In the 1960s, there was a cultural awakening which spread rapidly around the world, and Chomsky is right in calling it both a cultural awakening, and also, an outbreak of democracy. The civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, the gay rights movement, the native rights movement, the anti-war and peace movement, and the environmental movement, either began or took on a whole new level of grassroots popular power, in the 1960s. This, of course, made the political elite, and the business elite who effectively rule them, shudder and shake with terror and rage. The Pentagon Papers – which were top secret and classified at the time, and which were written in and around 1968, and were leaked by one courageous man, thankfully – spelled out in detail how the power elite, as the great sociologist C. Wright Mills called them – the political elite, the military and paramilitary (the “intelligence” community), and the corporate elite who dominates them both – responded to the outbreak of democracy. They were unsurprisingly dead-set against it, and made it clear and explicit in their top secret planning documents, including the Pentagon Papers, that, as they see it, democracy must be rolled back, and once again constrained, so that the elite could once again rule, as they should, without the hindrance of democracy getting in the way. That was the 1960s. Since that time, the war on democracy has been continuous, highly conscious, and escalating. By now, in the early 21st century, by way of a constellation of methods and strategies, democracy has been thoroughly gutted across the Western world, with a few hundred billionaires in Davos effectively in control. As the leading business journal of the Western world itself admitted, Davos is now “the de facto world government”. Also, by now, after the crash of 2008 and the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Bernie Sanders campaign (which failed to gain political power, but succeeded greatly in opening up free and critical thought and debate), the great majority of people now realize that we no longer live in a democracy – we live in an oligarchy, a global plutocracy, ruled by the bankers and the billionaire elite. The question is, of course, what are we going to do about it?
I have devoted four decades to research, reflection, and writing on this subject, and my first two books lay out a global and historical analysis, a vision for a better world, and a set of strategies for getting there. What I will focus on here, is the crystallization of the key steps that are necessary to achieve that goal: the goal of a rebirth of democracy, freedom, and constitutional rule, and a better world for all.
What are some of the necessary and unavoidable steps we must take, if we are serious about reclaiming our democracy, our freedom, or our rights – all of which are being systematically destroyed now, in the name of an authoritarian benevolence, which, of course, is always a lie, and always a contradiction in terms?
1. Create a free and diverse, open, transparent, and democratic media. This applies not just to the corporate media, but also to the state-controlled media, and the “public”, “alternative”, “independent” and “progressive” media – all of which, or 99% of which, are heavily dependent on money from big corporations, or from billionaire-controlled foundations: which, of course, means that they are not free or independent media, but are on a short leash, and are also part of the corporate-controlled media empire.
2. Apply strict election financing laws – banning all “donations” (which, for adults, translates as bribes) to elections from any corporation or organization, and limiting contributions to elections to $1,000 a year per person. This requires public financing of elections, which is something that has been tried in Europe, and works very well – much better than allowing the rich and the big corporations to buy elections, and buy politicians, political parties and governments, as they currently do now.
3. Implement proportional democracy. That means that your vote is not wasted by voting for a minority party. That millions more people would vote for an anti-establishment party.
If, for example, the Green Party wins 15% of the popular vote, the NDP receive 15% of the vote, and each of the dominant, establishment parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, receive 25-29% of the vote – and this is a conservative estimate of the voting shift, since almost everybody mistrusts or hates both the Liberals and Conservatives by now, just as the majority of Americans now mistrust if not hate both the Republicans and the Democrats. The Greens would then get 15% of the seats in government, the NDP would get 15% of the seats, and the Liberals and Conservatives would each get less than 30% of the seats. Neither the Liberals or Conservatives would be able to form a majority government, and the two arch rivals would not likely form a coalition government with each other. The much more likely outcome would be a Green/NDP coalition government, which, while mild and tepid, white-bread and weak-kneed in nature, would at least make some minor reforms in favour of justice, pensions, elder care, child care, public health and education, and environmental protection – all of which, are regressing and have been under heavy attack by both the Liberals and Conservatives, ever since Pierre Elliot Trudeau left office, in 1979.
The British parliamentary system is a very good system in some respects, but it is systematically biased towards favouring established, dominant political parties. Across Europe, proportional representation is the norm. That is a far more democratic system.
If we are serious about democracy, then we must take these first three steps immediately. But there is more that is needed, if democracy is to survive – or, given that it is now effectively dead, we should say, these three steps and more are required to resurrect democracy, and allow it to be reborn.
4. Reject all “trade agreements” and other international agreements which surrender the sovereignty of a democratically elected parliament (or Congress) to foreign powers – namely, the multi-national corporations, and international organizations such as the NAFTA tribunal, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, the BIS and the WHO. We should note here that these so-called “trade agreements” are really corporate rights agreements. They are less about trade, and more about giving multi-national corporations the power to sue governments for loss of profits, or possible loss of future profits, if, for example, environmental, health or other legislation threatens or harms their profits. This means that all governments, and all politicians who have signed such agreements, which surrender the sovereignty of parliament to foreign powers (multi-national corporations), are, under the explicit terms of Canadian federal law, guilty of treason – which, under Canadian law, is the only crime punishable by death. I am not suggesting we resort to the death penalty, which I am firmly opposed to. I am, however, trying to covey the extreme gravity and severity of the crime of surrendering the sovereignty of Parliament or Congress to any foreign power, including multi-national corporations – or the WHO, BIS, ECB or WTO. We should, at the very least, remove these traitors from government, and elect only political representatives and true leaders who are sworn and committed to upholding both the constitution, and the sovereignty of our democratically elected government and nation.
Why should the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), or the World Health Organization, effectively set the policies, laws, rules, regulations and norms for Canada, or any sovereign nation? The World Health Organization is controlled by Big Pharma, Washington, and Bill Gates, who are its three primary sources of funds. Anyone who trusts these three, is bordering on clinical insanity. Bill Gates, even more than the other two, took over the WHO, over the past decade. Even the Financial Times, the leading business journal of the Western hemisphere, acknowledges that the World Health Organization doesn’t do anything without prior approval from the Gates Foundation.
The banking elites and other billionaire corporate elites control the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, and the BIS, and Bill Gates controls the WHO. Are we going to allow a handful of ultra-rich plutocrats to control our laws, our rules and regulations, and to determine our policies and our choices? This is neo-feudalism. It is also an oligarchy, a plutocracy, a kleptocracy, and an empire, and it is increasingly authoritarian, in addition. The time to reclaim our democracy, our sovereignty, and our freedom, is now.
The World Economic Forum at Davos has publicly announced their plan for humanity, to be fulfilled, they say, by 2030: “You’ll own nothing – and you’ll be happy.” We, the people, the 99%, will own nothing – that is the plan. Who then, will own everything? The Davos billionaires, of course. As I said, this is the new feudalism. We must dethrone the corporate oligarchs, and take back our power, our freedom, and our democracy, now.
5. Tax financial speculation. We must invoke immediately, a tax on financial speculation, and currency speculation in particular. Without that measure, we will continue to have our current, pathological, anti-democratic norm, which is, that billionaires and hedge funds can continue to attack and devalue, or threaten to attack and devalue, the nation’s currency, and through this financial extortion, bring virtually any government to its knees. BlackRock alone, the biggest hedge fund in the world, which is the tool for managing the wealth of the super-rich, controls $8 trillion. The entire Canadian economy is only $1.7 trillion – and Canada is one of the seven richest countries in the world. We invoke this measure, along with the other vital steps I am outlining here, and BlackRock, and the billionaires, lose their power over us.
6. Keep the nation’s central bank public, and democratically controlled. The Bank of Canada, which is an exception in the world, in that it is a publicly owned central bank, must not only remain a publicly owned central bank, but even more essentially, it must be under the control of the democratically elected federal Canadian government – and not under the control of Davos billionaires, or the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland (which is the central bankers’ central bank). All other nations in the world, if they are intelligent, will follow these most vital and urgently necessary six steps to reclaiming their democracy, or not only will their democracy die, but also their freedom, their constitutions, and their rights, will be shredded, trampled, and burned to the ground – as is already well underway.
7. Apply serious and vigorous anti-trust legislation, especially and most immediately in key sectors: the media, banking and finance, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agra and Big Oil. Teddy Roosevelt led a successful, populist movement to dethrone and reign in the powerful business oligarchs – most notably Standard Oil, which was and still is controlled by the Rockefeller dynasty: the most powerful family in the Americas, until the geek-barons of Big Tech came to rival and slightly overshadow them. But the anti-trust actions failed, because they did not go far enough. Standard Oil, for example, was broken up into numerous smaller corporations, but over time, the Rockefeller dynasty brought them back together again, like hydra heads merging back to their host body, and Standard Oil was reborn as the Frankenstein monster of Exxon-Mobil, the biggest oil company in the world. We failed then, because we were too timid, too limited in our foresight, and did not go far enough. What we must do, is not simply to (a) break up the big banks, media empires, hedge funds, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agra and Big Oil companies – but also, and further, (b) revoke their corporate charters; then, most critically (c) seize all of their assets, and transform them into networks and federations of decentralized, democratically-controlled, worker-owned co-ops. That kills the beast which is the ruling global corporate oligarchy, because it gets to its dark heart, and cuts it out. Remove the assets of the corporate giants, and they cannot resurrect themselves from the dead. This is the stake through the heart, which is necessary now, if we are to have freedom and democracy, and constitutional rights for all, and not descend into the Orwellian dystopia, into which we are now headed. It is furthermore the most central, most vital, and most urgent of actions, if we are going to see serious action on the growing environmental crisis – or any other social issue.
8. End all subsidies, tax breaks and tax loopholes for big business, the richest 1% and the large corporations. Government can and should support small business, which is the primary engine of the economy, and the primary employer, and can and should support entrepreneurship and new start-ups. What we cannot afford to do, is to continue to give billions of dollars a year – or in the case of the US, trillions of dollars a year – to giant corporations that are already excessively powerful. Aldous Huxley was right: the primary problem in society is the excessive concentration, or centralization, of power. We need to break up the corporate empires, and dethrone them, not feed them and fuel their further cancerous growth with massive subsidies and tax breaks. The crony capitalism and corporatism must end. Take the rich off welfare now. If either constitutional democracy or freedom are to survive, or be reborn, we must stop feeding the corporate oligarchs. That much should be plainly obvious, and undeniable to all.
Furthermore, by implementing a progressive income, profit and wealth tax on the richest 1% and the large corporations, we will not only balance all budgets and eliminate deficit spending, and be able to fully fund critically needed social programs, such as health care, and fund urgently needed environmental programs to make the transition to a green and regenerative society: we will also be able to reduce the greatly excessive tax burden on the middle class, small business and farmers, and eliminate taxes for new start-up businesses and the poor. The social, ecological and economic benefits would be, and will be, enormous. But the preservation of our freedom and democracy that it will also help to safeguard and renew, is priceless. Be bold now, I say, or watch our world burn, along with our freedom, our democracy, and our rights.
9. Implement a pollution tax, to be collected exclusively by local communities and municipalities. This will greatly help the environment while strengthening democracy, and strengthening local economies. Cities, towns, villages and municipalities are facing a growing nexus of problems and crises, including a growing financial and economic crisis. At the same time, we are in the midst of a rapidly escalating environmental emergency. We must create disincentives to pollution, and we must create incentives to switch from polluting technologies and modes of business, transportation, housing, agriculture and energy. By giving local communities and municipalities the power to implement and collect a pollution tax, we answer both of these problems in one stroke. It is true that the billionaire corporate elite want a global governance system with a global carbon tax, collected by the IMF. That would give the oligarchs exactly what they want: more profits and more power. But it is highly questionable if the technocratic, authoritarian answer they are proposing would truly halt the environmental crisis, or whether it would simply create a new, deeply dystopian society of global technocratic fascist rule, with the bankers then even more firmly in control of the world. We are already very close to that reality, and are being driven further into that scenario by the day. We must tax pollution, but we must also reject any global collection of a pollution tax, because that would ensure effective slavery for humanity, or at least, global servitude and the death of freedom and democracy. By allowing local communities to implement and collect a pollution tax, we can accomplish the vital goal of creating a shift away from polluting modes and methods and systems, and towards clean, renewable, sustainable and regenerative modes and systems of business, transportation, housing, agriculture and energy – without creating a global police state in the process, but instead, fostering a rebirth of freedom and constitutional democracy.
