Oh, Canada: A Funeral Dirge – And A Prayer

Travelling the world recently again, I am struck by the staggering ignorance among the great majority of people in the world, as to what Canada is like today. All of them, with rare exceptions, seem to think this is 1974. They think of Canada as a rich, First World country, with peace, prosperity, beautiful nature, democracy and freedom, a civilized country, with constitutional rule and human rights for all. That was true in 1974, to a large extent, and for some time afterward. It is not true today. Of this list of positive traits, only the beautiful nature remains. All the rest has been destroyed – and the vast Boreal forest is being clear cut and burned as well, while the fisheries, waters and soils are being strip-mined, eroded, despoiled and laid to waste. These are sad, tragic facts, but they are nevertheless true. This is what decades of corruption has wrought upon my people.

People need to realize that Canada, like the US and UK, with Europe quick to follow, after 50 years of neoliberal globalization, de-industrialization and class warfare, is now a collapsing Third World fascist police state. I am Canadian, and a scholar on these issues for four decades. I do not speak lightly or off the cuff. These are the facts, whether people want to deal with reality or not. There are many billionaires and rich people in Canada, but the fact is that poverty and inequality have skyrocketed, as the middle class is steadily wiped out, and the bottom 80% of the people are now sinking economically. This is not 1974. This is 2024, and my Canada, is long gone.

When the Canadian people tire of being ruled by plutocrats and kleptocrats, then it can become a wonderful, prosperous, democratic and free nation once again. At present, all these things are gone and have been destroyed.

How long will the people suffer in silence? Not much longer, I pray.

JTR,

A Canadian in exile,

January 21, 2024

The Collapse Of The West: Chapter One: The Global Tectonic Shift

By J. Todd Ring

Preface:

I wrote this essay in January of 2020, then the covid crisis hit, and it was shelved for over a year. The macro-scale patterns have not changed fundamentally since then, although the slow-motion collapse of the US, and the West more broadly, has accelerated. I would offer the following as a synopsis and overview of what I see coming. I do not have a crystal ball, but the major patterns and trends are all deeply established and already set in motion; therefore, what I am predicting here, has a high probability of being generally accurate.

The US is headed for collapse, which will likely occur within this decade, and possibly very soon. Canada, Europe, Britain, Australia and New Zealand have all tied themselves to the sinking ship of the dying US empire, and so will suffer greatly for that deeply unwise move. Or rather, they tied themselves to the US after WWII, and were not perceptive enough to decouple from the US, when its decline became clear in the 1970s and ’80s, and undeniable by 2008. Russia and many other countries have largely decoupled from the US. Those who have not done so, will sink with the US, when it implodes and goes down.

China, Russia, India, Mexico and Brazil, will be the new economic super-powers, in a newly multi-polar world. Assuming we can avoid WWIII during the global tectonic shift, which is certainly not guaranteed, the world has the potential, at least, of becoming more equitable and more stable, as the global hegemony of the US and its satellites in NATO sink into secondary status, if not post-collapse chaos, and the Global South, or Third World, along with the East, find some long sought-after breathing space.

A multi-polar world will arrive, and with it, prospects for greater equality, freedom and peace – so long as we don’t blow ourselves up in the transition. The billionaire oligarchs who effectively rule the West, along with most of the world, however, want to maintain both their global hegemony, and their internal power: and the plutocrats are increasingly desperate, and are therefore taking increasingly desperate actions. That creates great danger for the world, including, most especially, for the people of the West, particularly in North America, Britain and Europe. But we should remember that desperate actions taken by desperate men show their weakness, not their power.

Meanwhile, Russia and China are now in an economic alliance, and each wants to preserve its own independence, above all, while they decouple from the collapsing US, but make short-term agreements with the Davos oligarchs, out of expedience.

It is an uncertain and dangerous time globally, to say the least. That is leaving aside the equally pressing issues of the environmental crisis, and fascism, which of course, also demand urgent attention and urgent action. But remember this. History is full of surprises. Nobody expected the American Revolution to succeed, but it did. Nobody expected WWI, but it happened. Nobody expected the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it happened nevertheless. Permanence is an illusion. Radical change happens unexpectedly. Only in hindsight, do the great majority come to see the precursors to radical change, after it happens, which the prescient few, saw in advance. It has always been so.

History is always unfolding, and full of uncertainty. That being said, we can see clear patterns unfolding. We can see the direction we are headed; and if we don’t change course, we will end up precisely where we were going, naturally. 

Freedom, democracy, equality, ecology and peace are the core issues, I would say; and the core obstacles to all of these, are empire, authoritarianism and artificial scarcity. That is, or should be, our big picture orientation.

The five maxims of empire are to divide, demoralize, disempower, indoctrinate and control. We must, therefore, do precisely the opposite: unite, inspire, empower, inform and liberate. 

As always, the future is in our hands. It just so happens, however, that this is, quite possibly, the most pivotal time in human history, and almost certainly so. 

The world needs us now, more than ever. And we need each other. Unite the people, and fight for freedom, democracy, justice and peace, and a clean and healthy, better world for all.

JTR,

June 18, 2021

***

The original essay,

Written, January 2020:

Global Tectonic Shift

“They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.” ~ Tacitus

“In 1492 Columbus discovered America. He too had been seeking the East, and America, unluckily for its inhabitants, happened to lie in his way round the world. Here there were no guns to face, not even weapons of metal; the coasts lay open, and the two organized empires, Aztec and Inca, were both new and oppressive; the invaders could go much further than occupying odd harbours, which in any case would have been useless. Mexico was taken from the Aztecs, with the help of their neighbours, before 1520, and Peru from the Incas in the 1530s. Neither Spain nor Europe ever lost the intoxicating memory of these two great realms overthrown in the twinkling of an eye by a handful of white men; it cancelled the triumphs of the Turks, and gave the West a perpetual confidence in its power and its future.”

• An excerpt from a very interesting and thoughtful book on the history of Europe and the world: The Oldest Europe And Its Neighbours, by Victor Kiernan, Zed Books

Context is everything. History matters.

“England’s East India Company had been founded in 1600. These two rivals represented a new imperialism, not in need of any crusading motives to nerve it for enterprises in continents now relatively familiar, or of any ideology beyond that of the counting-house. The Turkish threat to Europe was receding; besides, to Dutchmen and Englishmen, Spain and the Inquisition, not Turkey and the Koran, were the menace. They had no notion of spreading Christianity in Asia; these Protestants kept religion, business and politics in separate compartments. As the natives were going to be roughly handled in either case, it may have been better for Christianity not to be compromised, as it was in America, by getting mixed up in the matter. Anglo-Dutch power in the East Indies, until well on in the nineteenth century, marked the most sordid but least hypocritical phase of European expansion.”

But we went back to ideological rationalizations, sometimes religious, sometimes secular: as now, the systemic and brutal imperial violence, which is not only military, but more often paramilitary, and above all, economic, is carried out in the name of spreading democracy and freedom, or intervening out of humanitarianism. And Orwell still rolls in his grave at the obvious and extreme deceit, and self-deceit.

Kiernan himself, quoted above, stumbles back into such comfortable self-delusions as are the norm. The ethnocentrism, and sheer cultural arrogance and presumption, are staggering:

“Today when Europe is no longer in the lead it is tempted to think, or to agree with others, that the civilization it was incubating was no unique property of its own but a stage of progress that other regions were moving towards. India on this view would have had cotton-mills, Japan would have come by submarines, whether Europe had brought them or not. This is of course possible, but may be regarded as exceedingly unlikely on any time-scale of centuries rather than millennia. An intricate set of interacting factors is required to bring about any significant historical transition, and there is small sign anywhere else (most perhaps in Japan) of anything like the complex of material and psychological forces then at work in north-west Europe. No other part of Europe itself could have made an Industrial Revolution. It is even doubtful whether any Asian country would have modernized itself by imitation of the West, if not forced by the West to do so as India, Japan, China all in different ways were.”

It bears repeating:

Comfortable self-delusions are the norm. The ethnocentrism, and sheer cultural arrogance and presumption, are staggering. Alas, the white man’s burden is a heavy one…

Kiernan and a great many others have begun to realize the dangers of such cultural arrogance, and such recognition is well-put here:

“Yet Europe’s conviction of being the only really civilized region was becoming so strong that even its offscourings, these Ishmaels of the seven seas, carried it with them, and were fortified by it in their lawlessness. Whatever a white man did must in some grotesque fashion be ‘civilized’.”

However, in the same essay Kiernan argues in defence and apologetics of European colonialism, neocolonialism and empire, as we have seen. And such stark self-contradiction, and self-deceit, is also the norm in the North-West.

And back again to rationalizations we return again and again: conquest is always for the benefit of the conquered, the subjugated, and the plundered, don’t you know…

“Westerners impregnated with their new ethos of change, progress, energy, invested Commerce with the same divine right that monarchy formerly claimed, and were irresistibly tempted to resort to force. They could feel that by doing so they were doing right, as the French Revolutionary armies marching over Europe and carrying liberty on their bayonets had felt. To knock down decrepit régimes was to liberate peoples from the crushing burden of their past. In the first stage of European expansion Spain and Portugal thought of making a return to benighted regions for what they took from them, by giving them Christianity. Now there was again a feeling that expansion ought to have some ideal purpose, a goal beyond sordid greed, which came to be expressed in the phrase ‘civilizing mission’. Backward lands would be given civilization, in return for the products wanted by Europe; Christianity might be part of it, though a subsidiary one. The idea of Europe’s ‘mission’ dawned early, but was taken up seriously in the nineteenth century. Turkey, China, and the rest would some day be prosperous, wrote Winwood Reade, one of the most sympathetic Westerners. ‘But those people will never begin to advance … until they enjoy the rights of man; and these they will never obtain except by means of European conquest.’” – ibid

“The civilizing mission was now all the rage, whereas in earlier years it had often been rejected as too expensive. It was easiest of all to believe that what was good for Europe must be even better for the ‘natives’. By now the white man had worked himself into a high state of self-conceit; but all through the century his reaction to any natives who tried to reject the blessings of civilized rule was that of Dr Johnson to the rebel Americans: ‘They are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.’” – ibid

We have told ourselves we are bringing freedom, democracy, and civilization to the world. But we have brought guns and bombs, economic predation, subjugation, exploitation, colonialism, neocolonialism, and stark imperialism, no matter how it is rationalized, justified, or camouflaged. This is bringing aid and help to our neighbours? I am sure our neighbours would all agree, that kind of help, they can do without.

As my great literary hero, Thoreau said, “If I knew someone was coming to do me some good, I should like to get as far away as possible.”

And moreover, “The better part of what my neighbours believe to be good, I believe in my heart to be bad. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well.”

I agree with TS Eliot: We are the hollow men. The leaders of the free world? We are neither leaders nor free. We are cleverly driving ourselves in a frantic race toward our own extinction – with tyranny and fascism, neofeudalism and war, a toxic landscape and a toxic culture, as landmarks along the way. And through our benevolent leadership we have convinced or coerced the rest of the world to join us in our madness, and our race to oblivion. Some leadership.

I agree with Gandhi. When he was asked what he thought of Western civilization he replied, “I think it would be a good idea.”

To the presumed superiority of (North-)Western civilization, I say, we are neither superior, nor civilized.

We are but one corner of the globe, for a time dominant, but in no way superior to other societies. Each society has its glories and its shames, its triumphs and its failings. We are no different, and no better.

Was Nazi Germany twisted, diabolical, demented, deluded and depraved? Unquestionably. Cultural relativism, nihilism and post-modernism are a wasteland of the mind, leading to madness. There are faults, and there are great failings, and we should not pretend that war is peace, or slavery is freedom, lest we simply lose our minds in the act of self-delusion.

And I agree with Thoreau. Is modern society, or modern Western society, either one, however you care to look at it, in any real way superior to older, earlier societies, or to native societies, for example? His response was a definitive, No. And I agree. As America’s greatest philosopher, Henry David Thoreau said, We have improved the houses men live in (perhaps), but not the character of the men who live in them.

Here, here.

We have gained much, but lost more. We have toys and trinkets and gadgets galore, but our souls are hollow, our minds and spirits debased, our communities and communion eroded and degraded and largely gone, our morals and ethics deeply in question, and generally serving power and expedience, over all calls of conscience or compassion. And we are less happy and less free.

We are fatter, weaker, less healthy, less vigourous, less strong in both body and mind, and in spirit; and every psychological, sociological and anthropological study shows us to be less happy, more lost and adrift, and more lonely and alienated than “primitive” societies of 10,000 years ago. Clearly we need to rethink our notions of “progress”, “development”, “civilization”, “freedom”, and “the good life”.

Medieval, ancient, “primitive”, and indigenous societies can teach us much. As can the global South, and the East. We do not need to become primitivists, or orientalists, but we do need to dispense with our ill-conceived and disastrous, misguided and frankly delusional sense of cultural superiority. If we do not, chances are that none of us, anywhere on Earth, will survive.

It will be a post-imperial world ahead, or it will be a post-human world. And to get to that post-imperial world, which is the heart of the transition we must make now, we will need guidance, as well as courage, compassion, and common sense.

Some of that good guidance will come from the West, some from the East, some from the North, and much from the South.

And we will be wise to seek counsel from traditional indigenous peoples, who still remember how to be stewards and protectors of the land and the waters, and not despoilers, looters and pillagers only.

“First Nation’s Peoples — and the decision of Canadians to stand alongside them — will determine the fate of the planet.”

—Guardian, UK

And we must note, and remember, how that spirit of common cause, unity, solidarity, shared purpose, and peace, is starkly at odds with the history of colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, and empire. The contrast between what must be left behind, and what must come next, if we are to survive at all, could scarcely be more stark.

*

The Doctrine of Discovery

“…to invade, search out, capture, vanquish and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ, wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all moveable and immoveable goods whatsoever, held and possessed by them, and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and to his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit.”

– Pope Nicholas V (Papal Bull 1452)

Infantile grandiosity? Imperial hubris? Extreme cultural arrogance? Sheer racist lunacy? Demonic possession? Whatever it was, such mutually destructive madness must end now.

The following battle lines will only heat up, mark my words; and to state the obvious, until the age of empires, and the war on nature, are brought to an end:

Solidarity, stewardship, and peace – not fossil fuels, pipelines, Big Oil, planetary destruction and imperial hubris: this is what we need, and now. Support native rights and environmental protection, with human rights, equality and freedom for all – not planetary pillage by a rampaging, Caligula-like, utterly delusional and power-drunk plutocracy, infused with suicidal corporate greed.

US professor of law and indigenous studies, Robert A. Williams Jr., author of Savage Anxieties, put it simply and directly, in an interview with the venerable Bill Moyers: “The Western world has been at war with the tribal world for 3,000 years.” This, along with the class war, the gender war, the wars of race and colonialism, and the war on nature, is the root of imperialism and empire, and the 5,000 year old social model based on hierarchies of power, conquest and domination. That war must end now, that social model must end now, the age of empires, along with its inseparably intertwined war on nature, must end now, or the human species will simply end, itself – or at least, anything resembling civilization, or the possibility for a decent human life, will soon come to an end.

*

We should remember that Europe was a cultural backwater, for nearly a thousand years after the fall of the inglorious Roman Empire. The conquest of the Americas, with its incomprehensible wealth, looted and pillaged by way of genocidal mass slaughter, propelled Europe into a position of global dominance. This mass theft, and mass slaughter, not an innate moral, cultural or intellectual superiority, is what gave rise to five centuries of global domination by Europe and its most favoured colonies. Let us now be unabashedly honest about it – for a change.

That inconceivably vast loot, stolen from two continents in the Americas; combined with cheap, abundant, destitute, near-slave labour, after the mass dislocation caused by the grand theft of the land and the commons, which was the land-enclosure acts; combined with a third staggeringly vast pool of resources, which was England’s discovery of coal reserves, equal to Saudi Arabia’s oil wealth at its peak, just under their feet; and combined with the unspeakable institution of slavery; together brought about the Industrial Revolution – and not just European cleverness and industriousness, as it has been assumed.

Remember also, that at the time of the industrial revolution, India had a higher quantity and also a higher quality of steel output than England. Active de-industrialization was part of colonization and empire building. It still is.

