Frankly, the schizophrenic US 'policy' (if such a farce can be called that) has merely re-affirmed my long-held view that there is no 'Diplomatic' end to this Genocide & Ethnic Cleansing. Only the end of the Vile Zionist Entity (a la defeat on the field of battle) will end this Tragedy.
The American 'Elite' & leaders ought to be thanked; they have demonstrated LIVE to the whole world that they stand for nothing, & Force Alone is the language they speak.
Rabbi Chananya Weissman of Jerusalem wrote: “Hundreds of terrorists were able to cross the border by surprise and capture entire communities with little to no military response for many hours, in a country blanketed by cameras, with supposedly some of the best intelligence in the world, and we're supposed to believe this was a surprise attack.”
Very nice and not to be rude, but so what? What part of criminal isn't understood? How many times do they have to say, "we aren't human" for you to start to believe them?
Never forget, that Hamas is fully backed by the Israeli Zionist entity since its very inception. Hamas and their leaders are the rabid Zionist's (and Christian ones) most precious assets to implement the steps needed for the creation of Greater Israel as a central, unrivalled powerhouse in the region.
That's funny ... thought the same thing ... or snorted ...plus at the same time, someone wound him up as tightly as possible, with a timed release built in ....
Like a scene from a Star Trek episode where another fleet commander used Nazism to save their planet, but when he tried to back track they turned him into a sort robot whenever they needed his public appearance.
I can tell you this; here in the West they hate whites pretty fucking bad too (poor
ones for now). They just haven’t started the hardcore genocide yet. I try and explain that to my brothers. Many are catching on at least to some degree. I guess lefties can feel good knowing skin color is not so important to the (((elite))) when it comes to wiping us all out.
You see this shit at least once a week. I assume you see it too sir. How can you explain seeing a young girl in high school getting her head slammed repeatedly against the concrete over and over again until the light leaves her eyes? Only severe hate ginned up by the (((media machine))) could suffice. As stated I assume you already know.
If there are any of those on the left on here complaining about Palestinian children don’t forget there are those over here suffering the same fate. These people are just as innocent too. So keep them and their families in your prayers as well.
There is definitely an agenda of 'Divide & Conquer' at play pitting people by Race, Ethnicity, Religion, etc. The good news is that their Narrative control has all but collapsed... now what remains is wresting away their levers of Power & Influence.
There is still a huge amount of racism directed at people of colour, especially if they are new immigrants. I think you are being a bit overly optimistic if you think it has "all but collapsed". In fact with climate change and the need for people to get away from continual disasters, I think racism and other forms of discrimination are going to increase.
Of course; that was the whole agenda, read about Cecil Rhodes and the round table, but from my recent readings this species has maybe two weeks before it goes extinct, sort of pisses me off, but then, that's what this species is all about.
Unfortunately it is human nature. Humans get rid of one tyrant for another. Popularity contests (election$)based on empty promises that will likely never come to pass but once in power they will become tyrants because they can..Because it is their desire to rule others. Violent revolution has a history of being worse than the regime that was revolted against. The West (US) has a policy of installing viscous puppet
tyrants in order to stay in power after the CIA coup. Across South and central America for over 100 years.
I don't think racism and other discriminations are part of human nature. That kind of hatred is a learned behaviour, not instinctual or part of how everyone is born.
While it is true that racism and hatred are learned behaviors. They are often used by those cartels we call government as a method of propagating fear, and to instigate wars. Also it is possible that a genuine survival response is to not trust anyone different by way of language, dress, habits, beliefs, including religion. Distrust of strangers is a very common reaction. As Mark Twain said "Travel is fatal to narrow mindedness, bigotry, and prejudice."
Maybe, but I don't think so. I grew up in a small, white, mostly Protestant south Ontario village. I hardly ever got to see anyone else. When I did, my first reaction was curiosity about who they were, why they were different etc. I wasn't afraid or distrustful but others have attempted to teach me to be that way, even as an adult. When my son was about 4, we moved to a city from a small, isolated town. He had never seen a black person before. We were in a restaurant and saw a very dark skinned man waiting for his order. My son walked up to him and took his hand, turned it over to see it was pink on the other side, looked at the man's face, then checked his hand again. The man was very OK with it and we both started laughing.
Many years ago I had a friend from Belfast who moved to England to find work. One day he went to a pub for a pint and next thing you know he was dragged outside and beaten nearly to death for his Irish accent.
I have met some really fine people from the USA. They were not billionaires or millionaires. They were kind and gentle people just muddling through like me. I can't though, think of one American leader that I think is really going to change anything at all.
At the Woman's National Democratic Club in Washington DC on March 7, 2024, The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discussed the crisis within the Democratic Party as the party grassroots revolts against President Joe Biden's vehement support for Israel's rampage in the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 30,000 have been killed to date - mostly women and children. Blumenthal points the finger at the Democratic Party establishment for crushing any and all iterations of antiwar politics, and illustrates how its most prominent figures have been bought off by the Israel lobby. ||| The Grayzone ||| Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com
I so wholeheartedly agree with you, I watched it live. I contribute to Max/Aaron's work. I no longer give to political candidates other than Jill Stein. So that funding goes to truth finding like Caitlin, Grayzone, Chris Hedges, Richard Wolf, Katie Halper, Vijay Prashad, Jimmy Dore, Matt Taibbi, Yanis etc. Vote Jill Stein, I think she is our last hope. That sounds so horribly hopeless. I guess that's because if the world can watch this Genocide of 2.4 million people and do nothing we don't deserve to ..........
The people are not doing nothing. There is plenty of resistance from the people. It is those in power, those who govern, those who could do something powerful to change the course of this genocide if they chose to do so. But they choose money every time.
I agree with Susan there are people across this world doing something, and I know that sometimes nothing comes of it. You can try, and as long as you are you're not a part of it, and that's something. I think if Israel carries this any further that will be the end of her and AIPAC since people seem more or less indifferent to war, but not genocide which targets a civilian population, children, women, health care workers etc, which imposes death and very often in slow motion. Israel will pay the price for this big time and she is too blind as is the US to see it.
Just think how quickly things could/would change, Landru, when the actual perps of 9/11, the ones who mass murdered 2966 usians and westerners on 9/11, then went on to mass murder up to 6 million more, hundreds of millions of lives wrecked and not a single Bush/Cheney neocon has been hung.
Okay, we have two good people, Susan & Fran!!! :-)
That does not fix the MAJOR PROBLEM that western nations are cesspools of evil masquerading as decent. NOTE WELL how the usa, NEVER brings "freedom & democracy" because that would mean that usa corporations could not rape & pillage all the nations the usa ILLEGALLY INVADES!!!
Well, since I was a kid I separated people from the government and perhaps that why I have a different perspective. Listen to Max Blumenthal talk about democrats, put a link up, and you'll be in heaven.
Those who govern in the USA never bring "freedom and democracy" anywhere. They are more interested in money. that is why there are no universal social programs in the USA. The ones who decide to impose taxes never impose the taxes they should impose on those who become millionaires, billionaires, trillionaires at any human or environmental cost.
I know, I know, I know, ad infinitum, Susan. And they, "Those who govern in the usa" also know that they are PERFECTLY SAFE when all we all do is whine, bitch and moan.
This requires THINKING. whining, bitching and moaning is not what makes a democracy.
Regular people are often good anywhere they are. Do you think the "one thing" only applies to those in power? Well, for sure, not one right now is doing much to help anyone anywhere except themselves. Some in the USA seem to think that Cornell West or Jill Stein might be able to bring about some change. Maybe, if they can avoid being corrupted by all the wealth around that wants to corrupt them. The system is so corrupt right now, it will be difficult for anyone to do anything helpful to the people of the USA or the rest of the world.
"Name one thing that is good about the USA".... Answer.... millions of Americans... Some as good as it gets.... but MONEY rules America. If MONEY is ever removed from the power it yields, there may a few million lights that could be turned on.
It is indeed the Money Empire and the Emperor is the maximal owner of the world's banks. It's taken from 1694 (founding of the Bank of 'England') to date for the long game of usury to produce this socio-economic heart-breaking cancer we suffer from today. Interesting aspects of this include the fact that the money that is employed to enslave us is *imaginary* money, a con trick of staggering proportions. Ergo, the Emperor has no clothes. He might possess a nebulous Red Shield [in German: Rotes Schild] hovering around himself but other than that he certainly has no clothes but enjoys almost total power thanks to our zombie trance narrative kindly provided by his own bought & paid for media.
I advocate new money sources having stronger ground to stand on. There are complementary money systems ready for any community wishing to reject the current Zionist usury-based version of money. https://www.complementarycurrency.org/
You are correct about the usary. The unipolar control of the world must change. Russia and China are severely demonized yet they 'appear' to be the last vestiges of resistance to the Federal Reserve cartel and its fiat dollar tyranny. When the Brics countries get their system up and running. The US Empire of Lies will cease to be..As an American I hope the collapse won't be to violent. Yet we have allowed this to continue because of many reasons mostly Lethargy and Greed. Two of the seven deadly sins of society.
Agreed, there are possible alternatives. No matter who or what runs things, it's not so much who is at the wheel but what are basic fundamentals that would prevent money, no matter where is stored, from being our master. For that to occur, humans need to go back to the basic economies of the natural world, and if we stray too far from our roots, nature itself, it just doesn't work for any of us... i.e., wars, and more wars... There's a lot we can learn from what works in nature, as Charles Darwin exposed in spades. No one ever talks about NATURE in finding solutions for 8 billion people to live on Earth without serious conflict.
There is a mindset that's running about that reflects black and white thinking. Gee there are some good people in America and there are good things about American, and yes too much bad. Nothing is all black and white.
The natural world of the USA is sometimes quite impressive. Steadily being destroyed by the corruption of those in power and their constant encouragement of mindless consumption.
We both know that the usa's natural beauty is not what I am talking about, Susan. But I am sure glad you replied because that illustrates that there is NOTHING ELSE about the usa in the areas I am referencing that is good. That NOT A SINGLE PERSON has been able to put a "good thing" about the usa forward is VERY TELLING.
So now the thing that decent folks who desire change have to figure out is how to effect that MUCH NEEDED CHANGE. And voting ain't it. Just think how effective it would be if NOT A SINGLE PERSON VOTED IN ANY ELECTION. WTF could/would they even do?!!!
There are many good things about the US just leave out the politicians and focus on the rest. The world is better understood, well things are better understood if you leave black and white thinking out of the picture because things are best understood when you introduce shades of grey.
although we will run the experiment at SnoLab Canada ha. We in the u.s. are far to busy building Genocidal war machinery than funding science. Two very large array telescopes will be canceled in the middle of development. Many staff scientists are being pushed to retire. So with the good comes the bad. My family used to debate me about the need for funding core questions of science that may never do anything profitable or consumer useful. I end with, every dollar non-defense related spending in this environment is a dollar not spent on DOD. Silence.
Have to disagree with Bukowski here. He must have been talking about those who hang on to power and pretend to govern. I know quite a few people who think about injustice quite often.
The Genocide Democrats: Max Blumenthal speaks at WNDC Everyone needs to hear Blumenthal on Biden and the genocide in Palestine.