A pollution tax, along with a tax on the richest 1% and the big corporations, and a tax on financial speculation, will enable all social and environmental programs to be fully funded. And by making the pollution tax collected solely by local municipal governments, we will see local communities flourish, and lead the way in the transition to a clean, green, sustainable and regenerative, thriving and free society. Local communities will then have the funds to invest in community self-reliance in energy, food and water – which is critically important for adaptability, mitigation and resilience. Local communities will then have the funds for building community gardens, urban and peri-urban organic regenerative farms, community-controlled solar and wind power, excellent bus systems, walking and cycling routes, tiny green home villages, and funds for creating ponds, aquaculture systems, natural flood control and fire resistance, water reservoirs, rainwater catchment systems, grey-water systems, composting systems, wetlands and reforestation, parks, nature trails, community car-share co-ops, bicycle co-ops, child care co-ops and pedestrian malls, and funds for retrofitting every home and building for high energy efficiency and thermal insulation, along with funds for local community economic development and entrepreneurship seed capital. In short, a pollution tax that is collected by local communities and municipalities would positively transform our communities, and our nation, in short order.
For example, I live in a town of 18,000 people, and in North America there is an average of at least one vehicle per capita, disturbingly. That means there are roughly 18,000 fossil fuel burning vehicles in this small town, appallingly. A pollution tax, collected by local governments, on roughly 18,000 fossil fuel burning vehicles, set at 5% of the market value of the vehicle annually, with an estimated average market value per vehicle of just $20,000, would create an annual revenue fund from the locally-collected pollution tax, of $18 million dollars – per year, for one small city. The entire budget of a town of this size is roughly $36 million per year – and most towns, cities and villages are running a large annual deficit, which in the case of typical towns of this size, is easily $10 billion a year. That means, a pollution tax that is collected by the local community could eliminate the annual deficits, and still leave $8 million a year for investment in the community, or an additional 25% in annual revenue available, after eliminating all deficits. The transformative power of this simple, urgently necessary idea, is simply profound. Yes, of course, pollution tax revenues would gradually fall, if they work as a disincentive to pollution, as they are intended to do. And they will work, of course, because when you create economic disincentives, you reduce the social pattern you have disincentivized. But as pollution tax revenues fall, that is a good sign – it means we are making progress in reducing pollution, and creating a clean, green, sustainable and regenerative community and society. It also means that as pollution tax revenues gradually decline, the funds from that revenue stream have already been invested in creating clean, renewable infrastructure, and a thriving, resilient community and society. To turn down this idea would be short-sighted to the point of madness. It is time for such bold thinking, and for such bold action, and there is zero time to delay.
Would you rather have the IMF and the globalist billionaire elite collect a pollution tax, and remove the remains of your freedom, democracy and human rights along with it? Or would you rather have democratically-elected, local communities collect the pollution tax, while retaining our freedoms, our democracy and our rights, and strengthening them all, while strengthening and rebuilding our local communities, and making the shift to a society that is democratic and free, as well as sustainable? We are going to have one or the other. I would say the more pleasant medicine is the locally-empowering option, and the only option that is compatible with freedom and democracy. The path of globalized tax collection for a globalized government, run by and for the ruling business elite, will be more than a disaster, if we allow it to happen – it will make Chairman Mao’s China and Mussolini’s Italy look mild by comparison. Choose wisely, and choose now – as we must.
Community-based, town hall democracy – which Thomas Jefferson also advised and urged – along with referendums on all major issues, is the most direct, robust, and accountable form of democracy. If we truly value either democracy or freedom, to say nothing of thriving, resilient, sustainable green communities, then we will not only accept such a proposal as this, but passionately and resolutely commit to bringing it to fruition. Again, what do we prefer: thriving, green communities, based in democracy and freedom, or a global police state, run by the robber barons and the super-rich plutocrats? These are our choices now. Let us be very thoughtful, and also, decisive, in what we now choose, for that will determine our fate.
10. Respect the sovereignty of the individual over his or her person, body and mind. We cannot expect to have a free or democratic society, or a society based on constitutional rule and human rights, until and unless we recognize personal sovereignty as fundamental, and inviolable. The basis of all human rights and all constitutional rights, is sovereignty over one’s own person and body. That is the basis for the Magna Carta, the Great Seal, which is the foundation of 800 years of Western law, and all constitutional law. If we allow the sovereignty over our bodies to be violated, then all our rights, our democracy and our freedom, are all null and void. The basis for a free and democratic society is that the individual has sovereignty over his or her own body and mind. This is, and must be, non-negotiable. Informed consent is therefore fundamental to our most basic and fundamental human rights. Without that, we have nothing. Without that, we are mere chattel, mere objects, to be used, harvested, yoked, exploited and disposed of, at will be our masters. Life with freedom requires there be no masters and no slaves. That requires that we insist upon retaining our fundamental, God-given right to sovereignty over our own person, body and mind.
11. Tax the rich. Yes, this is both necessary and legitimate. Moreover, the great majority of people support such a move. Put a tax of 90% on all personal income over $1 million a year, and all corporate profits over $1 billion a year. Furthermore, we must now tax not only income and profits, but also accumulated wealth. There must be a reasonable cap on incomes and wealth, otherwise, inequality soars, and the super-rich become so vastly powerful that they effectively become the masters of the nation and of the world, in which case, both freedom and democracy will inevitably die, and oligarchy, neo-feudalism and tyranny will take their place – that is what we have allowed to happen, and now, we must remedy our mistake. We should immediately implement a wealth tax of 90% on all personal wealth over $100 million. (And all of those figures are incredibly lenient, by the way.) If that means redistributing shares in corporations more equally among all citizens, then that is the wisest and most prudent, and just, course of action. That still leaves room for tolerance of those who want to be wealthy in material terms, yet provides urgently needed funds for social programs, environmental protection, and the urgently needed shift to a truly sustainable, free and democratic, regenerative and thriving society. Close all tax loopholes for the richest 1% and large corporations, and implement a forensic audit on all of the biggest 200 corporations operating in Canada, and on all of the nation’s billionaires. This means tracking down all off-shored profits and wealth, and halting capital flight. When the wealth of the nation overwhelmingly accumulates in the hands of the giant corporations, the richest 1%, and in offshore private bank accounts, you can be sure the nation is slowly being drained of its lifeblood. Stop the blood-letting. You can be wealthy, you can be rich, you can be very successful in business or entrepreneurship; but obscene levels of greed and parasitism are not tolerable, and must be stopped.
12. Implement sound fiscal and monetary policies. The founder of the Bank of Canada was right:
“Once a nation parts with control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation’s laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”
– William Lyon Mackenzie
Sound fiscal and monetary policy necessitates that the central bank of the nation remain publicly owned, as we have said. Secondly, it necessitates that the central bank, the Bank of Canada in this case, be controlled by a democratically-elected Parliament – and not by any foreign powers, such as Moody’s investment firm, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, the City of London, Davos, the IMF, the BIS, or the global financial elite, who control all of these institutions, along with the big banks, the global economy, and most nations and governments in the world.
Thirdly, in order to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty and independence, a tax must be imposed on financial speculation, and particularly on currency speculation. That protects the nation’s currency, and hence its economy, and hence, its sovereignty and democratic independence, from manipulation by foreign powers – principally, the global financial elite.
Fourth, to have a sound economy, among other necessary actions, it is vital to implement capital controls. That includes, above all, stopping capital flight, and halting the offshoring of profits and wealth in private offshore bank accounts and shell companies. Set a low limit for moving large sums of money or capital offshore. Moving more than a million dollars a year out of the country should require an audit, to establish that such a drain on the nation’s economy is justified. And that, again, is a very lenient figure! But it would be enough to at least stop the hemorrhaging.
Fifth, to have sound fiscal and monetary policy, and sound money, you must, of course, have sound money. This means the nation’s currency must be backed by real world assets, such as gold or silver – or by a combination of real world assets, including gold, silver and Bitcoin. Fiat currency is the policy of printing money out of thin air. No currency can remain stable for long under that policy. The fact that we have survived economically at all, after 50 years of such a policy, is surprising. We are pushing our luck to continue it any longer. Sooner or later the house of cards will implode. Better to build real-world assets to back our nation’s currency now – as China, Russia, and several other nations have done. Instead of selling off our nation’s gold reserves, foolishly and disastrously, we should be increasing them, and building reserves of silver, Bitcoin, and other real world assets, as well. Promoting the use of Bitcoin and local currencies is another important element in a comprehensive strategy to secure a sound and resilient, thriving economy, and this policy should also be implemented immediately.
Sixth, a policy of balanced budgets should be a natural target, and also necessary for stability and prosperity, or independence, is a balance in terms of trade. We can have cycles of government investment in the nation which run a short-term deficit, and later reap the rewards with greater economic prosperity – just as we invest heavily in spring to plant a garden or plant the fields, and reap the harvest later. But a policy of endless, perpetual deficits, creating endlessly growing debt, is a policy designed for failure and collapse. Just look at our neighbours to the south. The US is near to imploding, both for sociological reasons, for political reasons, and also for financial and economic reasons. You cannot offshore all production, and import everything the nation needs, without sooner or later going bankrupt. Buying local and buying Canadian, and investing in our communities and our nation, should be top priorities – for both ecological as well as economic reasons. Globalized supply chains, shipping food and other goods thousands of miles from China, Mexico, California, and from all over the world, when most of them we could make or grow ourselves, is a foolish and disastrous policy and habit, both in terms of ecology, and in terms of economics – and in terms of our sovereignty and democratic independence. If we want to be sovereign, democratic and free, then we must be more self-reliant – not isolationist, but self-reliant. If we have a sound economy – a green, just, and regenerative economy, and a sound economy – it is much more likely that we will be able to preserve our freedom, our democracy, and our independence. If we do not, then we are losing all of these priceless treasures, and rapidly. Buying local, first of all, and above all, and buying Canadian products and services, is truly, vitally important.
Unless we implement all of these steps to creating a sound fiscal and monetary policy, and a sound economic policy, our nation can forget about such lofty ideals as freedom, independence, sovereignty, democracy, or even economic stability, for they will all be sacrificed on the altar of the new global corporate-financial empire.
13. Abolish the absurd legal notion that corporations are persons. This disastrous and illogical policy, built upon a sham and a lie, has allowed corporations to overshadow, and then finally to dominate and control, virtually every nation in the world. End the fiction that corporations are persons, and end their legal status as persons, and their house of cards collapses. For the sake of our planet, for the sake of our future, and our very survival; and for the sake of our health, our children’s health, our democracy, our sovereignty, our human rights and our freedom, this fiction must end now.
14. Uphold the rule of constitutional law, and uphold the inherent, inalienable human rights of all. The UN Charter of Human Rights spells out our basic, inalienable rights very clearly, succinctly, and well. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the United States, the Constitution of Mexico, and the relevant constitutions of nations around the world, should, and must, be upheld, and defended – against all threats, foreign or domestic. This is vital. Democracy without constitutional rights and freedoms in place, and limits on state and government power, becomes just another form of tyranny. And when both democracy and constitutional rights are gutted by an international elite of businessmen and technocrats, and their local political minions, then we have an abomination brewing, and a dystopia has arrived. That is where we stand right now. If we want something better, either for ourselves or for our children, we are going to have to fight for it.
15. Build self-reliance, adaptability and resilience. The world is faced with a nexus of interwoven crises – economic, political, social, psychological (in the “leading” industrialized nations, at least), ecological, and in terms of public health. These crises require of us a clear mind, above all, which requires that we slow down, unplug from the veritable tsunami of “news” and “analysis”, infotainment, “social media”, chronic distraction, restless busyness and entertainment addiction: so that we can pause long enough to think, and to reflect, and also, to do some serious research, and then reflect deeply again, on what we have discovered. None of this is happening, generally speaking, in terms of what is our present norm, although there are exceptions – neither in the realms of the political-mandarin elite, the academics and the intellectuals, or the business elite; nor among the general public. The elite are, in general, of one mind, slavishly conforming in action, speech and thought to the neoliberal globalization orthodoxy of the ruling elite. The power elite, despite frequently vicious in-fighting, in general behave as a pack, and think as a pack. The public, in general, is behaving little better. We have become virtual zombies, sleep-walkers, in our misplaced and malformed, distorted social instinct, which, in its positive side, expresses itself in the instinct toward compassion and mutual aid, and in its dark side, expresses itself as docile conformity to the herd, and an equally disastrous and unthinking deference and obedience to authority. This is the most critical task, if we want a better future, or any future at all: disconnect from the chronic addiction to infotainment, entertainment and distraction; take some breaks, to pause, reflect, research, discuss, and reflect some more. Nothing good will come of a befuddled mind – and that is the norm, for both the ruling elite, and for the masses. That is priority one: clear your mind, disconnect from the noise, in order to reconnect with your own intuition and common sense. If we fail in that, we fail in everything.
