The 21st Century Crisis Of Civilization

This is a reading list, not an article. I cannot repeat myself endlessly! Quality over quantity.

Excellent discussion here in the video below, but the discussion has a glaring avoidance of the political dimension. Such one-sided approaches are frankly doomed to failure, at least now, at this time in history, when radical change can not be left to a multi-generational, slow and gradual transformation.

See also:

The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions

World As Lover, World As Self

Choosing Reality

The Hero With A Thousand Faces

The Perennial Philosophy

Dreamtime and Inner Space

A Short History Of Progress

Peak Everything

When Technology Fails

Ancient Futures

The Wayfinders

Retrotopia

Year 501

Necessary Illusions

The Shock Doctrine

A Game As Old As Empire

Mutual Aid

The Chalice & The Blade

The Ecology Of Freedom

The Discourse On Voluntary Servitude

Walden and On Civil Disobedience

Oneness vs The 1%

And my own books and writings:

Enlightened Democracy

The People vs The Elite

The Failure Of Propaganda

Importing From China

Sinking All Ships

When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds

The Worst Of Both Worlds

Why The Left Libertarians Are Right

Flash Drive Revolution

The Collapse Of The West

And

Slavery vs Rebirth,

– Which together, synthesize the core reading list above, and much, much more.

Note also:

The answer to our 21st century crisis of civilization cannot be found in the psychological-philosophical-spiritual-cultural spheres alone. The political-economic sphere must also be directly, and urgently, simultaneously addressed – as my work and Vandana Shiva’s work do, and to a frankly rare degree.

The outer affects the inner, as much as the inner affects the outer. Neglecting the political-economic dimensions can only lead to catastrophe. We need to bridge and unite the two realms, the inner and the outer, and now.

JTR,

Villa Samadhi,

Uruguay,

December 25, 2023

Genocide Ahead

I don’t enjoy bringing bad news, but I feel a duty to help others, and to protect them when I can, which includes warning them of danger, as well as pointing out the ways to better health, happiness, freedom, peace and joy, and a better world for all.

The signs are clear. The direction is unmistakable. We are heading rapidly into fascism. Genocide is coming again, if we do not change course, it must be said. The primary targets, however it is labelled, camouflaged or concealed, will be the activists, the dissidents, the thinkers and intellectuals, the non-conformists, the anti-authoritarians and the non-compliant. But it will spread from there. It always does.

Stand up and speak out now, for democracy, freedom, civil liberties, and human rights for all, under all conditions, even in emergencies or crises, and especially during emergencies or crises, or be prepared for darkly grim times ahead.

These are the facts. Deal with them as you will.

JTR,

September 17, 2020

White Man, Listen. Modern Man, Listen and learn

Pioneer species that regenerate the entire local ecosystem – what a brilliant, wonderful discovery by biologists and ecologists. Except that, like many things, it is not a discovery, but a rediscovery. Still, it is a truly wonderful, and potentially planet-saving practical idea, nevertheless. This rediscovery of a radically simple method, based in profound ecological knowledge and wisdom, can literally save our world.

Native North Americans knew this secret and practised it long before biologists discovered it. They would plant legume trees, nut trees, which are nitrogen fixers and soil regenerators, which increase soil fertility to support and regenerate myriad diverse other plant and tree species; and which feed birds, chipmunks, squirrels and other small animals, which are the base of the terrestrial food chain; which in turn feed the foxes, coyotes, wolves, bears, cougars and other predators: thereby regenerating the entire ecosystem.

Simply brilliant. Nature’s wisdom is brilliant. Native wisdom is briliant. Science and modern man are the slow men in the race, more than a bit dim-witted, but slowly catching up – hopefully before our delusions of grandeur, and the deadly combination of hubris and fear, simply wipe us from the planet.

Listen and learn, modern man.

JTR,

August 20, 2020

See also:

A Short History Of Progress – Ronald Wright

Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Suceed – Jared Diamond

When Technology Fails – Mathiew Stein

The Party’s Over: Oil, War and The Fate of Industrial Societies – Richard Heinberg

Diet For A Small Planet – Francis Moore Lappe

Ancient Futures – Helena Norberg-Hodge

World As Lover, World As Self – Joanna Macy

The Chalice and The Blade – Rianne Eisler

The Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin

The Optimistic Environmentalist – David Boyd

A History Of The Future – James Howard Kunstler

Ecotopia – Earnest Callenbach

The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin

Stolen Continents – Ronald Wright

Elders’ Wisdom – David Suzuki

The Wayfinders – Wade Davis

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

What Is A Food Forest? – Geoff Lawton, YouTube

We Are Running Out Of Time – Allan Savory, YouTube

How To Green The World’s Deserts and Reverse Climate Change – Allan Savory, YouTube

Oneness vs The 1% – Vandana Shiva. (Coming the end of summer 2020)

The People vs The Elite – J. Todd Ring

Enlightened Democracy – J. Todd Ring

 

 

 

The Death of Modern World – Or the Death of the Planet & the Human Species

*

“The causality of the One was frequently explained in antiquity as an answer to the question, ‘How do we derive a many from the One?’ Although the answer provided by Plotinus and by other Neoplatonists is sometimes expressed in the language of ‘emanation’, it is very easy to mistake this for what it is not. It is not intended to indicate either a temporal process or the unpacking or separating of a potentially complex unity. Rather, the derivation was understood in terms of atemporal ontological dependence.”

– Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, On Plotinus

*

Yes! Exactly. It is not sequential; it is not this creating that; it is not the many being separately created by or out of the One. It is atemporal ontological dependency – well put, Standford.

More simply put, the many are the One; the One is the many.

Or as Meister Eckhart, the archetypal Western mystic said, “There is nothing that I can point to that is not God. God is within me, and God is all around me.”

Or in the terms of two of our greatest scientists:

“The perception of a division between self and other is a kind of optical delusion.” – Einstein

“The number of minds in the universe is one.”

– Erwin Schrödinger

Or in Eastern terms: “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.” From the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – the pith of the pith of the Buddha’s teachings.