In any case, the global dominance of the European and Euro-American North-West lasted roughly 500 years, and is ending now. It is becoming a multi-polar world; and I think that bodes well for the world – including for that North-West corner of the world, which has become known as, “The West”.

History is never over, as some have foolishly posited. History is still unfolding – is ever unfolding. And we are either making it, shaping it together; or watching it unfold, pathetically and passively. But unfold it will, in either case.

And major changes lay in store. What shape they take, is largely up to us. What I do hope, is that the age of empires, after 5,000 years, can be put behind us, as foolishness from our youth.

Let there be freedom. And let there be peace.

*

We should remember also, that Europeans didn’t invent empire. There were the Persians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and many others before.

And we would do well to read the Book of Daniel. The succession of empires will end. There will be peace. How soon, depends upon what we do, or fail to do, right now. Extinction or rebirth? That is our choice, at this critical juncture, of our shared human history on Earth.

Europe didn’t invent slavery, conquest, domination, usurpation, annexation, or empire. Nor did they invent the heirarchical power structures, inequality and elite rule, which give rise to tyranny and predations, both at home and abroad, and which are the seedbed and germination of empire itself.

But the decline and fall of the European and Euro-descendent American empire, slow or sudden as it may come, and inexorable as it is, may well mark the growing of a global awakening across the world’s great human family, and the beginning of the end, of the age of empires itself. Let us hope that it is. Let us pray we are so wise; or simply, so sane. The alternatives are nothing short of grim, at best.

In fact, the likelihood is this: what we are facing now, in the early part of the 21st century, is either the dying of the age of empires, or the dying of humanity, and the human species on Earth. Let us hope we are sensible enough, despite the all-pervasive fog of delusion, and the stupor of imagined powerlessness, and denial, to choose the former, and not simply drift aimlessly into the latter, with a moan, and a collective whimper, or a yawn.

Stand, I say.

*

As Bob Marley sang:

“400 years

(500+ now)

Of the same philosophy…”

(Imperialism *is* neofeudalism)

“Babylon system is a vampire

Suckin’ the blood of the sufferers

Tell the children the truth

Tell the children the truth

That we’ve been grinded on the wine press

Much too long

Rebel

Rebel….”

And this means the people of the North and the West, as well as the South and the East:

Rebel, rebel.

Imperialism and neofeudalism, elitism and tyranny, always go together. We can have empire; or we can have freedom, democracy, justice, equality, and peace. But we cannot have empire, and also have the latter, infinitely superior things.

*

“Hardly any European countries had significant connections, other than imperial, with any continent except America. Towards the end of the century, the ‘age of imperialism’ proper, a craze for annexations seized on everyone who had any chance, and Italy, Germany, Belgium all got shares, with the USA joining in. Individual businessmen were obviously doing well out of colonies; nations were easily tutored into believing (nearly always mistakenly) that they could do equally well, especially when they saw that all their neighbours believed it.”

– ibid

Again, imperialism abroad, breeds tyranny at home; and in the end, either fascism or neofeudalism, as we are being driven into, like cattle, right now.

Orwell understood. Gandhi understood, as did Thoreau. Mark Twain understood. Martin Luther King Jr. understood. Do we?

Rebel, rebel.

It is time for justice. It is time for freedom. And it is time for peace. And we will not have peace, until we also have justice and freedom.

Rebel.

(Que the John Lennon.)

Power to the people.

*

Europe and Euro-America didn’t give the world Shakespeare, Einstein, Socrates, Botticelli, democracy and the Magna Carta *because* we set out to conquer the world, because of empire, but despite it. Empire, at its heart, is always brutal, is always the enemy of freedom, democracy, justice, compassion, peace, and civilization itself, at least in any meaningful or positive definition of the word.

It is time now for Europe and America to relinquish the empire-lust of their youth, and the infantile grandiosity which always accompanies it, and with maturity and grace, accept their position as great powers in a multi-polar world, where war and conquest, empire and power struggles, are not only barbaric and uncivilized as ever, but are now positively suicidal. It is time to become great civilizations. And that is only possible if we now together declare that the age of empires is dead.

Let there be peace. There is much to be shared, and much work to be done. We have a world to be saved from our own ecological neglect. Infighting and imperial power games will only distract and divide us, at a time when we need unity amidst diversity, as well as democracy and freedom, in order to save ourselves from ourselves, and from our own tyrannizing, world-devouring elites.

Remember liberty, equality, solidarity and mutual aid, on the road ahead – they are essential, and they are under attack.

Let there be peace now. Let the age of empires be over. It is entirely in our power to choose it, and make it so. There is much work, great work, to be done. Let us begin. Together, and in peace.

JTR,

February 20, 2020

Land Reform and The Birth of A Revolution

“The greatest philosophers have found answers to life’s problems,

not just in theory, but in practice.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“Never doubt that a small group of dedicated individuals can change the world.

In fact, it is all that ever has.”

– Margaret Meade

Thomas Jefferson understood that democracy is rooted, not only in a truly free press and freedom of speech, and in face to face town hall democracy, but equally critically, in tens of thousands of yeoman farmers, each with a small plot of land. Our land, and our food system, have now been taken over by giant corporations, by billionaires, and increasingly, by China. We now either reclaim the land, or we will lose our demcracy, and along with it, our freedom, our rights, and also our sovereignty and security. These are the central facts we must realize now. Land is the key: to our freedom, to our democracy, to our rights, to our food security and our health, and to the healing of our planet.

*

Relocalization, community-building and regenerative agriculture are the keys to weathering the growing storm that we are facing now, as a confluence of crises come to a head. We can feed humanity and heal the planet with regenerative agriculture. We either make relocalization, community self-reliance and regenerative agriculture our foundation, or we have no foundation. That is most important to understand. That requires land reform, and land redistribution, and now. Not in 10 or 20 years, but now. If you want to understand the key elements in any sane or workable plan for mitigation and adaptation, this is it. Understand this, or wait for the tsunami to hit.

In the longer term, but nevertheless very soon, if we want either a stable society, a just society, or a free and democratic society, we will have to ban fractional reserve banking and usury, along with fiat currency. This unholy trinity impels and requires infinite growth on a finite planet, which makes it utterly unsustainable; and it also produces accelerating hyper-concentration of wealth and power, which undermines justice and equality, and which will furthermore be the death knell to freedom and democracy, if we let it. But I am not talking here about longer term actions that we must take, but instead, what we must do immediately, if we are to survive the onslaught we have created for ourselves, in terms of the confluence of the growing financial/economic, food and environmental crises.

In the immediate term, we must reclaim and renew democracy and freedom, and make a bold move to relocalization, combined with intelligent mutual aid and cooperation, and most critically, with regenerative agriculture, as our primary strategy, to avoid global cataclysm. All of that will require a very large investment in making the transition to a truly green, sustainable, just and regenerative society. That will require that we tax the richest 1% and the large profitable corporations, tax pollution (collected by municipalities, not global elites), and put a tax on great concentrations of wealth. We need to redesign our infrastructure, and with all speed, or we will race off the cliff we are fast approaching. These actions will be necessary to fund that shift. They are by now immediately required and unavoidable. But what is even more fundamental and more urgent is the low-tech solutions offered by small-scale regenerative agriculture. And that requires land reform, and a redistribution of land. That is priority one, as I will explain and make clear.

Many people will say, these changes you propose may make sense, and may even be critically and urgently needed, but they are impossible. But I say to them, we have done the impossible many times before. Defeating the fascists in WWII seemed impossible, but we did it. Surviving the last ice age was very nearly impossible, and must have seemed impossible to our ancestors, but we did it. We do well in a pinch. It is when we are challenged the most, that we rise to our greatness. And we will rise to the challenge once again.

We simply have no choice. We either rise to the occasion, or we admit that we are cowards, and morally bankrupt at that. There is no time left for fatalism. We either rise to the occasion now, and take the necessary actions now, or we admit that our humanity is forfeit, and we have become the hollow men.

We rise now. There is no other way.

We can no longer wait on governments, corporations and business elites to take the necessary actions. In fact, they are the major roadblocks to change. We must take the necessary steps ourselves. We start small, and build exponentially – and that, fortunately, is what is already happening now.

As Geoff Lawton puts it, “Nail it. Then scale it.”

Exactly.

As Alice Walker said,

“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

*

Covid in perspective

In 2020, the peak year, to date, of the covid crisis, just under two million people died from covid world-wide, by official figures. Every preventable death is tragic, but we also need to put things into perspective. Every year, 1.3 million people die globally from auto accidents, seven million people die from air pollution, 25 million die from hunger, and 25 million die from obesity and unhealthful diets. If we truly want to reduce preventable deaths, and we are willing to invoke authoritarian measures – which I would argue are never justified, and always cause more harm than good in the end – we would save many more lives, a total of 10-20 million a year, by banning private automobiles, fast food and junk food. If we were truly serious about health and reducing preventable deaths, we would immediately invoke a 90% wealth tax on the richest 0.1%, and take $18 trillion from the $ 20 trillion that sits in the offshore bank accounts of the super-rich, and with it, use $1 trillion to end world hunger and poverty world-wide, and use the other $17 trillion to usher in a great transition to a truly sustainable and regenerative society. If we continue doing what we are doing now, we will not have only have two million people dying a year from covid: we will have a 90-98% die-off of humanity, and the death of 6-7 billion people – within this century, and possibly in less than 30 years. Covid is serious enough. The environmental crisis dwarfs it in scale. And so far, we have no seriousness about it at all. Nor do we have the slightest seriousness about ending world poverty or world hunger – despite the fact that five billion people now live in poverty, and 20,000 children die every day of hunger. Land reform and regenerative agriculture are the primary solutions to both the environmental crisis, and to global poverty and hunger. It is time we got serious, and now.

*

The big picture

There are now more than five billion people in the world living in poverty, and hundreds of millions more living precarious existences on the edge of poverty. We have the power to heal and regenerate our world, and quickly, in a matter of a few years, as well as the power to end poverty and to feed the world; but, we must be aware, we are going to be facing global crop failure due to global warming in less than 20 years if we fail to act. Clearly, there is zero time for hesitation, avoidance, denial or delay. That is the context, and that is our timeline.

Dmitry Orlov, Richard Heinberg and James Howard Kunstler are generally excellent in terms of analyzing what peak oil and the energy cliff we are now passing, combined with economic/financial and ecological crises, when interwoven, as they are, entails for our very near future. Note that we passed peak oil globally between 2005-2008. Plummeting oil industry profits confirm the other industry figures clearly and undeniably – Big Oil is now insolvent. Oil shocks are coming fast, and the decline will not be smooth, as previously believed, but very sharp and steep.

However, most people analyzing peak oil and fossil fuel dependency implications do not realize that, as Vandana Shiva says, small-scale, locally-based, regenerative agriculture can produce ten times more food per acre, or square, meter than the collapsing system of petrochemical industrial agriculture – not less food, but ten times more food.

Thus, the global famine and global die-off of human populations that have been predicted are only inevitable if we fail to take the right steps immediately, which are: abandon petrochemical industrial agriculture, slash our fossil fuel use, decentralize and relocalize economies, and especially food production, and shift to community-based regenerative agriculture en mass.

The bad news is, many nations, communities and regions will likely remain in denial, and will suffer terribly for it. The good news is that millions of communities are already making this shift, and the relocalization and regenerative agriculture movements are growing exponentially.

What does it all mean? It means some communities, regions and nations will fare relatively well, while others are hit by a perfect storm, of unprecedented magnitude, that was to a great extent perfectly avoidable. This is what Tainter, the great historian, calls the runaway train scenario – where we stubbornly refuse to make a change – combined with the suicidal behaviour of elites who erroneously believe their wealth will protect them, and therefore prop up the existing system rather than supporting or leading positive change.

The other misunderstanding is that we will all be slavish peasant farmers in the near future. But Dmitry Orlov is right here, when he says that if you want endless gadgets and a society that produces a growing number of billionaires, then you have to work 40 hours plus per week; but if you want a community that simply meets its basic needs, we can work just 15-20 hours a week.

The benefits post-collapse will be sizable. It is the transition that will be painful. And of course, we should do everything we can to mitigate the destruction and the suffering, lest we lose our very humanity and our sanity in the bargain.

Relocalization, community self-reliance in food, water and energy, along with mutual aid and cooperation, regenerative agriculture, and a redistribution of land, will be critical – and are critical, not in the future, but right now. This is in stark contrast to the publicly-announced plans of the Davos set of global billionaire elites, however. Their plan is 180 degrees in the wrong direction, as well as being frankly fascist. We need to be perfectly clear about this. The one thing above all that we can no longer afford, is comforting delusions.

*

Global economic apartheid must end now – or we are doomed

It is not widely recognized, and in fact, there is nearly universal denial about it, but we now live under a global system of economic apartheid. There are of course major elements of race, gender and xenophobia, along with negative forms of nationalism (there are also positive forms of nationalism, of course) mixed into this global regime; but it is class division which primarily holds it in place. And there is a separation between humans and nature which is also foundational to this deeply destructive and mutually degrading wealth-extraction machine. Either we end the system of apartheid, and restore a more integrated and equitable balance within human society, and between humans and the rest of nature, of which we are an inseparable part, or our future will be a nightmare beyond our imaginings.

From Thomas Hobbes to Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates, the elite always want to convince us that they are indispensable, that they are our protectors, benefactors, and saviours. We are taught not to trust ourselves or one another, but to look to the state and the elite for our safety, our protection, our guidance and our well-being. But there is another view. People like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., taught us to trust ourselves, to trust that freedom works better than elitism or authoritarianism, and to be wary of great powers. Furthermore, we have seen from the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom that the management of the commons is better done, and with better results, by local communities, than by distant elites. The answer to our social and ecological crises is not more elite rule, more authoritarianism, more colonialism, imperialism and technocracy, and more centralization and hyper-concentration of power and wealth, but a rebirth of freedom and democracy. The positive changes will come from below, as they always have, and not from above. And that means, among other things, that land, and the redistribution of land, is the key.

Malcolm X was right: revolution is about land – it is about the landed and the landless. (He was wrong about violence being necessary, but he was right about land being central. And he later renounced violence, it should be noted as well. Violent revolution now would result, not only in a bloodbath, but in a long and bloody stalemate. We have no time to waste on a long and protracted stalemate, therefore we have no time for violent digressions.) It is increasingly undeniable that what we now need and cannot avoid, is a new wave of non-violent, grassroots democratic revolutions to sweep the planet, and to sweep away the decaying and collapsing, socially and ecologically destructive system of predatory and vampiric, global crypto-fascist corporate oligarchy. That revolution hinges upon land.

Climate change is real, accelerating, and will spell global crop failure and mass famine in less than 20 years if we do not greatly and immediately intensify our efforts to halt and reverse it. The majority of people globally now know the issue is real, urgent and severe. What most people do not know is this:

If we stopped all burning of fossil fuels tomorrow, 100% globally, climate change would continue – because of soil degradation and desertification. That means the we must immediately abandon petrochemical industrial agriculture and factory farming, which together are degrading the world’s soils, leading to desertification, and massively fuelling climate change. Industrial agriculture is the primary cause of soil degradation, desertification and climate change. The 75 year old experiment in petrochemical industrial agriculture has been a catastrophic failure – in terms of human health, in terms of social impact, in terms of global destabilization, and in terms of environmental destruction and climate change. That is by now an undeniable fact. That means we need to shift, not only off of fossil fuels, but even more importantly and more urgently, we must shift to regenerative, organic, holistic agriculture. And we cannot afford to take another 50 years, or even 20, or 10, to accept the fact, and make the transition.

Regenerative agriculture is priority one for halting climate change, since it is the most effective and fastest way known to sequester and remove carbon from the atmosphere, in addition to being the number one way to cut greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. Of course we need to plant trees and new forests, stop deforestation and factory farming, and get off of our fossil fossil fuel addiction; but regenerative agriculture is also a priority, and an even more urgent one. That also means land, and land reform, are the central issues of our time, as I will presently explain.

Small scale, local, community based, regenerative organic agriculture, permaculture, and holistic management and systems design – built from the bottom up, based in freedom and radical democracy – are the primary tools that will heal our world, because, among other reasons, this is the most effective and fastest way to remove carbon from the atmosphere – and together, they form a global movement that is growing fast, and at an exponential rate. There are now over 100,000 ecovillages in more than 167 countries, and there are millions of small scale regenerative organic farms. These are the working models that we need to build upon, and scale up globally, with all speed.

