A Trump Presidency In 2025: Fascism, National Rebirth, Or Civil War?

Let me start by saying that I speak from the libertarian left – meaning, I fiercely believe in freedom, compassion, voluntary mutual aid, decentralization, and the sovereignty of individuals, communities, and nations.

(Anarchism, I would urge, but only, “when men are prepared for it”, as Thoreau said – simply a better government, until then. See Henry David Thoreau’s, On Civil Disobedience, and, Why The Left Libertarians Are Right.)

The problem is not the people – neither black, white, brown, Christian, Jewish, Moslem, right or left. The problem is the ruling power elite, the oligarchs. And what’s more, the great majority of the people globally, now understand that. This is the crisis of legitimacy which the frantic elite are trying to curb with censorship and fascism; and which the people need to capitalize and act on, and now, before their prison state is fully built. DO NOT DELAY. WE MUST REMOVE THE OLIGARCHS FROM POWER NOW. THE ALTERNATIVE IS SIMPLY TOO BLEAK AND TOO DIRE TO CONTEMPLATE.

*

Let me also say that what is critical now, is to unite all people, right or left, who are anti-authoritarian. First, we must defeat the Davos-WEF/Blackrock communist-fascist billionaire coup that is underway and which is accellerating and escalating fast. We either unite the people now, or we will all be slaves. After defeating the new totalitarian oligarchy, then, with democratic power rightfully returned to the people, where it belongs, then we can debate and discuss all other issues – once our freedom, constitutional democracy and fundamental human rights are safeguarded and secured.

Thirdly, I must say in advance, I am not a Trump supporter, but I do think he is far less dangerous than the Wall Street/BlackRock /WEF/billionaire-controlled neo-con Republicans, or their siamese twins in the Davos/BlackRock-controlled neoliberal Democratic party.

As to Trump bringing fascism, two points:

First, he was already president – and it didn’t happen. The fear-mongering is delusional, deceitful, and hollow.

Secondly, and more important, fascism is already here. Anyone who thinks the US, Canada, Britain or Europe, are still liberal democracies, is living in a dream world. Listen to Gerald Celente and Rocco Galati, and read my essay, What Is Fascism?

Fascism is already here. You’d have to be living under a rock, or wildly delusional, not to see it.

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Now, to condider what the likely Trump presidency in the US, in 2025, might actually mean, fairy tales and bogey men set aside:

First of all, could Trump win? Well, the fact is that roughly a third of the people in the US believe that he could and will save the country – they are his strong supporters. But another 20% or more, now feel that the Democrats have become so rabidly authoritarian, globalist, thoroughly in bed with big money, and deeply corrupt, not to mention war-mongering, that there is likely to be another 20% of independents, swing voters, and former Democratic voters who would support him over any “Democratic” candidate, other than RFK Jr. – who I believe is running as an independent, and who is sadly unlikely to win, due to the corporate stranglehold over the “election” system.

(RFK Jr. has adopted an indefensible stance on Israel and Gaza, yes; however, he would positively challenge the totalitarian drift that has been accelerating and intensifying since the Bush/Cheney regime and the Obama regime, which was not stopped or reversed by Trump, and which has been intensified and accelerated under the Biden regime. For that reason, he would be infinitely better than any conceivable “Democratic” candidate, or any “Republican” candidate, including Trump. But sadly, he is unlikely to win, yet.)

That makes an essy potential 50% of the popular vote for Trump, quite conceivable in the next US Presidential election, meaning, a virtually ensured victory for Trump.

Unless there is massive election fraud, again, which is now a bi-partisan tradition, in the new corporate-owned police state of the banana republic of the USSA – and election fraud is not just possible, but probable; unless a fair election can happen, and Trump is, secondly, not assassinated, or, thirdly, undemocratically blocked from running in the election: a Trump Presidency in 2025 is likely. Of course, civil war would avert that – and the plutocrats and their minions are fuelling that great evil as best they can. Don’t fall for the trap!

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So, if Trump is not undemocratically blocked from a likely presidential win in 2025, what could we expect from a second Trump presidency?

Well, look at his first term as US President. What did he do? The shory answer is: nothing. He didn’t destroy the nation, or destroy democracy, nor did he usher in fascism – Cheny and Obama already did that. Nor did he do much of anything else. He was a dud, a class clown, sadly to say, a distraction, a non-event.

To Trump’s credit, he broke the news to the world that an unelected and rabidly anti-democratic Deep State does indeed exist, of course.

He also broke the news to the lemmings that the legacy media are instruments of propaganda and fake news, which anyone who has read Chomsky, or has been awake, already knew.

