and beyond. They no longer felt bound in nation-states in order to pursue their goals of ever increasing consolidation of property. Thus, arose a transnational class of capitalists with an ideology of neoliberalism. ("neo" of course means new, and "liberal" refers to the classic definition of capitalist ideology. They, as a ruling class, have imposed this term because it sounds much nicer than transnational capitalism.) Wherever possible, this new class has removed national barriers from restrictions that nations have imposed on the exchange of commodities.

It was soon to become apparent that the capitalist belief that you could simply buy economic property in some market and accumulate ever increasing profits and power was mistaken. It could, and did, lead to many other social problems like gross inequality, crime, wars, etc. Soon people learned that the source of individual wealth was strongly influenced by class that you were born into which gave advantages such as educational opportunities, opportunities provided by family wealth, political and economic social connections, etc. The new Protestant Christian sects of the Reformation can no longer convince most people to support capitalist rule.

However by this time, ruling capitalist classes gained so much social and political power that they could limit such recognition and impose the values and norms of capitalism. This is when pretense and capitalist propaganda really set into motion. In the 21st century this trend was followed by increasing amounts of censorship and propaganda that validated capitalism and capitalist rule. This is where we are today: capitalist class overwhelming control of nations, powerless citizens, omnipresent censorship, surveillance of communications, and ruling class propaganda that is designed to hide truthful reporting of events, and the use of various sophisticated means of manipulation of thoughts of sub-classes. And, the frequent collapses of capitalist economies is contributing to this feeling of illegitimacy.  In short, the philosophical foundations of capitalism are increasingly being seen as illegitimate. What is much worse, the dominant system of capitalism is in terminal conflict with the forces of nature which will produce dramatic climatic crises, and will likely end with the extinction of humans and most other species that exist today.
  • You Never Know by David Perez from Off-Guardian, and independent weblog based in Britain.
  • Is the Current Climate Catastrophe Irreversible? by Vladimir Danilov from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: The future looks to me far worse than the author's. Note that he leaves his pessimistic essay on an insane false-hope. Anyone who believes that the Biden administration will rescue us from climate destabilization should seek psychiatric help.
  • American Marines Reclaimed Northern China in 1945 from Tales of the American Empire via their YouTube channel in a 6:59m video. (Note: This is for history buffs who got a history that was extensively revised and taught in American public schools.)
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