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

Saturday, June 26, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, June 26, 2021

Whatever else is true, it is creepy and tyrannical to try to place military leaders and their pronouncements about war off-limits from critique, dissent and mockery. No healthy democracy allows military officials to be venerated to the point of residing above critique. That is especially true when their public decrees are central to the dangerous attempt to turn the war posture of the U.S. military inward to its own citizens. 
 
But could it be that we don't have a "healthy democracy"? And, all our government institutions are fake? If we Americans ever wake up, our real masters might decide that it is time for outright authoritarian rule, or fascism. Perish the thought! So, to continue our peace of mind (def.) we must continue to pretend.
Although Shea draws among very important "secret" documents to argue his case, in my opinion, he draws the wrong inferences about preparing the American population for WWIII. 
 
In this new world of globalization created by neoliberalism, the transnational capitalist directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire will lose too much if a global nuclear war breaks out, and it is bound to do so if major powers resort to violence. Such a conflict will see the loss of most of their enterprises that sustains so much of their wealth and power.
 
The Empire directors have specialized in manipulating the populations under their control via propaganda and psy-ops. They have constructed an Empire through the use of the combination of these methods combined with outright violence. But because a global nuclear war would destroy most of their assets, they won't opt for a global war--except in only one situation. They will only do so as an act of desperation when they come to the realization that they will lose their Empire--which is a very real possibility. Excepting the latter condition, they will keep on what they have excelled at in the past: comprehensive propaganda and psy-ops to manipulate populations under their control in order to preserve and advance their private ownership and control of the economy. The latter will be combined with the new high-tech surveillance methods to eliminate or manage the many dissenting voices.

However, I think that long before the Empire directors will be in a desperate situation, the previously unthinkable climate crisis will be in the advanced stages. Because they will be a radically new situation, and I won't and can't predict what will happen, except it will ultimately end with the extinction of humans and most other species.