(See Vandana Shiva, Murray Bookchin, Peter Kropotkin, Rianne Eisler, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Michael Albert, Allan Savory, Geoff Lawton, Gar Alperovitz, Helena Norberg-Hodge, and the Global Ecovillage Network, for vision, strategy, tools, methods and systems design – and for proven, working models and inspiring examples.)

Petrochemical industrial agriculture and our addiction to fossil fuels have been a Faustian bargain. It is a deal with the devil. It has been nothing less than a catastrophe, and it is destroying us. It is time for a new deal: a Green New Deal, based in democracy and freedom, not technocracy; and based in land reform and regenerative agriculture, as its foundation.

There is definitely hope. We have the power now, to either renew the world, or to destroy it. And the next 20 years will be the critical, deciding moment for humanity. We have no time to lose, and no time left for avoidance, denial, apathy, complacency, half measures, or the succumbing to numbness, cynicism or despair. Moral courage, sheer survival, common sense and basic sanity, all require that we act now, with boldness and speed.

We have a choice now as human beings: either to continue with a system and a culture of global apartheid, based in domination, exploitation, extraction, extreme and growing inequality, degradation and destruction – a system which is racing towards ecological holocaust, fascism and collapse; or to abolish and transcend that system, to re-integrate and reconnect, to find a new balance, and to become the guardians and healers of nature, ourselves, and one another, and of our world. That shift hinges upon two things above all: attitude, vision, or our view of the world; and land.

*

The greatest of dangers

The greatest dangers facing humanity in the 21st century are five: nuclear, chemical or biological warfare; the rapidly growing environmental crisis, which threatens food system collapse and global famine within 20 years; corporate fascism, which is already well advanced; economic collapse, due to money printing addiction; and the peak oil energy crisis, which has the power to grind our fossil fuel dependent industrial civilization to a halt in short order. All of these immediate grave dangers require: 1. a rebirth of democracy and freedom, 2. a global shift to decentralization, and 3. a redistribution, not only of wealth and power, but most critically, of land. We can rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic all we like, but if we do not swiftly and boldly take all three of these steps, it is systems collapse ahead, and it is coming soon.

People should be concerned about geopolitics, economics and ecology, and about the extremely fragile state of our energy and food distribution systems, among other pressing concerns; but while truly existential threats loom near on the horizon, the majority have lost their minds over the latest variant of the flu.

We are succeeding valiantly in one thing, at least: training in unthinking, irrational obedience to authority – we are succeeding marvelously in that. But if that trend continues, our species is finished.

A little more critical thought, and a little less blind obedience, are the only things that can save us now.

*

The real solutions

Half of the world’s people live in the countryside. Three quarters of the people living in poverty live in the countryside. Two-thirds of the income of the rural poor comes from small-scale farms and peasant agriculture. Meanwhile, peasant farmers and the rural poor produce two-thirds of the world’s food. Something is deeply wrong with this picture, and it is getting worse, not better. And we have not even mentioned the issue of indigenous land rights, which have profound implications, and which it is our moral obligation to address, and speedily, honestly, ethically and forthrightly, without hesitation, obfuscation, evasion or delay.

The richest few, the new landed aristocracy of billionaires, are taking over. Bill Gates alone has bought up over a quarter million acres, and the billionaire/corporate land-grab is accelerating. This is the enclosure of the commons, and the theft of the commons, on a new, global scale. This is the issue which will determine the fate of humanity and the Earth. Land is the key issue, above all: who has access to it, who does not, how it is used, and how is it shared – or not shared, but horded by the richest few. This is the pivotal issue of our time, and it is the fight of our lives.

The billionaires who meet annually at Davos, at the World Economic Forum, have made their plan clear. They want to drive the people off the land, and into “smart cities”, where total surveillance and authoritarianism are proclaimed as “the new normal”. But this is the opposite of what justice, freedom, democracy, human well-being, and ecological regeneration require.

Global inequality continues to soar to historically unprecedented levels, while the concentration of wealth, power, and control of land, becomes ever greater. The the ruling 1% – the billionaire class and their loyal minions – are devouring humanity and the Earth, and are vying to gather all wealth, land ownership, and power in their hands.

While roughly three and a half billion people live in rural poverty or are struggling to survive, another billion and a half people, at very conservative estimates, are part of the rapidly growing sea of the urban poor, or are economically struggling. Land reform and agrarian reform is thus essential and urgently needed, if we care about justice, health, poverty reduction, or humanity, in the least.

What will help the five billion rural and urban poor or struggling the most, is a combination of four things: land and freedom, above all, along with organic, non-hybridized heritage seeds, and micro-capital – micro-credit, or small loans of under $5,000.

We need a new wave of land reform and agrarian reform now, and urgently. That will end poverty, greatly reduce inequality, end hunger and greatly improve human health (far more than experimental genetic engineering drugs labelled as vaccines), and greatly increase world peace and stability. We need to bring the people back to the land in large numbers, in millions of small communities, and we need to boldly redistribute the land to make that possible en mass. Furthermore, as Vandana Shiva, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Allan Savory and Geoff Lawton have shown: through organic, holistic, decentralized, small-holding, locally-based regenerative agriculture, mass scale land reform and land redistribution, putting people as well as animals back on the land, is the only thing now that will heal the Earth – and feed humanity.

Not GMOs, not petrochemical industrial agriculture, not factory farms or lab grown meat – it is permaculture, regenerative, holistic, organic, small-scale agriculture, and putting people and animals back on the land, which are the key ingredients needed, to both heal our world, and feed the people.

*

Everything in nature is an ebb and flow, a balanced flow between gathering and dispersion. Every empire, however, seeks to concentrate power and wealth in a few hands: they seek to gather, and to withold from dispersion. But you cannot have day without night, arising without falling, or gathering without dispersion.

This attempt to concentrate and hold onto all power and wealth, which all empires try to do – to gather without dispersion – upsets the natural balance of life, until the extreme is reached, and we have, as the Taoists have pointed out, the “inversion of opposites”, and the dispersion must then come, and the empire collapses – either suddenly, through revolution, or slowly, through decay.

In either case, the empire falls due to over-concentration of power and wealth, if not due to ecological collapse. And in either case, the balance was lost, through hubris, power-lust and greed, which are the driving forces of all empires.

The extremes of imbalance and inequality, both social and ecological, are reaching their maximum limits. Collapse is imminent – that means, of course, in historical time, which could be decades until collapse, or less, but quite possibly, very soon. This newest of empires, the global corporate empire, will fall. Whether it is through ecological collapse, or through social collapse and revolution, the fall is inevitable now, because no system based on extreme imbalance can last in nature, or in history.

Wealth and power have been vastly over-concentrated, and the hyper-concentration of wealth and power continues to accelerate. The dispersion, or redistribution, of wealth and power, and a more equal, or at least more equitable, sharing of wealth and power, both socially and ecologically, is not only imperative, and essential for justice, human health, and human well-being, along with ecological sustainability and regeneration – by now, it is a necessity, if we are not going to have systems failure, and the collapse of modern civilization.

*

Land is, and has always been, the primary basis of wealth, and of power. Justice, sustainability, stability, peace and regeneration, and the healing of our world, require that land be shared more widely and more equitably now. It is going to happen one way or another, as it must. Let’s get on with it.

Tax the rich? That is a good idea. Invoke a wealth tax on the richest 1%? Also a good idea. In fact, these two steps are critical and absolutely necessary if we are to solve humanity’s two greatest challenges: to eliminate poverty, and to fund the transition to a truly green, sustainable, regenerative, thriving and stable society. But it is the redistribution of power that is most critical. That means two further steps are essential, at a minimum: democracy and freedom must be reborn; and the land must be shared more widely, more equitably, and more fairly.

As the ancient Greeks knew, hubris precedes a fall; and gluttony, including gorging oneself on power and wealth, always comes at a price. The party’s over. It is time to pay the bar tab. The orgy of extraction and hording of wealth and power by the super-rich cannot, and will not last. The reversal – the dispersion – has begun.

*

A few of the most important facts about our 21st century world are these – and they are proven and well understood, at least by the few who have either dug deep enough in research, or have stepped back enough to reflect, to gain a clear perspective; however, the level of denial is deep and pervasive, including among environmentalists, labour, NGOs, most academics, social justice activists, business and political elites, and the general public.

1. The single best way to reduce and eliminate poverty is to give the people the primary source of wealth and empowerment – which is, and has always been, land. With over five billion people living in poverty and many more living precariously, this alone makes land reform an urgent moral imperative. And if we value peace over violence, chaos or civil war, it is also a pragmatic imperative.
2. The single most powerful way to slow, then halt, then reverse climate change and global warming, is to heal and regenerate the soil – particularly on the grasslands and dry lands which cover two thirds of the Earth’s landmass – since only healthy soils can sequester enough carbon now to avert a cataclysm. And the only way to accomplish that effectively and at the rapid pace we need, is with small scale, local, community-based, holistic, regenerative organic agriculture and permaculture. That requires large numbers of both people and animals working with the land and living on the land, in carefully designed regenerative agriculture systems. That makes land reform a survival imperative for humanity. It is that, or it is runaway global warming, followed rapidly by global crop failure, famine, civilization collapse, and extinction.
3. Urbanization is not inevitable, just as globalization and corporate rule are not inevitable. Over the past 100 years we went from 12% urbanization of human population globally, to over 50% – and over 80% in the “developed” world. But big cities require long supply chains. Long supply chains mean food and other necessities and consumer items travel thousands of miles, requiring vast amounts of energy, almost all of it fossil fuels, and emitting vast amounts of carbon and other greenhouse gases. Long supply chains are therefore utterly unsustainable. (They are also increasingly fragile and unreliable.) That means large cities are utterly unsustainable. Getting serious about climate change or the environmental crisis more broadly requires that we get serious about buying local, and slashing shipping miles by 90% or more. (It is the next logical steps which elude the vast majority of people, including most environmentalists, academics, NGOs and elites.) That means we must produce most of what we need at the local level. That means economic decentralization is a survival imperative. *And economic decentralization necessitates demographic and population decentralization.* That means that relocalization, re-ruralization, demographic and population decentralization, and an enormous shift toward small-scale, sustainable and regenerative communities, is a survival imperative. Again, that means land reform is, quite simply, a survival imperative.

These are the unassailable facts. We ignore them at our peril.

Fortunately, the necessary awakening has begun, and is accelerating rapidly.

*

We now need an alliance between the environmental movement – or at least, the majority part of it which is not crypto-fascist – and indigenous movements the world over, along with peasants movements, the more alert elements among the labour movement, ethical business leaders and entrepreneurs, the organic, permaculture and regenerative agriculture movements, small scale farmers, and yes, an alliance that includes both the grassroots right and the left: anyone and everyone who values freedom and democracy and the regeneration of the Earth, as the three principle pillars of any decent or even viable society, and who prefers this to the increasingly authoritarian rule by corporate oligarchs, and to the collective suicide, fascism and ecocide which it entails and is driving us towards. This unity amidst diversity is building and growing now. An awakening, and a new renaissance, is emerging now and being born. And it hinges upon a shift in consciousness; it hinges upon our unity – across, and despite, and within our rich diversity; and it hinges upon land.

Know your enemy. The enemy of the people and the Earth is the wealth-extracting, killing machine, which is the corporate industrial empire. We have been grinded on the wine press much too long. Rebel. We either abandon and transcend the global apartheid system of neoliberal and neofeudal corporate rule, or we will not only be serfs and slaves – we will have no future at all.

As I argued in my recent book, it is indeed, now, a matter of The People vs The Elite. The 99%, or the greater majority of us, at least, must unite to defeat and dethrone this latest, and last of empires, and to restore and renew both freedom and democracy, and equally critically, to heal and regenerate our world. And once again, I would argue, that hinges upon land.

A new renaissance has already begun. And sharing the land more equitably will be at the very centre of it.

Vive Zapata!

Tierra y libertad! Land and freedom!

It is time.

Let this mark the beginning of a new global movement: for land and freedom for all, and for the healing of our world.

*

We now have fire tornadoes in Australia. Fire tornadoes. The wildfires have been so severe and so intense, that the massive updrafts of rising hot air creates tornadoes in the midst of the wildfire, creating fire tornadoes. If that’s not apocalyptic-sounding, I don’t know what is. How many alarm bells do we need? Are we all collectively deaf?

The entire Southern US will be uninhabitable due to severe heat, while the mid-west has dust storms and severe drought, forcing people to abandon it en mass; the western and northern US states will burn with uncontrollable wildfires, making them uninhabitable, and the Eastern seaboard will be unlivable due to the frequency and severity of storms and hurricanes, that make Sandy and Katrina look mild by comparison. That is just one nation. And that is the future if we do not immediately increase our seriousness, and our effectiveness, in battling climate change.

Activism is high and rising, but a deadly complacency still grips our politicians, business “leaders”, and the majority of the people on Earth. And complacency, in this case, means we are playing Russian roulette. Do we really want to play that game?

Action is urgently needed – and not just from governments and business, but from all of us.

Building soil and healing the soil is the key, along with transitioning rapidly off of fossil fuels, and halting deforestation and factory farming. Ban the sale of flush toilets, which effectively flush our topsoil down the drain, give every family an odourless composting toilet, and, give every family at least one acre of land for gardening (roughly 1,000 square meters) – as family garden plots and building lots, or in community gardens, or collectively shared in land trusts, in ecovillages of 15-150 people, or in rural or rural organic co-op farms, and with these simple steps, we will more than double the effectiveness of our efforts to combat climate change. The solutions are in truth quite simple – but we human beings have a very self-defeating habit of over-complicating everything. And you can bet that almost every instance of human beings over-complicating things is profit driven. Simplicity will save the world, not grandiose over-complexity. Remember Tainter. Civilizations fall, in large, by becoming overly complex, to the point of accidental suicide. And we are headstrong, and racing full bore along that same track, yet again.

Nature thrives based on mutual reciprocity, interdependence, diversity, and simplicity. Modern civilization is steeped in models of behaviour and attitudes of short-term, narrow self-interest, illusions of separateness, homogeneity and monocrops – of our minds, culture, and farming practices, and in vast over-complication. Guess which party must change. It’s us. Nature bats last.

*

The Earth has 36 billion acres of total landmass. Grasslands and deserts make up roughly two thirds of that total land area, or roughly 20 billion acres. These are the lands that must be healed with greatest speed, through regenerative agriculture and permaculture. Of that 20+ billion acres, I am urging that we give at least two billion acres back to the people, to radically intensify our efforts to halt climate change and heal our world. That should be seen, not as a radical proposal, nor an impossible one, but a modest proposal, considering our very survival is at stake, and one we simply must implement, and immediately, if we are to survive.

The one requirement for families to receive and retain the usufructory rights to their allotment of land (the only kind of land rights that should exist, and the only ones that truly exist in practice) is they regenerate and improve the fertility, health and diversity of the land and the soil, or else pay someone or some group to do it, or entrust the land to a person or group, to ensure the land and soil are healed. The results would be – will be – a rapid greening, cleaning, and healing of the Earth, along with a sharp drop in poverty and hunger, and a radical increase in our effectiveness in dealing with species loss, desertification, and climate change.

20% of the Earth’s land is snow-covered, 20% is mountains, 20% is good land for farming – though this is shrinking and being degraded rapidly; 10% is desert or lands without soil – and this is rising fast; and 30% is marginal or degraded land. It is the marginal, degraded farmlands and grasslands (and vacant urban wasted land) which we must focus on first, and heal and regenerate as our top priority. This is something only regenerative agriculture, combined with serious and bold land reform, can accomplish.

We need to preserve and regenerate wetlands, and protect and preserve old growth forests and mature forests. It is the marginal and degraded lands that we need to farm with regenerative agriculture, in order to most rapidly heal our world.

If, and only if, we very quickly abandon petrochemical industrial agriculture, and make a giant leap into regenerative, holistic, organic agriculture and permaculture, while slashing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, can we avert catastrophic, runaway global warming. We need to do both, and now, immediately. That requires land reform, if we are at all serious, and a redistribution of land – not from the poorest half of humanity to the richest 1%, as is happening now, but the other way around.