Reclaiming our democracy is task number one, because without that, we have no hope of success with regard to any issue, be it justice, equality, the environment, or anything else. This should be plainly obvious to all. But clearly, we cannot accomplish even that most fundamental and urgent of tasks, if we lack the sufficient and necessary clarity of mind. Unplug. Get clear. This is vital.
But there is more that is necessary if we are to address, or even seriously face and contend with, the very serious problems our country, our communities, our families and our world are facing. We need, above all, to regain a basic clarity of mind, which can only come by reconnecting with ourselves. Question authority, question the norm, question the milling, drifting flock. Question everything. Think for yourself. Disconnect, in order to reconnect. Then only will clarity be attained. And only through a regained clarity, confidence, dignity and perspective, is any positive future possible at all. Yet, there is more that is required from us than this most essential first step.
What we also need, if we are to successfully navigate the stormy waters ahead, beyond a basic clarity of mind, confidence and sense of perspective, is resilience. Resilience comes primarily from within. It is a matter of character. And we do not have to be passively, meekly, foolishly fatalistic about it. We can cultivate inner resourcefulness, inner strength, a quiet dignity, confidence, strength of character, courage, tenacity, resolve – all of the things that create inner resilience.
But resilience, of course, although it primarily comes from within, also has an outer component. I am not inclined toward personal anecdotes, but every rule has its exception. Here is a short, relevant story, and an example. When an ice storm hit East-Central Canada, some 25 years ago, in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, where I was living, most people had to leave their homes, because their homes had no heat, because the power grid went down, and stayed down, in some areas for two weeks. We were fortunate to have a wood-stove for heat, and a year’s supply of well-dried firewood, and a propane cook-stove, and we stayed in our home, without any problems, using candles for light. The environmental emergency which we have now entered – which, even with our best efforts, will in all likelihood continue to produce increasing waves of disruptions and disasters, until we can finally heal the Earth – makes it a matter of basic intelligence and common sense to be prepared for emergencies and for possible disruptions in the distribution of necessities, such as heat, energy, food and water.
I can scarcely believe that I have to explain this most obvious fact, which our grandparents understood viscerally, as a matter of common sense; but, that is, sadly, the unfortunate case. People who exercise forethought tend to fare better in emergencies, hard times, or in almost any kind of change or disruption to their normal way of life. Not exercising forethought is simply childish, irresponsible, and foolish. Being prepared for contingencies, disruptions or emergencies is simply intelligent risk management.
Being prepared for possible emergencies or hard times doesn’t make you are insane – not being prepared for emergencies or hard times, is insane. Creating, or, that is, re-creating, a culture which exercises forethought and foresight, as the norm, is not only prudent, but simply a matter of basic intelligence, and even basic sanity.
My parents’ generation, who were born during World War II, grew up with the habits of frugality with regard to oneself, and generosity and cheerful, willing mutual aid towards others, along with forethought, savings, self-reliance, resilience, and preparedness in case of hard times, as the norm. We have surely progressed culturally in some ways since the 1940s, of course – racism, sexism, xenophobia and intolerance have all declined, violent crime has declined for fifty years, according to police statistics, a healthy questioning of authority and of social norms has increased, broad-mindedness and open-mindedness has increased, activism and volunteerism have increased, and support for war has declined sharply. But on the other hand, we have in some ways regressed. Nobody saves anymore; in fact, the great majority are going ever deeper into debt. Canadians on average spend $1.7 for every dollar of income. Clearly this is a recipe for mass servitude through debt bondage, followed by mass bankruptcy. Thinking about the future, planning beyond a few weeks, is now the exception, rather than the rule. Likewise, forethought and foresight are virtually obliterated in 21st century industrial society, along with memory, any sense of history, perspective, or self-reliance. All of these things must be reclaimed and rebuilt, if we have any sense at all.
In some ways, the Depression-era and war-time era had the better thinking: be frugal with regards to spending on yourself; be generous with others, especially in terms of being cheerfully ready and willing to lend a hand; avoid debt like the plague, and save what you can for the future and for future generations; think about the long term, and plan ahead; exercise foresight and forethought, and always be prepared, in case of hard times; keep a strong measure of self-reliance; and strive to be calm, confident, humble, hard-working and cheerful, even in the midst of difficult times – especially in the midst of difficult times. Not everything that comes later is better. We need to reclaim the best from our past, and combine that with the best of the present. To do otherwise would simply be nonsensical.
Build back better? What I am presenting here is something I have not seen anywhere from the left, the liberal centre, the conservatives or libertarians, or anywhere else: it is a plan that not only has heart, but also, a brain, a spine, and legs – not empty platitudes hanging in the air.
Build back better? The left is focused on pleading with the government for a few more crumbs for the 99%. After the wholesale gutting and evisceration of the middle class, this is not remotely adequate, nor even sensible, nor just. It is feeble-minded, superficial, and represents a mere skittering across the surface of things. Our sense of perspective is shot – completely gone.
Let’s not obsess with changing windows dressings, while our sills are all rotted, and while our foundations are either crumbling, or being actively ripped away. First things first: we must reclaim our democracy, or we will have no hope whatsoever of attaining anything, on any issue whatsoever. And in order to do that, in order to reclaim our democracy, our freedom, and our future, we must first regain and begin to rebuild our mental clarity, confidence, dignity, sense of perspective, inner resilience, forethought – and a strong element of self-reliance. That, of course, does not mean that we should not help one another. Of course we should. But mutual aid does not preclude rational, responsible, adult behaviour and adult attitudes, such as foresight and self-reliance.
On the level of the individual, the family, the community, and our nations, we cannot expect to have a good future, or even to retain our freedom, our sovereignty, or our democracy, if we do not have some measure of self-reliance. If we are dependent, we are vassals, or worse. Let that sink in. That is critical for us to understand.
Again, during WWII, most families had vegetable gardens – either in their yards, in town or cities, or in the countryside outside of the city or town. What we need to cultivate and rebuild, is a strong measure of self-reliance at all levels – not rugged individualism, not “me-first” hyper-individualism, not isolationism, not clannishness, but a degree of self-reliance. Better yet, is community self-reliance. At least in terms of food, water and energy, communities should make it a priority to be self-reliant. Without self-reliance in at least these three critical areas, there can be no true resilience, and we will be leaves in the wind, blown about, in whatever direction, by any storm or strong gust of wind.
On a national level, again, it is clarity of mind, confidence, dignity, perspective, forethought, and resilience – among the people, and not just the mandarins and talking head pundits – which is the highest and most critical priority. But beyond that most essential constellation of national resources, there are certain things which would only be intelligent policy choices and policy priorities. Shipping all of our manufacturing offshore to China and other lower wage countries, was tremendously beneficial to the multi-national corporations and the billionaires who control them, but neoliberal corporate globalization has, of course, de-industrialized Canada, the US and most of the Western world, with the obvious and predictable result that the middle class has been eviscerated, disemboweled and thrown to the gutter to die; while the nations of the once wealthy and prosperous West are now fragile shells of their former selves, unable to weather even a strong gale, much less the coming super-storm which we are likely to face. A little regaining and rebuilding of resilience – or a lot – is now in order. And to do that, we must become much more adaptable, and above all, much more self-reliant: as individuals, families, communities, and nations.
Self-reliance is not the same as isolationism, it must be repeated, and stressed. Isolationism is a legitimate choice, but I do not think it is a wise one. Self-reliance, however, means resilience – and building resilience in uncertain times, is simply a matter of basic sanity, and common sense.
Why do we have, for example, in Canada, one of the most popular furniture stores, Ikea, shipping our furniture from Sweden? Ikea may be “Swedish for common sense”, but the fact that we have no Canadian-owned, Canadian-made furniture store of equal or greater presence, is a sign that Canadians have lost their own common sense. We have some of the largest remaining forests in the world. Through sustainable forestry, we can be building our own furniture, and exporting well-made, sustainably-built, Canadian wood furniture to the world. Instead, we ship raw logs to China and Japan, and are busy clear-cutting our forests to ship raw wood pulp in vast quantities to the US, where US corporations will make the much bigger margins and profits, by turning raw pulp into paper products. Are we mad? We have lived as a colony, first to Britain, then to the United States; and now, Justin “Beiber” Trudeau wants us to become a colony of Beijing. We need to stop and think, and think deeply on this. A little more self-reliance means a lot more resilience. It also means a better ecological footprint. And it means more jobs, and a better economy, for the people and the country.
We could do even better. We could be, and should be, growing vast quantities of industrial hemp and bamboo, to replace wood as the primary building material, paper product source, and source of our textiles, clothing and furniture, preserving our forests, the lungs of the Earth, for use only by selective logging for high-value products, such as veneers and musical instruments; and in doing so, radically reduce our ecological impact, and sequestering carbon, removing enormous quantities of carbon from the atmosphere every year, while also cleaning our atmosphere of pollution, and thus healing our planet – saving ourselves from extinction, and creating a thriving, full employment green economy in the process: bringing high quality furniture, building materials, paper products, clothing and textiles to the world. Are we to remain exporters of raw wood, wood pulp, water and uranium, with a gutted manufacturing base, and a “service economy” primarily based on low-wage, part-time, insecure McJobs, at Wendy’s/Tim Hortons and WalMart? That would be madness. We need to rebuild our economy, our resilience and self-reliance, and our manufacturing base, and do so in ecologically sound ways that benefit all Canadians, and not just the rich. The principles and concrete ideas such as I have outlined here, and elsewhere, show us a clear and workable way to do that, and to do that in very short order. What on Earth are we waiting for?
Here is another example of policies gone wrong, versus policies that make sense. Bombardier, a Canadian company from Quebec, originally a snow-mobile maker, established in 1946, is a now leading manufacturer of trains, trams, subways, and aircraft – or it was, until January of 2021. Bombardier built the subway system for the world’s biggest city, Mexico City, with a population the size of Canada, 35 million. The Bombardier subway system in Mexico city runs reliably, fast, and has 50 lines, connecting every part of the city. In Mexico City, you can get anywhere in the city by subway or bus in 30 minutes. Toronto, the biggest city in Canada, with a population the size of Finland, seven million, has a subway system that routinely breaks down and is disrupted, may or may not get you to work on time, has only three lines, and connects only narrow slivers of the sprawling city. In Toronto, it takes an hour by car to get halfway across the city – three hours or more in rush-hour. Taking the VIA train into or out of the city would be perfect for commuters and travelers, but with regular service interruptions, due to the tar sands bitumen clogging the rail lines, VIA Rail, Canada’s pride in 1951, should now be rebranded as, Very Indeterminate Arrivals. Furthermore, the nations biggest city has a transit system is so grossly inadequate, that millions of people living in the city, commuting to the city, or visiting the city, feel compelled to drive a car, because the trains, buses and transit system are so grossly inadequate – thus causing ever increasing traffic congestion, smog, and planet-killing pollution. What is wrong with this picture? If Bombardier, a Canadian company, can build a world-class, fast, convenient, reliable transit system for the world’s biggest city, why do we have clogged arteries, smog-belching car-centric transportation, and transit and transportation systems in Canada that are, in general, and with few exceptions, as sad, backwards, 60-year out-dated, tragic joke?
Subways are now proven to be an extravagently expensive boondoggle, and they should no longer be built. State of the art bus systems (BRTs) outperform subways, and at a fraction of the cost, and can be made to pay for themselves, in terms of operating costs. The South American city of Curitiba showed the world that a Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT), which they developed and created – and then built the local manufacturing base to manufacture and export to the world – showed the world the most cost-efficient and effective way to provide affordable, fast, reliable, comfortable mobility for a city’s people. The point here was not to promote subways, but to promote intelligently planned mass transportation – to replace the era of the private automobile, which clearly now must draw to an end. We either replace the private automobile as our primary transportation mode, or we die of smog and planet-killing pollution. Reality is calling. We cannot avoid taking the call, any longer.
Bombardier, who until recently, made world-class trains, trams, light rail and Guided Light Transit, was permitted to sell a controlling share of 50.1% to the giant European consortium, Airbus – that was the first mistake of the Canadian government, with regards to Bombardier, which is, our should be viewed as, a strategically important partner in the coming decades ahead. Further, Bombardier announced in January of 2021 that it would no longer build trains, or any ground transportation systems, but would focus instead on building luxury private jets, which it said is more profitable. Sure, selling planet-killing luxury jets to the super-rich is probably more profitable – if you consider the death of the planet and the extinction of humanity an acceptable “externality”, as it is called in business, and in that most dismal “science” that is professional economics. What we need, is a federal government with a spine, and some basic principles which it upholds, and does not waiver from: including the principles of freedom, democracy, sovereignty, constitutional rule and human rights, justice, equality, non-aggression and peace, and a true commitment to creating a resilient and robust, prosperous, sustainable and regenerative economy and society. Those principles would necessitate that the Canadian government, for example, buy 1% of the shares of Bombardier, to make the company Canadian-owned and Canadian-controlled once again; and it would further require and necessitate that the Canadian government simply say to Bombardier, you must help us to rebuild our train system – which used to connect every city and virtually every town in Canada – and help us to build a robust and resilient national transportation infrastructure that places trains, light rail, Guided Light Transit, bus rapid transit systems, along with bicycle lanes, walking paths and walkable cities, as the centre-pieces of a low-ecological impact 21st century transportation system. Why would Bombardier comply? Because if they do – or rather, when they do – they will receive some degree of leniency in terms of the heavy pollution taxes they will be forced to pay for making luxury private jets for the super-rich.