Plotinus may be, in broad terms, the Bodhisattva of the West, along with Spinoza, Emerson, Blake and Thoreau. But of course, they are all foolishly buried and forgotten now. We are now far too clever for mere wisdom.

Burying and forgetting the ancients was no less foolish an act than largely wiping out and dismissing the Western monastic tradition, or burying and forgetting the Renaissance or the Enlightenment. But we moderns, for 400 years, and especially the past 100, when we really became full of… ah….hubris….and right into the 21st century, have prided ourselves on burying what we later will discover to have been some of our greatest of treasures.

Very wise indeed.

Meanwhile, we prefer pollysyllabic nihilistic psychobabble (post-modernism) and thinly veiled self-serving and utterly deceitful Machiavellianism (neoliberal corporatism) to either empiricism or common sense.

Wise indeed.

We will either recover our senses – which includes abandoning Netwonian mechanistic, materialist reductionism, Cartesian dualism, post-modernist nihilism, and neoliberal corporatism, with its crypto-fascist planet-killing class warfare – or we will go extinct.

Along with the tragic, pervasive illusion of powerlessness which holds captive the minds of the great majority, these are the big four sets of delusions which make up what Blake called “the mind-forged manacles”. We either break these chains, or we die.

We shift our consciousness, culture and dominant paradigm, or we make the shift right into the grave.

Simple choice, really.

– JTR

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plotinus/#ThreFundPrinPlotMeta

Resilience: Another Lesson From The Heart Of The Renaissance

It’s interesting to me to reflect on the fact that Florence and Tuscany have weathered many, many storms and vicissitudes, and have seen empires come and go. Tuscany was culturally rich and ahead of the curve when Rome wasn’t even a village on a muddy river bank, much less a city, a republic, or an empire. Florence and Tuscany remind me, among other things, that human resilience is real. We will weather the storm.

JTR,

April 5, 2020

Global Geopolitics Analysis 2020: Sinking All Ships (But Our Own): Elite Aim To Sink Global Economy, In Order To Consolidate Global Neo-Feudal Corporate Rule

The currently reigning political-economic orthodoxy, philosophy or ideology, both East and West, and in virtually every nation, with only a few exceptions, has rightly been called neoliberalism. What that means, is the merger of business and the state, which as Mussolini himself defined it, is properly called corporatism – which, he said, is the proper term for fascism. That is the order which we are facing now. And this is the final phase, it would seem, of the slow motion fascist coup which has been under way for the past forty years. Things are coming to a head, right now, in 2020.

Neoconservatism, which arose along side neoliberalism in the 1970’s, as its uglier Siamese twin, is its mirror image – without the velvet glove, or the Obama-esque, silky smooth PR machinery.

Both neoliberalism and neoconservatism – the two wings of the global corporate oligarchy and its self-serving ideology – have been a disaster for human beings and the Earth – as well as for democracy, human rights, civil liberties, constitutional rule and the rule of law, and for freedom.

Everywhere, this beast roams, or lurks, waiting to devour ever more. And devouring the people and the planet, our freedom, our democracy, our future and our rights, indeed it is.

What neoliberalism and neoconservatism represent, at their heart, is simply an escalated and intensified class war. It is a class war waged by the elite 0.1% upon the other 99.9% of the people, along with democracy, freedom, and the Earth.

The oligarchs are fulfilling Adam Smith’s depiction of what Thomas Jefferson called “the new moneyed aristocracy”, which Adam Smith called “the architects of policy”.

Note what Thomas Jefferson said about “the new moneyed aristocracy”, 200 years ago. In 1812, Jefferson said, “I pray we shall crush the new moneyed aristocracy in its infancy, for already it bids defiance to our laws, and seeks a contest of strength with our democratic government.”

Adam Smith spoke in similar ways, referring to “the vile maxim of the masters” – which he said was, “All for us, nothing for any one else.”

The elite simply want it all: all wealth on Earth; and more dangerously, all power. And they are making rapid progress. The richest eight individuals now have more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. Inequality has skyrocketed. Checks and balances and limits on power have been shredded, along with constitutions and human rights. The corporate coup is approaching completion.

What the neoliberal and neoconservative “New Bad Deal” of the past 40 years represents, is a) corporate globalization, b) globalism (closely related, but distinct), and c) corporatism. Corporatism means merger of business and the state – or the full corporate take-over of the state, in the case of the West, and the state take-over of the corporatized economy in the formerly Red East of China. Again, what is critical to remember is that in both cases, it is corporatism – which, again, as Mussolini said, is the proper term for fascism.

Globalization, and the ideology of neoliberal and neoconservative corporate globalism, is at heart, a war on democracy, since it is a slow-motion global corporate coup. It was sold to the people with the lie that it would lift all boats, and benefit all – while of course leaving all precious liberties and our democracy in tact, naturally.

What happened over the past four decades of neoliberal and neoconservative class warfare, however, has been the devouring of the middle class in the formerly wealthy nations of the West, the de-industrialization of the West, the offshoring of production for higher corporate profits, along with the offshoring of profits, and above all, a war on democracy at home and abroad.

Instead of lifting all boats, the result was a massive, historically unprecedented transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor – from Main Street – to Wall Street, the City of London, Davos, and the already stratospherically rich global business elite. And the corresponding hyper-concentration of power has been even more disastrous, and extremely dangerous.

*

Now that the elite have given themselves trillions of dollars worth of cash and assets from the public purse between 2008 and the start of 2020, and have looted, privatized, bought up, or taken private, just about everything they can, they want to sink the global economy, pull the plug, and sink all boats – other than theirs, of course.

Remember, the super-rich are never harmed in a crash – they prosper, and go on a feeding frenzy. Moreover, they can demand more bailouts for themselves while sinking and devouring everyone else – and they will get it becuase they control the levers of power.

It’s happening now:

$4.5 trillion in public money, in the US alone, is to go to the corporate elite, for their protection, while they continue to crash the economy by the new fascist lockdown they themselves have imposed on the people.