Remember that all great changes have started small. The American Revolution was launched by just a handful of people. At Valley Forge there were just 77 men. And yet, the revolution succeeded. We have many more than a handful who are actively regenerating the soil, right now, and millions more who are dedicated to actively protecting and healing the Earth. Surely we can accomplish this task of reclaiming a fairer share of the land, so that the healing of our world can begin in earnest. We can, and we must, and so we will.

*

Regenerative, holistic, organic agriculture and permaculture, which necessitates putting large numbers of people and animals back on the land to repair and heal the soil, can sequester and remove 100 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere. Nothing else that we can do can match the ability of healthy, healed soils, to draw down carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon reductions are not enough. Reducing our carbon footprint is not enough. Carbon sequestration, the removal of carbon from the atmosphere, is now equally critical, if not even more urgent. And only healthy soil can do that.

We are at 420ppm of carbon in the atmosphere now, in June of 2021, and rising. We need to bring that down to 350ppm as rapidly as possible, and within ten years, or else the carbon and methane released from melting permafrost will trigger a positive feedback loop, causing out of control global warming, resulting in global crop failure, and the extinction of humanity and many other species. This is our time to shine, or to wither and die, with a collective whimper. Let us hope that we are not that foolish as to allow the latter option to be our fate.

The race is on. Get gardening.

Stop driving. Go organic. And plant.

Plant like your life depends upon it. It does.

*

“I’ve always been impressed that we’re here surviving because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.”

– JRR Tolkien

40% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by industrial agriculture – and that is without fully considering the degradation and destruction of soils by industrial agriculture, which are turning two thirds of the Earth’s land into desert, and in the process, blocking and precluding our ability to heal the soils, in order to sequester the carbon, which is absolutely essential and urgently needed if we are to halt climate change. In addition to killing the planet’s ecosystems, industrial agriculture is poisoning humanity and wiping out the farmers. Giant corporate industrial farms are taking over. The big four agribusiness giants receive a billion dollars a day in subsidies globally, so that they can accelerate the mass extinction that is underway, accelerate climate change, desertification, species loss, and the global bankruptcy of small scale farmers, and accelerate our race to human extinction. The game is rigged, and the money machine, is a killing machine. We need to understand this, or we are finished as a species. But we also need to realize that the greater power is in the hands of the people.

What we are battling is simply the newest, and if we are wise, the last empire: the empire of corporate billionaire power lust and greed. The people, not technology or the ruling power elite, are the answer.

Small farms, based in biodiversity, have been proven to be ten times more productive than large, monocrop industrial agriculture farms – and small farms are shown by the Food and Agriculture Organization to be currently providing 80% of the world’s food. Why then are we massively subsidizing giant petrochemical industrial agriculture? A single word explains it. Profit. Actually, a better word is control. Power. Food has been weaponized, starting in the Vietnam War. Control the world’s food, and you can rule the world. The industrial agriculture system is designed for corporate elites’ profit, and more importantly, for billionaire elites’ power and control, not to feed humanity. It is the small scale farmers and gardeners who feed humanity, and who will heal the Earth. This is absolutely critical for us to understand now.

250,000 farmers in India recently went on strike, in the biggest strike in human history, to protest the neoliberal deregulation, corporate globalization, and petrochemical industrial agriculture policies that are literally killing the farmers, while poisoning humanity and destroying the planet. This is the power of the people, and we have only seen the beginning.

What ended the Great Depression in the 1930s? It was massive public works projects which gave jobs to millions of people and rebooted the economy. That is, it was millions of hands that saved us from a dire economic situation. What stopped the fascists would were literally trying to take over the world in the 1930s? (And remember, the big chemical and pharmaceutical giants all have their roots in Nazi Germany.) Again, it was millions of hands joined together to defend freedom and democracy, and to defeat the (first wave) of fascists. What ended the Dust Bowl of the 1930s? Once again, it was millions of hands, working with the land, to heal the land, that rescued us from that great calamity. And so too, today, it will not be the billionaires, the giant corporations, the political elite, the bureaucrats or technocrats, nor Big Tech or high technology which will save us from global warming, species loss, poverty, global hunger or mass extinction. It will be the people, once again. Once again, it will be millions of hands that save us. We truly are the answer we have been waiting for.

If, and only if, we abandon the failed experiments in petrochemical industrial agriculture and fossil fuel addiction, and we put enough hands, people, and animals, back on the land, with the right knowledge of regenerative agriculture, which anyone can quickly learn to understand, then we can heal our lands and soils and ecosystems, and halt and reverse climate change, in as little as five years. If we fail to do that, then we are all dead.

We need a Green New Deal alright, as I outlined in my first published book in 2014, Enlightened Democracy, before the term “Green New Deal” was coined. But the Green New Deal must not be based in technocracy and crypto-fascist, neofeudal, global corporate rule, which of course is the agenda of the Davos billionaire elite. It must be based in freedom, democracy, constitutional rule, justice, and, equally critically, in regenerative agriculture, and a fairer redistribution, not just of wealth, but of power, and of land.

The environmental crisis, the global health crisis, and the global food crisis, are all rooted in a viscious class war. Vandana Shiva is right: it is a matter now of Oneness vs The 1%, or as I titled my last book, it is now, above all, The People vs The Elite. And land – its use or misuse, and its distribution – is at the very heart of all of these deeply interconnected crises. We either share the land more equitably, and heal the soil and the planet by that means, and that means only, or we will be driven rapidly into a darkly Orwellian world of neo-feudalism and global corporate rule that results in the death of the human species.

Our choices are clear. It is revolution or death.

Land and freedom now!

J. Todd Ring,
May 28, 2021

Post-Script:

Imagine a world that is clean, green, sustainable, regenerative, resilient, equitable, fair, inclusive, stable and abundant – and that is furthermore fire-resistant, flood-proof and drought-proof, with food security for all. That is now proven to be attainable. Regenerative, holistic, organic agriculture and permaculture is a major part of how we do it. Democracy, freedom, unity in diversity, cooperation, and land reform, are some of the other vital, key components.

Order these three books today from your local independent bookstore, I would urge:

Oneness vs The 1%, by Vandana Shiva

Biodiversity, Agroecology, Regenerative Organic Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions For World Hunger, Poverty and Climate Change, by Vandana Shiva and Andre Leu

And my own recent book,

The People vs The Elite: A Manifesto For Democratic Revolution, Or, Survival In The 21st Century & Beyond

Further resources:

If you watch only one thing this year, or for the rest of your life, make it this. Vandana Shiva perfectly summarizes the big picture in under 30 minutes.

Vandana Shiva: We Must Fight Back Against the 1 Percent to Stop the Sixth Mass Extinction

https://youtu.be/GwxOxQ1AOEg via @YouTube

If you watch two things in the rest of your life, make this the second:

Dr. Vandana Shiva on India’s🇮🇳 Farmers’ Protests: Indian Farmers Are a Victim of Food Imperialism 

https://youtu.be/rgaHIoceQ88 via @YouTube

Must-watch:

(3 minute eloquent video summary)

Vandana Shiva: “We are nothing without living soil” 

https://youtu.be/3EAVbQNBpq4 via @YouTube

Vandana Shiva On the Real Cause of World Hunger:

https://youtu.be/jEqS6rnoyYc via @YouTube

Also a must-watch:

TEDxMasala – Dr Vandana Shiva – Solutions to the food and ecological crisis

https://youtu.be/ER5ZZk5atlE via @YouTube

And watch this. The shift to organic food and community-managed organic agriculture is accelerating. Our health, our planet’s health and our future depend on us all supporting that shift, and growing and eating organic.

Poison on our Plate | Ramanjaneyulu GV | TEDxHyderabad 

https://youtu.be/64RLBgD-Cck via @YouTube

Also:

The most important environmental film yet – and the most empowering and inspiring.
Kiss The Ground https://youtu.be/39akrHEIDBM via @YouTube

Dmitry Orlov on collapse:

And note my comments near the top of this essay: famine is inevitable only if we fail to take the right steps now. Otherwise Orlov is perfectly lucid, and right.

David C. Korten on The Great Turning:

And here is something small and concrete that we can do immediately: plant a garden – either on your own land or back yard, or in a community garden.

Here is leading permaculture teacher and designer Geoff Lawton on how to make an instant garden. Well not quite instant – it will take you 45 minutes. Yes, it matters, and it matters greatly. Every journey begins with a single step. This is one of the most important.

Freedom of Speech: What Is To Be Done?

What is to be done about the issue of freedom of speech, and the current, deeply ominous trend of the closing down of Western society, and the inevitably linked rise of authoritarianism?

The first thing to be done is to remind the people that there are, as Chomsky has said, only two positions on freedom of speech: you’re either in favour of freedom of speech, or you prefer a fascist/Stalinist approach to human society. It is that stark. If you think that you can censor free speech, and not drive us into an authoritarian society, which always ends in the darkest of ways, then you are living in a dream world.

The problem is, the liberals and the left – who in reality are now on the extreme right, though they do not realize it, they are so swept up by their messianic fervour – are, in general, vehemently cheering for and demanding censorship. It may take some time, maybe years, maybe decades, until the dark implications of that choice become clear to people, and they realize that that was an extremely bad, and an extremely dangerous choice to make.

That is the first challenge to be overcome, and we may not be able to reverse this dark trend in the short term. Remember that it took the Russian people 70 years to realize that they did not want totalitarianism. But that is the direction we are now moving in, and with great and increasing speed. That is a terrifying prospect, and anyone of sound mind and good sense, whether you are on the left, as I am, or on the right, should be duly terrified of where we are heading, and heading fast.

The Western world has adopted an ideological stance of authoritarianism. That will not end well. Moreover, the thinking people may have to make a temporary strategic retreat, as Sun Tzu advised is sometimes necessary, in order to win the longer battle. The trouble is, the authoritarianism is now global. There are very few places to go. Sea-steading and off-grid, remote living are looking increasingly attractive to millions of thoughtful, intelligent, far-sighted people. Remaining in a country that has been taken over by corporate fascists is not something that I, personally, am willing to do. Unless the people soon wake up to the very real and present danger, which is now no longer a threat, but a reality, that we now live under a corporate police state, and decide to resist and overturn it, then I, for one, must plan to leave.

Leaving the corporate fascist heartland does not mean giving up the fight. It means putting yourself on stronger ground, and lessening the chances that you will be silenced or otherwise neutralized. That is simply an intelligent thing to do, as Sun Tzu also made clear. (Read the Art of War, Shambhala edition preferably, which is not really about war primarily, but is the unrivalled text on masterful or intelligent strategy.) Remember that we now have a global internet and a global communications system. (And do read my article, Flash-Drive Revolution, as well.) You can be politically active from almost anywhere now. You can be on a sailboat off the coast of Tahiti, which sounds quite attractive to me, and have satellite internet and a full-on activist engagement, from a mobile base in a tropical paradise, for example.

Edward Snowden is now in Russia. Does that mean he has gone silent and given up the fight? No, he is more prominent and more active than ever. He simply chose to place himself on stronger ground. The alternative is that we remain in an increasingly dangerous place, and become silent, which is ethically intolerable, or else we risk being silenced, as happened with Julian Assange. I feel deeply for Julian Assange, who is a true hero of freedom of speech and the public’s right to know about the crimes of the powerful, but is that where we want to end up? Silenced and neutralized, by one means or another? Do not underestimate where this is going. For people who are committed to working for a better world, the options are narrowing rapidly to the Snowden option, which is to leave and continue the fight, or the Assange option, where you stay where you are, and are increasingly silenced and neutralized. I’d rather put myself on stronger ground, so that I know, with reasonable confidence, that I can continue to fight for a better world for all.

There is now a growing exodus out of the US and Canada, for many reasons, and this will only grow exponentially. Sometimes it is economic motivation, sometimes cultural, sometimes political, but it is big, and it is growing. Thoughtful, highly aware, highly intelligent, principled people, such as Meghan Murphy, Morris Berman, and the host of the excellent Geopolitics & Empire podcast, who is so modest he refuses to ever tell his audience his name, oddly, have moved to Mexico. Mexico has many big problems, but it is now a better place to be than either the US or Canada. That is a simple fact. If you stay away from the border areas, just as you would stay away from certain cities and neighbourhoods in the US, then life in Mexico is peaceful, safe, and far more free, far more vibrant, and far more sane, than either the US or my home country of Canada are now. Mexico, Tahiti and Russia would be my top three picks. Staying in a fascist police state is simply not an option that I am willing to accept – especially for the sake of my children.

Ironically, Russia, which was totalitarian, has, for the past 30 years, rejected authoritarianism. Russia has a lot of problems, but it is now more free and more democratic than the West. Some people will be shocked and unwilling to believe it, but it is nevertheless true. (And anyone who bought into the Russiagate narrative needs to have their head read, by the way.) Another place that is resisting authoritarianism is Mexico, under the new president, Obrador, who is a centre-left, small-d democrat, very similar to FDR. The places you definitely do not want to be, if you value freedom, constitutional rule and human rights, and you do not want to live in a police state, are the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand or Europe, along with China, of course. With a few obvious exceptions, almost anywhere in the world is better than these countries, which are the heart of the global corporate fascist empire.

Remember that in the 1960s there was what Chomsky called an outbreak of democracy. The Western elite got frightened, and set about to reverse that trend, and intensified their long established war on democracy. (See Noam Chomsky, The Crisis of Democracy) By 2019, protests were occurring around the world – the problem of democracy had not gone away, but had gotten worse. The new global corporate empire got scared, terrified, in fact, that a wave of global protests, and a deep and growing crisis of legitimacy, could remove them from power. They responded with fascism, in order to secure and consolidate their power, before losing it all. That is something that was unfolding at least since the late 1960s, and only the deeply unaware could fail to see it coming. I warned about it myself for the past 30 years. Now it is here, and the great majority of the people still are unable to see it for what it is.

If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Why do the majority have a hard time seeing what is staring them in the face? (Never underestimate the power of denial.) Fascism in essence means the merger of big business and the state: it is a power-grab – and that is exactly what has happened.

Why is this in the slightest degree difficult to understand? And where do you not want to be, unless you have a strong resistance movement to back you up? Well, you clearly do not want to be in the regions of the world that the new pharaohs, the new Tzars, the global neo-fascist plutocrats, consider to be their heartland. Those are the areas I delineated clearly, and those are the areas to leave – unless we can build a meaningful resistance movement, and very fast.

Another option is secession. There are states in the US in which the majority of the people realize that the violation of fundamental human rights and constitutional freedoms is not something to be taken lightly, but in fact, something to be vigorously resisted. Some people may think that a break up of the United States, for example, is impossible. But they should remember that in 1775, democratic revolution was viewed as both impossible and undesirable – until in 1776 Thomas Paine wrote a slim little book, called Common Sense, and in the same year, only months later, the Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed, and the American Revolution was launched. Things are impossible only until someone shows that they are not.

In the longer term, the answer to the free speech issue is simple. Firstly, you decide that we either have freedom of speech, or we have a police state, and we firmly and categorically reject the option of living under a police state. Then you realize that in most (formerly) democratic nations, there are constitutions, which are the fundamental law of the land, which protect basic human rights and freedoms, including the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought, religion and belief, freedom of travel and mobility, freedom of medical choice, and freedom of expression and speech. That means, once the problem is understood, we simply enforce the law. It means we simply prosecute governments and corporations for violating the constitutionally protected basic human right to freedom of speech. And you say to the major media, and more importantly, to the big tech companies, that either you cease and desist, and immediately stop censoring free speech, or we will revoke your corporate charter, seize your assets (to form networks of democratically controlled, locally-owned co-ops, for example) and dissolve your company.

You either get clear on the absolutely fundamental importance of freedom of speech, and then vigorously defend it, by the upholding of constitutional law, or else you accept that we now live in a Stalinist or fascist society. Few things in life are cut and dried, either/or scenarios. This is one of them. To imagine a third option, is simply and profoundly delusional.