We have, in Canada, an advanced technology sector, a cosmopolitan, highly literate and highly educated society and workforce, a well-developed transportation, communication and energy infrastructure, excellent designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists, as well as artists, writers, musicians, actors, health care professionals, teachers, professors, thinkers and scholars. We could have, for example, self-reliance in essential, generic pharmaceutical drugs, available at low cost to all Canadians – even without a pharma-care plan for the nation, which is also achievable, and also a matter of simple justice. We could do this, if we valued self-reliance, if we valued justice, if we valued compassion, or if we truly valued public health. But all of these values must be sacrificed, and are sacrificed, so that the global drug cartel of Big Pharma, led by the sociopath Bill Gates, can continue to make trillions of dollars a year in drug profits. The corporate world, it should be noted, does not even use the term “health care” anymore. They use, internally at least, the term, “disease management”. And Goldman Sachs recently told its investors that curing illness and healing people is no longer profitable – or at least, is not profitable enough; therefore, we do not aim for that: we aim instead, for the more profitable approach, not of curing the sick, but of profiting from disease management. If that strikes you as vampiric, then congratulations, your common sense is intact. It is vampiric. And we can do better.
These are just three examples – from the forest and resource industry, the transportation and manufacturing sector, and the health and pharmaceutical industry – but the lessons and the principles apply broadly, of course, and they can easily be elaborated – and have been, in my previous books and essays. For now, three examples will suffice to show that there is a better way.
At the level of the individual and the family, the level of the community, and at the national level, it would simply be prudent, and intelligent, to have some significant degree of self-reliance, particularly in terms of the basic necessities for life: food, water, energy and health care. Self-reliance in these areas of course becomes much easier when we cooperate, and invoke the basic human principle and impulse of mutual aid – which is humanity’s greatest strength, and not merely our opposable thumbs.
(See Kropotkin’s, Mutual Aid, which in truth, is a much more important, landmark text in evolutionary biology, than Darwin’s, Origin of Species. Darwin merely told us about our physical-biological ancestry and evolution. Kropotkin told us the history of our social and psychological evolution, and highlighted the traits which makes us exceptionally strong.)
A much higher degree of self-reliance can be achieved, and much more readily and easily, at the level of the community than at the level of the family. And at the regional and national levels, we can achieve even higher degrees of self-reliance in the essentials of life. And doing so not only increases our resilience and security, while strengthening our independence, and thus our sovereignty, our democracy, and our freedom, but it will have positive and powerful benefits in terms of jobs and employment – including full employment, with shortened workweeks and better pay; in terms of creating both prosperity and economic stability; and in terms of thriving and stable, strong communities.
Read, or re-read, Emerson: Self-Reliance. Then read Thoreau’s, Walden, and, On Civil Disobedience. These three pieces of literature are among the most important things we can import from the US, or any nation, or that we can read from any source. Skip the “news” tonight. Read something that is actually worthy of your time. Self-reliance, simplicity, and conscience over obedience, are three principles that we need to embrace, and now, without delay.
After reading Emerson and Thoreau, it would be wise to read, or re-read, Margaret Atwood’s, Payback, and, A Handmaid’s Tale, along with Canadian anthropologist Ronald Wright’s, A Short History of Progress; then, set aside whatever preferences of taste you might have, and listen carefully to two songs by the British heavy metal band, Black Sabbath: Into The Void, and, Children of The Grave, which tells our current story plainly, in no uncertain terms:
“Pollution kills the air, the land, the sea
Man prepares to meet his destiny.“
“Show the world that love is still alive,
you must be brave;
Or you children of today
are children of the grave.“
The stakes could not be higher, and the message can scarcely be given in any clearer form.
*
Two other important points should be included here, as an addendum. If we value freedom and democracy, as we absolutely and profoundly should, then we must ban electronic voting, because it is is virtually guaranteed to lead to election fraud; and require paper ballots strictly, with international grassroots bodies monitoring elections closely to ensure free and fair elections. Secondly, we must ban usury. Usury will wreck any nation, by hyper-concentrating power over time, leading to soaring inequality, and the death of freedom and democracy. That means fractional reserve banking must be banned; and, if we allow interest charges on money lent at all, which is a highly dangerous choice, then at least it must be capped at a very low rate, say 1.5% above the real inflation rate. Credit card companies charging 18% interest for the masses to access money, while billionaires get 1.5%, zero, or even negative interest rates to acess money, is a rigged system of economic predation, that is driving us rapidly into neofeudalism. Let the richest and the poorest access loans at the same low rate, and legally compel it to be so. If we refuse either of these actions, or the others outlined above, then we are not serious about freedom and democracy – that, or we have no understanding of what we are doing.
And while we are adding addenda, I should mention another critical point that I had previously forgotten to add. After serious election finance reform is instituted, and immediately instituted, any elected representative or political candidate shown to have received large sums of money from multinational corporations, billionaire-run “foundations”, or foreign governments (Joe Biden, for example), should be immediately banned for life from all elected offices, and charged with election fraud, punishable by a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison without parole. Then we will see the revolving door of corruption close, and not before. Accepting large sums of money, or lucrative positions on corporate boards of directors, after leaving political office, should likewise be treated as a grave breach of the public trust, punishable by an automatic 20 year prison sentence without parole, for the corrupting and eroding the integrity of the democratic process. We either get tough on corruption at the top, or we will live with systemic corruption, and the death of democracy and freedom, until we do so. And to make certain everyone is honest in the political arena, we invoke a forensic audit of the candidate’s or elected politician’s personal finances, both before any election campaign, and after leaving office. The billions saved on corruption will more than pay for such universal audits. Only the honest will dare go into politics then.
*
Continuity and Change: A Bifurcation Point Is At Hand
It is important for us to realize that the great majority of people in Canada, like the great majority of people everywhere, are, in general, averse to change. The majority of people want a peaceful life, with few troubles. Chomsky is right: “The great majority of people have basically decent impulses.” That is true: the great majority of people are basically peaceable, and inclined naturally toward empathy, compassion and mutual aid, as Kropotkin demonstrated in his monumentally important work Mutual Aid, and as Jeremy Rifkin documented has been further proven and confirmed by recent science, in his important book, The Empathic Civilization. However, the great majority of people also want comfort and stability, and they tend to value comfort and stability above all. That means, among other things, that the great majority are (small-c) conservatives by nature, and they dislike change. They don’t like anyone rocking their boat.
This tendency to go along peacefully with whatever the present status quo happens to be, explains a great deal. It explains how fascism arose in Italy and Germany, and it explains how totalitarianism arose in Russia. It also explains how the great majority of people have gone along with neoliberal corporate globalization, with barely a whimper – even though polls show repeatedly that they have no confidence, faith or trust in it, they are increasingly angry about it, and they are fully aware they are getting a bad deal, and are in fact being eaten alive by the richest few and the big corporations. But most people would rather put up with almost anything, than rock the boat. There is a limit, however, to this great tolerance of the people, and we are rapidly approaching that limit now.
The majority of people want stability, but they should realize that what we have now, is institutionalized instability; and that instability is growing rapidly, and will continue to grow – until our civilization collapses, and the chaos is fully let loose; unless, and until, the people reject this newest of empires, which is the global corporate oligarchy. How much illusory security, how much illusory stability, how much illusory safety must we endure, before we set our course right, and end the growing instability which now threatens the very existence of humanity, as well as our freedom, our democracy, and our rights?
We should remember that no one predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it happened. After decades of growing discontent, and a slowly deepening crisis of legitimacy, a tipping point was finally reached, and the people shook off the totalitarian regime, like a dog shaking water off its back. The entire house of cards collapsed, virtually overnight – in the span of just 18 months. The Western neoliberal corporate empire is now facing exactly this kind of crisis of legitimacy, and the clock is fast running out.
Revolution is brewing. And it is none too soon.
*
The Crisis of Democracy: On Reform and Revolution
Millions of people world-wide are busy trying to get mild reforms accomplished, that will slightly lessen the disastrous effects on nature which we causing, and will slightly lessen the brutality and the suffering caused by the global corporate empire. This is laudable, important work, but it is not remotely sufficient, and it is not remotely enough. Despite the dedication of millions of activists around the world, making millions of small victories, we must admit the truth – we are losing ground, on virtually every front. In terms of equality: we have skyrocketing inequality. World-wide, the working class lost roughly $3 trillion in the past 18 months, since the Covid lockdowns were invoked. The richest 1% gained roughly $3 trillion in the same period. Do the math. This is not complicated to understand. We, the 99%, are being devoured. We are being eaten alive.
In terms of equality, justice, freedom, democracy, constitutional rights, human rights, and the environment, we are losing ground. Our methods are failing, and have failed. We are fighting a rear-guard action, and we are losing ground. Any sane general or strategist would look at that, and say: Clearly, our methods and our strategies have failed – it is time for another plan. Sixty years of reformism, since the 1960s – six decades of trying to sway the governments to do the right thing, have utterly failed. In fact, we keep losing ground. We are not even holding our ground. We are fighting an advancing wildfire with a garden sprinkler, and running backwards as fast as we can. Clearly, this will not do. This is not an intelligent strategy. This is a failed strategy.
Let us admit it, reformism has failed. It is time for Plan B. It is time for a revolution.
*
What is a revolution? A revolution is a fundamental shift in the structures or patterns of a society, especially a fundamental shift in relations of power. Well, what is it that we need now? We need to remove the global plutocrats, and their political minions, from power. The majority of the people want environmental protection, strong social programs such as universal health care, pensions and education, and a society that is based in freedom, human rights, constitutional rule and democracy. In order to achieve those modest goals, which are far from utopian, we now need a revolution – a democratic, non-violent, grassroots revolution, to restore power to the people, where it belongs.
I don’t know how much clearer it can be said than that. We are now up against a wall. We are racing toward our collective suicide, and all that stands in the way to the kinds of changes we need, to preserve the planet for human and other species habitation, and to bring about some semblance of justice, and true freedom and democracy, requires that we remove the business elite and their political friends from power. That, by now, requires nothing short of a revolution.
You could say, as a venerable scholar friend said to me, that there is no time for building a successful movement for revolution, even though it is a principled stance to take. But I say, we do not have time for another sixty years of failed reformist methods, and another sixty years of failed efforts to petition, and sway, and persuade the governments to do the right thing.
The business elite have taken over, and they are sociopaths. They are concerned, above all else, with profits and power – and all else is expendable. That means democracy, human rights, freedom, the planet, and the people, the 99%, are also expendable. That is sociopathic. It is also fascist, genocidal, ecocidal, and suicidal. We now must replace the currently ruling oligarchy of billionaires and big corporations, with something at least similar to, or resembling, freedom and democracy. And I would say, of course, we must seek to bring about a rebirth of real, meaningful democracy, strongly upheld constitutional rule, and real freedom. It is that, or it is collective suicide, after a brief stint spent in a darkly Orwellian dystopia, of nightmarish nature, as the Earth slowly dies, and the human race goes slowly, painfully, fitfully, extinct.
Revolution now. It is that, or slow death. Only fantasy presents a third option.
Stand.
*
Remember, I must say again, in 1775 nobody in the United States wanted revolution. Not Jefferson, Washington or Benjamin Franklin. Nobody expected a revolution in America, in 1775. Nobody even wanted it. Nobody but one man. Yet, in January of 1776, Thomas Paine published his slim little book, Common Sense, and by July 4th of that same year, the revolution was born.
As the Scottish philosopher, David Hume said, the people always have the greater power – as Etienne de La Boite, Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, also knew. This is what we need to realize now: we, the people, always have the greater power.
The second thing that we must realize now, is that:
It is time to take the power back.