The elite trash the economy with their imposition of  “temporary” police state lockdown measures, then loot the people, claiming an emergency multi-trillion dollar bailout for themselves…. Predictable. And this is just the start.

A “temporary” invocation of emergency powers and martial law, with the suspension of all civil rights, is already here.

A “temporary” suspension of all regulations, contractual obligations, labour and environmental standards is being rammed through as well.

Event 201 and the Rockefeller Foundation Lock Step plan had nothing to do with health, and everything to do with power and wealth. We are seeing a continuity of agenda.

Again, we should not be surprised. This is turbocharged class war on nitrous oxide. This is end game. Re-read Orwell, Huxley, Zamyatin, and Jack London’s Iron Heel.

 

‘Holy Crap This Is Insane’: Citing Coronavirus Pandemic, EPA Indefinitely Suspends Environmental Rules

“The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment. This is a schoolbook example for what we need to start looking out for.” – Common Dreams, 

Jake Johnson

‘Looting of America by Big Corporations’: Progressives Appalled as Senate Unanimously Passes Largest Bailout Bill in US History

“A transfer of wealth and power to the super rich from the rest of us, with the support of both political parties—a damning statement about the condition of American democracy.”

– Common Dreams,

Jake Johnson

“At the moment when the American people are most in need, our coffers are being looted by the wealthy and well-connected.”
—Progressive Change Campaign Committee

“We oppose the Senate’s looting of America by big corporations,” the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) said in a statement. “Over and over, the American people are told there is ‘no money’—for student debt relief, for Medicare for All, for a Green New Deal, to create millions of jobs and save our planet. And now, at the moment when the American people are most in need, our coffers are being looted by the wealthy and well-connected.”

 

But this is business as usual for the elite. Cause a crisis, present yourself as the cure, and increase your wealth, and more importantly your power, by delivering “the cure”.

 

*

“Worth citing here is Caitlin Johnstone, who in a recent article noted how America’s response to COVID-19 illustrates the pathologies of market-driven capitalism and the politicians who so willingly serve it:

The corporate cronyism of America’s political system has been highlighted with a massive kleptocratic multitrillion-dollar corporate bailout of which actual Americans are only receiving a tiny fraction. Instead of putting that money toward paying people a living wage to stay home during a global pandemic, the overwhelming majority of the money is going to corporations while actual human beings receive a paltry $1,200 (which they won’t even be getting until May at the earliest) at a time of record-smashing unemployment.

America’s capitalism worship has been highlighted with Wall Street Journal headline “Dow Soars More Than 11% In Biggest One-Day Jump Since 1933” running at the exact same time as “Record Rise in Unemployment Claims Halts Historic Run of Job Growth — More than 3 million workers file for jobless benefits as coronavirus hits the economy“. Stocks are booming, Amazon is surging, and mountains of wealth are being transferred to sprawling megacorporations, while actual human beings are terrified of what the future holds.

Nice to know a few are profiting while so many worry, suffer, and die.  But should we be that surprised by how callous America’s leaders are?

I recall reading Daniel Ellsberg’s book on U.S. planning for nuclear war.  Sixty years ago, U.S. leaders were prepared to kill 600 million people (that’s not a typo) in their efforts to “win” the Cold War.”

– William J. Astore, American Herald Tribune

Only 600 million killed. That was the plan. Mind you, world population is much higher now. The numbers may need adjusting.

Do the elite feel ok about mass murder for money and power? Yes, they do. Are they deeply concerned about public health? Are you delusional? They’re interested in money and power, as always. Mass deaths are quite fine. So are prison camps and a police state.

*

And in turn, in the aftermath of the next great economic crash, which looks to be unfolding now, the cycle of an every-intensifying feeding frenzy of the elite few upon the many will continue, and with greater ferocity and speed.

Of course, if the ruling elite sink the global economy, then the levels of popular discontent, which are already extremely high, will go through the roof. That is understood. That is why a police state has been built.

But a police state must be rationalized. That was the purpose of the “war on terrorism” – which in reality was a war on democracy at home and abroad, as well as a pretext for resource wars and coups the world over.

However, the “war on terrorism” propaganda narrative is no longer working. People are beginning to realize what even Trump has admitted: the wars in the Middle East are about oil. The propaganda narrative is failing.

So a new narrative was created, to distract the people from the three powers at home who are devouring them: Wall Street, Washington, and the military industrial complex. The new official enemies became Russia, China and Iran – regardless of their real threats, which in reality are basically economic competition only.

But even the new Red Scare and the new Cold War have failed. People are seeing through that as well. Something new was needed.

After a number of trials, over several years, the public health emergency pretext for the police state, fascism and martial law, have been refined to a fine edge.

Whether the coronavirus was naturally occurring, or whether it was accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Bioweapons lab, or whether the Chinese government released it deliberately, or the US government, or perhaps even a US-China joint effort, to consolidate the powers of the oligarchs East and West simultaneously, or some other actor, it ultimately matters very little. Any crisis, real or manufactured – whether honestly portrayed, or greatly exaggerated, as this one seems clearly to be – any crisis will do as a rationale for the new global police state.

*

So there you have it. Conspiracy theory? No: it is simply political-economic, sociological and geopolitical analysis of power elites and their known patterns and proven past actions, with extrapolation to the near future, based on very clear and undeniable indications.

In short, get ready for a global shit-storm: not necessarily due to a pandemic, which is very unlikely to amount to anything much beyond its present, wildly exaggerated levels. (Compare 11,000 global deaths from coronavirus vs nearly 50,000 deaths per day from the combined body count from poverty, hunger, obesity and poor diets).

What is clearly unfolding is:

a) fascist architecture continues to be being built;

b) draconian and authoritarian, fascist responses to the coronavirus, both East and West are in play;

c) an already extremely unstable global economy is being pushed toward collapse by the fascist lockdown imposed by elites, both in China, and also in the West;

d) economic crash – with huge spikes in global uprisings, as well as suffering and deaths, are certain to result if the draconian lockdowns continue for long; and

e) the hounds will likely be unleashed by the new global fascist police state, justified by the war on terrorism, by the new Red Scare and Cold War, by calls for “order”, and quite possibly by a public health emergency – and whether it is real or fabricated, does not matter – as popular unrest soars to new hiehgts world-wide in the face of the global economic crash which the elite have brought about.