133,443 views
Mar 9, 2024
#TheGrayzone
At the Woman's National Democratic Club in Washington DC on March 7, 2024, The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discussed the crisis within the Democratic Party as the party grassroots revolts against President Joe Biden's vehement support for Israel's rampage in the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 30,000 have been killed to date - mostly women and children. Blumenthal points the finger at the Democratic Party establishment for crushing any and all iterations of antiwar politics, and illustrates how its most prominent figures have been bought off by the Israel lobby. ||| The Grayzone ||| Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com
Never mind with my request. I just found it and watched it. Thank you so much. Sending it around. Definitely voting for Jill Stein. Even if she's not on the ballot.
karl pomeroy: There is no ethnic group that wants to convey that impression, however there may be an ideological group that does imply that impression, whether they want to or not.
Thinking about it hasn't ever, won't ever change this perpetual system of "injustice", evil, Susan, because the system is now and has ALWAYS BEEN geared to be unjust.
because money is the measure of success. There are still people within this corrupt system who fight for justice, maybe on small levels, but they are there and they do fight.
The pundits, politicians, thought leaders and the rest of us have to start seeing how we treat each other as more important than making money. Instead of cutting back on health care, education, and money to help people living in poverty, it could be an idea to start taxing in a serious way, those that are making millions, billions, and even trillions of dollars and then using that tax money to make the lives of the people easier. And, of course, if we have any hope at all of seeing our poor earth revive and continue, we HAVE to stop these wars. I am not sure any of that will ever happen.
The politician law makers concern themselves only with the rich. A matrix of village meetings with full participatory democracy would soon sort out those corrupt psychopathic jokers.
Yes, we should return to the progressive taxation that existed under Eisenhower. All these claiming life was better then, might ought be clamouring for a return to this sole aspect in which it was demonstrably better.
Hi Caitlin. I started reading you after 7th of October and I have agreed with everything you have said. I thank you for your courage. However in this article came the first sentence I am not agreeing with: "We don’t know how to keep eight billion homo sapiens alive without destroying the ecosystem.” In a very general way, I would state that West does not know, very modern and historically privileged people do not know. Not a suprise!. But there are other people, other cultures, other regions, some that hold actually the “majority”, literally, who still remember that not so long ago we were able to have practices that were much more sustainable (from less production, less consumption to much less pollution). This happened while every Northern country entered into the race of making itself very dependent on oil, which means being very dependent on a cheap, easily accessible, extremely concentrated, source of energy to do things fast and intensively, in accelerating mode, for profit -while extracting and impoverishing other places and peoples-. At the same time, the “South” was convinced about “development” -legalizing extractivism-. Without this source of energy we would, probably, have continued our more wise, slow paced way of being, of existing. Modernity is not independent of the powers you see acting over Gaza now. It is not independent of Capitalism and thousands of associated ills. SO, coming back to your sentence: It is not the whole humanity that is jeopardizing what is left on the Planet. It is a particular culture. It is a way of understanding life. It is indeed a competition imposed by conquest using the military idea at industrial scale + the silent power organized by hegemonic economic ruling -again, one absurd idea over the rest of possibilities-. Research this: Not everybody base their existence on competition over the face of Earth. There is still solidarity, and me, at my age (45) still can say that I have had the chance to see that working in my country, Colombia. I saw this happening during my childhood among communities of peasants and it still happens, still surviving as the modern frontier expands to kill it, with all its twisted arguments that more and more people challenge and discredit by mere common sense -over there, the common sense is local!-. People in Colombia are killed everyday for defending their principles. Social leaders are called. So the resistance is being attacked, but still occurs and fluorishes. Go to Degrowth and research what it is (European self-criticism! well done). Go to post-development and research what it is. Go to the Latinamerican decolonial scholars and plenty of people writing in spanish or fighting in the territories in Latinamerica to see what are the solutions that those indigenous peoples and descendents of them, have proposed for decades to every socioenvironmental crisis on Earth. They are not heard in US, and still, that does not mean they don´t exist. They are part of the 8 billion. I am sure there are many more in Asia and in Africa. We are the majorities. Blaming the 8 billion for their ignorance is absolutely unfair. The West reveals its ignorance. The Southern elites are their arms and mouths and should also be blamed. But there are billions of people thinking differently. The dispossessed, the “nobodies”… very often the wisest.
Having been there it's fair to say I adore Colombia and have solidarity with her many troubled peoples. There are some really good people out there who ride the storms of needless tribulation & yet, amongst many other things, continue to possess a strong sense of humour!
Indigenous people in North America have a lot of knowledge about how to survive too. Also probably indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand. The colonizers have never considered that we should ever listen to indigenous ideas and colonizers as a group certainly do not understand anything about respecting the earth or the oceans.
To make matters worse the presidential election should be null and void as both Biden and Trump are agents for the empire, both willing to do its dirty work as ordered. If Americans value their republic now is the time to speak.
The fact that these two are front runners speaks to just how critical is the situation.
The fact that these two are front runners speaks to just how far from real representative democracy we are.
2/3rds of the American people don't want either one of these guys. They're just the choice the oligarchy and its machinery has given us. Again! Well, until Biden regretfully says he won't seek a second term and they pick somebody else for us.
"Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility. Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.
What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.
Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind.
In fact, an authoritarian system can be more democratic, in the sense that government decisions better reflect the popular will, than the system we currently have, because in an authoritarian system, everyone knows who is in charge and where the buck stops."
"The best form of government is benevolent dictatorship."--My dad
The problem is that dictatorships never remain benevolent. Sooner or later, the good ruler dies, and then all the problems with authoritarian governments become painfully visible to everyone.
OTOH, the Athenians used to choose their bureaucrats, or the closest thing to bureaucrats they had back then, by lot. It worked no worse than other methods, and better than many.
Yep. And Canada is in grave danger of having Pierre Poilievre in power. He would be happy to work with either of those 2. Even happier than Trudeau is (happy about working with them). Women would lose their right to abortion, immigrants would be treated even worse, poor people would have it even worse (if that is even possible), the money grubbers would be treated better and the world would go even faster downhill.
Susan, Your feelings about Poilievre resonate with my own. There's just something about Pierre that suggests he is impressed by power, which is in and of itself quite fitting for the multitude of politicians which only see power as their ultimate goal. Scary to me as a Canadian since he will be the next head honcho north of the US border.
They see power as the ultimate goal and power is measured in money. So they want to keep the money that needs to be spent on medical, dental, education, homeless shelters etc because those people don't need power like those politicians need it.
Yes... I've read that "Power corrupts and corrupts absolutely". The need for power however is instilled into our brain as soon as we are able to observe that the weak do not in fact "inherit the Earth", thus setting the table for the power grabbers in waiting. 'Love thy Neighbor' sounds nice, so long as your neighbor is not the local banking CEO and that your credit score gets a passing grade. The status quo is a hard party to crash but if enough people become convinced that there are alternatives, that ship can be turned around in a hurry... as Marie Antoinette discovered to her chagrin. I think the existence of homelessness is the most pressing issue of the human condition and ultimately sets the collective tone of how we deal with the world. Moreover, if we don't fix homelessness very soon, we may all be homeless.
When and if the people of the USA ever decide that its time to ban Republican and Democratic funding by the Zionists from AIPAC, the neocons, big business and Netanyahu’s spies who are thick on the ground everywhere, (most with dual US / Israeli citizenship), they will obviously try to direct their shekels to people like the Green Party.
Changing horses mid-stream would be a simple task when you already control 86% of the politicians. However, if you use facial recognition techniques to identify all the guests at the next AIPAC meeting and find a media source which will do a 50 page spread for all to view, and then make a movie in Hollywood, the people may finally see the real world of Biden Inc, the families of the killers of JFK and the planners of 9/11.
In the meantime, not a word. They have spies everywhere.
In Canada, the Greens as with all the other parties are victims of neoliberalism where the cat has their tongues, their identities erased, and the country colonized. Our Parliament maintains a polite silence on important on issues that matter while indulging in trivial pursuits, and political correctness.
He turned me into a writer. I was so angry at his betrayal of Canada I started writing letters to the editor and the rest is history. He was our first neoliberal PM and like Harper did everything he could to destroy the country. Sadly Canadians appear content to be a suburb of Washington as the empire destroys the American republic.
There is no time, no money for saving the planet and humanity. There is too much profit to be made and the USA with help from it’s toadies in Canada and France are about to occupy Haiti via their proxies from Kenya so there will be an endless round of murders of Haitian citizens to fund. So, no money for humanity, no time to learn to swim.
The only way 8 billion humans can live sustainably on the earth is for each individual to be willing to sacrifice. Sacrifice comfort. Sacrifice convenience. Sacrifice consumption. Yet sacrifice is the one word no one wants to hear.
I don't think this is true. Many in the developing world need to consume more to meet basic human needs. The US in particular needs to stop so much consumption, particularly driving cars (investment in public transport has been deliberately blocked) but many people feel they are trapped by all their possessions. and would like to live more simply anyway. Comfort and joy don't need to go anywhere.
Most "developing" countries are servicing back-breaking usurious debt to the IMF and other Western banks. They don't need more consumer items and neither do we. Westerners consume too much. It is a sign of addiction. Our GDP is actually created by interest. The government "gives" X number of dollars to the military--dollars that don't yet exist. It is paid through INFLATION. I call this a war tax. Our economy survives through war. There's a very good reason we have 900 military bases around the world. We give billions to other countries, 75% of which must be spent with American military product producers (most of whom don't pay tax or hardly any, BTW). This is a war tax. This money doesn't exist until the US government takes on more "debt". This lowers the value of every dollar. We are all paying I'd estimate between 20-30% war tax. For wars that haven't been declared by Congress and which most of us do not want to be paying for. I am not talking about income tax. That's on top of the war tax called inflation.
We have all the skills to survive on this planet. But instead of growing our own food we are working away from home to make someone else rich. This is nonsensical. You don't need to live in a McMansion. You don't need a car for every driver in your family. Facebook, Google, AI, TikTok, internet, computers, all these things are not necessary. Neither are six pair of shoes in your closet (or how many you have) or an air conditioner in every window and a washing machine and dryer in every home and all the gizmos advertisers convince you that you MUST have or die trying. The word "PR" stands for "public relations" which is a EUPHEMISM for fucking PROPAGANDA. Westerners really have no idea at all how much propaganda controls their minds and behavior.
Interest is money that never existed before. This is what billionaires get rich on. This is ludicrous. Stop selling your life away like this! What is the point to all this stuff?
You don't need much in terms of consumer items to live. You just have forgotten this. I had hoped the COVID lockdowns had taught at least Westerners the truth of this. But I guess not. Westerns are horribly addicted to consumption. It's an addiction. Go to any store on the weekend and watch your neighbors buy, buy, buy to fill that addictive emptiness. It's not a harmless addiction. It's a major reason for global warming. And a major reason for all these wars. Absurd.
I hereby sacrifice my share of society's overall usury 'debt'. Return to sender. Liquidate all the 'National Debts' upon the sacrificial altar. https://www.usdebtclock.org/ In my view, we must gird our loins, stop gnashing our teeth, and make do & mend with happy money instead: https://x.com/DomeLord/status/1767842052627206338?s=20
"We’ve got some ideas about how this could be done, but we’ve never actually done it. In the extremely short amount of time this planet has had billions of humans on it, we’ve never come anywhere remotely close to figuring out how to avoid cataclysmic disaster and nightmarish dystopia. We’re still very much on that trajectory, and because of the competition-based systems we have in place, nothing is happening to steer us away."