J. Todd Ring,
April 18, 2021

From Bankers Ruling The World, To The People Ruling The Bankers

~ And Rebuilding And Healing The World In The Process ~

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I pray we shall crush the moneyed aristocracy in its infancy, for already it bids defiance to our laws and seeks a contest of strength with our democratic government.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1812 

“Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations 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 sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.” – William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) Prime Minister of Canada, Founder of the Bank of Canada

“There’s a class war going on alright – and we’re winning.”
– Warren Buffet

“We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” – Elon Musk

“Let them eat bugs.” – Bill Gates

Some paint a rosy picture of the West, which is clearly moving rapidly from corporate oligarchy to fascism. Some paint a rosy picture of Communist China as a better alternative. I most definitely reject them both. Both are forms of authoritarianism and tyranny, and neither is compatible with democracy, freedom, constitutional rule or human rights. We can and must do better than these two mutually toxic regimes. It is time for a great reset, alright – but one designed by the people, for the people, and not by the literally fascist business elite – and with liberty and justice for all.

*

“Truth is not whatever you want it to be. It is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.” – Miyamoto Musashi

Both privatization and state control of the economy have proved to be deeply problematic, to put it mildly. In fact, both of have been disastrous. Both have sown great ecological destruction, and each of them has sown its own kind of tyranny. You can have the tyranny of the state, or you can have the tyranny of being ruled by giant corporate empires, monopolies and cartels.

Well, how about freedom, for a change? How about no tyranny, instead of choosing between the flavour of tyranny we shall have? Marxist-Leninists, or the Chinese mandarins and technocrats of Beijing, will bring you one kind of tyranny. Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys, with their “Washington consensus” of neoconservative/neoliberal “free market” ideology – which means freedom for the giant corporations and the super-rich, and discipline, if not poverty and chains, for everybody else – will bring you a kind of neo-feudal corporatism that represents another kind of tyranny. But maybe the people are sick of tyranny by now. Maybe they want to choose something better. It think it is time. And I think the people are ready for something better.

Rather than giant corporate empires controlling the commons, and rather than the state controlling the commons, there is a third way, which does not involve the snake oil peddling of people like Tony Blair, and his trained poodle show, but instead, involves empowering the people at the level of the grassroots. It is neither the state nor private empires that are best fit to govern the commons. The people themselves are best fit to govern the commons, history unsurprisingly shows, since it is an axiom that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And moreover, the people are best fit to govern themselves, likewise.

This is the direction that we must move: not towards ever greater concentration and centralization of power – power is already dangerously and greatly hyper-concentrated and over-centralized; but towards decentralization of power, which means, towards greater democracy and greater freedom.

The business elite, the global corporate elite, want to consolidate all power in their hands. That should rightly make sensible people deeply wary. We have tried that before, and it has failed, and failed repeatedly. We tried that with Stalin, with Mao, with Hitler and with Mussolini, with Pinochet, and with a whole string of Third World dictators. When we gather together all power in society into the hands of the few, tyranny is the inevitable result.

I can think of only one example of where it worked well, and that was in Tibet, where they had something akin to Plato’s vision of the philosopher kings – and even with regards to Tibet, the Dalai Lama has said that the Tibetan people are ready for democracy. But Tibet, remember, was a rare exception – everywhere else that we look in history or in the world today, when all power is concentrated in a few hands at the top, in great pyramids of top-down control, tyranny results, and the result is a nightmare society, and a gulag.

Some people say that contemporary China is a good model, a better model, because China acted swiftly and effectively on covid, or because China has a strong and growing economy – but China is a totalitarian police state. Just look at their social credit system, which is tied into their contact tracing and surveillance system, which is also tied into their new digital currency and payments system, where if you spit on the sidewalk, or jaywalk, or, heaven forbid, say something critical of the government, you can find yourself barred from getting on a train or bus or plane, or taking out a loan or a mortgage, or simply placed under permanent house arrest. I think we should think twice before importing that model to the West, or to the rest of the world. But that is precisely what the Davos billionaire club of the new global corporate empire is actively doing right now, and with break-neck speed: they are importing the totalitarian model from China across the West and around the world.

Then there are others who are critical, quite sensibly, of both corporate tyranny and authoritarian statism, who want to dissolve or radically shrink the government. They do not understand that, we must first decentralize power to the nation-state, from its current globalized hyper-concentration in the hands of unelected and unaccountable corporate elites. That first step is crucial, and cannot be bypassed. This is absolutely critical for us to understand now.

Only when we have wrested power from the billionaire corporate elite, who are now transnational and globalist, as well as being quite literally fascist, by temporarily strengthening nation-states and national democracies, can we have any hope of freedom. Later, in the future, and potentially soon, we can decentralize the powers of the nation-state, in turn. But we must get the order right, and not put the cart before the horse, or we will not achieve freedom or democracy, constitutional rule or respect for our inalienable human rights, but will only achieve a permanence and consolidation of the currently reigning empire, which is now a form of global plutocracy, and a literally fascist global corporate rule. If we do not soon come to understand this core reality, and precisely what must be done about it, then we are doomed to a future that is dark and dystopian indeed.

While the class warfare continues to be waged by the 1% against the 99%, and the corresponding economic warfare and psychological warfare intensify, along with the war on democracy, the faux left seeks crumbs for the masses. It is appalling, disgusting, and morally bankrupt.

We must have regulation of the biggest corporations, and especially of the financial sectors in Wall Street, Bay Street and the City of London; we must tax currency speculation; we must put in place sensible and strong anti-trust action, along with capital controls; we must close the tax loopholes and tax all personal income over $1 million a year at 90%, and all personal wealth over $100 million at 90%, and use it to end poverty and green our society; we must abrogate and reject any and all “trade deals” that place corporate powers over and above the powers of sovereign democratic parliaments; and we must create publicly owned, democratic central banks, with sound money and sound monetary policies that benefit the people, and not just the richest fraction of a percent. These are among the core, concrete steps that we must take if we are serious about economic recovery and prosperity, jobs for all, or are concerned about having any possibility for serious action on either social justice or the environment, or any possibility of resisting the global take-over and fascist architecture that is currently being imposed by both the Western corporate elite of Davos and the Chinese Communist Party of Beijing, who are now in a joint partnership to rule the world. All talk about minimum wage, UBI or inclusivity, health care, environmental protection, climate action, or financial relief for the people, is idle and futile talk, essentially, until and unless we have the courage and the clarity of mind to do these few essential and urgently needed things, which can no longer be avoided. The people, both left and right, need to stop squabbling and stop day dreaming, and unite; then get on with dealing with reality.

*

An important aside should be mentioned here. Some still think Bitcoin is a passing fad, but the best economic analysts that I know of, all say that Bitcoin is here to say, and is going to reach mass adoption level soon, at which time, it will replace the US dollar as the preferred mode of transaction and most used currency globally. My point here is that while I agree that Bitcoin is far superior to fiat paper money, which is prone to inevitable devaluation and ultimate collapse; and it is vastly preferable to any government- or corporate-controlled, or central bank-controlled digital currency, because it is decentralized and resistant to censorship, manipulation, or authoritarian impulses or schemes; and while it is a far safer, more secure store of value (for savings and investment, along with gold, silver and heritage seeds), since it is encrypted, cannot be stolen or confiscated, has a finite and fixed supply, and thus does not devalue, but will continue to increase in value, despite short-term volatility; and while it will indeed help, and probably help greatly, in decentralizing the control of money, exchange and trade, and thus remove monopoly and cartel players, such as states and giant corporations, from unduly stifling or controlling free human interaction and exchange, and will greatly diminish the powers of the banking and financial elite; despite all that, I do not believe that Bitcoin alone can solve all our problems. I think that should be clear enough. I think it would be unwise if not dangerously naïve to blindly assume that it can.

Crossing our fingers and hoping for the best is not a sound strategy for dangerous times. We at least need fallback strategies, complimentary strategies, and contingency plans, not just in mind, but executed and in place, so that we do not put all our hopes in a new technology, be it Bitcoin or any other, to be our salvation.

At the very least, we should also look to other ways to reign in the big corporations, the billionaire plutocracy, and especially the banking elite, who now effectively rule the world. In short, while I think Bitcoin is a smart long-term investment and store of value, as well as a proven viable means of economic transaction, exchange and trade, on local, national and international levels, right now, it is not technology which will save us, though indeed it will play an important role.

A quick summary of the last 50 years is needed here. (We will go into much more detail in a moment, below.) With the birth of neoliberalism and corporate globalization, and the financialization of the economy which accompanied it, which began 50 years ago, in 1971, the West, and the US in particular, slowed, and then eventually, by and large, stopped investing in infrastructure and R&D, while offshoring production and profits both. That is precisely the set of policies and trends which must be reversed. We must de-financialize the economy, reverse the deregulation of the economy, and particularly the banking sector, rebuild the real economy, and invest in infrastructure, research and development; and along with that, and in order to do that, we must have three elements brought swiftly into place: We must unite the people, we must dethrone the globalist and quite literally fascist corporate/banker oligarchy, and we must have a fresh vision for going forward. I have outlined both the problems and the strategic path and policy vision needed, in over 500 published papers and my first two published books, Enlightened Democracy, and, The People vs The Elite. Now, we will go into further detail here in terms of the political philosophy, the political-economic policy platform, and the very achievable but also very bold vision that we need to transcend and resolve our very pressing and urgent problems in the early 21st century, to create real freedom, real democracy, and a better world for all.

Policy, vision and philosophy, and a fresh approach to politics, economics, and life in general, is what will save us from the dark age we are now heading into with all speed. Banning and abolishing private central banks and creating democratically controlled public central banks, along with sensible legislation to reign in the corporate giants, remove big money from electoral politics, reverse the financialization of the economy, and to restore actual functioning democracy, along with human rights, constitutional rule and freedom, is the greater and most central task ahead. Bitcoin can aid in that process of dethroning the ruling banking elite and the global corporate plutocracy, but we need to look to other, bold methods, as well. There is no way around this. It simply must happen, and now.

As to political philosophy: Do I side with Karl Marx, Milton Friedman or Klaus Schwabbe, representing (1) statist oligarchy, (2) neoliberal globalization and state-sponsored capitalism, and (3) technocratic corporate fascism, respectively? None of the above. I side with Jefferson, who was far more prescient, and had far more common sense, than any of the three.

I’ll take Jefferson in the short term, and most definitely so, over Marx, Friedman, or the neo-fascists of the likes of Davos and Klaus Schwabe – let us, that is, restore a functioning constitutional democracy, free from any elitist or authoritarian control fetishes, and let the people democratically decide the rest; and Kropotkin in the long term, when we are ready for something that takes freedom and democracy to a further, higher level yet.

Please read on, and we will “unpack” these great and pressing, world-shaping issues together.

“To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”
– Buckminster Fuller

*

Here is just one example of how profoundly lost “the left” is at present, for critical perspective and context. I will show my own response to a Twitter comment by Jimmy Dore, who is generally lucid and quite sensible, which in turn was Jimmy Dore’s response to Bernie Sanders, who in 2020, completely caved in to the big money controlled Democratic party establishment, and the rule of Wall Street and the City of London over all.

While the class warfare continues to be waged by the 1% against the 99%, and the corresponding economic warfare and psychological warfare intensify, along with the war on democracy, the faux left seeks crumbs for the masses. It is appalling, disgusting, and morally bankrupt.

Here is an example. Remember, without officially backing out of the 2020 US presidential race, and being open and honest about it, Bernie stopped campaigning in the spring of 2020, effectively throwing the fight, though he was in a position to win the US presidential race, easily beating the befuddled Biden and callous Kamala.

Now he is boasting about getting a one-time pittance cheque of financial relief for the people, which for most families doesn’t even cover a single month’s living expenses, while he simultaneously sold the people out, along with AOC and all the “progressives” in Congress, in voting for a nearly $2 trillion relief package for the Wall Street corporate elite. Even the “leading” “progressives” are selling the people down the river. Here is Bernie boasting of his bread crumb championship on Twitter:

Bernie Sanders
@BernieSanders

“What will the $1,400 direct payments in the American Rescue Plan mean for you and your family?”

Mar 18, 2021·Twitter

To which, Jimmy Dore responded:

“It means you all failed spectacularly again and Democrats will be the minority party in 2022.”

@jimmydore Mar 18, 2021·Twitter

We must look more deeply. And we must be far more bold, or we will be slaves.

*

How did the first Great Depression come about? It was a combination of drought, financial speculation, wild over-leveraging by the moneyed elite, and deregulation (actually a basic absence of regulation). And what do we have now, in 2021? Severe and escalating ecological crisis is causing recurring and increasingly severe storms, floods, landslides, wildfires, crop failure, and drought. Financial speculation is at an all-time high – far higher than in the roaring ’20s which preceded the crash of ’29. And Slick Willie Bill Clinton, and other neoliberal and neoconservative crony capitalists, have deregulated the economic and financial system – which was not fixed after the first major tremor hit, in the financial crisis of 2008. (Remember that I warned of that coming crisis beforehand, when everyone was saying that things are just rosy, and would remain that way.) The tsunami is coming, and few are prepared. Few even see it, and very few dare to imagine it, though it be very, very real. 

In light of that impending economic crash that is now heading our way, and in light of the global take-over of the world by big business, with its attendent class warfare, economic warfare and psychological warfare, and war on democracy, an examination of the options for protecting and aiding the people is in order, and is desperately needed now. 

Beware the military industrial media complex.

“Those who have put out men’s eyes reproach them of their blindness.”
– Milton

Clarity and leadership are not to be found from the media talking heads, nor from the ostensibly ruling figure heads of government who are the political elite; nor, certainly, from the billionaire corporate elite, who are now busy devouring the planet and the people, along with their freedoms and their democracy. 

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
– Winston Churchill

Let’s shed a little light on the subject of democracy vs plutocracy. It is high time, and urgently needed now.

*

Nearly 90 years ago, it was FDR, the New Deal, and the United States, which led the world out of the Great Depression. In 2021, while most of the world continues to stagnate, and to slide toward social, political and economic implosion, it is Andres Obrador, Mexico, Bitcoin, and the entrepreneurs of Nigeria, among others, who are leading the world out of the economic mire. History makes for strange bedfellows indeed, and many remarkable surprises.

Upon his election in 2018, Mexico’s new President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced the first phase of his New Deal with an “Every Young Person to Work” program inspired by FDR which he described saying:

“I have had this idea since I read how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pulled the United States out of the 1930s’ crisis. What did he do, in a tremendous economic crisis? He decided to put the whole U.S. people to work. And he decided to put young people to work, and he paid them a dollar a day, for every young person. But his idea was full employment. That is, a job for everyone. That idea stuck in my head, because Roosevelt lifted the United States out of the crisis, and for me, he was therefore, if not the best President, one of the best that the United States has had—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by that action, by that decision. Now we are going to do something similar: All young people to work.”

This is what the US, UK, Canada, Europe, and most nations  of the world need: a new vision, a new social contract, and a New Deal that serves the people, the 99%, and that creates jobs and economic vitality, and rebuilds the nations of the world, post-lockdown. Tax the super-rich and the giant corporations, and above all, tax financial speculation, and use that vast wealth to build green infrastructure, creating full employment and economic prosperity in the process – while, most critically, safeguarding and strengthening democracy, freedom, constitutional rule and human rights. And I think Ellen Brown is right: all positive change hinges on freeing the people from the stranglehold that the international banking elite has on them and on the democracies and nations of the world – and that, in turn, hinges on the creation of a democratically controlled public central bank for each sovereign nation. Without that, we will remain serfs, and will continue our rapid slide from serfdom, into slavery.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something,
sometime in your life.” – Winston Churchill

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

“It ain’t over ’till it’s over.” – Yogi Berra

*

Mexico, with a new President, AMLO (his initials), is throwing off the disastrous policies of neoliberalism and corporate globalization, which decimated the country over the preceding 36 years, and, most critically, is rebuilding the nation and the economy while retaining and strengthening constitutional democracy. In that sense, and for these reasons, Mexico under Andres Obrador’s leadership, is truly showing leadership for the world, while the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, are being turned into Third World police states, run by and for the global, frankly neo-fascist corporate elite.