The oligarchs create a crisis, then use the crisis to ram through sweeping changes that favour themselves, at the expense of the people, democracy, freedom, and the Earth. That is what is happening now – again, only this time with greater ferocity.

Remember, I will say again, I predicted the 2007-2010 global economic crisis when everyone was saying things are just rosy. It would be unwise to dismiss this second warning, of an even greater economic crisis coming fast – and the fascist “solution” to the crisis which will follow.

Speak up, and stand up: for democracy, freedom, human dignity, and the Earth which is also being razed, looted, devoured and destroyed.

The hour is very late. The next few months to several years will be our greatest; or, if we are complacent, or reality avoidant, our darkest hour.

Speak up, stand up. It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

Neo-feudalism, or more simply put, global fascism, is what is arising now.  The oligarchs, the elite, are consolidating their power. If we value our freedom, our democracy, or our future on Earth, we had better stand now.

JTR,
March 27, 2020

See Trends Journal, Economic Epidemic, March 17, 2020

Medical Martial Law, The Corbett Report, March 2020

Canadian and US Federal Elections – 2015, 2016: A summary of the prospects and possible outcomes

Revolution, reform, stagnation – or worse?

It is sometimes difficult to say what would be best for a given nation at a given time in history. There are things that would be desirable, of course, or which seem desirable, and things that are quite clearly, urgently needed – but in what way they should best be brought about, can be very difficult to say. There are many unintended consequences in life, and sometimes, good things turn out badly, or terrible things end up generating good responses, and good results in the end – though no one would wish for it to have come about in the way that it did. Ethics and compassion should rule our actions and guide our choices, but predicting what, precisely, is the best course, is virtually impossible. We simply have to use our best judgement, and go with that. Some things are clear, some not so clear. But we can say a few things with reasonable certainty.

We should remember that everything is subject to change at all times, and open to change, but one thing that appears to be clear, at least for the moment, is that the Canadian federal election is, by all indications, a non-event, since the three major political parties have either lost their courage, or lost their integrity, or both, and are all on-board with a pro-pipeline, pro big oil, neo-liberal, pro “free trade” agenda of de facto corporate rule – and the only party with any integrity, vision or courage has such little support that they are unlikely win. At the federal level at least, things look pretty bleak at the moment for Canadian politics. Harper has to go, without question; but the alternatives look very uninspiring, to say the least.

I will vote my conscience anyway, as always; but the election seems very uninteresting, and is likely to change little. Big oil and big business will, in all likelihood, continue to run the nation – and run it into the ground, and off an ecological cliff – while the majority of the people remain passive and apathetic, as their rights, civil liberties, democracy, freedom, social programs, environment and country are slowly bled away, and bled dry.

“Not with a bang, but a whimper” – maybe this should be the new Canadian motto, or even the chorus for a new national anthem. Where are the likes of Tommy Douglas when you need them?

We stand on guard for what? Oh, right – Tim Horton’s, and the television remote control. Who says hockey is the nation’s favourite past-time? Clearly, that spot is reserved for a most devoted tradition of public apathy. The courage seems to have gone out of this nation some decades ago, and has yet to return.

The US is in a similar state to Canada and other “leading” industrial nations in some ways, but is far more unstable, and could go in one of several very different directions – and, unlike the up-coming Canadian federal election, the US federal election which approaches could be decisive, and of profound import, with far-reaching consequences, not just for the people of the United States, but also, for the world.

In the US, if Hillary Clinton wins, and becomes the next president, then the majority of the people of the United States are likely to think, “Well, we should give her a chance, and see if she does anything positive” – and then yawn, and collectively go back to sleep.

So that would be nothing short of a disaster, to my mind, if she wins – to say nothing of her unwavering loyalty to Wall Street and her eagerness to start a war with Iran – which, by the way, is positively insane, since Russia and China have economic and military alliances and agreements with Iran, and attacking Iran, as Russia has made clear, could very well trigger a nuclear confrontation between the great powers, and quite literally start WWIII.

So a win for Hillary “bomb-em-now” Clinton would mean stagnation and no real change, at best, when what we urgently need is major change, and now; and it could mean the worst imaginable scenario – something infinitely worse than mere stagnation and inaction in a time of great, and growing crisis. For these reasons, I would have to say that a Hillary Clinton Presidential win would be disastrous for the nation, and, quite possibly, disastrous for the world.

If Donald Trump, or another of the far-right lunatics from the Republican Party, somehow manages to win, then we could see, not only the further looting of Main Street by Wall Street, exactly as Hillary would preside over, and as George Bush and Barack Obama presided over, and aided and abetted; and it would not only mean a probable, and even eager launching of a war that could very well, and very easily, lead to WWIII – also, in lock-step with the Hillary agenda – but we could also see the nation explode into civil war, by the hatred and tensions that could quickly come to a boiling point, and overflow in mass chaos and violence.

So if Hillary means stagnation at best, and disaster at worst, a Republican win would mean, most likely, disaster, or worse disaster. Neither Clinton or the Republicans are acceptable to any sane person. Both Hillary and the Republican candidates must be rejected.

But, on the other hand, a far-right Republican government that pushes the US over the brink, and into civil war, by further fuelling and igniting racial, class and other tensions, might well explode itself into the very grounds that give birth to a revolution. Some would say this would be a good thing. We should wish, however, if we are at all sane, that revolution would come about in better, and more peaceful ways. I would not say that this is a course of history we should wish on anyone. So heaven forbid that either Hillary, or one of the Republican representatives for the billionaire class – as Hillary is as well – end up in the White House. Either one would spell very real and great danger for the nation.

That really leaves only one contender in the race, and that is, the independent, democratic socialist from Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders is a grassroots populist – in reality, and not just in rhetoric and PR spin, unlike Hillary – and has fought consistently, for four decades, for the middle class and the poor, and for progressive politics that will benefit all the people, and not just Wall Street, the corporate elite and the super-rich.