Caitlin's last sentence in that citation hit the nail on the head. We need to get rid of an economic world order based on competition and replace it with one based on cooperation, the sharing of our now mostly abundant resources thanks to the technology provided to us by the Industrial Revolution rather than allowing a few to have near-total control over how it's disbursed and to allow 99% of us very limited access to. That is, only as much as we can *pay* for with money. Which means, get rid of competition for resources; get rid of class divisions; get rid of money, and eliminate the cause of over 95% of all serious human conflicts.
Technology is not a great “producer of resources". Recomended for you: Tom Murphy, astrophycisist, writer of the Blog “Do the Math” for several years. We have a problem with technology! Second: Jason Hickel, on the colonial dimension of our socioenvironmental crisis. All you can read of him. Remember the resources come from certain populations somewhere on Earth? does it make sense to say that for those great outcomes of technology to occurr one has to exploit exponentially the resources of some far away people and make their well lived lives miserable? That´s where poverty starts. Poverty is not something “essential” that apeared because, yes… we didn´t have technology! There is a conference soon. Recommended topics will be discussed there: https://esee-degrowth2024.uvigo.gal/en/the-conference/program/call-for-abstracts/tracks/
I disagree, Angela, as post-industrial tech has enabled us to mass produce items that we need rather than create them by hand in small numbers. Hence, the Industrial Revolution enabled us to all but eliminate real material scarcity and to create an abundance for all for the first time in human history. The major limits on us doing that now are the product of an archaic economic system that requires money or "funds" to move these abundant resources because the industries and most of its tech are still owned and controlled by a few and run for their profit, not to meet everyone's needs. But modern technology enables us to move away from that mode of operating if only the 99% across the globe would break free from the psychological conditioning we're fed all our lives to collectively establish such a system.
If everyone on the planet socially owned this tech, there would be no selfish, profit-driven need to play the zero-sum game of capitalism, i.e., some benefiting at the expense of others. There is no longer any material justification for that, let alone a moral one. That is why poverty exists for so many in a post-Industrial world, and I certainly never said that poverty is essential. Quite the contrary, it's no longer necessary because of limited productive technology.
And to be clear, I didn't mean "necessary" in terms of being a good, favorable thing. I meant in terms of being unavoidable from a purely material standpoint. That was the case in the pre-Industrial era of human civilization for most, when productive forces could only produce a small surplus. But that is most certainly not the case in the post-Industrial world.
I'd say that technology is a tool in the human toolbox (since the beginning of time - i.e. ancient technologies = fire, wheel, spears, etc. then more advanced tech like steam engines, hand looms, electricity, etc. - you get the idea). Just as any tool, it can be misused and gamed to change the balance of power - giving the 1% the ability to control the rest of humanity.
>>"If everyone on the planet socially owned this tech, there would be no selfish, profit-driven need to play the zero-sum game of capitalism."
I'd say that what you suggest is utopian and not reflective of human society and culture (it may work for groups of ~500 people, but doesn't really scale to 8 billion). Further, capitalism is just the latest/current iteration of a FAILED ideology/economic theory (IMHO capitalism is inherently parasitic and is/was always doomed to fail when given enough time). Feudalism, mercantilism, etc. also proved to be inadequate systems - regardless of the use or sharing of technology.
I find our reliance on technology and our love affair with it may not be the right solution/path to follow - what we need is social technology (i.e. forms of human organizing, forms of cultural organizing, sharing, cooperation, forms of resolving of conflicts, etc.) rather than the technocratic dystopia that I fear we are headed towards.
I don't think improving our world in that way is "utopian" but very plausible. That type of cooperative, egalitarian behavior is not reflective of human society as we currently know it because class rule and its highly competitive rules still predominate. This effects our behavior based on what we must do to survive within it and the type of values it promotes, including the cynical belief that this behavior is immutably hardwired into our nature instead of environmentally induced. The ruling class *wants* us to believe that for obvious reasons, so Social Darwinism is heavily promoted by the privately-owned media and state-controlled schooling system.
All of those previous economic systems and iterations of capitalism occurred within the framework of a class divided economic order, and in a time period where we lacked the technological capability of producing an abundance for all. Now that capitalism has enabled us to industrialize society it has outlived its usefulness and historic purpose, and it's time to replace it with a new economic world order that was not possible prior to industrialization.
All that you suggested in your last paragraph is laudable and possible if we socially owned modern industrial technology and used it to free all of us from material want rather than for the profit interests of a small handful of owners. If we gave up this technology, all we would do is share an equality of poverty and be at the mercy of nature like our distant forebears.
Thanks for your thoughful reply. It contains many interesting points that are worth reflecting on.
>>"Now that capitalism has enabled us to industrialize society it has outlived its usefulness and historic purpose, and it's time to replace it with a new economic world order that was not possible prior to industrialization."
I find that statement very interesting, and you may be onto something that makes me want to think more deeply about it.
The reason I consider the scenario implausible is not because I don't see the value in it, but rather because I can't imagine a way to wrest power/control from the "global power elite" and back into the hands of the people. (Yes, maybe I'm somewhat pessimistic based on what I amalgamate/deduce from reading/learning about the last 7,000 years of history.) So maybe the problem is a "lack of imagination" on my (and other people's) part? Or a lack of "faith"? Or maybe such class structures/hierarchies always inevitably form when humans cohabitate in groups beyond a certain size? From what I understand, I know of no evidence that points to a different outcome (i.e. one in which humans are not invariably divided into classes on some basis or another for large sized groups for any significant period of human history).
Again, thank you for your response/explanation - definitely needs more thinking (on my part).
"The reason I consider the scenario implausible is not because I don't see the value in it, but rather because I can't imagine a way to wrest power/control from the "global power elite" and back into the hands of the people."
That, of course, is something the global power elite want us to believe for obvious reasons. However, despite the power they have, it's all based on *money*. That's an artificial creation that is largely an abstraction, and it will only continue to have value as long as the 99% continue to accept it. And until a vast majority of us decide we want to throw money to the wayside, take direct control over industrial technology ourselves, and use it to produce an abundance for all as direct compensation for reasonable contributions via work in a field we're good at and interested in without worrying about paychecks you cash in for money that gives us access to only a tiny fraction of what we produce, and in very unequal amounts -- but increasingly less for the great majority of the working class.
One way we can do this is by abolishing political parties altogether and establishing direct ballot initiatives in each state, and the workers can democratically and directly vote for the policies we want rather than begging and pleading with capitalist establishment politicians to give us. We can also start a new type of union that includes *all* workers, not divided based on vocation or employment status, with the goal of taking control of industry rather than bargaining with capitalist owners for the "best deal" with wages etc.
We can also start a worker-controlled political party to back that up in a legal sense, by invoking Article V of the Constitution. The Founders of America were savvy to the fact that radical change was sometimes needed, because the establishment of America, capitalism, and the overthrow of feudalism, the previous economic world order, was very radical and created a new world order. An economic democracy that I describe was not technologically possible at the time, but the best possible system -- the one to logically follow feudalism that the latter system gradually made material conditions favorable for -- was indeed established.
This has happened several times in human history. And if it happened before, it can happen again. And Thomas Jefferson himself said in the Declaration of Independence that it's the absolute responsibility f the masses to do this whenever it may become necessary. He never presumed that capitalism would or should exist forever. And that is something that too many workers do not "get" or fail to understand. Capitalism was the best possible system *at the time it was established,* but not the best possible system once civilization was fully industrialized.
The fact is, the working class of the world has the numerical advantage over the global capitalist class *by far.* There are now close to 8 billion people in the world, and a mere 1.5% of them are part of the global ruling class. Yes, they control the military and police, but the latter mostly consists of working class people. That is why the French police largely exerted no force against the multitudes of working class people rioting in France in response to Macron's infamous decision to extend the retirement age from 62 to 64 at the behest of top global capitalist Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. And they refused to shoot down or beat down the multitude of rebelling workers despite Macron granting the cops an exemption from the retirement age edict.
"Yes, maybe I'm somewhat pessimistic based on what I amalgamate/deduce from reading/learning about the last 7,000 years of history."
As noted, that was 7,000 years of civilization in a pre-Industrial era where class divisions existed and where productive technology only allowed a small surplus to be produced. This naturally resulted in the emergence of class rule, and all the accoutrements that go with a system of real material scarcity, such as currency, commerce, the pursuit of profit, etc.
But this is no longer the case since around the end of the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution provided us with the technology to create an abundance for all, not just a few, for the first time in all of human history. Prior to the establishment of class rule about 7,000 years ago, when production developed just enough to enable that small surplus, the economic order of humanity was primitive communism, where class rule did not truly exist -- but an equality of poverty prevailed, thus taking a very long time for productive progress to occur, until ancient chattel slavery became the first class ruled economic system, which eventually gave way to feudalism, which eventually gave way to capitalism -- which can now give way to an economic democracy, where we can finally dispense with class rule after 7,000 years.
Human behavior is largely influenced by the environment in which we live, and nothing influences us more than the economic order in which we are forced to conduct our lives and achieve our livelihood within.
"So maybe the problem is a "lack of imagination" on my (and other people's) part? Or a lack of "faith"? Or maybe such class structures/hierarchies always inevitably form when humans cohabitate in groups beyond a certain size?"
I think it's the result of a cynical view of humanity that results based on taking a look at history and not taking into account the changes that occurred over that time, and without considering that levels of technology prior to the Industrial Revolution made inequality and class rule inevitable during that time. Instead, we presume that the failure lies in human nature rather than what the material conditions at the time allowed, and how our behavior and manner of living was affected by these material factors as opposed to something within our intrinsic nature as a species.
And this was greatly aided and abetted by ruling class propaganda to make us think that humanity can't do any better than what we have now, and that the ruling class deserves their obscene privilege in a world of material abundance, etc.
"From what I understand, I know of no evidence that points to a different outcome (i.e. one in which humans are not invariably divided into classes on some basis or another for large sized groups for any significant period of human history)."
Because, as noted, technology has only become capable of getting us out of that situation in the very recent past. We just have to make the psychological revolution and be willing to let go of what we're familiar with and dispense with our negative thought conditioning to initiate the material revolution that is now possible. We need to consider the limits of what technology could do during the entirety of human history compared to recent history since the Industrial Revolution.
We also need to consider that it takes time for that necessary psychological revolution to take place, as we have all been heavily subjected to propaganda to justify the prevailing system going on "for eternity." The ruling class knows that moving on to a better system will only happen if the vast majority of us comes to believe that it can, and take appropriate action. But they see it in their best interests to prevent that from happening, as do many workers who are emotionally attached to the familiar. Thomas Jefferson noted this phenomenon in the Declaration of Independence and heavily critiqued it, since feudalism and worker loyalty to it went on much longer than it needed to because of this.
"Again, thank you for your response/explanation - definitely needs more thinking (on my part)."
You're very welcome, and thank you also for listening and for your cordial engagement. If you want to see more of my words, you can check out and subscribe to Lightning Press here on Substack.
It will probably happen whether or not we try. "Blooms" are rather the way of Nature.
Jared Diamond pointed out what appears to be the history of Easter Island, a place where people set up shop and then depleted their resources (in this case, timber) to the point that they could no longer sustain their own civilization. When they were later 'discovered', it was almost impossible to believe that the small, malnourished and primitive folk who lived there were descendants of the same people who erected the famous stone statues.
