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Power and Diversity |
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August 22, 2003 "Though men now possess the power to dominate and exploit every corner of the natural world, nothing in that fact implies that they have the right or the need to do so." Ed Abbey We've recently experienced a juxtaposition of events that act as a prelude to the future, the near future at least, geologically speaking. The illegal, immoral and just plain disgusting invasion of Iraq by the government of the United States, exercising its unilateral power to make people miserable, and dead, the world over. The denial of power to millions of people in eastern North America, as a result of the abuse of corporate power by trans-national energy corporations over the people of the United States and Canada. The attempt to seize political power in the state of California through the application of economic power to buy off the power of the people to advance meaningful referenda to their state government. The overwhelming power of Nature to negate the puny efforts of human "civilization," if that's what it is, which I doubt, to squirm out from under the limitations of natural biological and geophysical processes forming our Universe for the past 13 billion years of so. Imagine the insufferable hubris of a human being such as George W. Bush, if that's what he is, which I'm beginning to question, and his gang of aging cowboys, in their pointy-toed boots and cute curled hat brims, thinking they can round up a whole country and drive it off in a direction completely contrary to any previous ideological disposition! Even noted Fascists such as Hitler, Franco and Hirohito admitted, publicly at least, that they were attempting to consolidate territory to ensure a ready supply of necessary energy resources. The Bush Regime can't even keep it's story straight from one month to the next. That's the problem with lying, it's hard to remember which story to stick to. Everybody has to be good at something, I guess. These crude, barbaric, thick-headed approaches to the consolidation of political and economic power are symptoms of a sick and dying society. The fact that the Bush Regime was able to bribe, steal and (probably) murder it's way into the White House clearly demonstrates a failure of leadership on the part of the government and a failure of democracy on the part of the people. "A leader leads from in front, by the power of example. A ruler pushes from behind, by means of the club, the whip, the power of fear." -- Ed Abbey Homeland (In)Security is the club, the whip and the fear, used to drive people away from democratic decision-making and toward the totalitarian vision of the Cheney cabal that took over the government of the United States after the most recent rape of Democracy. Fascist ideology is firmly in control of the United States government, and it remains to be seen whether or not the people of the United States can be sufficiently roused from their torpor to bring about a substantive change. The struggle we witness in today's headlines has been going on for over a century now, the struggle for freedom and democracy, opposed by the greed and avarice of totalitarian rule. Those who seek to manipulate the choke points of power in society have the will and the resources to apply the chains, the rack, the electric prods. Those of us who seek a simpler and gentler world are hoist upon our own petard of reason, diversity, compassion and justice. We cannot thrust our vision of society on others through intimidation, war and oppression; we are always at a disadvantage, always on the defensive. Our victories are few and easily overturned by the agents of power and influence. Yet we cannot shrink from our solemn duty. Once aware of the potential of mankind to live in peace and justice with other humans, and with harmony and cooperation within the non-human world, we can never remove that vision from our consciousness. We cannot go back to acceptance of the status quo that we know to be evil, limiting and ultimately destructive. Fortunately, we have two powerful allies: those natural biological and geophysical processes which gave birth to our species and have the power to bring about our extinction; and time. Mother nature always bats last and Nature is infinitely patient. Though we humans may make a graveyard of the globe in our search for power over others, we will never have the power to overcome and defeat the natural processes that have brought life to this planet. If we continue on this path very much longer, we will be batted aside as casually and easily as we would brush a fly off our pant leg. Even now, as global climate change has become unmistakably evident, we can change our society so as to minimize the detrimental effects of future changes on living humans and their supportive societies. We can seek to empower our people individually and in communities so that the people can find their own way, through cultural and biological diversity, through the coming trying times. Centralization and monoculturalism is a deadly path for any species, putting all of our survival eggs in one basket of strategy. We must emulate our forebears (and foremonkeys) and preserve diversity at every opportunity. We'll undoubtedly see more power outages, wars and political intrigues in the near future, as beat-up and groveling old Homo sap has never been very good at taking effective action based on long-term vision. Who knows, maybe we'll yet learn to use this head thing of ours to actually take control of our lives, throw out the bums, the ninnies and feebs, the corporate toadies and government sycophants, and get on with our true business, living as cooperative members of this world of diverse and seething life in our true home: the wilderness. Stranger things have happened. I'll not hold my breath. Michael A. Lewis Leona Gulch Pacific Plate |
FREEDOM! |
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August 12, 2001 Once again, we contemplate the social ills of our time: cell phones, traffic congestion, government oppression, the military/industrial complex, "nukular" waste, corporate dominance, international state terrorism, the continuing threat of nuclear annihilation. Our search for redress and solution is confounded by a lack of access to information, coupled with the preponderance of disinformation, misdirection and obfuscating newsertainment. We're not supposed to understand the underlying causes of our societies problems. To do so would be to lay bare the overweening agenda of our keepers and would-be rulers. Our world is dominated in all aspects of life by the corporate model of social organization, that is, centralized hierarchical authoritarian control. Coupled with an industrial trans-national capitalist economy, we are tumbling down a path leading to world domination by corporate interests at the expense of individual and group freedom and democratic decision-making. We are constantly inundated with advertising propaganda encouraging us to consume products for which there exists no essential purpose: cell phones, jazzy two-way radio/GPS/altimeter/weather/clocks, portable electronic date books, (words fail me here as I'm insufficiently plugged into the consumer network). The values of frugality, thrift, simple living, satisfaction with a simple and adequate life are lost and actively opposed by the ruling paradigm. Those of us who choose a simple lifestyle are viewed as anachronisms in a fast-paced, technocratic world. In The End, or perhaps The Beginning, the simple livers will win out, as the world ceases its ability to support such extravagance. All will be forced to change to a simpler lifestyle, have fewer children, live in smaller houses, travel less in individual automobiles, consume less and reuse more. The world simply cannot sustain the present throw-away, consume/consume/consume society that our corporate rulers would have us pursue. A society predicated on unbridled consumption cannot long endure. Its future is counted in two digit numbers, with the first digit less than 3. If I'm very, very lucky, I will live to see the collapse, economic, political or environmental, of this insane society, and a return, kicking and screaming, to a simpler lifestyle for all, a life of frugality, thrift and above all, freedom. Lobo Place East Mesa |