JTR,
July 18, 2021
Writings of J. Todd Ring 
Reclaiming Democracy In Canada – And Around The World
Posted in Uncategorized with tags #FightTheFascists, 1%, action, activism, Canada, climate, constitution, corporate fascism, corporations, corporatism, democracy, elite, environment, environmental economics, environmental philosophy, environmental policy, environmental theory, fascism, fascist, freedom, justice, liberty, Occupy Canada, oligarchy, peace, police state, policy, political economy, political philosophy, political science, political theory, politics, rights, social analysis, social change, social commentary, social media, social philosophy, social psychology, social theory, sociology on July 18, 2021 by jtoddringIn the 1960s, there was a cultural awakening which spread rapidly around the world, and Chomsky is right in calling it both a cultural awakening, and also, an outbreak of democracy. The civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, the gay rights movement, the native rights movement, the anti-war and peace movement, and the environmental movement, either began or took on a whole new level of grassroots popular power, in the 1960s. This, of course, made the political elite, and the business elite who effectively rule them, shudder and shake with terror and rage. The Pentagon Papers – which were top secret and classified at the time, and which were written in and around 1968, and were leaked by one courageous man, thankfully – spelled out in detail how the power elite, as the great sociologist C. Wright Mills called them – the political elite, the military and paramilitary (the “intelligence” community), and the corporate elite who dominates them both – responded to the outbreak of democracy. They were unsurprisingly dead-set against it, and made it clear and explicit in their top secret planning documents, including the Pentagon Papers, that, as they see it, democracy must be rolled back, and once again constrained, so that the elite could once again rule, as they should, without the hindrance of democracy getting in the way. That was the 1960s. Since that time, the war on democracy has been continuous, highly conscious, and escalating. By now, in the early 21st century, by way of a constellation of methods and strategies, democracy has been thoroughly gutted across the Western world, with a few hundred billionaires in Davos effectively in control. As the leading business journal of the Western world itself admitted, Davos is now “the de facto world government”. Also, by now, after the crash of 2008 and the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Bernie Sanders campaign (which failed to gain political power, but succeeded greatly in opening up free and critical thought and debate), the great majority of people now realize that we no longer live in a democracy – we live in an oligarchy, a global plutocracy, ruled by the bankers and the billionaire elite. The question is, of course, what are we going to do about it?
I have devoted four decades to research, reflection, and writing on this subject, and my first two books lay out a global and historical analysis, a vision for a better world, and a set of strategies for getting there. What I will focus on here, is the crystallization of the key steps that are necessary to achieve that goal: the goal of a rebirth of democracy, freedom, and constitutional rule, and a better world for all.
What are some of the necessary and unavoidable steps we must take, if we are serious about reclaiming our democracy, our freedom, or our rights – all of which are being systematically destroyed now, in the name of an authoritarian benevolence, which, of course, is always a lie, and always a contradiction in terms?
1. Create a free and diverse, open, transparent, and democratic media. This applies not just to the corporate media, but also to the state-controlled media, and the “public”, “alternative”, “independent” and “progressive” media – all of which, or 99% of which, are heavily dependent on money from big corporations, or from billionaire-controlled foundations: which, of course, means that they are not free or independent media, but are on a short leash, and are also part of the corporate-controlled media empire.
2. Apply strict election financing laws – banning all “donations” (which, for adults, translates as bribes) to elections from any corporation or organization, and limiting contributions to elections to $1,000 a year per person. This requires public financing of elections, which is something that has been tried in Europe, and works very well – much better than allowing the rich and the big corporations to buy elections, and buy politicians, political parties and governments, as they currently do now.
3. Implement proportional democracy. That means that your vote is not wasted by voting for a minority party. That millions more people would vote for an anti-establishment party.
If, for example, the Green Party wins 15% of the popular vote, the NDP receive 15% of the vote, and each of the dominant, establishment parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, receive 25-29% of the vote – and this is a conservative estimate of the voting shift, since almost everybody mistrusts or hates both the Liberals and Conservatives by now, just as the majority of Americans now mistrust if not hate both the Republicans and the Democrats. The Greens would then get 15% of the seats in government, the NDP would get 15% of the seats, and the Liberals and Conservatives would each get less than 30% of the seats. Neither the Liberals or Conservatives would be able to form a majority government, and the two arch rivals would not likely form a coalition government with each other. The much more likely outcome would be a Green/NDP coalition government, which, while mild and tepid, white-bread and weak-kneed in nature, would at least make some minor reforms in favour of justice, pensions, elder care, child care, public health and education, and environmental protection – all of which, are regressing and have been under heavy attack by both the Liberals and Conservatives, ever since Pierre Elliot Trudeau left office, in 1979.
The British parliamentary system is a very good system in some respects, but it is systematically biased towards favouring established, dominant political parties. Across Europe, proportional representation is the norm. That is a far more democratic system.
If we are serious about democracy, then we must take these first three steps immediately. But there is more that is needed, if democracy is to survive – or, given that it is now effectively dead, we should say, these three steps and more are required to resurrect democracy, and allow it to be reborn.
4. Reject all “trade agreements” and other international agreements which surrender the sovereignty of a democratically elected parliament (or Congress) to foreign powers – namely, the multi-national corporations, and international organizations such as the NAFTA tribunal, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, the BIS and the WHO. We should note here that these so-called “trade agreements” are really corporate rights agreements. They are less about trade, and more about giving multi-national corporations the power to sue governments for loss of profits, or possible loss of future profits, if, for example, environmental, health or other legislation threatens or harms their profits. This means that all governments, and all politicians who have signed such agreements, which surrender the sovereignty of parliament to foreign powers (multi-national corporations), are, under the explicit terms of Canadian federal law, guilty of treason – which, under Canadian law, is the only crime punishable by death. I am not suggesting we resort to the death penalty, which I am firmly opposed to. I am, however, trying to covey the extreme gravity and severity of the crime of surrendering the sovereignty of Parliament or Congress to any foreign power, including multi-national corporations – or the WHO, BIS, ECB or WTO. We should, at the very least, remove these traitors from government, and elect only political representatives and true leaders who are sworn and committed to upholding both the constitution, and the sovereignty of our democratically elected government and nation.
Why should the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), or the World Health Organization, effectively set the policies, laws, rules, regulations and norms for Canada, or any sovereign nation? The World Health Organization is controlled by Big Pharma, Washington, and Bill Gates, who are its three primary sources of funds. Anyone who trusts these three, is bordering on clinical insanity. Bill Gates, even more than the other two, took over the WHO, over the past decade. Even the Financial Times, the leading business journal of the Western hemisphere, acknowledges that the World Health Organization doesn’t do anything without prior approval from the Gates Foundation.
The banking elites and other billionaire corporate elites control the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, and the BIS, and Bill Gates controls the WHO. Are we going to allow a handful of ultra-rich plutocrats to control our laws, our rules and regulations, and to determine our policies and our choices? This is neo-feudalism. It is also an oligarchy, a plutocracy, a kleptocracy, and an empire, and it is increasingly authoritarian, in addition. The time to reclaim our democracy, our sovereignty, and our freedom, is now.
The World Economic Forum at Davos has publicly announced their plan for humanity, to be fulfilled, they say, by 2030: “You’ll own nothing – and you’ll be happy.” We, the people, the 99%, will own nothing – that is the plan. Who then, will own everything? The Davos billionaires, of course. As I said, this is the new feudalism. We must dethrone the corporate oligarchs, and take back our power, our freedom, and our democracy, now.
5. Tax financial speculation. We must invoke immediately, a tax on financial speculation, and currency speculation in particular. Without that measure, we will continue to have our current, pathological, anti-democratic norm, which is, that billionaires and hedge funds can continue to attack and devalue, or threaten to attack and devalue, the nation’s currency, and through this financial extortion, bring virtually any government to its knees. BlackRock alone, the biggest hedge fund in the world, which is the tool for managing the wealth of the super-rich, controls $8 trillion. The entire Canadian economy is only $1.7 trillion – and Canada is one of the seven richest countries in the world. We invoke this measure, along with the other vital steps I am outlining here, and BlackRock, and the billionaires, lose their power over us.
6. Keep the nation’s central bank public, and democratically controlled. The Bank of Canada, which is an exception in the world, in that it is a publicly owned central bank, must not only remain a publicly owned central bank, but even more essentially, it must be under the control of the democratically elected federal Canadian government – and not under the control of Davos billionaires, or the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland (which is the central bankers’ central bank). All other nations in the world, if they are intelligent, will follow these most vital and urgently necessary six steps to reclaiming their democracy, or not only will their democracy die, but also their freedom, their constitutions, and their rights, will be shredded, trampled, and burned to the ground – as is already well underway.
7. Apply serious and vigorous anti-trust legislation, especially and most immediately in key sectors: the media, banking and finance, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agra and Big Oil. Teddy Roosevelt led a successful, populist movement to dethrone and reign in the powerful business oligarchs – most notably Standard Oil, which was and still is controlled by the Rockefeller dynasty: the most powerful family in the Americas, until the geek-barons of Big Tech came to rival and slightly overshadow them. But the anti-trust actions failed, because they did not go far enough. Standard Oil, for example, was broken up into numerous smaller corporations, but over time, the Rockefeller dynasty brought them back together again, like hydra heads merging back to their host body, and Standard Oil was reborn as the Frankenstein monster of Exxon-Mobil, the biggest oil company in the world. We failed then, because we were too timid, too limited in our foresight, and did not go far enough. What we must do, is not simply to (a) break up the big banks, media empires, hedge funds, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agra and Big Oil companies – but also, and further, (b) revoke their corporate charters; then, most critically (c) seize all of their assets, and transform them into networks and federations of decentralized, democratically-controlled, worker-owned co-ops. That kills the beast which is the ruling global corporate oligarchy, because it gets to its dark heart, and cuts it out. Remove the assets of the corporate giants, and they cannot resurrect themselves from the dead. This is the stake through the heart, which is necessary now, if we are to have freedom and democracy, and constitutional rights for all, and not descend into the Orwellian dystopia, into which we are now headed. It is furthermore the most central, most vital, and most urgent of actions, if we are going to see serious action on the growing environmental crisis – or any other social issue.
8. End all subsidies, tax breaks and tax loopholes for big business, the richest 1% and the large corporations. Government can and should support small business, which is the primary engine of the economy, and the primary employer, and can and should support entrepreneurship and new start-ups. What we cannot afford to do, is to continue to give billions of dollars a year – or in the case of the US, trillions of dollars a year – to giant corporations that are already excessively powerful. Aldous Huxley was right: the primary problem in society is the excessive concentration, or centralization, of power. We need to break up the corporate empires, and dethrone them, not feed them and fuel their further cancerous growth with massive subsidies and tax breaks. The crony capitalism and corporatism must end. Take the rich off welfare now. If either constitutional democracy or freedom are to survive, or be reborn, we must stop feeding the corporate oligarchs. That much should be plainly obvious, and undeniable to all.
Furthermore, by implementing a progressive income, profit and wealth tax on the richest 1% and the large corporations, we will not only balance all budgets and eliminate deficit spending, and be able to fully fund critically needed social programs, such as health care, and fund urgently needed environmental programs to make the transition to a green and regenerative society: we will also be able to reduce the greatly excessive tax burden on the middle class, small business and farmers, and eliminate taxes for new start-up businesses and the poor. The social, ecological and economic benefits would be, and will be, enormous. But the preservation of our freedom and democracy that it will also help to safeguard and renew, is priceless. Be bold now, I say, or watch our world burn, along with our freedom, our democracy, and our rights.
9. Implement a pollution tax, to be collected exclusively by local communities and municipalities. This will greatly help the environment while strengthening democracy, and strengthening local economies. Cities, towns, villages and municipalities are facing a growing nexus of problems and crises, including a growing financial and economic crisis. At the same time, we are in the midst of a rapidly escalating environmental emergency. We must create disincentives to pollution, and we must create incentives to switch from polluting technologies and modes of business, transportation, housing, agriculture and energy. By giving local communities and municipalities the power to implement and collect a pollution tax, we answer both of these problems in one stroke. It is true that the billionaire corporate elite want a global governance system with a global carbon tax, collected by the IMF. That would give the oligarchs exactly what they want: more profits and more power. But it is highly questionable if the technocratic, authoritarian answer they are proposing would truly halt the environmental crisis, or whether it would simply create a new, deeply dystopian society of global technocratic fascist rule, with the bankers then even more firmly in control of the world. We are already very close to that reality, and are being driven further into that scenario by the day. We must tax pollution, but we must also reject any global collection of a pollution tax, because that would ensure effective slavery for humanity, or at least, global servitude and the death of freedom and democracy. By allowing local communities to implement and collect a pollution tax, we can accomplish the vital goal of creating a shift away from polluting modes and methods and systems, and towards clean, renewable, sustainable and regenerative modes and systems of business, transportation, housing, agriculture and energy – without creating a global police state in the process, but instead, fostering a rebirth of freedom and constitutional democracy.