Apparently, we are just a dumb as bacteria in a sealed bottle.
The mass destruction of Korea in the 1950s The mass destruction of Vietnam in 60/70s The mass destruction of Libya and Iraq and too many countries ro name them all But to the last one Gaza all destroyed b y the same power thew US Neocon power. But Neocon is a mask of Zionism which controls both the country which is doing the destruction Israel- and the supplier of the means of destruction the U.S . Stupid evil is still evil. But highly intelligent and massively powerful evil is terrifying and we are living in its midst
Biden like all US presidents is being told what to do by Israel. That’s much more than election interference that shitlibs are bonkers over thinking that Russia got Trump elected. AIPAC should have long ago registered as a foreign entity.
Who will use the pier when the genocide is over? And toward what means? A "floating island" would be quite useful in producing natural gas and oil in the Mediterranean, methinks. And WHO destroyed Gaza's port to begin with? The solution is obvious. The US has a military base a few kilometers from Gaza. Return the Philadelphia Corridor to Gazans. Shoot down any Israeli plane in the sky over Gazan territory. Hamas can take care of the ground troops, apparently. And force open the border to Egypt to humanitarian aid trucks. Now. It is unnecessary for Israeli presence in Cyprus. WTF? Or a month or two delay to "build a pier". Ridiculous. In a month or two how many Gazans be alive, do you suppose?
Foreign money is not supposed to be allowed in our elections. I would include dual nationals in that. The government has been admitting the out-sized influence of an "unnamed" foreign country affecting our elections for years now. If you were listening. If it was Russia, they would have had no problem naming the country. It was Israel.
"There's an oil man or a banker or both behind every war we're ever in."--my aunt Thelma, Texan, suffragette, flapper, socialist with a touch of anarchist, satirist, and party animal, Austin 1980.
"And force open the border to Egypt to humanitarian aid trucks."
But many people in Israel’s government have said that their goal is to cleanse Palestinians from Palestine and the West Bank so why shouldn’t we believe that is the goal? And yes how many people will still be able when the pier is built? Babies and children probably don’t have 2 months. Besides Israel still gets to decide what goes in. Anesthesia and vital medical supplies are being blocked by Israel.
I’m seeing lots of articles that point out what the real goals are.
No question, Sam. The Israelis want to kill as many people as possible by bombing. And then they want to starve to death as many people as possible. The people under the rubble they want to die. And they go out of their way on the ground to kill pregnant women and premies. Then, when they can't bomb any more, they can't starve anymore, they can't shoot anymore, they think they are going to push people into Egypt or maybe the sea. And the Americans want this to happen. I know the Americans are not going to save the Palestinians. I can only hope Israel self-destructs. They have been committing genocide since 1948 and actually they began killing Palestinians decades before that. The Israeli government is full of psychopaths who were once outlawed. The Israeli voters have a lot to answer for. The people participating in the IDF have a lot to answer for. The Americans have a lot to answer for.
And this is a show that is coming near you. This is a test case. This is something that will show up in the US and Europe. You wait and see. You saw the "fire" in Lahaina. Do you really believe that was not planned? The fires in Paradise, CA. Have the residents returned? The destruction of Syria is very similar to what the US and Israel did there. This is not an isolated situation. Look what they did to Iraq. And they've even said they want to do it to Jordan.
This is a lot bigger than Palestine. Everyone should be fighting this. But I guess they aren't because the Biden Administration is not frightened by the consequence to this country at all. The Biden Administration (and presumably the Trump administration will too since they are sucking the same balls) want to destroy and take control of the entire Middle East.
I wish Israel's neighbors would cut them off entirely in a siege. But they are not. Some are. But the big ones--Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, even Turkey--are waiting to see how much they can acquire after it's all "over". Vultures. And Israel is already holding land auctions in the U.S. Their economy is a mess. The more Israelis are killed (in the IDF) and the more Israelis come to their senses and leave, the smaller the Israeli population will become. Eventually there will too few Israelis to continue running that country and it will fall in on itself. I hope I'm still alive to see that blessed day.
American foreign policy is run by dual American/Israeli citizens and they are the last people to have an unbiased opinion of the region and the two peoples currently locked in an existential struggle. The scale of wanton murder by the Israeli Defence Force hasn't been seen since the slaughter of Russian Christians in the 20s and 30s by the Jewish/Bolshevik Cheka, NKVD, and the GUGB that eventually warped into the KGB in 1954. Is it a coincidence that we are dealing with the same murderers today?
I'm hoping this is the beginning of the end of AIPAC. People world wide are taking to the streets and advocating for the Palestinian people and standing up to AIPAC. I really think change is going to come in this regard. I really can't see how Israel will survive the carnage she's implementing. The world is not looking kindly at Israel at all, and I hope she will become a liability to the US.
Giving israel the 'she' pronoun profoundly contaminates my notion of the Goddess. israel is not a country. It is a Zionist curse. israel is an occupying force only and not a country. israel is an 'it' and a temporary one at that. Down the chute with it & don't bother recycling it. Palestine will outlast her tormentors.
Okay see your point, just habit. Go to the Grayzone with Max Blumenthal who gave a lecture on recent events in Gaza and America's role in it, especially Biden and the democrats. I posted the link in response to Caitlins post also
It is. When even Christiane Amanpour can't stomach a bald-faced lie about mass murder from some ghoulish Israeli official, when CNN is showing pictures of starving children who are starting to closely resemble the photos of concentration camp victims displayed at the Holocaust Museum, and AIPAC says that Israel has the Most Moral Army in the World, something's breaking.
That something is liberal minds. Liberals love to feel that they are morally superior to the rest of us deplorable troglodytes. That's kind of hard to do when they are required by their cult to support a livestreamed genocide. The cognitive dissonance is breaking their brains.
That's OK. Sometimes I like the sound of discordant symphonies.
Pictures say a thousand words and there are many now and it's hard to deny the reality of what you see, and hard to live in the lie Israel is not implementing a genocide. What I find really disturbing is an Israeli population that supports this, however no doubt many have experienced of life time of perceiving Palestinians, as animals like Gallant said. That is their shame.
October 7th? Sure, you can't attack your attackers, your prison guards, your apartheid masters, the peversity of Jewish State of Jewish Occupied Palestine's theft of land and thousands shot in the knee-caps or point blank in the head.
Nah, sure, being occupied, being imprisoned, detroying families, nah, Oct. 7 was something else, not self-fucking-defense?
Get real. Then, we have putridity from Sy Hersh. Jesus, these people, these elites and semi-elites like Sy, living the New York Jewish journalist life, he just can't cut the umbilical cord of Dirty Dirty Israel.
What's the Venus Project, S, send all of the deeply evil usians to Venus and just let the decent ones stay? Sounds good to me. And include all the western "nations" folks who support usa war crimes, etc.
The Venus Project is a world system that would eliminate money and make most things "free". Jaque Fresco was the initiator. It works on support and sustainability rather than deprivation and destruction.
Check out Peter Joseph's "Revolution Now" channel on YouTube too. He has some amazing ideas on RBE (resource based economy) and an insightful understanding of how systems work.
"Saying it’s racist and evil to criticize Zionists is like saying it’s racist and evil to criticize conservatives. It’s a fucking political ideology."
Freedom of speech says we have the right to criticize any and all political ideologies. I guess that's why they want to take freedom of speech away from us like they do TikTok. They're fascistic, these Zionists.
If you want to understand the U.S. idea of how Palestinians should be treated for resisting colonisation, occupation anf apartheid, read the history of the U.S. and the hundreds of years of flat genocide they wreaked on the native Americans.
And if you want to see a real example of what Biden Blinken and the Israelis mean by a “two state solution” I suggest travelling around the U.S. and visiting the reservations that are the supposed territory of “sovereign” Native American “nations”.
As James Baldwin said pointedly, the European vision of the world is not only obsolete, it’s downright lethal to most people on the planet.
Frankly, the schizophrenic US 'policy' (if such a farce can be called that) has merely re-affirmed my long-held view that there is no 'Diplomatic' end to this Genocide & Ethnic Cleansing. Only the end of the Vile Zionist Entity (a la defeat on the field of battle) will end this Tragedy.
The American 'Elite' & leaders ought to be thanked; they have demonstrated LIVE to the whole world that they stand for nothing, & Force Alone is the language they speak.
If you wish to Read & Listen to more of My commentary, here is my Main Stack:
https://thefallofthewest.substack.com?r=5jj6h
& Here is my Stack on American History (from the Primary Sources):
https://theannalsofamerica.substack.com?r=5jj6h
Thank You Again to Everyone!
The Israeli newspapers are telling a significant half-truth (lying by omission).
Haaretz
Times of Israel
Israel Hayom
the NYT
All these tell you that Israel had Hamas' detailed Oct 7th plan a full year ago
and determined that the plan could not work...
The above is the half-truth.
The whole truth they are not telling you is that
Israel determined that Hamas's plan would not work...without Israel's help.
Israel removed the majority of it's troops around Gaza just before Oct 7th.
After Hamas' jail break IDF troops were delayed in arriving in force for several hours.
Israel slaughtered their own people, implementing the Hannibal Directive.
Israel wanted it to happen, they implemented the Hannibal Directive so as to
escalate the casualties and the outrage. They wanted support for Genocide.
They are lying by omission.
Israel wanted the jail break to happen and made it possible.
They betrayed and slaughtered their own
and are now committing Genocide.
Agree that is was false-flag in order to eliminate as many Palestinians as possible.
Rabbi Chananya Weissman of Jerusalem wrote: “Hundreds of terrorists were able to cross the border by surprise and capture entire communities with little to no military response for many hours, in a country blanketed by cameras, with supposedly some of the best intelligence in the world, and we're supposed to believe this was a surprise attack.”
Very nice and not to be rude, but so what? What part of criminal isn't understood? How many times do they have to say, "we aren't human" for you to start to believe them?
I sure hope that Caitlin is alright; it would be Friday in Australia now at the time of this writing, but still no article from her.
BINGO !!!
Never forget, that Hamas is fully backed by the Israeli Zionist entity since its very inception. Hamas and their leaders are the rabid Zionist's (and Christian ones) most precious assets to implement the steps needed for the creation of Greater Israel as a central, unrivalled powerhouse in the region.
If this is true, and I am assuming it is, it should be widely publicized.
Won't happen. Why ??
Who owns the MSM ??
And, how about that? Turns out that Biden snorted a line of heroin just before going on the air on his last televised appearance.
That's funny ... thought the same thing ... or snorted ...plus at the same time, someone wound him up as tightly as possible, with a timed release built in ....
Like a scene from a Star Trek episode where another fleet commander used Nazism to save their planet, but when he tried to back track they turned him into a sort robot whenever they needed his public appearance.
When haven't they shown the world with their many wars how undemocratic and autocratic they can be?
I can tell you this; here in the West they hate whites pretty fucking bad too (poor
ones for now). They just haven’t started the hardcore genocide yet. I try and explain that to my brothers. Many are catching on at least to some degree. I guess lefties can feel good knowing skin color is not so important to the (((elite))) when it comes to wiping us all out.
You see this shit at least once a week. I assume you see it too sir. How can you explain seeing a young girl in high school getting her head slammed repeatedly against the concrete over and over again until the light leaves her eyes? Only severe hate ginned up by the (((media machine))) could suffice. As stated I assume you already know.