Here is Ellen Brown on the new Mexico, which is now rising from the ashes, like a phoenix taking wing:

“The new president has held to his campaign promises. In 2019, his first year in office, he did what Donald Trump pledged to do — “drain the swamp” — purging the government of technocrats and institutions he considered corrupt, profligate or impeding the transformation of Mexico after 36 years of failed market-focused neoliberal policies. Other accomplishments have included substantially increasing the minimum wage while cutting top government salaries and oversize pensions; making small loans and grants directly to farmers; guaranteeing crop prices for key agricultural crops; launching programs to benefit youth, the disabled and the elderly; and initiating a $44 billion infrastructure plan. López Obrador’s goal, he says, is to construct a “new paradigm” in economic policy that improves human welfare, not just increases gross domestic product.””

*

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
– Winston Churchill

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” – Winston Churchill

“Personally, I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill

We need to not only think outside the box – we need to smash the boxes, shatter the walls of our thinking, and draw on the best ideas and models, from wherever we can find them. 

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.” – Winston Churchill

The grassroots moderate right, meaning libertarians on the right, and many conservatives, understand that a privately owned central bank, such as the Fed or ECB, can never be trusted to serve the people, but instead serves transnational banking elites, at the great suffering and expense of the people, along with the demise of democracy, freedom, sovereignty, and the real, productive economy as well. The left needs to clue into that central fact. But the right needs to overcome its ideological fetish which makes it fanatically scream like Dark Age priests whenever anyone suggests that government programs can do some good for the people; or, when anyone suggests, or shows with conclusive, overwhelming evidence, that laissez-faire capitalism and deregulation are a social, ecological and economic disaster, which they indisputably are. Both the left and the right have blind spots, and giant ones, and both are clueless in certain important regards.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

John Lennon said, and he was right:

“You think you’re so clever and classless and free, but you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

And to that I would add, You think you’re so pious, and sanctified indeed, but you’re still squabbling children, as far as I can see.

Remember this: It was Abraham Lincoln, a Republican President, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery. It was Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican President, who defied the corrupted Democratic party establishment, as well as the corrupted Republican party establishment, and, riding on a wave of democratic populist uprising, challenged the richest man in America, John D. Rockefeller, and the biggest corporation in America, Standard Oil, using anti-trust legislation against a company thought to be “too big to fail”, and won important landmark victories. And it was Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican President, who, in his farewell address to the nation, gave us his ominous message, to, “beware the military industrial complex.” The liberals and the left tend to think that they have a monopoly on virtue, intelligence, and common sense. Clearly, they do not. Let the petty bickering be over. We have serious disagreements, yes, it is true. But we have more in common than we have differences between us. And we have common cause. If the people cannot now see, that it truly is, as Vandana Shiva has said, Oneness vs The 1%, or as the title of my own work expressed it, The People vs The Elite, then we are frankly doomed to a future none of us would wish to imagine, much less be a party to.

First, we must unite the people, in order to remove the sociopaths at the top, from their position as de facto rulers of the world. Then, we can come back, and debate and discuss, every other issue under the sun. First things first: remove the plutocrats from power. That will require unity. And we have no time to lose.

Dogma, and the idolatry of ideology, must be swept aside. We must now take a fresh look at things, or remain imprisoned, and effectively neutered and self-eviscerating, by way of our stubborn clinging to our narrow and outworn preconceptions. We need a resurgence and rediscovery of our power, our basic dignity, and our confidence – and we need a corresponding resurgence of basic humility and open-mindedness to go with it. Above all, we must unite the people – unite the 99%, or at least the great majority, all of whom are now peasants and serfs, and understand that we have common ground and common cause, and a common opponent, in the ruling 1%. Without these factors in place, and reaffirmed, our future will remain nothing but bleak, and positively dystopian.

*

The Central Problem

The problems of the world are many, but the central problem is, as Aldous Huxley indicated: a vast over-centralization of power. You do not need any kind of “conspiracy theory” to see the obvious, undeniable fact: “the moneyed aristocracy”, as Thomas Jefferson called them, the business elite, have taken over. Remember that Jesus drove the money changers from the temple. This is not a new problem; however, we have let the problem go on so long without seriously addressing it, that we now face a dystopian world that is ruled by self-serving plutocrats and billionaire corporate oligarchs. The great majority of the people now know that this is the undeniable, obvious truth. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

I am not anti-business, but I am certainly anti-fascist. And if the people persist in allowing a tiny handful of global bankers and other billionaire business elites to effectively rule the world, and bend every nation to its will, then the result will be global fascism. How much more clear can this be?

“Conspiracy theory is a term that is used to poo-poo institutional analysis.” – Noam Chomsky

Remember that fascism does not necessarily mean people in Nazi uniforms goose-stepping in the streets before giant banners. Fascism is more malleable than that – and contemporary fascists have become masters of camouflage and PR. Fascism, although it always has a scapegoat, or several of them, is not even necessarily racist. What is the essential core of fascism, is a hyper-concentration of power in the hands of a very small number of people, in a pyramidal and hierarchical power structure, which is decidedly opposed to any real or meaningful, functioning democracy. That, we clearly have now, and world-wide.

It is a multi-cultural, multi-racial, gay- and women-friendly, “inclusive”, “sustainable” and cosmopolitan, even humanitarian face, that the Western corporate oligarchy presents to the world, but it is fascist plutocracy nonetheless, to its rotting black heart. Make no mistake.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it will still remain a pig. What we have now in the West is corporate fascism with a progressive liberal face, but it is still fascism.

*

Political Philosophy, and Political Reality

I reference Chomsky often, simply because he is one of the best minds in terms of institutional analysis, that is, political-economic and social analysis. That does not mean he is infallible, of course. None of us should pretend to omniscience. And I’ve seen Chomsky be flatly wrong on at least three major subjects. But he is generally correct in his views, and is in general extremely lucid. And I agree with him on several major points, which are relevant here.

“If the Nuremburg Trials were held today, every US President since WWII would be hung.”

“It’s not that the elite like torture. They’re just indifferent to it.”

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ answer to human problems was to concentrate power in the hands of an elite few, who would keep the rest from tearing each others’ throats out. He famously wrote that life before “civilization” was “nasty, brutish and short”. He knew nothing of anthropology, which had yet to be invented, and knew nothing of the longer history of humanity. He simply assumed that his own cut-throat society of 17th century Europe, with its incessant warring tribes, and its conniving, scheming, deceitful, duplicitous and petty tyrants, was the universal norm of humanity, and he presumed that things must have been even worse before great and holy kings came to power. His view of humanity is dark, pessimistic, cynical, and jaundiced in the extreme, and based in pure ignorance and projection. But it was his recipe for politics which is most troubling: concentrate all power in the hands of a ruling elite, because human beings cannot be trusted with power. How much more obviously self-contradictory can this be? If you do not trust people with power, then why would you give some people great and vast powers? Thomas Jefferson destroyed the Hobbesian fallacy and rationalization for oligarchic elite rule, in a single line:

“If you can’t trust men to govern themselves, how can you trust them to govern others?”

Again, the problems we see in human society are manyfold, and have many causes, but the central and most common root, is a grossly excessive concentration and over-centralization of power. All social orders are human creations – whether we realize it or not. And when you create a social order that is based upon hierarchical power structures, and with great concentrations of power, what you get is a magnet for corruption and for sociopaths. Good people are attracted to positions of leadership, to be sure; but so too, are corrupt and self-serving individuals and sociopaths strongly attracted to positions of power. What’s more, when power is decentralized, then abuses of power are small, because no one person or group has great power. But when power is highly concentrated and highly centralized, then great abuses of power become possible, and become virtually guaranteed. The problem, therefore, is not a question of who is in power, but what power structures do we have, or do we tolerate.

Placing strict limits on any form of concentrated power in human society, therefore, should be viewed as a matter of common sense. That must include, of course, the political powers, namely the government; the military, paramilitary, police and “intelligence” powers; religious powers, namely the church (freedom of religion, conscience and belief is essential, and so too, is separation of church and state – for the protection of both); cultural powers, namely the media, the advertising industry, and the rest of the PR industry; and also economic powers – namely, the giant corporations, which must now be broken up, and the billionaire elite, whose vast wealth must be redistributed (with a 100% tax on all personal wealth over $100 million), not so much for reasons of wealth distribution, but for reasons of reigning in their economic power, which now has come to overrule and to effectively eviscerate and nullify the peoples’ democracies.

Decentralization of powers, in horizontal networks and federations of shared power, and the break up and abolition of any form of hyper-concentrated power – commonly known as political, military, economic or financial empires – is akin to mutual disarmament. We can either have mutual disarmament, or we can have an ever-escalating arms race that will end, finally, in our own self-annihilation. The same is true, and even more fundamentally true, and more urgent, with regards to mutual disarmament in the sense of dissolving all excessive concentrations of power – including above all, the Fortune 1,000 biggest corporations, and the financial empires of the super-rich. We can either respond boldly, swiftly and with common sense, by addressing the roots of the problem, rather than papering them over with pretty words and superficial, grossly inadequate, mild reforms and cosmetic changes; or we can watch the world descend rapidly into a dystopian dark age of neo-feudal corporate oligarchy and fascism. These are our only two choices remaining now – and the sensible choice, requires bold and swift action, and nothing less.

We know now from studies in human psychology that there is roughly 1% of the population who are sociopaths. Presumably it is a similar level in all societies and in all ages, though there may be major variances. We can expect, therefore, that a small percentage of people, in any age and any society, will be so cold-blooded and callous, as to be willing to do absolutely anything in the pursuit of their own greed, narrow self-interest, self-aggrandizement, and power. This should not be shocking to anyone.

I firmly believe that Chomsky was right in saying that, “The great majority of people have basically decent impulses.” (And science has confirmed that fact. See Rifkin, The Empathic Civilization, Eisler, The Chalice and The Blade, Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom, and Kropotkin, Mutual Aid.) This explains why most people find it hard to imagine that anyone could behave in such evil ways – most people want to be happy, but they are not willing to step on someone else’s throat, in order to achieve what they think will make them happy: and so, they imagine that all human beings have such restraint, conscience, compassion, or basic human decency – but this is an erroneous assumption, for clearly, not all do. Naiveté has never been a very good protection against the evil that exists in the world. A sober-minded optimism, which deals squarely with the good and the evil, the noble and the ignoble, the sensible and the deluded, and the deranged, is a better way to proceed.

Do not underestimate what the sociopathic few are willing to do in order to further their own self-interests, their accumulation of never-ending vast wealth, their hubris and infantile sense of grandiosity, and their lust for power. Can it happen here? Can fascism, that is, happen again, and happen here? It not only can, it has. It is here.

Remember too, that Mussolini, who invented modern fascism, and so is properly fit to define it, said that fascism is properly called corporatism – and it is the merger of the business elite with the state. That too, we have now.

Or we can look at how FDR defined fascism: it is the take-over of government by big business. Anyway you look at it, what we have now is not liberal democracy, as even the Ivy league colleges confirm, but oligarchy, plutocracy, corporatism, and however you want to name it, it is the merger of business with the state, whereby, outside of China, North Korea, Cuba and North Vietnam, almost universally, big business has taken over the governments of the world. That, by any reasonable definition, is fascism.

China, under neo-Maoist/Leninist/corporatist rule, is the mirror image of the corporate neo-feudalism, technocracy or corporate fascism of the Western oligarchy. In China, the political elite dominate in the marriage between big business and the state. China thus has a neo-feudal corporatism; while the West has corporate neo-feudalism, with the political elite of the West clearly taking their marching orders from the business elite. The one is the mirror of the other. China, therefore, could aptly be called Red Fascism, and has formed a temporary and unstable alliance with the corporate fascists of the West. It is therefore no surprise that the Davos billionaires and the Western corporate elite get along so marvelously with the overlords in Beijing. They are, in effect, kissing cousins, and seem to have now, a great love affair for one another.

The problem was, and is, in allowing corporations to become too big – so big and so powerful that their masters become our masters, and both liberty and democracy, and constitutional rule, die in the process.

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” – Winston Churchill

It matters not which names and faces, or which rich men’s clubs are at the top. The central problem now, which is at the centre of all the rest, is the hyper-concentration of economic power, which inevitably overshadows, comes to dominate, and finally to devour democracy, freedom and constitutional rule. Again, the answer is clear and implicit, once the analysis goes deep enough for the problem to be, finally, clearly seen. Break up the corporate giants which have taken over democracy world-wide; restore freedom, democracy and constitutional rule – and don’t let it happen again!

“For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.” – Winston Churchill

*

Do not obsess over the names, faces, or rich men’s clubs. They may be of some relevance and may shed some light. (See: C. Wright Mills’, The Power Elite; Peter Phillips’ Giants: The Global Power Elite; Noam Chomsky’s, Class Warfare, Year 501, and Necessary Illusions; John Perkins’ A Game As Old As Empire; Naomi Klein’s, The Shock Doctrine; Maude Barlow’s, Global Showdown; Susan George’s, Shadow Sovereigns; John Pilger’s, The New Rulers of the World; Murray Bookchin’s, The Ecology of Freedom; David C. Korten’s, When Corporations Rule The World, and, The Great Turning; Vandana Shiva’s, Oneness vs The 1%; and my own work, Enlightened Democracy, and, The People vs The Elite. In fact, I would urge people to go to the library today, or open another browser window right now, and order one or all of these books, which should be considered required reading for every thinking person over the age of 16.) But in any case, it is a straight-forward class analysis, or sociological analysis, which gets to the heart of it. 

The names and clubs and organizations, including all of the Fortune 1,000 biggest corporations, and in particular, the media and PR industry (the heirs to Goebbels), along with the banking, pharmaceutical, Big Oil, Big Tech, agribusiness, petrochemical, biotech and arms industries, and all of the major international organizations, such as the IMF, World Bank, ECB, BIS, WTO, WEF, Opus Dei, Vanguard, Blackrock, Academi, NATO and the Fed, must be addressed, and very boldly and swiftly addressed, surely. But what is central is that we realize that it was a mistake, a terrible mistake, to allow either political OR economic power to become hyper-concentrated. The answer is implicit once the analysis is clear, and the problem is, finally, clearly understood.

In short, failure to place checks and balances and strict limits on economic power, as we did with political power, has meant the slow slide from liberal democracy to global corporate oligarchy, and fascism, over the span of 200 years. Now we reap the rewards of our neglect. But it is not too late to change course.

*

It was not for no reason that Mexico’s most famous artist, Diego Rivera, painted his most famous work, a grand mural, in the early 20th century, depicting Nelson Rockefeller pulling the levers that ruled the world. (See the film, The Cradle Will Rock.) Thomas Jefferson warned us in 1812 that the moneyed aristocracy were already then trying to take over. We ignored his prescient warning, and we have paid the price.

“For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal which is centered around the Rockefeller interests, which include elements from the Morgan, Brown, Rothschild, Du Pont, Harriman, Kuhn-Loeb, and other groupings as well. This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century.” – Carroll Quigley

And to Quigley’s assessment (remembering he was a Yale elite and CFR historian and member, as well as Bill Clinton’s mentor), we can add the newcomers to the global plutocracy: Gates, Buffet, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Soros, et al.

Bob Marley said it more directly, and therefore better:

“Tell the children the truth…

Babylon system is the vampire,

falling empire,

suckin’ the blood of the sufferers….

We’ve been trodded on the wine press

much too long

Rebel, rebel.”

*

Note that the original democratic theorists, framers and philosophers and revolutionaries, never intended for democracy to be practiced on a vast scale. They intended democracy to be kept close to the people, since over-centralization spells the inevitable death, fast or slow, of both liberty and democracy. 

The American Revolution sought to create a constitutional democracy out of 13 British colonies, a scale less than a quarter of the current size of the United States; and further, at least in Thomas Jefferson’s salient and most sensible view, to decentralize powers in a federation of states, where the member states have the greater power, and not the central federal government. 

In 1776, the original 13 colonies which formed the new republic of the United States had a population of 2.5 million souls, spanning a landmass of 360,000 square miles. The US today has more than 100 times the population and spans ten times the landmass. Moreover, not only has the demographic and landmass scale exploded in size, but concentration of economic and political power, and cultural power, have been hyper-concentrated in just five cities: New York, Washington DC, San Fransisco, Chicago and LA. Can democracy or freedom survive such extreme concentration and centralization of power? It is very doubtful – and that is without even considering powerful external forces, such as Basel, the City of London, Frankfurt, and their international banking elites, or Davos or Beijing – the five cities that, along with the American five, rule the Western world, and most of the globe.