He raised the topic of fascism in the public mind globally – fascism which *is not a threat, but a present reality (!)*, which he did not bring in, but which his fore-runners, and other political prostitutes in the US and beyond, already did.

Those are three giant victories for the people – one of them being inadvertant.

He also defeated the sovereignty- and democracy-killing TPP; and renegotiated NAFTA, with slightly, but at least significant, improvements.

He did not dismabtle or even seriously criticize the police state apparatus created by Cheney and Obama.

He did not defund the military industrial intelligence complex, nor reign it in.

He did not end the empire or the imperial wars.

He did not end routine surveillance of all people globally.

He did not abolish the CIA, or the Nazi-named and equally fascist Department of Homeland Security, nor clean up the FBI, nor close Guantanamo, nor the 1,000+ US foreign military vases, nor the CIA torture centres and black sites.

Nor did he stop the gutting, looting and evisceration of the middle class, or halt the skyrocketing rise in inequality.

Trumps response to covid was likewise disastrous, and even worse than mere inaction – far worse than simple negligence and inaction. Trump unleashed Fauci, complied with the WHO and CDC, all of whom are essentially owned and controlled by the Big Pharma drug cartel, and went along with the mandates and lockdowns, with the result being a further gutting of the middle class, the destruction of millions of small businesses and a loss of millions of jobs, and worst of all, a further rollback and undermining of freedom, democracy, human rights and constitutional rule – and a further, accelerated, warp speed slide towards a biomedical police state.

Bravo, Trump. He thus powerfully aided and abetted the long-standing and accelerating trend towards globalist neo-feudal technocratic communist-fascist oligarchy – exactly as Bush, Cheney, Obama and Biden have done. Some messiah that is.

Let’s also not forget that Trump ran on a non-interventionist, peace-seeking platform in 2014 to 2016, which won him the reluctant support, even from much of the (then) anti-war left. But more recently, Trump has given unrestrained support to Israeli aggression and genocide, while saber-rattling with even more dangerous rhetoric about China, both of which show his slide into a pro-war, pro-interventionist stance, both of which risking global nuclear war. This man is extremely dangerous, not because he would bring in fascism, which has already happened, but because he, like the Democrats, and the Republican establishment, could get us all killed in a new world war.

And the list of failures, negligence and criminal complicity with the plutocracy and the military industrial complex goes on.

*

So, maybe saying Trump did nothing in his first presidency is too harsh. Certainly, he neither saved nor destroyed the country, although, like Clinton, Bush, Cheny, Obama and Biden, he did far more to destroy it than to aid it.

As I said many years ago, Trump was, and is, a distraction. Real change did not come from his first term as president, nor is it likely to come from him in 2025, if he does become president again. A giant windbag of a distraction – that’s all Trump is, in my view. He’s a game show host. What did you expect?

So, Trump is not going to save the nation, nor make America great again. Nor is he likely to destroy the nation, or bring in fascism – the bipartisan tag team of Republican neocons and Democrat neoliberals, in the twin parties of Wall Street, already did that. The country is in ruins, democracy is dead, and Trump will not fix it, nor is he likely to make things very much worse than they already are. He would instead, be another false messiah, another false populist, like Obama – a figure head of a collapsing nation and empire, being devoured by plutocrats, while ” elections” and “presidencies” distract the people and lull them to sleep with false hopes. Hope comes from the streets, now more than ever, and from nowhere else.

So, Trump will not bring fascism – that’s already here. Nor is he going to save the nation. There is a third possibility, however far worse, even, than lulling the people to sleep, while the nation is plundered, enslaved, devoured and destroyed, by an escalating corporate-fascist class war. What a second Trump presidency is likely to bring, is civil war – not one started by him or his supporters, but by his fanatical “democratic” and “liberal” opponents, orchestrated by the same neo-fascist Deep State military industrial Wall Street complex that has been devouring the nation, the people, and the democracy, with intensifying speed.

A second civil war in the US would not simply kill three quarters of a million people, horrific as that was. It would be a long, protracted, bloody stalemate, spanning decades, if not geberations, killing millions and leaving the country in ruins. That is the likely fallout if Trump is elected without an overwhelming public mandate.

Only one thing could possibly prevent a civil war in the wake of a second Trump presidency: an overwhelming landslide victory, with the clear supoort of a large majority and cross-section of the people. How can that be achieved, assuming RFK Jr. cannot likely win, leaving a Trump presidency in 2025 likely?

Vivek says he wants a landslide victory for Trump. He hints at and intuits danger if it is not a landslide. Andhe is right. A narrow victory for Trump would tear the country apart. A landslide win for Trump, despite Trump, could begin the healing and rebirth of the nation, by bringing together the people, after a long and increasingly bitter divide.