If there are any of those on the left on here complaining about Palestinian children don’t forget there are those over here suffering the same fate. These people are just as innocent too. So keep them and their families in your prayers as well.
Fuckem all brother.
https://twitter.com/Kanthan2030/status/1767559317291704398
There is definitely an agenda of 'Divide & Conquer' at play pitting people by Race, Ethnicity, Religion, etc. The good news is that their Narrative control has all but collapsed... now what remains is wresting away their levers of Power & Influence.
There is still a huge amount of racism directed at people of colour, especially if they are new immigrants. I think you are being a bit overly optimistic if you think it has "all but collapsed". In fact with climate change and the need for people to get away from continual disasters, I think racism and other forms of discrimination are going to increase.
Of course; that was the whole agenda, read about Cecil Rhodes and the round table, but from my recent readings this species has maybe two weeks before it goes extinct, sort of pisses me off, but then, that's what this species is all about.
Unfortunately it is human nature. Humans get rid of one tyrant for another. Popularity contests (election$)based on empty promises that will likely never come to pass but once in power they will become tyrants because they can..Because it is their desire to rule others. Violent revolution has a history of being worse than the regime that was revolted against. The West (US) has a policy of installing viscous puppet
tyrants in order to stay in power after the CIA coup. Across South and central America for over 100 years.
I don't think racism and other discriminations are part of human nature. That kind of hatred is a learned behaviour, not instinctual or part of how everyone is born.
While it is true that racism and hatred are learned behaviors. They are often used by those cartels we call government as a method of propagating fear, and to instigate wars. Also it is possible that a genuine survival response is to not trust anyone different by way of language, dress, habits, beliefs, including religion. Distrust of strangers is a very common reaction. As Mark Twain said "Travel is fatal to narrow mindedness, bigotry, and prejudice."
Maybe, but I don't think so. I grew up in a small, white, mostly Protestant south Ontario village. I hardly ever got to see anyone else. When I did, my first reaction was curiosity about who they were, why they were different etc. I wasn't afraid or distrustful but others have attempted to teach me to be that way, even as an adult. When my son was about 4, we moved to a city from a small, isolated town. He had never seen a black person before. We were in a restaurant and saw a very dark skinned man waiting for his order. My son walked up to him and took his hand, turned it over to see it was pink on the other side, looked at the man's face, then checked his hand again. The man was very OK with it and we both started laughing.
WW2 was about kidnapping Christians and brainwashing them to believe that they were Jews, still going on in the Chicagoland area.
{..VISCOUS puppet tyrants...}
Could you please tell us how high their viscosity is in
- centipoise (cP) or
- millipascals/second (mPa s) ?? 🤔🤔🤔
I'd rather presume, they all get very fluid (viscosity decreases) once they get to smell reams of US$ ... 🤣🤣🤣
You have never had spell check make a mistake you didn't catch? But they are slippery, slimy sorts.
Take it EASY !! I never use spell-check, only my eyes.
I had a good laugh and in case you allow me to do so, would like to include the viscous puppets in my active vocabulary ...
The British call the Irish the n/))+&$ of Europe. Im Irish American.
I just watched a video on you tube of some young lady spray painting a portrait of Balfour! Awesome!
The British are the first and foremost racists, all hidden behind posh accents and "lovely" gardens.
Many years ago I had a friend from Belfast who moved to England to find work. One day he went to a pub for a pint and next thing you know he was dragged outside and beaten nearly to death for his Irish accent.
Hi Kevin
My friends in Ireland still call them the “Bastard Brits”, as if it’s all one word, lol.
The question remains - who will do it?
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire
“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.” - Charles Bukowski,
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire
=====
The usa is thee world's "leader" in this regard. Name one thing just one thing, anybody, that is good about the usa.
I have met some really fine people from the USA. They were not billionaires or millionaires. They were kind and gentle people just muddling through like me. I can't though, think of one American leader that I think is really going to change anything at all.
Although we never met thanks Susan. .
The Genocide Democrats: Max Blumenthal speaks at WNDC Everyone needs to hear Blumenthal on Biden and the genocide in Palestine.
https://thegrayzone.com
133,443 views
Mar 9, 2024
#TheGrayzone
At the Woman's National Democratic Club in Washington DC on March 7, 2024, The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discussed the crisis within the Democratic Party as the party grassroots revolts against President Joe Biden's vehement support for Israel's rampage in the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 30,000 have been killed to date - mostly women and children. Blumenthal points the finger at the Democratic Party establishment for crushing any and all iterations of antiwar politics, and illustrates how its most prominent figures have been bought off by the Israel lobby. ||| The Grayzone ||| Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com
I so wholeheartedly agree with you, I watched it live. I contribute to Max/Aaron's work. I no longer give to political candidates other than Jill Stein. So that funding goes to truth finding like Caitlin, Grayzone, Chris Hedges, Richard Wolf, Katie Halper, Vijay Prashad, Jimmy Dore, Matt Taibbi, Yanis etc. Vote Jill Stein, I think she is our last hope. That sounds so horribly hopeless. I guess that's because if the world can watch this Genocide of 2.4 million people and do nothing we don't deserve to ..........
The people are not doing nothing. There is plenty of resistance from the people. It is those in power, those who govern, those who could do something powerful to change the course of this genocide if they chose to do so. But they choose money every time.
I agree with Susan there are people across this world doing something, and I know that sometimes nothing comes of it. You can try, and as long as you are you're not a part of it, and that's something. I think if Israel carries this any further that will be the end of her and AIPAC since people seem more or less indifferent to war, but not genocide which targets a civilian population, children, women, health care workers etc, which imposes death and very often in slow motion. Israel will pay the price for this big time and she is too blind as is the US to see it.
Hi Landru
It’s Jill for me as well.
Just think how quickly things could/would change, Landru, when the actual perps of 9/11, the ones who mass murdered 2966 usians and westerners on 9/11, then went on to mass murder up to 6 million more, hundreds of millions of lives wrecked and not a single Bush/Cheney neocon has been hung.
Okay, we have two good people, Susan & Fran!!! :-)
That does not fix the MAJOR PROBLEM that western nations are cesspools of evil masquerading as decent. NOTE WELL how the usa, NEVER brings "freedom & democracy" because that would mean that usa corporations could not rape & pillage all the nations the usa ILLEGALLY INVADES!!!
Well, since I was a kid I separated people from the government and perhaps that why I have a different perspective. Listen to Max Blumenthal talk about democrats, put a link up, and you'll be in heaven.
Those who govern in the USA never bring "freedom and democracy" anywhere. They are more interested in money. that is why there are no universal social programs in the USA. The ones who decide to impose taxes never impose the taxes they should impose on those who become millionaires, billionaires, trillionaires at any human or environmental cost.
I know, I know, I know, ad infinitum, Susan. And they, "Those who govern in the usa" also know that they are PERFECTLY SAFE when all we all do is whine, bitch and moan.
This requires THINKING. whining, bitching and moaning is not what makes a democracy.
Er…Terry…what about da Gypsy? 😁
Hopefully, one day I will hug you for that. For now please accept my virtual hug : )
You have a friend near Chicago.
Of course, Susan, it goes without saying that in all these pits of deep evil there are decent folk.
But note well you were not able to "Name one thing just one thing that is good about the usa".
Regular people are often good anywhere they are. Do you think the "one thing" only applies to those in power? Well, for sure, not one right now is doing much to help anyone anywhere except themselves. Some in the USA seem to think that Cornell West or Jill Stein might be able to bring about some change. Maybe, if they can avoid being corrupted by all the wealth around that wants to corrupt them. The system is so corrupt right now, it will be difficult for anyone to do anything helpful to the people of the USA or the rest of the world.
"Name one thing that is good about the USA".... Answer.... millions of Americans... Some as good as it gets.... but MONEY rules America. If MONEY is ever removed from the power it yields, there may a few million lights that could be turned on.
It is indeed the Money Empire and the Emperor is the maximal owner of the world's banks. It's taken from 1694 (founding of the Bank of 'England') to date for the long game of usury to produce this socio-economic heart-breaking cancer we suffer from today. Interesting aspects of this include the fact that the money that is employed to enslave us is *imaginary* money, a con trick of staggering proportions. Ergo, the Emperor has no clothes. He might possess a nebulous Red Shield [in German: Rotes Schild] hovering around himself but other than that he certainly has no clothes but enjoys almost total power thanks to our zombie trance narrative kindly provided by his own bought & paid for media.
I advocate new money sources having stronger ground to stand on. There are complementary money systems ready for any community wishing to reject the current Zionist usury-based version of money. https://www.complementarycurrency.org/
Then there's the possibility of a Peoples' Bank with sensible & happy usury-free money like here: https://x.com/DomeLord/status/1767842052627206338?s=20 and then there's government Treasury money that can be created for infrastructure projects https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/46238 even though Corbyn was crucified by the Emperor for bringing this to light.
You are correct about the usary. The unipolar control of the world must change. Russia and China are severely demonized yet they 'appear' to be the last vestiges of resistance to the Federal Reserve cartel and its fiat dollar tyranny. When the Brics countries get their system up and running. The US Empire of Lies will cease to be..As an American I hope the collapse won't be to violent. Yet we have allowed this to continue because of many reasons mostly Lethargy and Greed. Two of the seven deadly sins of society.
How do you know AIPAC won't infiltrate these?
domelord,
Agreed, there are possible alternatives. No matter who or what runs things, it's not so much who is at the wheel but what are basic fundamentals that would prevent money, no matter where is stored, from being our master. For that to occur, humans need to go back to the basic economies of the natural world, and if we stray too far from our roots, nature itself, it just doesn't work for any of us... i.e., wars, and more wars... There's a lot we can learn from what works in nature, as Charles Darwin exposed in spades. No one ever talks about NATURE in finding solutions for 8 billion people to live on Earth without serious conflict.
There is a mindset that's running about that reflects black and white thinking. Gee there are some good people in America and there are good things about American, and yes too much bad. Nothing is all black and white.
Still no one has been able to "Name one thing that is good about the usa", Fran.
VERY TELLING, ain't it?
The natural world of the USA is sometimes quite impressive. Steadily being destroyed by the corruption of those in power and their constant encouragement of mindless consumption.
We both know that the usa's natural beauty is not what I am talking about, Susan. But I am sure glad you replied because that illustrates that there is NOTHING ELSE about the usa in the areas I am referencing that is good. That NOT A SINGLE PERSON has been able to put a "good thing" about the usa forward is VERY TELLING.
So now the thing that decent folks who desire change have to figure out is how to effect that MUCH NEEDED CHANGE. And voting ain't it. Just think how effective it would be if NOT A SINGLE PERSON VOTED IN ANY ELECTION. WTF could/would they even do?!!!
There are many good things about the US just leave out the politicians and focus on the rest. The world is better understood, well things are better understood if you leave black and white thinking out of the picture because things are best understood when you introduce shades of grey.
Fair enough, John and I agree but the IMPORTANT issue in all this is that, STILL, NO ONE HAS/CAN "Name one thing that is good about the usa"!!!!
Our search for Dark Matter, https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.10518
although we will run the experiment at SnoLab Canada ha. We in the u.s. are far to busy building Genocidal war machinery than funding science. Two very large array telescopes will be canceled in the middle of development. Many staff scientists are being pushed to retire. So with the good comes the bad. My family used to debate me about the need for funding core questions of science that may never do anything profitable or consumer useful. I end with, every dollar non-defense related spending in this environment is a dollar not spent on DOD. Silence.