The French Revolution sought democracy for an average size European country, not a vast landmass. Rousseau himself imagined democracy on the scale of his home country of tiny Switzerland. Ancient Athens itself was a tiny city state, with a population of 30,000 – a city-state smaller than London in the year 1500, at the height of the Renaissance.

(See E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful. Small is necessary, for freedom, democracy, justice, equality and peace, as well as being beautiful. Decentralized powers in horizontal networks or federations of mutual protection, trade, cultural exchange and mutual aid, are the future of humanity, despite the ghastly power struggles and desperate death throws of a dying age of empires.)

It is highly questionable whether the experiment in modern democracy can succeed when both political power and economic power, along with media power and cultural power, are extremely centralized. In fact, economic power absolutely must be greatly decentralized, and democratized – that means, as a minimum, anti-trust legislation, sensible democratic regulation, and the break up of the corporate giants, including above all, the banks, investment firms and the media; and political power must be made truly democratic, and constitutionally ruled, and likely decentralized, at least to some degree, as well. Both steps are both necessary and urgently required if either freedom or democracy are to survive. Bear that in mind as you consider carefully what I am about to say.

“Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government.” – William Lyon Mackenzie King

“If some nations have too much history, we have too much geography.” – William Lyon Mackenzie King

I hate to say it, but if the people cannot unite, then it may be better that the truly giant scale nations of the US and Canada break up. (The same goes for India, Brazil and Argentina.) Some states, provinces and regions will be willing to deal with reality, and will be willing to deal with our pressing and urgent problems – the greatest of which are the ecological crisis, the social crisis of vast and growing inequality, and the war on democracy – in ways that boldly address the issues, while preserving and safeguarding, and actually strengthening, democracy, freedom and constitutional rule. Other states, provinces or regions will choose denial, or technocratic corporate fascism, or more likely, a combination of both. If certain regions break off to become independent, it may result in increased chances of freedom and democracy surviving, and of the human species surviving, itself. But that is a last resort, at least in the near term, and I hope it will not come to that.

*

China, under its current neo-Maoist/Leninist/corporatist rule, is simply a totalitarian police state. It is now the biggest economic super-power on Earth, but it is in no way worthy of emulation in political terms by thoughtful or moral people. It can in no way be emulated or imitated as a political model by any sane person or nation. Despite that fact, the Western corporate oligarchy of billionaire robber barons, seated at Davos, “the new Palace of Versailles”, and “the new royal court”, along with their well-paid political prostitutes in government, are importing exactly that model of Orwellian totalitarianism and technocracy from China, across the Western world. This is worse than neoliberalism and corporate globalization, as disastrous as that was and is. This is technocratic fascism. And Beijing and Davos, as unlikely and as short-lived as that marriage may be, are equally gleeful in their messianic quest to deliver, or rather, violently impose, that technocratic and deeply authoritarian, Huxleyan and Orwellian model onto the world.

China, however, despite its appalling political system, is doing some few things right. The massive, light speed build-out of a green energy and light rail transportation infrastructure is one. The use of a publicly owned central bank to fund and fuel the nation’s infrastructure building is another. Only fools would dismiss these models – because they simply work. And yes, of course, they can be connected to and integrated with a truly democratic, constitutional framework for society, which respects and upholds freedom and human rights – if the people insist that it be done in this way, and in no other.

Ellen Brown is probably the leading figure world-wide in terms of strategies and analysis for how to break free from the imperial dominance and life-sucking vampirism of the global banking elite. Here is what she has to say on the subject.

“Today, the best model for that approach (a publicly owned central bank) is China, which funds infrastructure by borrowing from its own state-owned banks. Like all banks, they create loans as bank credit on their books, which is then repaid with the proceeds of the projects created with the loans. There is no need to tap up the central bank or rich investors or the tax base. Government banks can create money on their books just as central banks and private banks do.

For Mexico however, (another world leader in that regard, with its new president) using its public banks as China does would be something for the future, if at all. Meanwhile, AMLO has been a trailblazer in showing how a national public banking system can be initiated quickly and efficiently. (Obrador plans to create 3,238 public bank branches in 2021 alone, in a single year.) The key, it seems, is just to have the political will — along with massive support from the public, the legislature, local business leaders and the military.”

   – Mexico’s AMLO Shows How It’s Done, by Ellen Brown

A good summary overview is presented by the Strategic Culture Foundation:

(And you know you are doing something right when the quite literally fascist and censorship happy Big Tech giants suppress you as much as they can, as is happening with rapidly accelerating speed to more and more good people, and noble citizen’s groups and independent media, and as has happened to the Strategic Culture Foundation, as well.)

“In Ellen Brown’s brilliant new article “Mexico’s AMLO Shows How It’s Done”, the researcher and national banking advocate made the powerful point that the only way to properly fight the neo-liberal order is for nations of the west to follow the lead of Mexico’s current President Lopez Obrador who recently announced the creation of a new network of national banks – of which over 3238 branches will be in operation by 2021. Obrador’s stated aim is to have 13 000 branches built across Mexico which would far outnumber the total number of all private banks and will also provide a vital tool for the economic liberation of Mexico.

This act is nothing short of heresy in the corridors of the neoliberal priesthood of our modern age. The “economic foundation” upon which today’s globalized world are premised assert that nation states may not participate in the marketplace. No price controls, no protective tariffs, no bank regulation and certainly no national banks. Following this gospel, nations are permitted to do war and promote various forms of population control… but nothing that pollutes the purity of the supposedly “free market”….”

And on historical context, Benjamin Franklin, and the creation of the first American public bank:

“It is here no coincidence that the leading proponent of national banking and productive credit in America was also the leading scientist who trumped all elite scientific minds of Europe when he discovered the principle of electricity in 1752. Benjamin Franklin and his vast network of leading collaborators across Europe and America never saw a distinction between “subjective moral sciences” and “objective a-moral physics”. The foundational documents and also the first national banking system of America (upon which other republics in South and Central America modelled themselves in the coming years) were based upon this idea of Natural Law. This insight was the basis for Franklin’s 1727 opus on the Necessity for a Paper Currency where Franklin argued that value was not located in gold, or silver, or land or even demand per se, but rather in the creative powers of a people!

The consolidation of America’s revolutionary war debt incurred by each of the 13 colonies into a unified federal credit transformed the unpayable debt “into a national blessing” as Ben Franklin’s protégé Alexander Hamilton (first Treasury Secretary) laid out in his famous Reports on a National Bank and On Manufactures in 1791. In opposition to the early free traders and monetarists who wished America would end its protective tariff, stay agrarian and allow Britain to maintain its global monopoly on industry, Hamilton and Franklin understood this would undo the entire revolutionary cause resulting in America’s eventual re-absorption back into the empire…..”

“While China uses its debt as an active asset to invest into great long term infrastructure projects which thus extinguish the original debt while increasing the productive powers of labor, America’s private central banking system under the Federal Reserve merely creates debt for speculation and turning poor Americans into slaves. Just look at the $14 trillion the treasury printed to bail out failing speculators in 2008-2010. Or look at the $9 trillion printed by the Fed to do the same. Nothing was invested in the real economy during this time.

What a different world we could have created…

NAFTA’s long awaited death is a start, as are Obrador’s vital reforms… however a fight needs to still occur before (we) can finally break colonized nations (including the USA) out from the clutches of the financial oligarchy and their self-imploding deep state managers.”

   – Mathew Ehret, Strategic Culture Foundation 

*

It seems to me that the West can no longer brag about being democratic or free. We have imported the Chinese model of totalitarianism. Russia is now more free and democratic than the West. They experienced totalitarianism, and rejected it in favour of democracy and freedom. We foolishly went in the opposite direction. Yet we pretend we are still living in 1971. We are living in a dream world.

It is a bizarre state of the world. The thinking left has always been anti-authoritarian, as is the moderate grassroots right; but the left periodically loses its marbles and gets caught up in messianic fervour, as they did when many of them fell for the lie that the Bolshevik Revolution was a liberating force, as they did when many of them backed the Jacobins, and as they are doing now, in supporting censorship and the “new normal” of authoritarianism. The right and left need to talk more, scream less – and question everything, including, above all, their own sacred dogmas.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
– Winston Churchill

Again, the only conclusion that can be sensibly drawn by people who are paying attention, and who understand what is going on, is that the global empire of neo-feudal, technocratic corporate oligarchy, run primarily by banking elites and other corporate oligarchs, must be swiftly and decisively removed from power – and that, by now, will require nothing less than a non-violent democratic revolution.

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
– Winston Churchill

“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.” – Winston Churchill

The way to freedom, and to a better world for all, is becoming clear. The only question that remains, is: do the people have the will to choose it, or will they choose by default, by not choosing, and so, choose to be slaves?

J. Todd Ring,

March 10, 2021 

Epilogue

It is imperative that we realize something else. That is, that uniformity and centralization of power are weaknesses now, not strengths: diversity and decentralization are our greatest powers. We need many leaders in every nation, not one. And we need a web of diversity, united in our diversity, with multiple centres of leadership and power, if we are to succeed against this juggernaut, which is the global fascist corporate empire, and its mirrored and (for now) partnered twin, of totalitarian Communist China.

Remember that Tony Blair and his cadre of corporate prostitutes took over the British Labour Party in 1994, and still, more than a quarter century later, the grassroots of the party, and the democratic left of Britain, has been unable to recapture their party from the professional boot-lickers who high-jacked it, nearly three decades ago. This is what happens when you over-centralize power: the entire movement is easily derailed or taken over, and effectively neutralized, and neutered.

If we allow ourselves to fall into the easy habit of baying and cajoling and fawning at the feet of leaders, whether they be sincere or diabolical, legitimate or not, the results will be the same: we will lose, by over-centralizing power in too few hands, making the heads of our movements easy to cut off, co-opt, silence, or simply bribe.

We cannot afford to put all our eggs in one basket, or all our faith in one leader, no matter how sincere or compelling they may seem, or may be. We must be diverse, and we must be pluralistic, and that means we must also avoid over-centralization, and be consciously and deliberately decentralized, pluralistic, multifaceted and decentralized, out of necessity. That is our resilience, and therefore, our greatest power.

When there is no single head to cut off, co-opt, silence or bribe, or otherwise neutralize, that means, with sufficient will and determination, we are unstoppable.

We have many diverse people in the world, and with many diverse views. We should look at diversity as a strength, and decentralized, horizontal networks of shared power, as a strength. We need to unite the people, yes – that is critical. But we do not need uniformity or centralization. That will only weaken us, and ensure failure.

We can have different groups, organizations and social movements, each with their own diverse formal or more often informal membership, and each with their own distinct views – and hopefully they are internally diverse as well, though united in common cause around an issue, or a shared vision or set of values or goals. The same is true with a broad network of social movements and activist groups in a nation, or globally: we must unite, yes, and that means we must discover our common ground, and affirm it, and thus unite in common cause. But we do not have to agree on everything, nor do we need to all share the same religion, ideology, political affiliation or philosophy. We can have diverse views, and we should. We simply recognize those views and values which we have in common, and we recognize what goals we share in common. From that, we can act in unison, as a symphony, or a great wave or tsunami, when we are ready, and it is time to coordinate local, national, regional or global action.

Note that the pivotal moment in WWII came about as a result of the over-concentration of power in the Nazi regime. Hitler had given strict orders that no large troops movements could occur without his express consent. He had also given express orders not to wake him while he slept. When D-Day came, and thousands of Allied forces gave their lives to storm the beaches, and finally broke through the line of fascist machine gun nests, the Nazi line was broken, and the battle would be lost without immediate reinforcements. No reinforcements came, for the reasons explained above – for the reason of over-centralization of power. That was the crack, the fault line, the grave weakness of fascism, and of all forms of excessive concentration of power, which led to the defeat of the fascists in WWII.

We must learn from history now, and not repeat its mistakes.

The critical difference we must understand is the difference between is between a pyramid structure of top-down power, and a web of horizontally shared power. The pyramid structure is what we are used to, and what our society has been based on for some 5,000 years. But a quiet revolution in anthropology has shown that that was the aberration, not the norm of our vastly longer history on Earth. But more to the point, what is most essential to realize, is that there is another way, and a better way – and that is the way of shared power, and unity through horizontal networks, alliances or federations of shared power.

The dying way is the way of pyramidal, top-down, hierarchical power structures, great centralizations and concentrations of power in the hands of a few; patterns of dominance and submission, and empire. The way of renaissance and rebirth, the democratic way, and the way to freedom, justice, and the healing of our world, is the rejection of empires and hierarchies, and the sharing of power in federations and alliances among equals. That is how we will succeed. We will not succeed by replicating the past, by replicating the way of demagogues and false messiahs, of over-centralization, or empire. We win by breaking the mould, and shattering the clay feet.

It is time for freedom. It is time for a new renaissance. It is time for peace, and the healing of our world. And that, is entirely within our power.

It is up to you. And it is up to me. It is up to all of us. There is no white night that is going to ride in and save us – and if one does, be wary of giving away your power. It is up to us. It is up to the people. There will be natural leaders, and there will be many of them. And that is precisely what we need.

We do not need hegemony. We do not need uniformity. We need to unite, and create a unity amidst our glorious human diversity, and we need it now.

J. Todd Ring,

March 22, 2021

Seven Virtues To Liberate and Heal The World

The following is a seed thought, a note to myself, for further elaboration in the future, and it is a note I will share with others, because it is a seed thought which is powerful, healing, and liberating. I will not go into any lengthy discussion, meditation or exposition of the core thought, which will be presented here, nakedly and simply, for reflection. But do not mistake pithiness for lack of importance, gravity or depth. The most important truths are the simplest: love thy neighbour – it is not only virtuous, but it is also a matter of intelligence, and enlightened self-interest, for no man is an island; all things are impermanent – change is the one unchanging, permanent reality; all phenomena are interdependent; and, the nature of being is non-dual, One. To these four cardinal points of wisdom-awareness, I add the following, as the heart centre.

The seven virtues listed here are not picked randomly. This is the fruit of four decades and tens of thousands of hours of reading, reflection, study and meditation. We could list dozens or even hundreds of positive human traits which we could call virtues; but all of them, stem from, arise from, and are born from these seven, which are their root, and their foundation.

People may say that these seven traits, or seven virtues, are lacking in our world today, and maybe profoundly so. But I would say in response, that these seven traits or virtues are inherent to human nature, and our history on Earth has proven it so. Moreover, whenever we are faced with a great and terrible crisis, when we are challenged the most, we find ourselves thrown back upon our depths, and we reach into our depths, and rediscover, and draw forth, precisely these seven virtues, or at least, as many of them and as much of them as we can. And in virtually every crisis, sooner or later, if not immediately, we bring forth these inner treasures, to rescue ourselves, and our loved ones, our homes, our communities, and the land itself, which is not ours, but to which we belong, from danger. These traits, these seven virtues, are ours to discover, from within, and they are always there, deep inside, waiting to be released and to be reclaimed. We need them now, and urgently so. Let the new Renaissance begin. The world needs us, and needs our healing hands, hearts, spirits and minds, and now.

Some will have a bounty of one of the seven. Some will have a bounty of another of the seven. Some will have a bounty of more than one. A few will have all of them in abundance, though that is rare. But together, when we unite – and unite in all our wondrous and rich diversity, as we must, if we are to succeed, if we are to heal or to liberate ourselves or our world, or if we are even to survive – then, together, we will have and will bring forth all seven of these magnificent, and deeply precious human traits.

The seven virtues that will liberate and heal our world are these:

Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom – and they are each different things, though they are complimentary, of course. These represent the best of the human mind. And we need all three, and not just one. Moreover, even the least of these, which is knowledge, must be distinguished from mere data. Everyone is in love with data, lately, in this digitally entranced, media-saturated, virtually lobotomized, late-industrial, technology-addicted, and technology-addled, modern society. But while data is valuable, it is nothing compared to knowledge. And even knowledge is trivial compared to understanding – which itself, is fly droppings compared to wisdom.