A pollution tax, along with a tax on the richest 1% and the big corporations, and a tax on financial speculation, will enable all social and environmental programs to be fully funded. And by making the pollution tax collected solely by local municipal governments, we will see local communities flourish, and lead the way in the transition to a clean, green, sustainable and regenerative, thriving and free society. Local communities will then have the funds to invest in community self-reliance in energy, food and water – which is critically important for adaptability, mitigation and resilience. Local communities will then have the funds for building community gardens, urban and peri-urban organic regenerative farms, community-controlled solar and wind power, excellent bus systems, walking and cycling routes, tiny green home villages, and funds for creating ponds, aquaculture systems, natural flood control and fire resistance, water reservoirs, rainwater catchment systems, grey-water systems, composting systems, wetlands and reforestation, parks, nature trails, community car-share co-ops, bicycle co-ops, child care co-ops and pedestrian malls, and funds for retrofitting every home and building for high energy efficiency and thermal insulation, along with funds for local community economic development and entrepreneurship seed capital. In short, a pollution tax that is collected by local communities and municipalities would positively transform our communities, and our nation, in short order.
For example, I live in a town of 18,000 people, and in North America there is an average of at least one vehicle per capita, disturbingly. That means there are roughly 18,000 fossil fuel burning vehicles in this small town, appallingly. A pollution tax, collected by local governments, on roughly 18,000 fossil fuel burning vehicles, set at 5% of the market value of the vehicle annually, with an estimated average market value per vehicle of just $20,000, would create an annual revenue fund from the locally-collected pollution tax, of $18 million dollars – per year, for one small city. The entire budget of a town of this size is roughly $36 million per year – and most towns, cities and villages are running a large annual deficit, which in the case of typical towns of this size, is easily $10 billion a year. That means, a pollution tax that is collected by the local community could eliminate the annual deficits, and still leave $8 million a year for investment in the community, or an additional 25% in annual revenue available, after eliminating all deficits. The transformative power of this simple, urgently necessary idea, is simply profound. Yes, of course, pollution tax revenues would gradually fall, if they work as a disincentive to pollution, as they are intended to do. And they will work, of course, because when you create economic disincentives, you reduce the social pattern you have disincentivized. But as pollution tax revenues fall, that is a good sign – it means we are making progress in reducing pollution, and creating a clean, green, sustainable and regenerative community and society. It also means that as pollution tax revenues gradually decline, the funds from that revenue stream have already been invested in creating clean, renewable infrastructure, and a thriving, resilient community and society. To turn down this idea would be short-sighted to the point of madness. It is time for such bold thinking, and for such bold action, and there is zero time to delay.
Would you rather have the IMF and the globalist billionaire elite collect a pollution tax, and remove the remains of your freedom, democracy and human rights along with it? Or would you rather have democratically-elected, local communities collect the pollution tax, while retaining our freedoms, our democracy and our rights, and strengthening them all, while strengthening and rebuilding our local communities, and making the shift to a society that is democratic and free, as well as sustainable? We are going to have one or the other. I would say the more pleasant medicine is the locally-empowering option, and the only option that is compatible with freedom and democracy. The path of globalized tax collection for a globalized government, run by and for the ruling business elite, will be more than a disaster, if we allow it to happen – it will make Chairman Mao’s China and Mussolini’s Italy look mild by comparison. Choose wisely, and choose now – as we must.
Community-based, town hall democracy – which Thomas Jefferson also advised and urged – along with referendums on all major issues, is the most direct, robust, and accountable form of democracy. If we truly value either democracy or freedom, to say nothing of thriving, resilient, sustainable green communities, then we will not only accept such a proposal as this, but passionately and resolutely commit to bringing it to fruition. Again, what do we prefer: thriving, green communities, based in democracy and freedom, or a global police state, run by the robber barons and the super-rich plutocrats? These are our choices now. Let us be very thoughtful, and also, decisive, in what we now choose, for that will determine our fate.
10. Respect the sovereignty of the individual over his or her person, body and mind. We cannot expect to have a free or democratic society, or a society based on constitutional rule and human rights, until and unless we recognize personal sovereignty as fundamental, and inviolable. The basis of all human rights and all constitutional rights, is sovereignty over one’s own person and body. That is the basis for the Magna Carta, the Great Seal, which is the foundation of 800 years of Western law, and all constitutional law. If we allow the sovereignty over our bodies to be violated, then all our rights, our democracy and our freedom, are all null and void. The basis for a free and democratic society is that the individual has sovereignty over his or her own body and mind. This is, and must be, non-negotiable. Informed consent is therefore fundamental to our most basic and fundamental human rights. Without that, we have nothing. Without that, we are mere chattel, mere objects, to be used, harvested, yoked, exploited and disposed of, at will be our masters. Life with freedom requires there be no masters and no slaves. That requires that we insist upon retaining our fundamental, God-given right to sovereignty over our own person, body and mind.
11. Tax the rich. Yes, this is both necessary and legitimate. Moreover, the great majority of people support such a move. Put a tax of 90% on all personal income over $1 million a year, and all corporate profits over $1 billion a year. Furthermore, we must now tax not only income and profits, but also accumulated wealth. There must be a reasonable cap on incomes and wealth, otherwise, inequality soars, and the super-rich become so vastly powerful that they effectively become the masters of the nation and of the world, in which case, both freedom and democracy will inevitably die, and oligarchy, neo-feudalism and tyranny will take their place – that is what we have allowed to happen, and now, we must remedy our mistake. We should immediately implement a wealth tax of 90% on all personal wealth over $100 million. (And all of those figures are incredibly lenient, by the way.) If that means redistributing shares in corporations more equally among all citizens, then that is the wisest and most prudent, and just, course of action. That still leaves room for tolerance of those who want to be wealthy in material terms, yet provides urgently needed funds for social programs, environmental protection, and the urgently needed shift to a truly sustainable, free and democratic, regenerative and thriving society. Close all tax loopholes for the richest 1% and large corporations, and implement a forensic audit on all of the biggest 200 corporations operating in Canada, and on all of the nation’s billionaires. This means tracking down all off-shored profits and wealth, and halting capital flight. When the wealth of the nation overwhelmingly accumulates in the hands of the giant corporations, the richest 1%, and in offshore private bank accounts, you can be sure the nation is slowly being drained of its lifeblood. Stop the blood-letting. You can be wealthy, you can be rich, you can be very successful in business or entrepreneurship; but obscene levels of greed and parasitism are not tolerable, and must be stopped.
12. Implement sound fiscal and monetary policies. The founder of the Bank of Canada was right:
“Once a nation parts with control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation’s laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”
– William Lyon Mackenzie
Sound fiscal and monetary policy necessitates that the central bank of the nation remain publicly owned, as we have said. Secondly, it necessitates that the central bank, the Bank of Canada in this case, be controlled by a democratically-elected Parliament – and not by any foreign powers, such as Moody’s investment firm, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, the City of London, Davos, the IMF, the BIS, or the global financial elite, who control all of these institutions, along with the big banks, the global economy, and most nations and governments in the world.
Thirdly, in order to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty and independence, a tax must be imposed on financial speculation, and particularly on currency speculation. That protects the nation’s currency, and hence its economy, and hence, its sovereignty and democratic independence, from manipulation by foreign powers – principally, the global financial elite.
Fourth, to have a sound economy, among other necessary actions, it is vital to implement capital controls. That includes, above all, stopping capital flight, and halting the offshoring of profits and wealth in private offshore bank accounts and shell companies. Set a low limit for moving large sums of money or capital offshore. Moving more than a million dollars a year out of the country should require an audit, to establish that such a drain on the nation’s economy is justified. And that, again, is a very lenient figure! But it would be enough to at least stop the hemorrhaging.
Fifth, to have sound fiscal and monetary policy, and sound money, you must, of course, have sound money. This means the nation’s currency must be backed by real world assets, such as gold or silver – or by a combination of real world assets, including gold, silver and Bitcoin. Fiat currency is the policy of printing money out of thin air. No currency can remain stable for long under that policy. The fact that we have survived economically at all, after 50 years of such a policy, is surprising. We are pushing our luck to continue it any longer. Sooner or later the house of cards will implode. Better to build real-world assets to back our nation’s currency now – as China, Russia, and several other nations have done. Instead of selling off our nation’s gold reserves, foolishly and disastrously, we should be increasing them, and building reserves of silver, Bitcoin, and other real world assets, as well. Promoting the use of Bitcoin and local currencies is another important element in a comprehensive strategy to secure a sound and resilient, thriving economy, and this policy should also be implemented immediately.
Sixth, a policy of balanced budgets should be a natural target, and also necessary for stability and prosperity, or independence, is a balance in terms of trade. We can have cycles of government investment in the nation which run a short-term deficit, and later reap the rewards with greater economic prosperity – just as we invest heavily in spring to plant a garden or plant the fields, and reap the harvest later. But a policy of endless, perpetual deficits, creating endlessly growing debt, is a policy designed for failure and collapse. Just look at our neighbours to the south. The US is near to imploding, both for sociological reasons, for political reasons, and also for financial and economic reasons. You cannot offshore all production, and import everything the nation needs, without sooner or later going bankrupt. Buying local and buying Canadian, and investing in our communities and our nation, should be top priorities – for both ecological as well as economic reasons. Globalized supply chains, shipping food and other goods thousands of miles from China, Mexico, California, and from all over the world, when most of them we could make or grow ourselves, is a foolish and disastrous policy and habit, both in terms of ecology, and in terms of economics – and in terms of our sovereignty and democratic independence. If we want to be sovereign, democratic and free, then we must be more self-reliant – not isolationist, but self-reliant. If we have a sound economy – a green, just, and regenerative economy, and a sound economy – it is much more likely that we will be able to preserve our freedom, our democracy, and our independence. If we do not, then we are losing all of these priceless treasures, and rapidly. Buying local, first of all, and above all, and buying Canadian products and services, is truly, vitally important.
Unless we implement all of these steps to creating a sound fiscal and monetary policy, and a sound economic policy, our nation can forget about such lofty ideals as freedom, independence, sovereignty, democracy, or even economic stability, for they will all be sacrificed on the altar of the new global corporate-financial empire.
13. Abolish the absurd legal notion that corporations are persons. This disastrous and illogical policy, built upon a sham and a lie, has allowed corporations to overshadow, and then finally to dominate and control, virtually every nation in the world. End the fiction that corporations are persons, and end their legal status as persons, and their house of cards collapses. For the sake of our planet, for the sake of our future, and our very survival; and for the sake of our health, our children’s health, our democracy, our sovereignty, our human rights and our freedom, this fiction must end now.
14. Uphold the rule of constitutional law, and uphold the inherent, inalienable human rights of all. The UN Charter of Human Rights spells out our basic, inalienable rights very clearly, succinctly, and well. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the United States, the Constitution of Mexico, and the relevant constitutions of nations around the world, should, and must, be upheld, and defended – against all threats, foreign or domestic. This is vital. Democracy without constitutional rights and freedoms in place, and limits on state and government power, becomes just another form of tyranny. And when both democracy and constitutional rights are gutted by an international elite of businessmen and technocrats, and their local political minions, then we have an abomination brewing, and a dystopia has arrived. That is where we stand right now. If we want something better, either for ourselves or for our children, we are going to have to fight for it.
15. Build self-reliance, adaptability and resilience. The world is faced with a nexus of interwoven crises – economic, political, social, psychological (in the “leading” industrialized nations, at least), ecological, and in terms of public health. These crises require of us a clear mind, above all, which requires that we slow down, unplug from the veritable tsunami of “news” and “analysis”, infotainment, “social media”, chronic distraction, restless busyness and entertainment addiction: so that we can pause long enough to think, and to reflect, and also, to do some serious research, and then reflect deeply again, on what we have discovered. None of this is happening, generally speaking, in terms of what is our present norm, although there are exceptions – neither in the realms of the political-mandarin elite, the academics and the intellectuals, or the business elite; nor among the general public. The elite are, in general, of one mind, slavishly conforming in action, speech and thought to the neoliberal globalization orthodoxy of the ruling elite. The power elite, despite frequently vicious in-fighting, in general behave as a pack, and think as a pack. The public, in general, is behaving little better. We have become virtual zombies, sleep-walkers, in our misplaced and malformed, distorted social instinct, which, in its positive side, expresses itself in the instinct toward compassion and mutual aid, and in its dark side, expresses itself as docile conformity to the herd, and an equally disastrous and unthinking deference and obedience to authority. This is the most critical task, if we want a better future, or any future at all: disconnect from the chronic addiction to infotainment, entertainment and distraction; take some breaks, to pause, reflect, research, discuss, and reflect some more. Nothing good will come of a befuddled mind – and that is the norm, for both the ruling elite, and for the masses. That is priority one: clear your mind, disconnect from the noise, in order to reconnect with your own intuition and common sense. If we fail in that, we fail in everything.