Something about staring into the abiss and the abiss telling you that you’re a monster.
Sorry. If I did, you'd hate me. I could give you a long list. US warmongering is of course not on the list.
STILL, Karl, no one has been able to "Name one thing that is good about the USA"
Lots of hummin' and hawin' but NOT A SINGLE THING.
Hi Terry
The only good thing about Amerikkka is that the land itself is varied and beautiful.
That which we haven’t ruined, of course.
Americans THINK they're good, so it should be possible to MAKE them good......
"should be possible", Deena, well it ain't ever happened since 1607.
STILL, no one has been able to "Name one thing that is good about the USA"
You don't want to see anything good about the USA, so you won't.
Have to disagree with Bukowski here. He must have been talking about those who hang on to power and pretend to govern. I know quite a few people who think about injustice quite often.
The Genocide Democrats: Max Blumenthal speaks at WNDC Everyone needs to hear Blumenthal on Biden and the genocide in Palestine.
133,443 views
Mar 9, 2024
#TheGrayzone
At the Woman's National Democratic Club in Washington DC on March 7, 2024, The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discussed the crisis within the Democratic Party as the party grassroots revolts against President Joe Biden's vehement support for Israel's rampage in the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 30,000 have been killed to date - mostly women and children. Blumenthal points the finger at the Democratic Party establishment for crushing any and all iterations of antiwar politics, and illustrates how its most prominent figures have been bought off by the Israel lobby. ||| The Grayzone ||| Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com
Never mind with my request. I just found it and watched it. Thank you so much. Sending it around. Definitely voting for Jill Stein. Even if she's not on the ballot.
I didn't post it again but glad you got to see it.
Can you give us the exact link for this? I'm not finding it.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEXR8pRTkE2vFeJePNe9UcQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEXR8pRTkE2vFeJePNe9UcQ
The Bukowski quote is designed to give the impression that all people are selfish. I wonder which ethnic group might want to convey that impression.
karl pomeroy: There is no ethnic group that wants to convey that impression, however there may be an ideological group that does imply that impression, whether they want to or not.
Thinking about it hasn't ever, won't ever change this perpetual system of "injustice", evil, Susan, because the system is now and has ALWAYS BEEN geared to be unjust.
because money is the measure of success. There are still people within this corrupt system who fight for justice, maybe on small levels, but they are there and they do fight.
"most people" appears accurate.
I think someone else said something similar a long time ago, something about whose ox is being gored.
The pundits, politicians, thought leaders and the rest of us have to start seeing how we treat each other as more important than making money. Instead of cutting back on health care, education, and money to help people living in poverty, it could be an idea to start taxing in a serious way, those that are making millions, billions, and even trillions of dollars and then using that tax money to make the lives of the people easier. And, of course, if we have any hope at all of seeing our poor earth revive and continue, we HAVE to stop these wars. I am not sure any of that will ever happen.
The politician law makers concern themselves only with the rich. A matrix of village meetings with full participatory democracy would soon sort out those corrupt psychopathic jokers.
Yes, we should return to the progressive taxation that existed under Eisenhower. All these claiming life was better then, might ought be clamouring for a return to this sole aspect in which it was demonstrably better.
Denmark used to have a progressive tax system too, but I am not sure about now. It was a lot better. Medical, dental and daycare, all covered.
Yes Susan. In short, we need to learn to share - something my parents taught my brothers and myself from an early age.
Hi Caitlin. I started reading you after 7th of October and I have agreed with everything you have said. I thank you for your courage. However in this article came the first sentence I am not agreeing with: "We don’t know how to keep eight billion homo sapiens alive without destroying the ecosystem.” In a very general way, I would state that West does not know, very modern and historically privileged people do not know. Not a suprise!. But there are other people, other cultures, other regions, some that hold actually the “majority”, literally, who still remember that not so long ago we were able to have practices that were much more sustainable (from less production, less consumption to much less pollution). This happened while every Northern country entered into the race of making itself very dependent on oil, which means being very dependent on a cheap, easily accessible, extremely concentrated, source of energy to do things fast and intensively, in accelerating mode, for profit -while extracting and impoverishing other places and peoples-. At the same time, the “South” was convinced about “development” -legalizing extractivism-. Without this source of energy we would, probably, have continued our more wise, slow paced way of being, of existing. Modernity is not independent of the powers you see acting over Gaza now. It is not independent of Capitalism and thousands of associated ills. SO, coming back to your sentence: It is not the whole humanity that is jeopardizing what is left on the Planet. It is a particular culture. It is a way of understanding life. It is indeed a competition imposed by conquest using the military idea at industrial scale + the silent power organized by hegemonic economic ruling -again, one absurd idea over the rest of possibilities-. Research this: Not everybody base their existence on competition over the face of Earth. There is still solidarity, and me, at my age (45) still can say that I have had the chance to see that working in my country, Colombia. I saw this happening during my childhood among communities of peasants and it still happens, still surviving as the modern frontier expands to kill it, with all its twisted arguments that more and more people challenge and discredit by mere common sense -over there, the common sense is local!-. People in Colombia are killed everyday for defending their principles. Social leaders are called. So the resistance is being attacked, but still occurs and fluorishes. Go to Degrowth and research what it is (European self-criticism! well done). Go to post-development and research what it is. Go to the Latinamerican decolonial scholars and plenty of people writing in spanish or fighting in the territories in Latinamerica to see what are the solutions that those indigenous peoples and descendents of them, have proposed for decades to every socioenvironmental crisis on Earth. They are not heard in US, and still, that does not mean they don´t exist. They are part of the 8 billion. I am sure there are many more in Asia and in Africa. We are the majorities. Blaming the 8 billion for their ignorance is absolutely unfair. The West reveals its ignorance. The Southern elites are their arms and mouths and should also be blamed. But there are billions of people thinking differently. The dispossessed, the “nobodies”… very often the wisest.
Having been there it's fair to say I adore Colombia and have solidarity with her many troubled peoples. There are some really good people out there who ride the storms of needless tribulation & yet, amongst many other things, continue to possess a strong sense of humour!
Indigenous people in North America have a lot of knowledge about how to survive too. Also probably indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand. The colonizers have never considered that we should ever listen to indigenous ideas and colonizers as a group certainly do not understand anything about respecting the earth or the oceans.
To make matters worse the presidential election should be null and void as both Biden and Trump are agents for the empire, both willing to do its dirty work as ordered. If Americans value their republic now is the time to speak.
The fact that these two are front runners speaks to just how critical is the situation.
The fact that these two are front runners speaks to just how far from real representative democracy we are.
2/3rds of the American people don't want either one of these guys. They're just the choice the oligarchy and its machinery has given us. Again! Well, until Biden regretfully says he won't seek a second term and they pick somebody else for us.
Forgive me for repeating myself:
"Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility. Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.
What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.
Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind.
In fact, an authoritarian system can be more democratic, in the sense that government decisions better reflect the popular will, than the system we currently have, because in an authoritarian system, everyone knows who is in charge and where the buck stops."
"The best form of government is benevolent dictatorship."--My dad
The problem is that dictatorships never remain benevolent. Sooner or later, the good ruler dies, and then all the problems with authoritarian governments become painfully visible to everyone.
OTOH, the Athenians used to choose their bureaucrats, or the closest thing to bureaucrats they had back then, by lot. It worked no worse than other methods, and better than many.
Of course. Power attracts sociopaths the way catnip attracts cats, regardless of any system.
The history of the medieval Catholic Church is most instructive. And this an institution that traces its founding to Jesus Christ Himself.
I would like to see a HUGE amount of people just not voting.
Yep. And Canada is in grave danger of having Pierre Poilievre in power. He would be happy to work with either of those 2. Even happier than Trudeau is (happy about working with them). Women would lose their right to abortion, immigrants would be treated even worse, poor people would have it even worse (if that is even possible), the money grubbers would be treated better and the world would go even faster downhill.
Susan, Your feelings about Poilievre resonate with my own. There's just something about Pierre that suggests he is impressed by power, which is in and of itself quite fitting for the multitude of politicians which only see power as their ultimate goal. Scary to me as a Canadian since he will be the next head honcho north of the US border.
They see power as the ultimate goal and power is measured in money. So they want to keep the money that needs to be spent on medical, dental, education, homeless shelters etc because those people don't need power like those politicians need it.
Yes... I've read that "Power corrupts and corrupts absolutely". The need for power however is instilled into our brain as soon as we are able to observe that the weak do not in fact "inherit the Earth", thus setting the table for the power grabbers in waiting. 'Love thy Neighbor' sounds nice, so long as your neighbor is not the local banking CEO and that your credit score gets a passing grade. The status quo is a hard party to crash but if enough people become convinced that there are alternatives, that ship can be turned around in a hurry... as Marie Antoinette discovered to her chagrin. I think the existence of homelessness is the most pressing issue of the human condition and ultimately sets the collective tone of how we deal with the world. Moreover, if we don't fix homelessness very soon, we may all be homeless.
It's time to vote Green Party for People, Planet and Peace. jillstein2024.com
Not too loud please, Revolution
When and if the people of the USA ever decide that its time to ban Republican and Democratic funding by the Zionists from AIPAC, the neocons, big business and Netanyahu’s spies who are thick on the ground everywhere, (most with dual US / Israeli citizenship), they will obviously try to direct their shekels to people like the Green Party.
Changing horses mid-stream would be a simple task when you already control 86% of the politicians. However, if you use facial recognition techniques to identify all the guests at the next AIPAC meeting and find a media source which will do a 50 page spread for all to view, and then make a movie in Hollywood, the people may finally see the real world of Biden Inc, the families of the killers of JFK and the planners of 9/11.
In the meantime, not a word. They have spies everywhere.
In Canada, the Greens as with all the other parties are victims of neoliberalism where the cat has their tongues, their identities erased, and the country colonized. Our Parliament maintains a polite silence on important on issues that matter while indulging in trivial pursuits, and political correctness.
Elizabeth May thought Mulroney was a great Prime Minister.
He turned me into a writer. I was so angry at his betrayal of Canada I started writing letters to the editor and the rest is history. He was our first neoliberal PM and like Harper did everything he could to destroy the country. Sadly Canadians appear content to be a suburb of Washington as the empire destroys the American republic.
Or not vote at all.
This is possible but it would send a message? Perhaps!
What makes you think Trump won't win? I am interested? The GOP are just as likely to 'cook the books.'
I say again............I doubt Trump will respect this vote.
Democracy has gone.
Not worth voting or vote 3rd party
There is no time, no money for saving the planet and humanity. There is too much profit to be made and the USA with help from it’s toadies in Canada and France are about to occupy Haiti via their proxies from Kenya so there will be an endless round of murders of Haitian citizens to fund. So, no money for humanity, no time to learn to swim.
The only way 8 billion humans can live sustainably on the earth is for each individual to be willing to sacrifice. Sacrifice comfort. Sacrifice convenience. Sacrifice consumption. Yet sacrifice is the one word no one wants to hear.
I don't think this is true. Many in the developing world need to consume more to meet basic human needs. The US in particular needs to stop so much consumption, particularly driving cars (investment in public transport has been deliberately blocked) but many people feel they are trapped by all their possessions. and would like to live more simply anyway. Comfort and joy don't need to go anywhere.