If Trump is strategically intelligent – a possibility, but doubtful – he would immediately do this:

Offer the Vice Presidency to the centre-left, small d democrat, Robery F. Kennedy Jr.

Offer the position of Secretary of Health (whatever it is called in the US – I, being Canadian, do not know) to Bernie Sanders, with the bold policy of cutting the Pentagon budget in half, and finally creating a universal public health care system for the US, like the more civilized nations have had for decades, using the hundreds of billions of dollars saved from the murderous and monstrously bloated military budget of the imperial killing machine.

Appoint Catherine Austin Fitts as Secretary of the Treasury, with a bold policy of defunding Wall Street, BlackRock, the big banks, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Agra and the the WHO, and ending all corporate subsidies, channelling the hundreds of billions of dollars saved per year into local econonic development, infrastructure, small business, co-ops, entrepreneurships and new start-up enterprises, to kick start the economy into high gear and provide good jobs for all – as a start. An audit of the Fed to follow immediately, of course, with a clear plan for its abolition.

Vivek speajs well, so find him a role, as well, perhaps as Press Secretary to the new President of the United States.

Do that, and a democratic landslide would result, with a clear and irrefutable mandate from the people – meaning, it could not easily be toppled or overthrown, and civil war would be unlikely.

But Trump is no 4-D chess player, nor a grand strategist. However, if someone can get his ear, he has shown he can at times be receptive to good ideas.

Make it so, i say.

*

Paradoxically, a Trump presidency could save the nation, despite Trump – but this is the only way I see that it could happen. Otherwise, my 2008 prediction for the US, Powderkeg USA, is likely to be fulfilled, with civil war ahead.

– J. Todd Ring,

February 1, 2024

From the rural counttyside of free and democratic Uruguay – a successful nation, not a collapsing neo-feudal police state run by Davos

A Canadian philosopher in exile from my now fascist homeland.

My writings, books, articles, and tens of thousands of references, can be found on:

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Socialism, Capitalism, Corporatism, & The Future Of Humanity: Ideology vs Reality

A few thoughts on the recent, very thoughtful and interesting discourse and debate, between Professors Brookes and Wolff, linked in the video below:

To Professor Wolff:
Bravo – brilliant crystalization.

To Professor Brookes:
Great respect for your human decency and moral sentiment of basic justice and compassion, certainly, but are you not aware of the famous quote from Mark Twain? “There are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics.”

Unconscious ideologues unconsciously pick narratives and statistics that suit their cognitive and emotional bias, their ideology, filtering out discomforting statistics and facts, perspectives and evidence, unconsciously, like dogmatic religious fundamentalists, to suit their ideological bias. In short, your stats are bogus. Statistics are easily and routinely fudged, distorted, fabricated or manufactured to suit ideological or policy preferences. (See Shadow Stats, for an example of that obvious truth.) More to the point, read the Davos Report, by Oxfam. Five billion people lost a trillion dollars in the past four years alone, while the richest eight individuals on Earth now control more wealth than the poorest half of humanity – and the three richest men in the US now control more wealth than the poorest half of Americans.

(Who do I trust more, by the way, the most respected international development organization on Earth, Oxfam, or a professor from the Kennedy School, which was founded by the same Rockefeller clan that founded the WEF as the leading centre of the Western oligarchy? Not a difficult choice. But that is an aside.)

The wealth is being sucked up by the top 1%, while poverty grows and inequality skyrockets – and we are now clearly moving into an era of corporatist monopoly capitalism and neo-feudalism, as a result. Worse, the oligarchs know this will be unpopular and will provoke popular uprising, which is why they are now resorting to fascism. See my essay, The Failure Of Propaganda & The Resort To Fascism.

In short, the facts disprove your tired, old, trickle down, rising tide, Polyanna / Dr. Pangloss, neoliberal apologist view – and it’s so obvious and undeniable to the people of the world, that popular unrest is rising fast.

Moreover, the power elite know that the propaganda war has been lost – which is why they are now resorting to fascism, censorship, the criminalization of free speech, and sheer force of repression. (See my essay, mentioned above.) Your arguments, Professor Brookes, are not only hollow and unsound – they have already failed. And both the people and the ruling power elite know it.

I’m sure Professor Wolff will rebut and refute your self-evidently falacious argument very well, but I was so appalled by the contrast and contradiction between your apparently sincere moral sentiments, and your dubious apologetics for neo-feudal corporatist capitalism, that I had to pause the video of the debate to make this note.

Given the choice between sociopathic power-mongering corporate-fascists, which is what the billionaire WEF oligarchy represents, and naive, well-meaning ideologues on the other hand, clearly the latter are preferable and better – but not in the least satisfactory or sufficient.

