|
Look, movements for profound change--to overthrow fascists regimes, or stop wars, or to establish basic human rights that have been systematically denied, or to create or restore democracy, are not easy, and often take decades, if not centuries. Most human beings want to avoid conflict and stress, and are beset with day to day difficulties, and further have little clue as to the ways they are being disempowered and disenfranchised.
It is no different in America, now. I'm sure Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela had their moments of despair about the fearful or beset people whom they sought to represent and empower.
But they didn't give up, and, really, you can't give up, when democracy is at stake. You have no right to give up--no matter how difficult it is--in view of the sacrifices of thousands who came before you, some of whom suffered torment and even died for your rights--for the future.
It's okay to take a rest, if you are tired and feel despair. Renew your energies. Find new ways to inform and empower people. But the fundamental of changes for the good is faith that change can occur; faith in the flexibility and adaptability of the human mind; faith in the basic generosity and goodness of people; and an understanding that most people want peace and justice, and desire good government, and long for a better world.
You have to have faith. You can't just write people off, because they are not behaving in the way you would wish, or in the way that would make it easy to change the government or the rulers.
Clearly, our government has been taken over by a fascist cabal, with the coup de grace, in my opinion, being Bushite corporations (Diebold and ES&S) gaining control of the vote tabulation with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code.
I mean, it's just so outrageous--but also it is the logical conclusion of the rule of the United States by global corporate predators that has been in development for some time. They control our airwaves. They control our courts. They control our politicians and gov't policy. They now control our votes.
And what that means is that Americans are a particularly oppressed people. In fact, they are the victims of unprecedented propaganda and brainwashing. And I see much hope in the very strong facts that indicate that that brainwashing has not worked, not even a little bit, on the issues: huge majorities against the war; huge majorities against the use of torture "under any circumstances" (63%, May '04); and, indeed, huge majorities, way up in the 60% to 70% range, disapproving of every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic.
The only way that the brainwashing has succeeded is to convince the members of the great--and rather amazing--American progressive majority that they are in the minority. They have succeeded in disempowering and DISENFRANCHISING Americans; they have NOT succeeded in turning Americans into Bushite fascists.
When I read that statistic on torture--and when I read the stat on American opposition to the war BEFORE the invasion (58%!)--they remained indelible in my mind. These people don't need to be persuaded; they need to be empowered, or re-empowered.
IF they needed to be persuaded, that would be a different problem. If I thought that most Americans were rightwingers, and were, for some reason, wishing to undo a hundred years of social progress and national and international law, then I would say that our job, as thinking people and believers in human progress, is to, a) find out why--why do they want to be oppressed again, and become slaves and cannon fodder, as they used to be?, and b) convince them, teach them, encourage humanistic principles, help them see the benefits of fairness and equality.
But that is NOT the problem, in my view. The problem is that a minority--and I think a small one, that has in fact always been with us--has been given a BIG TRUMPET, to promulgate their views way out of proportion to their numbers, because those views are a means for the global corporate predators and the super-rich to distract and oppress us all, and commit unbelievable crimes of murder and theft, to pad their own pockets.
The other hopeful sign I see is that the Bushites' main motive is looting. They have no interest in governing or creating anything--not even a fascist state. They have little interest in convincing people of anything, and none in transforming society (say, as the Nazis were determined to do). They are just thieves. Their ideology is window-dressing. It is not sincere. And everything they do is not aimed at building something--a society, or a manufacturing base, or a good military machine, or a political consensus--it is aimed at creating chaos as an opportunity for looting and for war (and other kinds of) profiteering.
That is a different problem than Germany had in 1933. It may actually be more difficult to address than Nazism, because it is such an octopus of banks and interlocking corporations and military contractors and cartels and monopolies and rightwing "think tanks" with billions in funding. But it may be a very important strategy point to know what their true motives are.
There are some true believers among them--the neocons--but I really and truly do not believe that ideology is driving this. If it were, we would have no bankruptcy law, no outsourcing of jobs, no threats against Social Security, no lavish tax cuts for the rich and for corporations. Ideologues need RESOURCES. And they must have a prosperous middle class to support them politically and financially. They cannot carry out their ideological schemes for world domination with a bankrupt country that hates them.
Some people feel terribly spooked by the signs of Nazism--and I'm not saying it can't happen--and, for sure, some events, such as the current incursions into Syria, and the PNAC plan for U.S. Roman Empire II, point that way. It is paralleling Hitler's march across Europe, with lie after lie as an excuse for invading Poland, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, France. However, the Bush Cartel by no means has the consensus of the military or the intelligence community or our country's power elite to CONTINUE this imperialistic march; and it most certainly doe not have the approval of most Americans (who are very discontented), nor does it have the COMPETENCE to accomplish it.
Think Halliburton and no bid contracts. This billions and billions looted from the treasury. Think "Beggars' Balls" at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1928, with the glitterati all dressed up like hoboes and the homeless, dancing and drinking the night away under the sparkling chandeliers. Think incompetent, callous, over-privileged people, stuffing their pockets out of the pockets of the poor, and literally destroying a country.
Tsar Nicholas took it very far, indeed--pampering the super-rich and slaughtering the poor in imperial wars. And WW I was the end of him. A supine population can only take so much.
But none of the models of previous tyranny quite fit the bill. And we have a lot of history behind us, to teach us about things like the 1929 Crash, and of the unrelenting struggle toward the expansion of civil rights, labor rights and equality that has occurred here. History never repeats itself exactly. It is more like a spiral (as William Butler Yeats perceived), with certain recurring themes. We are a more educated and empowered citizenry than the Americans in the 1920s. We are far, far more heterogeneous than Germany ever was or will be. We have a strong tradition of democracy, unlike Russia.
As a people, we may not yet have perceived this strangling octopus that we have around our necks--because it has been more clever in gaining its stranglehold than previous tyrannies, and has more tentacles. It's not just Bush; it's those who have colluded to keep him in power against our will--including some Democrats. But Bush and his cabal have certainly exposed part of this animal that is squeezing us to death. Maybe that will be a good thing, in the end.
Think. Meditate. Renew yourself. Think what you can do to help restore our democracy and empower others. Don't approach people in a negative frame of mind, expecting them to disregard you. Have faith in their desire--that of most people--to have a good country, even if it is currently buried in despair and cynicism. And rest if you need to. It is not all up to you. We all have to create a good country. That's what it's all about: our collective consciousness, which we must all help to raise, and our collective will and effort, with each one doing their part.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