Most "developing" countries are servicing back-breaking usurious debt to the IMF and other Western banks. They don't need more consumer items and neither do we. Westerners consume too much. It is a sign of addiction. Our GDP is actually created by interest. The government "gives" X number of dollars to the military--dollars that don't yet exist. It is paid through INFLATION. I call this a war tax. Our economy survives through war. There's a very good reason we have 900 military bases around the world. We give billions to other countries, 75% of which must be spent with American military product producers (most of whom don't pay tax or hardly any, BTW). This is a war tax. This money doesn't exist until the US government takes on more "debt". This lowers the value of every dollar. We are all paying I'd estimate between 20-30% war tax. For wars that haven't been declared by Congress and which most of us do not want to be paying for. I am not talking about income tax. That's on top of the war tax called inflation.
We have all the skills to survive on this planet. But instead of growing our own food we are working away from home to make someone else rich. This is nonsensical. You don't need to live in a McMansion. You don't need a car for every driver in your family. Facebook, Google, AI, TikTok, internet, computers, all these things are not necessary. Neither are six pair of shoes in your closet (or how many you have) or an air conditioner in every window and a washing machine and dryer in every home and all the gizmos advertisers convince you that you MUST have or die trying. The word "PR" stands for "public relations" which is a EUPHEMISM for fucking PROPAGANDA. Westerners really have no idea at all how much propaganda controls their minds and behavior.
Interest is money that never existed before. This is what billionaires get rich on. This is ludicrous. Stop selling your life away like this! What is the point to all this stuff?
You don't need much in terms of consumer items to live. You just have forgotten this. I had hoped the COVID lockdowns had taught at least Westerners the truth of this. But I guess not. Westerns are horribly addicted to consumption. It's an addiction. Go to any store on the weekend and watch your neighbors buy, buy, buy to fill that addictive emptiness. It's not a harmless addiction. It's a major reason for global warming. And a major reason for all these wars. Absurd.
They could maybe stop spending time in dumps like McDonalds too.
Each individual, no. Each member of the top 1%, yes, by about 99%. That should do it.
I hereby sacrifice my share of society's overall usury 'debt'. Return to sender. Liquidate all the 'National Debts' upon the sacrificial altar. https://www.usdebtclock.org/ In my view, we must gird our loins, stop gnashing our teeth, and make do & mend with happy money instead: https://x.com/DomeLord/status/1767842052627206338?s=20
Mostly though, it is not really sacrifice. It is getting back to the earth and respecting it.
"We’ve got some ideas about how this could be done, but we’ve never actually done it. In the extremely short amount of time this planet has had billions of humans on it, we’ve never come anywhere remotely close to figuring out how to avoid cataclysmic disaster and nightmarish dystopia. We’re still very much on that trajectory, and because of the competition-based systems we have in place, nothing is happening to steer us away."
Caitlin's last sentence in that citation hit the nail on the head. We need to get rid of an economic world order based on competition and replace it with one based on cooperation, the sharing of our now mostly abundant resources thanks to the technology provided to us by the Industrial Revolution rather than allowing a few to have near-total control over how it's disbursed and to allow 99% of us very limited access to. That is, only as much as we can *pay* for with money. Which means, get rid of competition for resources; get rid of class divisions; get rid of money, and eliminate the cause of over 95% of all serious human conflicts.
Technology is not a great “producer of resources". Recomended for you: Tom Murphy, astrophycisist, writer of the Blog “Do the Math” for several years. We have a problem with technology! Second: Jason Hickel, on the colonial dimension of our socioenvironmental crisis. All you can read of him. Remember the resources come from certain populations somewhere on Earth? does it make sense to say that for those great outcomes of technology to occurr one has to exploit exponentially the resources of some far away people and make their well lived lives miserable? That´s where poverty starts. Poverty is not something “essential” that apeared because, yes… we didn´t have technology! There is a conference soon. Recommended topics will be discussed there: https://esee-degrowth2024.uvigo.gal/en/the-conference/program/call-for-abstracts/tracks/
I disagree, Angela, as post-industrial tech has enabled us to mass produce items that we need rather than create them by hand in small numbers. Hence, the Industrial Revolution enabled us to all but eliminate real material scarcity and to create an abundance for all for the first time in human history. The major limits on us doing that now are the product of an archaic economic system that requires money or "funds" to move these abundant resources because the industries and most of its tech are still owned and controlled by a few and run for their profit, not to meet everyone's needs. But modern technology enables us to move away from that mode of operating if only the 99% across the globe would break free from the psychological conditioning we're fed all our lives to collectively establish such a system.
If everyone on the planet socially owned this tech, there would be no selfish, profit-driven need to play the zero-sum game of capitalism, i.e., some benefiting at the expense of others. There is no longer any material justification for that, let alone a moral one. That is why poverty exists for so many in a post-Industrial world, and I certainly never said that poverty is essential. Quite the contrary, it's no longer necessary because of limited productive technology.
And to be clear, I didn't mean "necessary" in terms of being a good, favorable thing. I meant in terms of being unavoidable from a purely material standpoint. That was the case in the pre-Industrial era of human civilization for most, when productive forces could only produce a small surplus. But that is most certainly not the case in the post-Industrial world.
Thank you for the recommendations.
I'd say that technology is a tool in the human toolbox (since the beginning of time - i.e. ancient technologies = fire, wheel, spears, etc. then more advanced tech like steam engines, hand looms, electricity, etc. - you get the idea). Just as any tool, it can be misused and gamed to change the balance of power - giving the 1% the ability to control the rest of humanity.
>>"If everyone on the planet socially owned this tech, there would be no selfish, profit-driven need to play the zero-sum game of capitalism."
I'd say that what you suggest is utopian and not reflective of human society and culture (it may work for groups of ~500 people, but doesn't really scale to 8 billion). Further, capitalism is just the latest/current iteration of a FAILED ideology/economic theory (IMHO capitalism is inherently parasitic and is/was always doomed to fail when given enough time). Feudalism, mercantilism, etc. also proved to be inadequate systems - regardless of the use or sharing of technology.
I find our reliance on technology and our love affair with it may not be the right solution/path to follow - what we need is social technology (i.e. forms of human organizing, forms of cultural organizing, sharing, cooperation, forms of resolving of conflicts, etc.) rather than the technocratic dystopia that I fear we are headed towards.
I don't think improving our world in that way is "utopian" but very plausible. That type of cooperative, egalitarian behavior is not reflective of human society as we currently know it because class rule and its highly competitive rules still predominate. This effects our behavior based on what we must do to survive within it and the type of values it promotes, including the cynical belief that this behavior is immutably hardwired into our nature instead of environmentally induced. The ruling class *wants* us to believe that for obvious reasons, so Social Darwinism is heavily promoted by the privately-owned media and state-controlled schooling system.
All of those previous economic systems and iterations of capitalism occurred within the framework of a class divided economic order, and in a time period where we lacked the technological capability of producing an abundance for all. Now that capitalism has enabled us to industrialize society it has outlived its usefulness and historic purpose, and it's time to replace it with a new economic world order that was not possible prior to industrialization.
All that you suggested in your last paragraph is laudable and possible if we socially owned modern industrial technology and used it to free all of us from material want rather than for the profit interests of a small handful of owners. If we gave up this technology, all we would do is share an equality of poverty and be at the mercy of nature like our distant forebears.
Thanks for your thoughful reply. It contains many interesting points that are worth reflecting on.
>>"Now that capitalism has enabled us to industrialize society it has outlived its usefulness and historic purpose, and it's time to replace it with a new economic world order that was not possible prior to industrialization."
I find that statement very interesting, and you may be onto something that makes me want to think more deeply about it.
The reason I consider the scenario implausible is not because I don't see the value in it, but rather because I can't imagine a way to wrest power/control from the "global power elite" and back into the hands of the people. (Yes, maybe I'm somewhat pessimistic based on what I amalgamate/deduce from reading/learning about the last 7,000 years of history.) So maybe the problem is a "lack of imagination" on my (and other people's) part? Or a lack of "faith"? Or maybe such class structures/hierarchies always inevitably form when humans cohabitate in groups beyond a certain size? From what I understand, I know of no evidence that points to a different outcome (i.e. one in which humans are not invariably divided into classes on some basis or another for large sized groups for any significant period of human history).
Again, thank you for your response/explanation - definitely needs more thinking (on my part).
"The reason I consider the scenario implausible is not because I don't see the value in it, but rather because I can't imagine a way to wrest power/control from the "global power elite" and back into the hands of the people."
That, of course, is something the global power elite want us to believe for obvious reasons. However, despite the power they have, it's all based on *money*. That's an artificial creation that is largely an abstraction, and it will only continue to have value as long as the 99% continue to accept it. And until a vast majority of us decide we want to throw money to the wayside, take direct control over industrial technology ourselves, and use it to produce an abundance for all as direct compensation for reasonable contributions via work in a field we're good at and interested in without worrying about paychecks you cash in for money that gives us access to only a tiny fraction of what we produce, and in very unequal amounts -- but increasingly less for the great majority of the working class.
One way we can do this is by abolishing political parties altogether and establishing direct ballot initiatives in each state, and the workers can democratically and directly vote for the policies we want rather than begging and pleading with capitalist establishment politicians to give us. We can also start a new type of union that includes *all* workers, not divided based on vocation or employment status, with the goal of taking control of industry rather than bargaining with capitalist owners for the "best deal" with wages etc.
We can also start a worker-controlled political party to back that up in a legal sense, by invoking Article V of the Constitution. The Founders of America were savvy to the fact that radical change was sometimes needed, because the establishment of America, capitalism, and the overthrow of feudalism, the previous economic world order, was very radical and created a new world order. An economic democracy that I describe was not technologically possible at the time, but the best possible system -- the one to logically follow feudalism that the latter system gradually made material conditions favorable for -- was indeed established.
This has happened several times in human history. And if it happened before, it can happen again. And Thomas Jefferson himself said in the Declaration of Independence that it's the absolute responsibility f the masses to do this whenever it may become necessary. He never presumed that capitalism would or should exist forever. And that is something that too many workers do not "get" or fail to understand. Capitalism was the best possible system *at the time it was established,* but not the best possible system once civilization was fully industrialized.
The fact is, the working class of the world has the numerical advantage over the global capitalist class *by far.* There are now close to 8 billion people in the world, and a mere 1.5% of them are part of the global ruling class. Yes, they control the military and police, but the latter mostly consists of working class people. That is why the French police largely exerted no force against the multitudes of working class people rioting in France in response to Macron's infamous decision to extend the retirement age from 62 to 64 at the behest of top global capitalist Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. And they refused to shoot down or beat down the multitude of rebelling workers despite Macron granting the cops an exemption from the retirement age edict.
"Yes, maybe I'm somewhat pessimistic based on what I amalgamate/deduce from reading/learning about the last 7,000 years of history."
As noted, that was 7,000 years of civilization in a pre-Industrial era where class divisions existed and where productive technology only allowed a small surplus to be produced. This naturally resulted in the emergence of class rule, and all the accoutrements that go with a system of real material scarcity, such as currency, commerce, the pursuit of profit, etc.