Reclaiming our democracy is task number one, because without that, we have no hope of success with regard to any issue, be it justice, equality, the environment, or anything else. This should be plainly obvious to all. But clearly, we cannot accomplish even that most fundamental and urgent of tasks, if we lack the sufficient and necessary clarity of mind. Unplug. Get clear. This is vital.
But there is more that is necessary if we are to address, or even seriously face and contend with, the very serious problems our country, our communities, our families and our world are facing. We need, above all, to regain a basic clarity of mind, which can only come by reconnecting with ourselves. Question authority, question the norm, question the milling, drifting flock. Question everything. Think for yourself. Disconnect, in order to reconnect. Then only will clarity be attained. And only through a regained clarity, confidence, dignity and perspective, is any positive future possible at all. Yet, there is more that is required from us than this most essential first step.
What we also need, if we are to successfully navigate the stormy waters ahead, beyond a basic clarity of mind, confidence and sense of perspective, is resilience. Resilience comes primarily from within. It is a matter of character. And we do not have to be passively, meekly, foolishly fatalistic about it. We can cultivate inner resourcefulness, inner strength, a quiet dignity, confidence, strength of character, courage, tenacity, resolve – all of the things that create inner resilience.
But resilience, of course, although it primarily comes from within, also has an outer component. I am not inclined toward personal anecdotes, but every rule has its exception. Here is a short, relevant story, and an example. When an ice storm hit East-Central Canada, some 25 years ago, in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, where I was living, most people had to leave their homes, because their homes had no heat, because the power grid went down, and stayed down, in some areas for two weeks. We were fortunate to have a wood-stove for heat, and a year’s supply of well-dried firewood, and a propane cook-stove, and we stayed in our home, without any problems, using candles for light. The environmental emergency which we have now entered – which, even with our best efforts, will in all likelihood continue to produce increasing waves of disruptions and disasters, until we can finally heal the Earth – makes it a matter of basic intelligence and common sense to be prepared for emergencies and for possible disruptions in the distribution of necessities, such as heat, energy, food and water.
I can scarcely believe that I have to explain this most obvious fact, which our grandparents understood viscerally, as a matter of common sense; but, that is, sadly, the unfortunate case. People who exercise forethought tend to fare better in emergencies, hard times, or in almost any kind of change or disruption to their normal way of life. Not exercising forethought is simply childish, irresponsible, and foolish. Being prepared for contingencies, disruptions or emergencies is simply intelligent risk management.
Being prepared for possible emergencies or hard times doesn’t make you are insane – not being prepared for emergencies or hard times, is insane. Creating, or, that is, re-creating, a culture which exercises forethought and foresight, as the norm, is not only prudent, but simply a matter of basic intelligence, and even basic sanity.
My parents’ generation, who were born during World War II, grew up with the habits of frugality with regard to oneself, and generosity and cheerful, willing mutual aid towards others, along with forethought, savings, self-reliance, resilience, and preparedness in case of hard times, as the norm. We have surely progressed culturally in some ways since the 1940s, of course – racism, sexism, xenophobia and intolerance have all declined, violent crime has declined for fifty years, according to police statistics, a healthy questioning of authority and of social norms has increased, broad-mindedness and open-mindedness has increased, activism and volunteerism have increased, and support for war has declined sharply. But on the other hand, we have in some ways regressed. Nobody saves anymore; in fact, the great majority are going ever deeper into debt. Canadians on average spend $1.7 for every dollar of income. Clearly this is a recipe for mass servitude through debt bondage, followed by mass bankruptcy. Thinking about the future, planning beyond a few weeks, is now the exception, rather than the rule. Likewise, forethought and foresight are virtually obliterated in 21st century industrial society, along with memory, any sense of history, perspective, or self-reliance. All of these things must be reclaimed and rebuilt, if we have any sense at all.
In some ways, the Depression-era and war-time era had the better thinking: be frugal with regards to spending on yourself; be generous with others, especially in terms of being cheerfully ready and willing to lend a hand; avoid debt like the plague, and save what you can for the future and for future generations; think about the long term, and plan ahead; exercise foresight and forethought, and always be prepared, in case of hard times; keep a strong measure of self-reliance; and strive to be calm, confident, humble, hard-working and cheerful, even in the midst of difficult times – especially in the midst of difficult times. Not everything that comes later is better. We need to reclaim the best from our past, and combine that with the best of the present. To do otherwise would simply be nonsensical.
Build back better? What I am presenting here is something I have not seen anywhere from the left, the liberal centre, the conservatives or libertarians, or anywhere else: it is a plan that not only has heart, but also, a brain, a spine, and legs – not empty platitudes hanging in the air.
Build back better? The left is focused on pleading with the government for a few more crumbs for the 99%. After the wholesale gutting and evisceration of the middle class, this is not remotely adequate, nor even sensible, nor just. It is feeble-minded, superficial, and represents a mere skittering across the surface of things. Our sense of perspective is shot – completely gone.
Let’s not obsess with changing windows dressings, while our sills are all rotted, and while our foundations are either crumbling, or being actively ripped away. First things first: we must reclaim our democracy, or we will have no hope whatsoever of attaining anything, on any issue whatsoever. And in order to do that, in order to reclaim our democracy, our freedom, and our future, we must first regain and begin to rebuild our mental clarity, confidence, dignity, sense of perspective, inner resilience, forethought – and a strong element of self-reliance. That, of course, does not mean that we should not help one another. Of course we should. But mutual aid does not preclude rational, responsible, adult behaviour and adult attitudes, such as foresight and self-reliance.
On the level of the individual, the family, the community, and our nations, we cannot expect to have a good future, or even to retain our freedom, our sovereignty, or our democracy, if we do not have some measure of self-reliance. If we are dependent, we are vassals, or worse. Let that sink in. That is critical for us to understand.
Again, during WWII, most families had vegetable gardens – either in their yards, in town or cities, or in the countryside outside of the city or town. What we need to cultivate and rebuild, is a strong measure of self-reliance at all levels – not rugged individualism, not “me-first” hyper-individualism, not isolationism, not clannishness, but a degree of self-reliance. Better yet, is community self-reliance. At least in terms of food, water and energy, communities should make it a priority to be self-reliant. Without self-reliance in at least these three critical areas, there can be no true resilience, and we will be leaves in the wind, blown about, in whatever direction, by any storm or strong gust of wind.
On a national level, again, it is clarity of mind, confidence, dignity, perspective, forethought, and resilience – among the people, and not just the mandarins and talking head pundits – which is the highest and most critical priority. But beyond that most essential constellation of national resources, there are certain things which would only be intelligent policy choices and policy priorities. Shipping all of our manufacturing offshore to China and other lower wage countries, was tremendously beneficial to the multi-national corporations and the billionaires who control them, but neoliberal corporate globalization has, of course, de-industrialized Canada, the US and most of the Western world, with the obvious and predictable result that the middle class has been eviscerated, disemboweled and thrown to the gutter to die; while the nations of the once wealthy and prosperous West are now fragile shells of their former selves, unable to weather even a strong gale, much less the coming super-storm which we are likely to face. A little regaining and rebuilding of resilience – or a lot – is now in order. And to do that, we must become much more adaptable, and above all, much more self-reliant: as individuals, families, communities, and nations.
Self-reliance is not the same as isolationism, it must be repeated, and stressed. Isolationism is a legitimate choice, but I do not think it is a wise one. Self-reliance, however, means resilience – and building resilience in uncertain times, is simply a matter of basic sanity, and common sense.
Why do we have, for example, in Canada, one of the most popular furniture stores, Ikea, shipping our furniture from Sweden? Ikea may be “Swedish for common sense”, but the fact that we have no Canadian-owned, Canadian-made furniture store of equal or greater presence, is a sign that Canadians have lost their own common sense. We have some of the largest remaining forests in the world. Through sustainable forestry, we can be building our own furniture, and exporting well-made, sustainably-built, Canadian wood furniture to the world. Instead, we ship raw logs to China and Japan, and are busy clear-cutting our forests to ship raw wood pulp in vast quantities to the US, where US corporations will make the much bigger margins and profits, by turning raw pulp into paper products. Are we mad? We have lived as a colony, first to Britain, then to the United States; and now, Justin “Beiber” Trudeau wants us to become a colony of Beijing. We need to stop and think, and think deeply on this. A little more self-reliance means a lot more resilience. It also means a better ecological footprint. And it means more jobs, and a better economy, for the people and the country.
We could do even better. We could be, and should be, growing vast quantities of industrial hemp and bamboo, to replace wood as the primary building material, paper product source, and source of our textiles, clothing and furniture, preserving our forests, the lungs of the Earth, for use only by selective logging for high-value products, such as veneers and musical instruments; and in doing so, radically reduce our ecological impact, and sequestering carbon, removing enormous quantities of carbon from the atmosphere every year, while also cleaning our atmosphere of pollution, and thus healing our planet – saving ourselves from extinction, and creating a thriving, full employment green economy in the process: bringing high quality furniture, building materials, paper products, clothing and textiles to the world. Are we to remain exporters of raw wood, wood pulp, water and uranium, with a gutted manufacturing base, and a “service economy” primarily based on low-wage, part-time, insecure McJobs, at Wendy’s/Tim Hortons and WalMart? That would be madness. We need to rebuild our economy, our resilience and self-reliance, and our manufacturing base, and do so in ecologically sound ways that benefit all Canadians, and not just the rich. The principles and concrete ideas such as I have outlined here, and elsewhere, show us a clear and workable way to do that, and to do that in very short order. What on Earth are we waiting for?
Here is another example of policies gone wrong, versus policies that make sense. Bombardier, a Canadian company from Quebec, originally a snow-mobile maker, established in 1946, is a now leading manufacturer of trains, trams, subways, and aircraft – or it was, until January of 2021. Bombardier built the subway system for the world’s biggest city, Mexico City, with a population the size of Canada, 35 million. The Bombardier subway system in Mexico city runs reliably, fast, and has 50 lines, connecting every part of the city. In Mexico City, you can get anywhere in the city by subway or bus in 30 minutes. Toronto, the biggest city in Canada, with a population the size of Finland, seven million, has a subway system that routinely breaks down and is disrupted, may or may not get you to work on time, has only three lines, and connects only narrow slivers of the sprawling city. In Toronto, it takes an hour by car to get halfway across the city – three hours or more in rush-hour. Taking the VIA train into or out of the city would be perfect for commuters and travelers, but with regular service interruptions, due to the tar sands bitumen clogging the rail lines, VIA Rail, Canada’s pride in 1951, should now be rebranded as, Very Indeterminate Arrivals. Furthermore, the nations biggest city has a transit system is so grossly inadequate, that millions of people living in the city, commuting to the city, or visiting the city, feel compelled to drive a car, because the trains, buses and transit system are so grossly inadequate – thus causing ever increasing traffic congestion, smog, and planet-killing pollution. What is wrong with this picture? If Bombardier, a Canadian company, can build a world-class, fast, convenient, reliable transit system for the world’s biggest city, why do we have clogged arteries, smog-belching car-centric transportation, and transit and transportation systems in Canada that are, in general, and with few exceptions, as sad, backwards, 60-year out-dated, tragic joke?
Subways are now proven to be an extravagently expensive boondoggle, and they should no longer be built. State of the art bus systems (BRTs) outperform subways, and at a fraction of the cost, and can be made to pay for themselves, in terms of operating costs. The South American city of Curitiba showed the world that a Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT), which they developed and created – and then built the local manufacturing base to manufacture and export to the world – showed the world the most cost-efficient and effective way to provide affordable, fast, reliable, comfortable mobility for a city’s people. The point here was not to promote subways, but to promote intelligently planned mass transportation – to replace the era of the private automobile, which clearly now must draw to an end. We either replace the private automobile as our primary transportation mode, or we die of smog and planet-killing pollution. Reality is calling. We cannot avoid taking the call, any longer.