Sanders is now the front runner in key primary states, and leading in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, 10 and 20 points respectively, ahead of the former front runner, Hillary Clinton. He is drawing the biggest crowds of any candidate. He is generating a wave of excitement across the nation – even in died-in-the-wool conservative states.

Bernie Sanders has raised more money than any candidate – despite having rejected the billionaires’ money. He has, so far, generated over a million individual donations, averaging $24. And he has raised a million donations faster than any other candidate in US history, again showing the massive groundswell of grassroots support that is rallying behind him.

And he has a message, a vision, and a policy platform, that resoundingly resonates with the great majority of the people of the United States: get money out of politics and make the government represent all the people, and not just the rich; make elections publicly funded, so that they are free and fair; make the richest 1% and the large corporations pay their fair share of taxes; make health care and education free for all – up to and including college and university; stop the wars, invest in America, and rebuild the nation – and with an emphasis on fairness and a decent life for all. As one astute commentator put it, Bernie Sanders is what Obama pretended to be in 2008. And that is why he is loved. And that is why he just might win.

If Bernie Sanders does win, what would happen? It certainly would not spell revolution, and in fact, it could forestall a revolution. Senator Sanders would help to heal a broken nation that is on the edge of fiscal insolvency and civil war, and take it in a bold, positive, new direction. But it would not spell revolution. It would be bold, powerful social change, in a direction that most people would consider very, very positive, and very inspiring and hopeful, but it would not be revolution.

I’m not a capitalist, and I think there are better ways to organize human society, such as those outlined by Chomsky, Kropotkin, Bookchin, Michael Albert, Rudolph Rocker and Bertrand Russell; and I also think that it is clear that capitalism is intrinsically anti-democratic, exploitative, oppressive, dehumanizing and degrading, and limiting of human potential, by its very nature. But if one insists on keeping a capitalist system, even for just the short term or the present, then at least it has to be regulated, and its worst injustices and brutalities kept in check, while its benefits are more equally shared. That is exactly what Bernie Sanders is proposing to do, and it is hardly radical – it is simply a matter of common sense, basic ethics, and basic sanity.

There is still a great deal of red scare ideology in the US – that is clear. But fortunately, it works only on an uninformed, and misinformed, and shrinking minority. Look at Denmark, Sweden or Finland – these are democratic socialist countries with capitalist markets, and they work quite well with their mixed economies, and are also free and democratic. (Denmark is home to the happiest people in the world, according to global polls – far above the US.)

In fact, these democratic socialist, mixed capitalist economy countries are much more democratic than the United States, which has descended into an oligarchy, as a recent Princeton study confirms, and is now ruled, not by the people, but by Wall Street.

Bernie would start to put a dent in that corporate oligarchy, and begin to bring the power back to the people, where it rightly belongs. And some people are afraid of that. Some are terrified of that thought – and these are the same business elites who now rule the nation.

Some are simply misinformed – others are working for the same corporate elite who don’t want their power or privileged position to be challenged. Ignorance, greed, egomania and power lust are the main sources of opposition to policies such as Bernie would bring in – and sooner or later, and hopefully sooner, these obstacles will be overcome, and defeated. At present, the majority of people in the US support the policy proposals Bernie Sanders is making. The minority who do not, seem to be living in an earlier era, namely, the McCarthy era.

The rest of the world no longer lives in 1955. It’s time for America to get with the program, and catch up with the rest of the world. Bernie will help the US to do just that.

The Founding Fathers of the United States were very alert, for their time, but they were not perfect, nor were they omniscient. In fact, as Chomsky has pointed out, the majority of them, with the exception of Thomas Jefferson, despised what most people today would consider democracy to mean. The majority of the Founding Fathers believed in what John Jay said, that, “The people who own the country ought to govern the country.” That is to say that, aside from Jefferson, the Founding Fathers believed that, “We the people,” meant, “We, the rich, white, male slave owners” ought to rule the land. So reverence for the Founding Fathers expresses a basic ignorance of history.

(I admire Thomas Jefferson, but even he was a slave owner, which, of course, is unconscionable, and showed even his great weaknesses and contradictions.)

Democracy has evolved a great deal since 1776, and that is a good thing. Bernie Sanders would simply carry that evolution of democracy a further step forward – principally, by challenging the ruling corporate oligarchy that has high-jacked democracy, exactly as Jefferson warned would happen, 200 years ago – and by returning the power to the people.

If power to the people is something to be feared, then we really are lost. This is not something that should be feared, but embraced. And the majority of people in the US are ready for it, and support exactly the kinds of policies that Bernie Sanders is proposing, and urging.

The time has come for real change. And Bernie Sanders may well prove to be one more major drivers of that change. All indications are that he is precisely that: a driver of powerful, positive social change. The majority are ready for that, even if the oligarchy and a shrill minority will scream, and do.

The basic structures of capitalism would remain intact under a Sanders presidency – the benefits and working conditions derived from and experienced within the capitalist economy would be more widely and more fairly shared, more humane and more tolerable, but the capitalist structure would remain in place. For some, this would be seen as a good thing, to preserve capitalism. Others do not see it that way. I would say that, while Senator Sanders might delay a much-needed revolution (for example, delaying a radical shift in the control or ownership of the means of production, such as decentralized, community-based, democratic worker ownership, through worker co-ops, on a nation-wide scale – something along the lines of what Noam Chomsky, Murray Bookchin, Bertrand Russell or Peter Kropotkin have recommended), Sanders would, most likely, set the country on a better track, and steer it away from the implosion and sheer disaster to which it is presently heading – and that would be a very good thing. It is probably better to steer the ship away from the approaching cliff, then to watch it go over (or push it over) and try to rebuild from the wreckage. Dr. Strangelove may disagree, but I think this is the saner path.

Revolutionary change can wait – maybe not for long, but for a little while – in order to bring about some healing and recovery for a nation that is rapidly spiralling toward self-destruction: economically, socially, environmentally, and possibly politically as well. Bernie could be the person who can bring stability to a nation that is currently set to implode. While this might not be as idyllic an outcome as some would like, it might be the best thing we can hope for at present – and it is certainly infinitely better than the immediate alternatives on hand, such as Hillary or one of the Republican zealots would bring.