But this is no longer the case since around the end of the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution provided us with the technology to create an abundance for all, not just a few, for the first time in all of human history. Prior to the establishment of class rule about 7,000 years ago, when production developed just enough to enable that small surplus, the economic order of humanity was primitive communism, where class rule did not truly exist -- but an equality of poverty prevailed, thus taking a very long time for productive progress to occur, until ancient chattel slavery became the first class ruled economic system, which eventually gave way to feudalism, which eventually gave way to capitalism -- which can now give way to an economic democracy, where we can finally dispense with class rule after 7,000 years.
Human behavior is largely influenced by the environment in which we live, and nothing influences us more than the economic order in which we are forced to conduct our lives and achieve our livelihood within.
"So maybe the problem is a "lack of imagination" on my (and other people's) part? Or a lack of "faith"? Or maybe such class structures/hierarchies always inevitably form when humans cohabitate in groups beyond a certain size?"
I think it's the result of a cynical view of humanity that results based on taking a look at history and not taking into account the changes that occurred over that time, and without considering that levels of technology prior to the Industrial Revolution made inequality and class rule inevitable during that time. Instead, we presume that the failure lies in human nature rather than what the material conditions at the time allowed, and how our behavior and manner of living was affected by these material factors as opposed to something within our intrinsic nature as a species.
And this was greatly aided and abetted by ruling class propaganda to make us think that humanity can't do any better than what we have now, and that the ruling class deserves their obscene privilege in a world of material abundance, etc.
"From what I understand, I know of no evidence that points to a different outcome (i.e. one in which humans are not invariably divided into classes on some basis or another for large sized groups for any significant period of human history)."
Because, as noted, technology has only become capable of getting us out of that situation in the very recent past. We just have to make the psychological revolution and be willing to let go of what we're familiar with and dispense with our negative thought conditioning to initiate the material revolution that is now possible. We need to consider the limits of what technology could do during the entirety of human history compared to recent history since the Industrial Revolution.
We also need to consider that it takes time for that necessary psychological revolution to take place, as we have all been heavily subjected to propaganda to justify the prevailing system going on "for eternity." The ruling class knows that moving on to a better system will only happen if the vast majority of us comes to believe that it can, and take appropriate action. But they see it in their best interests to prevent that from happening, as do many workers who are emotionally attached to the familiar. Thomas Jefferson noted this phenomenon in the Declaration of Independence and heavily critiqued it, since feudalism and worker loyalty to it went on much longer than it needed to because of this.
"Again, thank you for your response/explanation - definitely needs more thinking (on my part)."
You're very welcome, and thank you also for listening and for your cordial engagement. If you want to see more of my words, you can check out and subscribe to Lightning Press here on Substack.
It will probably happen whether or not we try. "Blooms" are rather the way of Nature.
Jared Diamond pointed out what appears to be the history of Easter Island, a place where people set up shop and then depleted their resources (in this case, timber) to the point that they could no longer sustain their own civilization. When they were later 'discovered', it was almost impossible to believe that the small, malnourished and primitive folk who lived there were descendants of the same people who erected the famous stone statues.
Apparently, we are just a dumb as bacteria in a sealed bottle.
Interstellar Official Movie Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnlrK14OZn0
The mass destruction of Korea in the 1950s The mass destruction of Vietnam in 60/70s The mass destruction of Libya and Iraq and too many countries ro name them all But to the last one Gaza all destroyed b y the same power thew US Neocon power. But Neocon is a mask of Zionism which controls both the country which is doing the destruction Israel- and the supplier of the means of destruction the U.S . Stupid evil is still evil. But highly intelligent and massively powerful evil is terrifying and we are living in its midst
This needs to go viral. Guest whose idea it was to build the pier? Netanyahu suggested it to Biden 5 fcking months ago on October 22.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-791239
Biden like all US presidents is being told what to do by Israel. That’s much more than election interference that shitlibs are bonkers over thinking that Russia got Trump elected. AIPAC should have long ago registered as a foreign entity.
H/T Moon of Alabama
Who will use the pier when the genocide is over? And toward what means? A "floating island" would be quite useful in producing natural gas and oil in the Mediterranean, methinks. And WHO destroyed Gaza's port to begin with? The solution is obvious. The US has a military base a few kilometers from Gaza. Return the Philadelphia Corridor to Gazans. Shoot down any Israeli plane in the sky over Gazan territory. Hamas can take care of the ground troops, apparently. And force open the border to Egypt to humanitarian aid trucks. Now. It is unnecessary for Israeli presence in Cyprus. WTF? Or a month or two delay to "build a pier". Ridiculous. In a month or two how many Gazans be alive, do you suppose?
Foreign money is not supposed to be allowed in our elections. I would include dual nationals in that. The government has been admitting the out-sized influence of an "unnamed" foreign country affecting our elections for years now. If you were listening. If it was Russia, they would have had no problem naming the country. It was Israel.
"There's an oil man or a banker or both behind every war we're ever in."--my aunt Thelma, Texan, suffragette, flapper, socialist with a touch of anarchist, satirist, and party animal, Austin 1980.
It’s really that simple isn’t it?
"And force open the border to Egypt to humanitarian aid trucks."
But many people in Israel’s government have said that their goal is to cleanse Palestinians from Palestine and the West Bank so why shouldn’t we believe that is the goal? And yes how many people will still be able when the pier is built? Babies and children probably don’t have 2 months. Besides Israel still gets to decide what goes in. Anesthesia and vital medical supplies are being blocked by Israel.
I’m seeing lots of articles that point out what the real goals are.
No question, Sam. The Israelis want to kill as many people as possible by bombing. And then they want to starve to death as many people as possible. The people under the rubble they want to die. And they go out of their way on the ground to kill pregnant women and premies. Then, when they can't bomb any more, they can't starve anymore, they can't shoot anymore, they think they are going to push people into Egypt or maybe the sea. And the Americans want this to happen. I know the Americans are not going to save the Palestinians. I can only hope Israel self-destructs. They have been committing genocide since 1948 and actually they began killing Palestinians decades before that. The Israeli government is full of psychopaths who were once outlawed. The Israeli voters have a lot to answer for. The people participating in the IDF have a lot to answer for. The Americans have a lot to answer for.
And this is a show that is coming near you. This is a test case. This is something that will show up in the US and Europe. You wait and see. You saw the "fire" in Lahaina. Do you really believe that was not planned? The fires in Paradise, CA. Have the residents returned? The destruction of Syria is very similar to what the US and Israel did there. This is not an isolated situation. Look what they did to Iraq. And they've even said they want to do it to Jordan.
This is a lot bigger than Palestine. Everyone should be fighting this. But I guess they aren't because the Biden Administration is not frightened by the consequence to this country at all. The Biden Administration (and presumably the Trump administration will too since they are sucking the same balls) want to destroy and take control of the entire Middle East.
I wish Israel's neighbors would cut them off entirely in a siege. But they are not. Some are. But the big ones--Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, even Turkey--are waiting to see how much they can acquire after it's all "over". Vultures. And Israel is already holding land auctions in the U.S. Their economy is a mess. The more Israelis are killed (in the IDF) and the more Israelis come to their senses and leave, the smaller the Israeli population will become. Eventually there will too few Israelis to continue running that country and it will fall in on itself. I hope I'm still alive to see that blessed day.
Reporter: "Who will guard the port that the United States will build in Gaza to receive aid?"
US President Biden: "Israelis"
https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/liberals-are-always-trying-to-distance?r=8hnh2&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=51474223
American foreign policy is run by dual American/Israeli citizens and they are the last people to have an unbiased opinion of the region and the two peoples currently locked in an existential struggle. The scale of wanton murder by the Israeli Defence Force hasn't been seen since the slaughter of Russian Christians in the 20s and 30s by the Jewish/Bolshevik Cheka, NKVD, and the GUGB that eventually warped into the KGB in 1954. Is it a coincidence that we are dealing with the same murderers today?
I'm hoping this is the beginning of the end of AIPAC. People world wide are taking to the streets and advocating for the Palestinian people and standing up to AIPAC. I really think change is going to come in this regard. I really can't see how Israel will survive the carnage she's implementing. The world is not looking kindly at Israel at all, and I hope she will become a liability to the US.
Giving israel the 'she' pronoun profoundly contaminates my notion of the Goddess. israel is not a country. It is a Zionist curse. israel is an occupying force only and not a country. israel is an 'it' and a temporary one at that. Down the chute with it & don't bother recycling it. Palestine will outlast her tormentors.
Okay see your point, just habit. Go to the Grayzone with Max Blumenthal who gave a lecture on recent events in Gaza and America's role in it, especially Biden and the democrats. I posted the link in response to Caitlins post also
It is. When even Christiane Amanpour can't stomach a bald-faced lie about mass murder from some ghoulish Israeli official, when CNN is showing pictures of starving children who are starting to closely resemble the photos of concentration camp victims displayed at the Holocaust Museum, and AIPAC says that Israel has the Most Moral Army in the World, something's breaking.
That something is liberal minds. Liberals love to feel that they are morally superior to the rest of us deplorable troglodytes. That's kind of hard to do when they are required by their cult to support a livestreamed genocide. The cognitive dissonance is breaking their brains.
That's OK. Sometimes I like the sound of discordant symphonies.
Pictures say a thousand words and there are many now and it's hard to deny the reality of what you see, and hard to live in the lie Israel is not implementing a genocide. What I find really disturbing is an Israeli population that supports this, however no doubt many have experienced of life time of perceiving Palestinians, as animals like Gallant said. That is their shame.
October 7th? Sure, you can't attack your attackers, your prison guards, your apartheid masters, the peversity of Jewish State of Jewish Occupied Palestine's theft of land and thousands shot in the knee-caps or point blank in the head.
Nah, sure, being occupied, being imprisoned, detroying families, nah, Oct. 7 was something else, not self-fucking-defense?
Get real. Then, we have putridity from Sy Hersh. Jesus, these people, these elites and semi-elites like Sy, living the New York Jewish journalist life, he just can't cut the umbilical cord of Dirty Dirty Israel.
https://paulokirk.substack.com/p/sy-hersh-and-his-brethren-of-tap
The Venus Project had some good ideas.
What's the Venus Project, S, send all of the deeply evil usians to Venus and just let the decent ones stay? Sounds good to me. And include all the western "nations" folks who support usa war crimes, etc.
The Venus Project is a world system that would eliminate money and make most things "free". Jaque Fresco was the initiator. It works on support and sustainability rather than deprivation and destruction.
Check out Peter Joseph's "Revolution Now" channel on YouTube too. He has some amazing ideas on RBE (resource based economy) and an insightful understanding of how systems work.
It would be nice to give the Venus Project a helping hand, yes? https://x.com/DomeLord/status/1767842052627206338?s=20
"Saying it’s racist and evil to criticize Zionists is like saying it’s racist and evil to criticize conservatives. It’s a fucking political ideology."
Freedom of speech says we have the right to criticize any and all political ideologies. I guess that's why they want to take freedom of speech away from us like they do TikTok. They're fascistic, these Zionists.
Thank you again. You write so well, it really helps what’s left of my sanity.
If you want to understand the U.S. idea of how Palestinians should be treated for resisting colonisation, occupation anf apartheid, read the history of the U.S. and the hundreds of years of flat genocide they wreaked on the native Americans.
And if you want to see a real example of what Biden Blinken and the Israelis mean by a “two state solution” I suggest travelling around the U.S. and visiting the reservations that are the supposed territory of “sovereign” Native American “nations”.
As James Baldwin said pointedly, the European vision of the world is not only obsolete, it’s downright lethal to most people on the planet.