(Ok, I elaborated here slightly. My apologies. Remember always, something that Emerson said: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Let us be adaptable, or we will perish slowly, as idiots, unable to face or accept the necessity of change. But that too, is a matter of understanding, which is contained in that little piece of advice from one of America’s greatest philosophers. And so, even that excursion into a slight bit of elaboration, proves the point: these seven virtues are the well-spring for everything we truly need.)

Along with knowledge, understanding and wisdom, there are four more, invaluable, and irreplaceable, essential traits, or virtues, that we need now – or at any time of crisis, or any time of peace – in order to survive, and in order to thrive. Among them are:

Courage, compassion and determination – and yes, we need all three. In fact, without courage, compassion withers, atrophies, and dies. And without determination, our courage will falter, and then our compassion, leaving us as hollow shells, wooden, lifeless, and inert. These three virtues represent the best of the human heart. Without them, no amount of data, or even knowledge or understanding, will save us; and certainly, no amount of money, wealth, technology, material possessions, status, worldly power or fame, can possibly save us, since all of these are weaker and far more feeble than knowledge or understanding, to say nothing of wisdom. We need the gifts of the heart, just as we need the gifts of the mind; and we need to unite and embrace them both. We have been top heavy and lop-sided, at least since the beginning of the modern world, when the head was elevated to supreme status over the body, the spirit and the heart, and the left brain mode of cold analytical reason was elevated as supreme over the right brain holistic, gestalt or intuitive mode of perceiving and of synthesis. We need to re-unite the left and the right, the masculine and feminine, the head and the heart, and the body, the spiritual and the worldly, consciousness and matter. And these three virtues of the heart, are at the heart of this reclamation, re-uniting, re-balancing, re-integration, and re-awakening, or Renaissance, which is urgently needed now, and is thankfully unfolding, and being born.

The final trait or virtue which is essential to our survival, as well as our flourishing, our healing of the world, and our liberation, is the spirit of freedom.

Some foolishly think that this natural spirit of freedom in human beings, which has never been suppressed permanently, but always bursts forth again and again, and never dies, is a spirit which can and should be killed. It cannot; and it even if it were possible, which it is not, the result of that death of freedom would be beyond tragic – it would be a nightmare world that no sane person would ever want to live in.

The fascists are at it again, trying to banish freedom for the many, so that the few can live as Gods on Earth. But they will not succeed. They will fail. Their empire will fall, as all empires in the past have fallen. The prophet Daniel has seen it, and he is right: the world will be free of empires, and we will shatter the mould.

The spirit of freedom cannot be killed in humanity, without killing humanity itself. We will see the spirit of freedom flourish again, as it did in the first Renaissance, and at all our best moments – as led by Martin Luther King Jr., in the triumphant struggle for Civil Rights; as led by Mahatma Gandhi, to bring freedom, democracy and self-rule to the people of India – which is now the world’s largest democracy; as led by Henry David Thoreau and others in the movement to abolish slavery; as led by Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the revolutionaries of 1776, in America, and in 1789, in France, to overthrow feudalism, and to successfully create the first constitutional democracies of the modern world.

The spirit of freedom will win out, and we will be free. The world will be reborn, and ourselves along with it – as we must, since we must shake off the delusions and the illusions, the mind-forged manacles, as the great prophet and poet William Blake called them, in order to be free, and in order to heal and to liberate our world. But we must not forget the vital importance of the other six virtues, or else, even the spirit of freedom, powerful as she may be, cannot possibly save us from our dark fate, which we currently walk toward, asleep, and knowing not what we do.

We will need all seven virtues to save ourselves from this present great peril, which is a three-fold peril: the danger of division, based in ignorance, fear and hate, which is setting the people against themselves; the danger of ecological crisis, which mounts every day, and which is driven by a combination of ignorance, stubborn blind habit, and elite vested interests; and the danger posed by the new empire of global corporate oligarchy, which is in truth undeniably fascist in nature, and which is at the very heart of all our troubles and all our crises.

Bring forth these seven virtues from within the hearts and minds, and spirit of humanity – as we will, because we simply must – and the world will be reborn. That is our path, that is our duty, that is our mission – that is the crisis of our time, and that is what we need to do, to overcome it.

And to speak with some lightness, which is also necessary, at times, and especially in the midst of dark and ominous crisis, I say, bring in and enlist the support, the allies, and the inspiration, from all corners. We can and should, and must, cite and call forth the inspiration of people like Gandhi, Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. And yes – why not? – we can also be both serious, and at times light, and call forth inspiring figures, also, from fiction. In this case, from a great fictional hero, who is no less inspiring simply because he comes from fiction: Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

And I say to you now, quite simply, and certainly not in jest, but in all seriousness:

Make it so.

The seriousness and the gravity of the situation facing humanity could not be more stark or more clear. But we will need to meet it with a combination of seriousness and gravity, and also, with some degree of lightness, or we shall not survive, because we will not be able to rally the people sufficiently through a dark and sombre message of grim reality – that method is clearly failing, and has failed – and because the burn-out rate will be far too high, and our determination and resolve will waiver as a result, and fall, if we fail to bring in a little light, to counterbalance the darkness of the time.

“These are the times that try men’s souls”, wrote Thomas Paine, in the heat of the American Revolution, or rather, the cold dark winter, when all seemed lost, and hope turned to despair. We must unite these seven virtues, collectively, though we each do not necessarily have them all; and we must unite a spirit of earnestness and sobriety, of dealing with the gravity of the situation with all honesty, with a compliment of lightness – or else, we will be lost, and all will be lost.

Inspire and unite the people, as we must also inspire and unite ourselves within. This is the path ahead. This is the challenge, and the answer. And these are the seven virtues which will allow and enable and empower us to do just that, and which will liberate and heal our world, and ourselves.

J. Todd Ring,

Author of, Enlightened Democracy,

and,

The People vs The Elite

March 8, 2021

Freedom & Power

I am, for the record, perfectly comfortable with where and how I have positioned myself. I am passionately and steadfastly in favour of freedom, democracy, constitutional rule and human rights; liberty, equality and solidarity; and of course, as a result, I am passionately and steadfastly in favour of freedom of speech; and passionately, and steadfastly, opposed to any form of tyranny, elitism, censorship, or authoritarianism. To my last breath, I will defend these values, and advance them as much as I possibly can. That stance, I can and will, happily take to my grave.

“I swear before God an eternal vigilance against form of tyranny over the mind of man.” – Thomas Jefferson (My brother, and my kin)

Sensible people on the left, the right, and in the centre, sensible liberals, conservatives, democratic socialists, anarchists, communitarians and greens, need to know, and realize, that we have common ground, and we have a common enemy – and that enemy is fascism and authoritarianism, in all its forms. We need to unite the overwhelming majority who support freedom and democracy, and enlighten the misled many who have been duped into supporting the new authoritarianism, against their own interests and their own values, their own common sense; and above all, we must challenge, defeat, and remove from power, the truly fascist business elite, and their corrupt political servants in government. If we do not do this, and very, very soon; our lives, and our world, will be dark indeed. Unite the people, recognize that the enemy is authoritarianism, and we will see a new and better day, and a new and better world will be born. Fail in that, and we will have failed in everything.

*

The central issue is not wealth – the central issue is power. This is where the left repeatedly gets confused.

It is not the distribution of wealth that is central; it is the distribution of power. Until and unless you address that, you can forget about social justice concerns, or ecological concerns, or “inclusivity” or sustainability, or any of the other buzz words or pet projects you may have, no matter how important or worthwhile they may be.

We either remove the plutocracy from power, or we will be groveling and begging for crumbs, and rapidly losing ground, forever more. And if we are going to win, if democracy and freedom are to be reborn, and the oligarchy and plutocracy overthrown, then the central issue, the most important issue, is freedom of speech. Unless we can break through the elite-controlled media blockade, and begin to discuss issues more freely and more widely (by pamphlets circulated by flash-drives, or even by hand if necessary, which was what started the American and French Revolutions) we will continue to be dead in the water, and we will be tilting at windmills, while the plutocracy rolls on.

Freedom of speech is fundamental. It is also critical to any path or means of success in creating positive change in the world. Those who do not understand that, are simply not dealing with the real world.

J. Todd Ring,

February 26, 2021

See also, an important and possibly critically important essay I recently wrote:

Flash-Drive Revolution, on WordPress.

Download, print, and share it everywhere.

Bernie, Plutocracy, and Plutocracy’s Iron Heel

#Coronavirus.hype=fascist.machinations

See my blog, and Trends Journal

Bernie is great. But the big picture needs to be seen. He and we are up against fascism now: not just plutocracy, but plutocracy’s iron heel.

JTR,

March 18, 2020

 

 

Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?

Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now.

And we are most definitely in the process of losing both, as we speak.

But maybe we aspire to be very healthy, germ-free slaves?

*

A friend said to me the other day, “Do you think China has 700 million people under lockdown for no reason?!”

I replied by saying:

China has been a police state for over fifty years, at least since the start of the “Cultural Revolution” in 1966 – the Chinese government prefers lockdown, for reasons of control: any pretext will do.

The thought of China taking such drastic measures to contain this latest virus surely makes many people assume that the virus must truly be terrifically dangerous. Surely China would not take such drastic or draconian measures if it were not. But we just explained why the Chinese government prefers totalitarian control measures, under any and all circumstances – and any crisis, real or imagined, will do for creating the justification for authoritarian measures. (Disaster capitalism is a globalized game endeavour.)

The entire assumption that the danger must be real if the government response is so extreme, simply falls apart upon examination, or the slightest critical thought.

China now has 600 million security cameras for 1.2 billion people – one camera for every two people, and with ever growing, soon to be total surveillance.

China now has a system of social credits, incorporated into its social control system, which is plugged into its surveillance system, and its economy. If you spit on the sidewalk, or jaywalk, are involved in one of the thousands of protests occurring every day, or, heaven forbid, criticize the government, then, low and behold, you find that you are refused for loans, mortgages, even the purchase of a train ticket. (And Facebook is working hard to introduce a similar system for the West. Good ole’ Zuck.)

China has gone headlong, and willfully, into a very consciously totalitarian system of extreme authoritarian control. What the Chinese government does, should not be taken as a good model for our policies, responses or behaviour: China is a police state.

Not only are China’s actions frequently and utterly unacceptable in a free society; but its actions are frequently motivated, not by concern for public health, for example, but by simple control.

*

What we should be more concerned about, is not the import of a few germs from China, which, so far, are much less dangerous than the flu: but the import of a totalitarian social model which would make Orwell cringe in horror.

But, then again, we in the West now have our own brand of technocracy, corporate fascism, and Orwellian oligarchy. It’s called the ECB, the Fed, the military-industrial-security complex – or simply, the corporate police state.

We needn’t import anything from China, as far as authoritarian social models go. In fact, the elite from East and West might want to swap notes. And I’m sure that Western and Eastern oligarchs have, and are, busily sharing notes.

After all, the Chinese authoritarians are our business partners now. A shared hatred for democracy and freedom, which is common, and nearly universal among the ruling classes of both East and West, simply seals the pact.

China has embraced neo-feudal corporatism. The West has embraced corporatist neo-feudalism. One is the mirror image of the other. The former has the bureaucratic elite in charge of a corporate capitalist economy; the latter has the corporate elite in charge of the bureaucratic and political-state powers. But although they have different inflections, both represent the merger of business and the state, which, as Mussolini said, is properly called corporatism, which is the proper term for fascism.

So, welcome to the Brave New World, germophobes. Wash your hands before kissing the ground before your masters, please.

*

De-industrializing the Western nations, and offshoring production to China and other low-wage regions, was astronomically profitable for the Western business elite. But, it destroyed the middle class at home; destroyed and gutted domestic consumer market demand, thus destroying and hollowing out the economy, which is now ready for implosion and collapse; caused inequality and poverty to soar; has led to a growing backlash and rising social tensions, as well as right-wing pseudo-populist movements of demagoguery and scape-goating (think Trump and co, and even worse); and with the resulting social, economic and political tensions about to erupt, either into revolution, or civil war, as a result. Good plan.

This has been truly great leadership, for the past 50 years. Now, we are reaping the harvest.

Short-sighted would be one word for it. The destruction and collapse of the United States, and the entire Western world, brought on by the greed and egomania, and power-lust, of the Western business and plutocratic elite, would be a more precise and detailed description.

In any case, to import China’s model of authoritarian, Orwellian, and totalitarian social control – based on the full and active cooperation of the new tech giants, and the Western corporate and governmental powers, is, quite simply put, disastrously insane.

We are importing a dark age. And everyone is worried about a few bugs.

Smart thinking.

JTR,
March 9, 2020

Coronavirus Update – Panic or Propaganda? Both? Or Simply Mass Insanity? All The Above

As of today, the mass media hype and hysteria over the latest exotic virus continues to spread, unabated. In its wake, mass insanity is spreading nearly as fast. Let’s step back, and look at the figures, to try and gain some much-needed perspective.

As of today, 3,200 people have died of the coronavirus globally. For perspective, that is 1/200th of the annual death toll from the flu, and a statistically zero percent of the DAILY death toll from both poverty (hunger) and obesity (poor diets).

The flu kills 650,000 a year. Hunger and obesity each kill over 20,000 people a day. The corona virus has killed 3,200.

Let those figures sink in.

Do we have reason to be concerned? It is possible. New viruses could pose serious dangers. This one has an 80% infectious rate and a 15% mortality rate, I believe. That is serious, but far from the Black Death, the Plague that hit Europe roughly 600 years ago, and killed 30-50% of the population. Could this be “the big one” – the virus that is a once in 500 year epidemic? Possible, but extremely unlikely.

Are the CDC, WHO, governments and major media reliable sources of information? Do we really have to ask that question? Both the CDC and WHO have been effectively taken over by the ruling corporate oligarchy in general, including Big Pharma, as have the majority of governments – certainly in the US, Canada, Britain and Europe. And six corporate empires control all the major media in the world – all of them in bed, one way or another, directly or indirectly, with Big Pharma. And all of them interested in a grand narrative of fear, with a clear strategy of divide and conquer. Anyone who takes his or her information uncritically from any of these sources needs their head read.

We should remember that the global pharmaceutical market is roughly on par with Big Oil, fossil fuels, and illegal drugs – each worth roughly $1 trillion a year. That is a very big trough, indeed; and we should never underestimate the power of greed – or power lust, which is even more dangerous, and ever-present, in every generation, of course.

Does anyone remember the Patriot Act? Or the military industrial complex? Or the war machine? Or the corporate take-over of virtually every government, along with the major media, the global economy, and the global financial system? Now there are some things to keep you up at night. Things to be deeply concerned about.

Re-read Orwell. And Chomsky. Perspective is critical.

From what I can see, I’d hasten to avoid lending the latest virus hype legitimacy, myself; because it looks like a psyops program, from what I can see: sow fear; divide and conquer; get the people ready to accept a lock-down – for their own protection, of course; feed the slow-motion corporate-fascist coup.

Do you disagree? Don’t be too quick to dismiss such a possibility. Look at the undeniable growth of a new global surveillance and police state, along side the equally undeniable corporate take-over of the economy, the financial system, the major media, and most political systems and governments of the world, along side the seemingly vast exaggeration of actual virus dangers. Occam’s razor would lead to the conclusion I just made, as the most likely explanation. We don’t know yet, but it is more plausible and more likely than this virus being as dangerous as it is being presented. The official narrative seems wildly out of sync with the facts. It should make us question, at least.

The known facts indicate that this latest virus represents a fraction of the danger of the flu. That may change, but it is the present reality.

The known facts therefore indicate, at this time at least, that we should be far more concerned with the ongoing, slow-motion fascist-corporate coup, which has clearly been in play since at least 2001 and the start of the “war on terror” – which has everywhere been a war on freedom, truth, and democracy, and a rationale for building a global surveillance system and police state.

Just how slow on the uptake are the masses anyway? I trust that at least a growing minority are paying some attention to what is really going on, or we are in far deeper trouble than being “plagued” by an exotic bug that is far less dangerous than the flu.

Anyone for mass quarantine?

How about voluntary (“”) house arrest? Ah, but that has already begun. The psyops war is working quite well, even if basic sanity among the people is not.

JTR,
March 5, 2020

For greater perspective, see my earlier essays: Danger and Delusion, and Reality Check