In fact, if Bernie Sanders does win, he just might inspire and unite the people of the United States enough, that they can bring about, not just much-needed reforms, but in the end, a much-needed social, political and economic revolution as well.

Certainly, having a true populist democrat and progressive as the next President of the United States would not instantly change everything and right all wrongs, but it would be a start, and a very good start at that, I would say.

I believe it is possible that Bernie will win. I certainly hope so. And if he does, then yes, that is only the White House – but that is a powerful office, of course, and inroads could be made from there towards making real change.

If nothing else, Bernie could use the White House as the world’s most powerful podium, and from there, inspire the people, through popular movements, to create the changes that are needed on the ground, and to put the required pressure on Congress, and on Wall Street, to make further, bigger changes.

So the White House is a starting point for bigger things – and a powerful starting point. And I think he’s going to do it. I think he’s going to win.

Go Bernie.

In conclusion, I would have to say this. In the US, Bernie Sanders deserves support, and deserves to win. Certainly there are no other major candidates that are remotely supportable. It’s Bernie, or Wall Street candidate A, B, C or D. The choice should be clear.

In Canada, the situation is much less exciting, but the election is still extremely important. Harper has to go, and if that requires strategic voting – something that I normally am strongly opposed to – then I now think that this election warrants it. Harper’s assault on democracy is simply too grave for us not to use every peaceful means at our disposal to remove him from power. Do vote. And vote strategically – and get Harper out.

J. Todd Ring,

October 18, 2015

See also:

Election 2015 and Strategic Voting: Madness, Or Practical Necessity?

An economic and political analysis of Canada, neoliberalism, and the world

Election 2015 and Strategic Voting: Madness, or Practical Necessity?

A call to the drowning

I would love to celebrate the beauty of jazz, of blues, of classical music, and of this world, and life, and I do; but I must also relate to the suffering of this world, and attend to it, or I would feel myself to be heartless, and it would be unforgivable.

The central problem with this world is a lack of moral and intellectual courage, as Chomsky has said as well. And that failure of courage comes from a pervasive illusion of powerlessness. The great majority of people remain passive in the face of evil, because they are deluded into thinking they have no power. And so, evil flourishes.

At heart, is a mistrust of themselves, as Erich Fromm, C. Wright Mills, Huxley and others have said. They are killing themselves slowly, by a fundamental mistrust in themselves.

But they have no ears to hear, and no eyes to see. They are dancing to the band, playing beautifully, as the ship sinks. There seems to be no reaching them.

Find the life boats, you few who are not asleep. The ship is going down, and the vast majority seem intent to go down with it, and have no concern for anyone, or anything, except their present, pleasant time.

And the band plays on.

I will still try to wrest the helm from the madmen who control it, and steer us in a safer direction, as I think all sane minds should do; but be prepared, for the insane may not be forced from the wheel soon enough, and we may hit upon disaster greater than we have ever seen in our recorded history.

Brace yourselves, while we do everything in our power to make a change of course.

We will either avert the worst, or contend with it. But paralysis is the worst we can do. Shun that. Wake up. I know it has been said many times, but it is the most urgent call. Wake up. How can I say that more strongly? Wake up!

I don’t want to talk to idiots anymore. No more. No more. Deal with reality.

I know, I have no diplomacy. I have only fierce honesty, and love. It is time to wake up. Our civilization is sinking. Forgive me if I am not more polite in waking you before you drown.

(Now, every thoughtful person, and every thoughtless person, ignore this, for there are so many other, more trivial things to contend with.)

J. Todd Ring,
October 17, 2015

A sinking world, and sane responses to it

My country is sinking like a rock (for reasons of corporate oligarchy, neoliberalism, corporate rights agreements, and an addiction to oil revenues and the politics of a resource extraction-based economy, and the thorough corporate domination of the political process), though the great majority of my fellow citizens do not realize it, lost in a stupor of denial as they are (I can think of twelve countries in the Western hemisphere which are either moving in a positive direction, or at least showing some fight – and Canada is not one of them); and so too is the greater part of the world descending, and rapidly so, into a morass of injustice and ecological suicide, to say nothing of concerns for freedom, human rights and democracy, (as well as a pervasive malady, and an epidemic, of economic fundamentalism, neoliberalism and neoconservatism being the primary, and reigning, quasi-religious orthodoxies, along with other forms of ideological and even “scientific” fundamentalism, which are widespread, and far more influential today than their mirror image, which is religious fundamentalism, and an even worse epidemic of illusions of powerlessness, as well as an epidemic of apathy, denial, conformity, and undue and excessive, and frequently mad obedience to power) with only a handful of countries as the exception. How am I not to be distressed, if not anguished, and even furious, or all of the above?

All of the greatest minds and greatest spirits have echoed the same thoughts about the modern world. As David Suzuki has recently said (paraphrasing from memory), “There has never been a better time for being scared and angry….. We should get mad as hell, and then fight like hell.”

Where is the fight in us? And why should we be ashamed of being distraught with a world that is on a collision course with both tyranny and collective ecological suicide, as well as being steeped in war, violence, rampant injustice, inequality, poverty and a culture of voyeurism, vicarious living, materialism, consumerism, and a pathological aversion to the real?

As the great sociologist Erich Fromm said (again, paraphrasing from memory), “Normal only exists in relation to a profoundly abnormal norm.” “The fact that there is neurosis [or psychological strain and distress] is a good sign. It is a sign of a healthy individual, an individual that is still struggling to be fully alive, and by necessity, is struggling against a society that wishes to turn him or her into an atomaton.”

As the saying goes, “If you can keep your head when everyone around you is losing theirs – you’re not paying attention.”

Calm is good. Heart-break for the state of the world is natural. And action is vitally needed – and urgently so.

Let’s see more action, and the heart-break will fade into a memory of times past, and lessons learned.