Bombardier, who until recently, made world-class trains, trams, light rail and Guided Light Transit, was permitted to sell a controlling share of 50.1% to the giant European consortium, Airbus – that was the first mistake of the Canadian government, with regards to Bombardier, which is, our should be viewed as, a strategically important partner in the coming decades ahead. Further, Bombardier announced in January of 2021 that it would no longer build trains, or any ground transportation systems, but would focus instead on building luxury private jets, which it said is more profitable. Sure, selling planet-killing luxury jets to the super-rich is probably more profitable – if you consider the death of the planet and the extinction of humanity an acceptable “externality”, as it is called in business, and in that most dismal “science” that is professional economics. What we need, is a federal government with a spine, and some basic principles which it upholds, and does not waiver from: including the principles of freedom, democracy, sovereignty, constitutional rule and human rights, justice, equality, non-aggression and peace, and a true commitment to creating a resilient and robust, prosperous, sustainable and regenerative economy and society. Those principles would necessitate that the Canadian government, for example, buy 1% of the shares of Bombardier, to make the company Canadian-owned and Canadian-controlled once again; and it would further require and necessitate that the Canadian government simply say to Bombardier, you must help us to rebuild our train system – which used to connect every city and virtually every town in Canada – and help us to build a robust and resilient national transportation infrastructure that places trains, light rail, Guided Light Transit, bus rapid transit systems, along with bicycle lanes, walking paths and walkable cities, as the centre-pieces of a low-ecological impact 21st century transportation system. Why would Bombardier comply? Because if they do – or rather, when they do – they will receive some degree of leniency in terms of the heavy pollution taxes they will be forced to pay for making luxury private jets for the super-rich.
We have, in Canada, an advanced technology sector, a cosmopolitan, highly literate and highly educated society and workforce, a well-developed transportation, communication and energy infrastructure, excellent designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists, as well as artists, writers, musicians, actors, health care professionals, teachers, professors, thinkers and scholars. We could have, for example, self-reliance in essential, generic pharmaceutical drugs, available at low cost to all Canadians – even without a pharma-care plan for the nation, which is also achievable, and also a matter of simple justice. We could do this, if we valued self-reliance, if we valued justice, if we valued compassion, or if we truly valued public health. But all of these values must be sacrificed, and are sacrificed, so that the global drug cartel of Big Pharma, led by the sociopath Bill Gates, can continue to make trillions of dollars a year in drug profits. The corporate world, it should be noted, does not even use the term “health care” anymore. They use, internally at least, the term, “disease management”. And Goldman Sachs recently told its investors that curing illness and healing people is no longer profitable – or at least, is not profitable enough; therefore, we do not aim for that: we aim instead, for the more profitable approach, not of curing the sick, but of profiting from disease management. If that strikes you as vampiric, then congratulations, your common sense is intact. It is vampiric. And we can do better.
These are just three examples – from the forest and resource industry, the transportation and manufacturing sector, and the health and pharmaceutical industry – but the lessons and the principles apply broadly, of course, and they can easily be elaborated – and have been, in my previous books and essays. For now, three examples will suffice to show that there is a better way.
At the level of the individual and the family, the level of the community, and at the national level, it would simply be prudent, and intelligent, to have some significant degree of self-reliance, particularly in terms of the basic necessities for life: food, water, energy and health care. Self-reliance in these areas of course becomes much easier when we cooperate, and invoke the basic human principle and impulse of mutual aid – which is humanity’s greatest strength, and not merely our opposable thumbs.
(See Kropotkin’s, Mutual Aid, which in truth, is a much more important, landmark text in evolutionary biology, than Darwin’s, Origin of Species. Darwin merely told us about our physical-biological ancestry and evolution. Kropotkin told us the history of our social and psychological evolution, and highlighted the traits which makes us exceptionally strong.)
A much higher degree of self-reliance can be achieved, and much more readily and easily, at the level of the community than at the level of the family. And at the regional and national levels, we can achieve even higher degrees of self-reliance in the essentials of life. And doing so not only increases our resilience and security, while strengthening our independence, and thus our sovereignty, our democracy, and our freedom, but it will have positive and powerful benefits in terms of jobs and employment – including full employment, with shortened workweeks and better pay; in terms of creating both prosperity and economic stability; and in terms of thriving and stable, strong communities.
Read, or re-read, Emerson: Self-Reliance. Then read Thoreau’s, Walden, and, On Civil Disobedience. These three pieces of literature are among the most important things we can import from the US, or any nation, or that we can read from any source. Skip the “news” tonight. Read something that is actually worthy of your time. Self-reliance, simplicity, and conscience over obedience, are three principles that we need to embrace, and now, without delay.
After reading Emerson and Thoreau, it would be wise to read, or re-read, Margaret Atwood’s, Payback, and, A Handmaid’s Tale, along with Canadian anthropologist Ronald Wright’s, A Short History of Progress; then, set aside whatever preferences of taste you might have, and listen carefully to two songs by the British heavy metal band, Black Sabbath: Into The Void, and, Children of The Grave, which tells our current story plainly, in no uncertain terms:
“Pollution kills the air, the land, the sea
Man prepares to meet his destiny.“
“Show the world that love is still alive,
you must be brave;
Or you children of today
are children of the grave.“
The stakes could not be higher, and the message can scarcely be given in any clearer form.
*
Two other important points should be included here, as an addendum. If we value freedom and democracy, as we absolutely and profoundly should, then we must ban electronic voting, because it is is virtually guaranteed to lead to election fraud; and require paper ballots strictly, with international grassroots bodies monitoring elections closely to ensure free and fair elections. Secondly, we must ban usury. Usury will wreck any nation, by hyper-concentrating power over time, leading to soaring inequality, and the death of freedom and democracy. That means fractional reserve banking must be banned; and, if we allow interest charges on money lent at all, which is a highly dangerous choice, then at least it must be capped at a very low rate, say 1.5% above the real inflation rate. Credit card companies charging 18% interest for the masses to access money, while billionaires get 1.5%, zero, or even negative interest rates to acess money, is a rigged system of economic predation, that is driving us rapidly into neofeudalism. Let the richest and the poorest access loans at the same low rate, and legally compel it to be so. If we refuse either of these actions, or the others outlined above, then we are not serious about freedom and democracy – that, or we have no understanding of what we are doing.
And while we are adding addenda, I should mention another critical point that I had previously forgotten to add. After serious election finance reform is instituted, and immediately instituted, any elected representative or political candidate shown to have received large sums of money from multinational corporations, billionaire-run “foundations”, or foreign governments (Joe Biden, for example), should be immediately banned for life from all elected offices, and charged with election fraud, punishable by a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison without parole. Then we will see the revolving door of corruption close, and not before. Accepting large sums of money, or lucrative positions on corporate boards of directors, after leaving political office, should likewise be treated as a grave breach of the public trust, punishable by an automatic 20 year prison sentence without parole, for the corrupting and eroding the integrity of the democratic process. We either get tough on corruption at the top, or we will live with systemic corruption, and the death of democracy and freedom, until we do so. And to make certain everyone is honest in the political arena, we invoke a forensic audit of the candidate’s or elected politician’s personal finances, both before any election campaign, and after leaving office. The billions saved on corruption will more than pay for such universal audits. Only the honest will dare go into politics then.
*
Continuity and Change: A Bifurcation Point Is At Hand
It is important for us to realize that the great majority of people in Canada, like the great majority of people everywhere, are, in general, averse to change. The majority of people want a peaceful life, with few troubles. Chomsky is right: “The great majority of people have basically decent impulses.” That is true: the great majority of people are basically peaceable, and inclined naturally toward empathy, compassion and mutual aid, as Kropotkin demonstrated in his monumentally important work Mutual Aid, and as Jeremy Rifkin documented has been further proven and confirmed by recent science, in his important book, The Empathic Civilization. However, the great majority of people also want comfort and stability, and they tend to value comfort and stability above all. That means, among other things, that the great majority are (small-c) conservatives by nature, and they dislike change. They don’t like anyone rocking their boat.
This tendency to go along peacefully with whatever the present status quo happens to be, explains a great deal. It explains how fascism arose in Italy and Germany, and it explains how totalitarianism arose in Russia. It also explains how the great majority of people have gone along with neoliberal corporate globalization, with barely a whimper – even though polls show repeatedly that they have no confidence, faith or trust in it, they are increasingly angry about it, and they are fully aware they are getting a bad deal, and are in fact being eaten alive by the richest few and the big corporations. But most people would rather put up with almost anything, than rock the boat. There is a limit, however, to this great tolerance of the people, and we are rapidly approaching that limit now.
The majority of people want stability, but they should realize that what we have now, is institutionalized instability; and that instability is growing rapidly, and will continue to grow – until our civilization collapses, and the chaos is fully let loose; unless, and until, the people reject this newest of empires, which is the global corporate oligarchy. How much illusory security, how much illusory stability, how much illusory safety must we endure, before we set our course right, and end the growing instability which now threatens the very existence of humanity, as well as our freedom, our democracy, and our rights?
We should remember that no one predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it happened. After decades of growing discontent, and a slowly deepening crisis of legitimacy, a tipping point was finally reached, and the people shook off the totalitarian regime, like a dog shaking water off its back. The entire house of cards collapsed, virtually overnight – in the span of just 18 months. The Western neoliberal corporate empire is now facing exactly this kind of crisis of legitimacy, and the clock is fast running out.
Revolution is brewing. And it is none too soon.
*
The Crisis of Democracy: On Reform and Revolution
Millions of people world-wide are busy trying to get mild reforms accomplished, that will slightly lessen the disastrous effects on nature which we causing, and will slightly lessen the brutality and the suffering caused by the global corporate empire. This is laudable, important work, but it is not remotely sufficient, and it is not remotely enough. Despite the dedication of millions of activists around the world, making millions of small victories, we must admit the truth – we are losing ground, on virtually every front. In terms of equality: we have skyrocketing inequality. World-wide, the working class lost roughly $3 trillion in the past 18 months, since the Covid lockdowns were invoked. The richest 1% gained roughly $3 trillion in the same period. Do the math. This is not complicated to understand. We, the 99%, are being devoured. We are being eaten alive.
In terms of equality, justice, freedom, democracy, constitutional rights, human rights, and the environment, we are losing ground. Our methods are failing, and have failed. We are fighting a rear-guard action, and we are losing ground. Any sane general or strategist would look at that, and say: Clearly, our methods and our strategies have failed – it is time for another plan. Sixty years of reformism, since the 1960s – six decades of trying to sway the governments to do the right thing, have utterly failed. In fact, we keep losing ground. We are not even holding our ground. We are fighting an advancing wildfire with a garden sprinkler, and running backwards as fast as we can. Clearly, this will not do. This is not an intelligent strategy. This is a failed strategy.
Let us admit it, reformism has failed. It is time for Plan B. It is time for a revolution.
*
What is a revolution? A revolution is a fundamental shift in the structures or patterns of a society, especially a fundamental shift in relations of power. Well, what is it that we need now? We need to remove the global plutocrats, and their political minions, from power. The majority of the people want environmental protection, strong social programs such as universal health care, pensions and education, and a society that is based in freedom, human rights, constitutional rule and democracy. In order to achieve those modest goals, which are far from utopian, we now need a revolution – a democratic, non-violent, grassroots revolution, to restore power to the people, where it belongs.
I don’t know how much clearer it can be said than that. We are now up against a wall. We are racing toward our collective suicide, and all that stands in the way to the kinds of changes we need, to preserve the planet for human and other species habitation, and to bring about some semblance of justice, and true freedom and democracy, requires that we remove the business elite and their political friends from power. That, by now, requires nothing short of a revolution.
You could say, as a venerable scholar friend said to me, that there is no time for building a successful movement for revolution, even though it is a principled stance to take. But I say, we do not have time for another sixty years of failed reformist methods, and another sixty years of failed efforts to petition, and sway, and persuade the governments to do the right thing.
The business elite have taken over, and they are sociopaths. They are concerned, above all else, with profits and power – and all else is expendable. That means democracy, human rights, freedom, the planet, and the people, the 99%, are also expendable. That is sociopathic. It is also fascist, genocidal, ecocidal, and suicidal. We now must replace the currently ruling oligarchy of billionaires and big corporations, with something at least similar to, or resembling, freedom and democracy. And I would say, of course, we must seek to bring about a rebirth of real, meaningful democracy, strongly upheld constitutional rule, and real freedom. It is that, or it is collective suicide, after a brief stint spent in a darkly Orwellian dystopia, of nightmarish nature, as the Earth slowly dies, and the human race goes slowly, painfully, fitfully, extinct.
Revolution now. It is that, or slow death. Only fantasy presents a third option.
Stand.
*
Remember, I must say again, in 1775 nobody in the United States wanted revolution. Not Jefferson, Washington or Benjamin Franklin. Nobody expected a revolution in America, in 1775. Nobody even wanted it. Nobody but one man. Yet, in January of 1776, Thomas Paine published his slim little book, Common Sense, and by July 4th of that same year, the revolution was born.
As the Scottish philosopher, David Hume said, the people always have the greater power – as Etienne de La Boite, Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, also knew. This is what we need to realize now: we, the people, always have the greater power.
The second thing that we must realize now, is that:
It is time to take the power back.
JTR,
July 18, 2021
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