JTR,
October 7, 2015

Essential reading:

(A few among many other great books that could be included in such a list)

A Brief History of Progress – Ronald Wright

The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies – Richard Heinberg

When Technology Fails – Matt Stein

Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein

A Game As Old As Empire – John Perkins

The End of America – Naomi Wolf

Necessary Illusions: Thought Control In Democratic Societies – Noam Chomsky

Year 501: The Conquest Continues – Noam Chomsky

Escape From Freedom – Erich Fromm

The Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin

The Chalice and the Blade – Rianne Eisler

World As Lover, World As Self – Joanna Macy

Ancient Futures – Helena Norberg-Hodge

Brave New World Revisited – Aldous Huxley

Roads To Freedom – Bertrand Russell

Wisdom of the Elders – David Suzuki

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

On Civil Disobedience – Henry David Thoreau

The Discourse On Voluntary Servitude – Etienne de la Boite

Mutual Aid – Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin Was No Crackpot – Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, June, 1997

The Hero With A Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell

The Mayans, the ecological crisis and the end of the world: a little sanity please

It seems like a lot of people are going to extremes with regards to the Mayan predictions – and I mean the skeptics as well as the fanatics. Some are dismissive of the Mayans altogether, while others are taking a very literal and grossly overly simplistic view, and thinking the world will end on a specific day in the near future: December 21, 2012. The Mayans never said anything of the sort – and at the same time, they were also far too intelligent, thoughtful and sophisticated in their understanding of the cycles of time for us to dismiss them altogether.

The Mayan prophecies do not speak of the end of the world in a literal sense. The Mayans said that the world has ended four times before, so clearly, they are not talking about the end of the physical world, or even the end of the human species. They are talking about the end of a civilization – a social collapse, and the end of an era. And that is something we cannot so easily dismiss, because we have seen civilizations collapse in the past – Sumer, Easter Island, and the Mayan civilization itself, for example (the Mayan urban civilization, that is). (See Jared Diamond, Collapse, Ronald Wright, A Brief History of Progress, or Mathew Stein’s When Technology Fails.) We are also seeing our infrastructure beginning to crumble, while the environmental crisis is accelerating. Clearly, the collapse of our current civilization is not something far-fetched, but a clear and undeniable possibility – and we seem hell-bent on ensuring that it happens.

The Mayans were, furthermore, too subtle and sophisticated in their thinking with regards to the cycles or patterns of time to believe that things will come to an end in a single day, I would think. They mark the passage of time in great cycles of 500 years, and larger cycles of roughly 26,000 years. To think that the Mayans believed everything would end on a single day would seem to me like a gross over-simplification, and a serious misunderstanding. It would be akin to Christian fundamentalists taking an extremely literal reading of the Bible, and believing that the world was literally created in seven days.

I would say it would be unwise to be categorically dismissive of the BIble, just as it would be equally foolish and confused to take it on an overly simplistic or literalist reading or interpretation. The same is true for the predictions of the Maya and their rich and unparalleled calendrical knowledge and understanding of the cycles of time. We do have the intellectual capacity, one would hope, for something a little more refined and a little more subtle than a knee-jerk reaction to either reject and dismiss them out of hand, or to embrace them in a literalist and overly simplistic way.

What is likely is that the Mayans meant that December 21, 2012 would mark the beginning of the end for a certain civilization or world order – ours – and the beginning of its collapse and replacement by a new civilization. The changes that they predicted may come swiftly, but they are not likely to come all at once, in the span of a mere 24 hours. It is possible, but it is unlikely. But that doesn’t mean that the Mayans were wrong – it means we shouldn’t be so crude and sloppy in our thinking, or so presumptuous or arrogant.

Consider this. The Maya had predicted for centuries that on a given year, month and day, one cycle of 500 years would end, and another cycle of 500 years would begin. They said that on that day, the balance would shift from light being predominant, to darkness being predominant. This was a prediction that had been passed on for generations. Well, as it turned out, the prediction coincided to the day with the first conquistador stepping foot on the mainland – Cortez.

If we were to look at the last, say two thousand years of the history of the Americas, we would most certainly mark the arrival of the first conquistador on the mainland as the beginning of an entirely new and radically different era for all of the Americas. How did the Mayans foresee this great shift, and predict it for hundreds of years in advance? Surely we cannot look at this fact and then dismiss the Mayans. Somehow, they have made stunningly accurate predictions, and although we cannot understand how that was possible, it is proven beyond any doubt. To dismiss the Maya considering this, would simply be irrational in the face of the evidence.

Take acupuncture as another example: we don’t know how acupuncture works, and Western medicine is baffled by Traditional Chinese Medicine, which gave rise to acupuncture, but one thing we do know for certain: acupuncture works. It is the same with the Mayan predictions: we cannot understand how they could make such startling accurate predictions, but we know for certain that they have. Therefore, although we may not understand it, we cannot dismiss the predictions of the Maya when they have demonstrated such stunning accuracy in the past.

What is the scientific approach? The truly scientific approach would not be to say, well, nobody can predict the future, so the Mayan prophecies must be rubbish. No, the scientific approach would be to look at the actual evidence, and not make foregone conclusions. And what does the evidence say? The evidence says that somehow the Mayans were able to predict major shifts or bifurcation points, major junctures in time, with stunning accuracy. Just because this does not fit into our current theory or ideology does not mean it is wrong. The facts are the facts, and the scientific approach is not to dismiss the facts when they discomfortingly fail to conform to our theories, but to change our theory and our view to conform with the facts. Anything else is pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-scientific, and is pure bigotry and blind dogmatism and ideological fixation. The facts say that the Mayans were able to predict certain major changes in history, centuries before they happened. Our theories and our views obviously need modification. But more immediately, the facts require that we take an attitude towards the Mayan predictions which is one of curiosity and respect, and not derisive dismissiveness.

Consider another example: gravity. We know that gravity exists, and we know that it works, but scientists still don’t really understand how it works. But simply because we don’t know how gravity works doesn’t mean we say, well, gravity must not be real. Again (to belabour the point for the benefit of the chronically closed-minded and pseudo-scientific) the same is true for the Mayan predictions: we don’t know how they are possible, but we know that they were correct. Do you “believe” in gravity? No, nobody “believes” in gravity – you don’t have to: just drop an apple, or trip on the stairs, and it is proven. The broken nose and the bruised apple are proof enough. Belief has nothing to do with it. Believing or not believing in the Mayan prophecies is the same: they are proven accurate; and it is evidence, not belief, which is all that matters.

Furthermore, considering that not only the Maya, but also the Hopi, the Ojibwa, and many other native peoples have predicted essentially the same thing – that there would come a time when the people become wooden, and lose their natural feelings of empathy and compassion, caring and responsibility for one another and for the broader web of life, and that as a result, calamity would follow, and their civilization will collapse – and considering that is now obvious that we are fulfilling such predictions, it would seem very unwise to disregard their warnings. Complacency, now as always, is a much greater danger than is precaution. We don’t have to run screaming for the hills, but we do need to deal with our environmental crisis, or our civilization will surely collapse, exactly as predicted – maybe not in a single day, but over the course of the coming decades or years.

Consider the fact that other native elders are on record for having predicted, before the start of the first Persian Gulf War in Iraq, that it would be a horrible environmental disaster, as well as a humanitarian one: and they said they had had visions of a black rain falling from the sky. Well, what happened? Saddam Hussein’s troops set fire to the Kuwaiti oil wells when they retreated, and black rain fell across the region. How do we dismiss such proven predictions?

In fact, we should have listened, and prevented war with Iraq. Let those who have ears hear. Let those who have eyes see. The deaf blind will have to accept that they will continue to fall into ditches and injure themselves, for they are heedless, and cannot be guided or forewarned. Pity them for their stubbornness and ignorance.

Consider the most famous proven prediction of all, or certainly one of them. Months before the assassination of JFK, Jean Dixon repeatedly warned the White House that the president’s life was in danger. She particularly urged him not to travel to Texas during that period of time. How such things are known, we do not know – but we know that some people at least do have such fore-knowledge of events: knowledge which transcends mere perspicacity or ordinary foresight.

Consider the stories told for generations by a certain native tribe in Northern Canada about a certain lake, which they said was very evil, and which they warned the people to avoid at all costs, without exception. The native people living nearby had a prediction, a prophecy, that one day men would come and take stones from the lake, then they would use those stones, and a large bird would then fly and drop fire from the sky with material from those stones. That lake is now called Uranium Lake, and it was the site of the first uranium mined for the first nuclear weapons, and the first bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima. How is that for uncanny? If that does not send a shiver down your spine, or at least make you wonder, then as Einstein said, you are as good as dead.  How can we dismiss such fore-knowledge when it is proven beyond all doubt?

Or consider the prophecies of the Inca, which said that if the great white brother came from across the ocean carrying a cross, there would be trouble. Well, the first conquistadors came bearing crosses, and there certainly was trouble, and a lot of it.

Considering all of this and more – and this is just the briefest list of examples, and barely scratches the surface – to be dismissive of native prophecies is simply foolish, and also irrational and unscientific. We know they knew, even if we have no idea how that is possible. Our frankly racist and ethnocentric presumptions must fall in the face of the evidence. The simple fact is: prophecy works, or at least it certainly has at certain times in the past. Just as the Western medical establishment, with its severely flawed and out-dated biological-reductionist and mechanistic medical model has been forced to admit that acupuncture works, despite not being able to understand it, so too must all seriously scientific or even rational modern people admit that prophecy is real – whether that is baffling to us or not – and the Mayans in particular have proven their accuracy in these matters.

Considering the way we are undermining the basis of life on earth, and pushing our civilization to the point of collapse as a result, it would seem unwise, if not simply foolish to dismiss the Mayan predictions entirely. At the same time, to think that the world will end on a certain day this month, is in all likelihood foolish as well. The reality is somewhere in between, in all probability, and we had best heed the warnings of the Maya, and take care of our environment, or we will see, not the end of the world, but the end of the world as we know it, and the collapse of our civilization. And that may be closer than we think.

It is time for us to get it together, environmentally speaking, and make some very real and urgently needed changes now, or bear the consequences of our apathy and denial. This world order will most definitely end. But that will not be the end, but only a new beginning. And the sooner this predatory, anti-ecological, suicidal and grotesquely unjust order ends, the better.

Of course I could be wrong, and it is conceivable that the Mayans somehow foresaw a cataclysmic event that would happen on a certain day, which would wipe out our civilization – if not instantly, then over the months that follow – and many millions or billions of people with it. That would be horrific to contemplate, but it is possible – anything is possible. It is, however, extremely unlikely.

What is not unlikely however, and what is in fact absolutely certain, is that if we do not change course, we will continue to drive ourselves into the ground, through a simple lack of common sense and ecological wisdom, until our infrastructure collapses under the weight of a crisis we have created for ourselves, and our civilization itself collapses. If that happens, then billions of people will suffer greatly: and that will happen, unless we take bold and decisive action now, and without delay. But whether we see a crushing collapse of our current civilization, and have to scramble to survive afterward, and rebuild from scratch, starting with pre-industrial, medieval levels of technology, in small communities barely hanging on; or whether we make the bold moves to transform our present civilization before such a collapse, is entirely up to us.

There is no fate in this. It is a matter of choice. The power is in our hands. It is a matter now of whether we will boldly do what is obviously necessary, and make the needed changes swiftly and without delay, or whether we continue to drift on our present course until collapse hits.

We can still make a relatively peaceful transition to a new and better world, even though we will certainly have to weather a great storm of our own making which has already been set into motion; or, we can wait until change is forced upon us, in which case, the transition will be painful in the extreme.

It is our choice. Humanity will survive in either case. What is in our power to determine is how painful and traumatic, or how peaceful the transition is. But whether we make a major change, is not an option. We will do it willingly, or the environmental crisis will force it upon us.

Better to act freely, and with foresight, and now.

And you don’t have to be a prophet to see that.

JTR,
December 17, 2012