Failing grade as an economist or political analyst, I must say, as a researcher in political-economy and philosophy for four decades now, myself, and I am sorry to say, my brother.

Read the Davos Report, along with Michael Hudson, please – and listen carefully to Professor Wolff, I would humbly urge.

In sum, listening to a thoughtful, intelligent, broad-minded scholar or thinker is like a breath of fresh air. Listening to an ideologue, if you must, is like razor blades run down your spine. And of course, you can’t have an intelligent conversation with an ideologue, no matter how hard you try, because they are dogmatic fundamentalists to their core – their minds have turned to stone. It’s like talking to a brick wall. You’d be better off talking to a fence post, or a clump of Earth – and they are pretty much on the same intellectual level. (See Thoreau on that: Walden and On Civil Disobedience.) This is what most of academia, the media and “intellectual” life represents in modern society. It is by and large a dead zone, a wasteland, a desert, as TS Eliot knew so well.

Socialism, capitalism, or something else? How about we start with a basic open-mindedness, questioning and humility. Until then, all talk is futile.

Think for yourself. Question everything.

By the way, the libertarian socialist model that Profession Wolff presented here, or one version of it, rooted in grassroots economic democracy, workplace democracy and worker cooperatives, is decidedly not theoretical. Are you unaware, Professor Brookes, of the centuries-old co-op model, which is now wide-spread in the US and around the world, which is very successful, and growing fast? Are you unaware, ignorant, that is, of the Spanish Revolution, which was largely anarchist, libertarian socialist, and which very successfully ran an advanced, modern industrial society, while under the extreme pressures and duress of fighting a war against the fascists, and their Communist and “liberal” Western oligarch supporters? And are you likewise ignorant of the Mondragon Co-op in Spain, which was founded by two brothers only a few decades ago, and which now has become one of the biggest and most successful corporations in all of Europe? Giving you the benefit of the doubt, and assuming you are not a conscious liar and propagandist, one must conclude that you are, quite simply, stunningly ignorant of the facts of history and political-economy, both.
Response?
My apologies for the ferocity. It is nothing personal. It is simply a matter of 99% of the eight billion human beings on Earth being suffocated, squeezed, held down, boot on the neck, exploited, preyed upon, bled dry and degraded, or worse, by a predatory and parasitic, truly vampiric system of neo-feudal corporate empire. This has to change. And the time is now.

J. Todd Ring,
Author of Enlightened Democracy
And
The People vs The Elite

And yes, I am philosophically aligned with the grassroots populist libertarian left, with a strong admiration for Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire and Thomas Paine, the founders of liberal democracy, as well.

Give me FDR, Kropotkin, or Thomas Paine, and I will be thrilled, or at least, greatly relieved. But if we continue on our current trajectory, it will be dystopian in the extreme, with neo-Malthusian techno-fascist oligarchs at the helm, and a boot on the face of humanity, and far worse, for a long time to come.

Time to cut the bullshit, to put it frankly – and now.

JTR

The debate that sparked these thoughts:

Renaissance, Resistance & Revolution

In terms of social movements, the Left is dead, for the time being, at least in the formerly industrialized, formerly “leading”, “developed”, First World nations of the (North-) West. The reason it is dead, is because it has been seduced into supporting authoritarianism, and has thereby been co-opted by the fascist corporate oligarchy, ruled by the Western business and political elite. (See my essay, When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds.)

What’s left, then? The major centres of resistance to the global corporate-fascist coup, are now in the Global South, the Majority World, where 80% of the world’s people live.

Meanwhile, the North-West corner of the world, that is, North America, Britain and Europe, is rapidly becoming a collapsing Third World, communist-fascist police state, and a deeply Orwellian corporatist technocracy – one gulag under Davos.

Awakening and resistance are growing globally, however, and with exponential speed – including in the North-West region of the world. But it is now the fact that the global awakening and resistance are strongest in Latin America and the Global South.

That being said, I think the strongest and grestest hopes for real, positive social change, are now coming from a loose coalition or constellation of forces, above all, from Indigenous movements, the global peasants movement, and a myriad of generally complimentary and synergistic popular social movements: including the ecovillage movement, the voluntary simplicity, nomad, permaculture, organic and homesteading movements, the anti-authoritarian right, which not only exists, of course, despite the messaging of the technocratic faux-left propaganda blitz, but is growing fast – and the anti-authoritarian left, which still exists and is also rapidly growing; along with the anti-authoritarian and decentralist currents within the environmental movement, which 40 years ago were predominant, but which are still alive now, and are resurging fast; and along with the natural health movement, and the many threads of the global freedom movement.

All of this should be seen as signs of hope. Moreover, it should be viewed within the wider context, which includes the major tectonic historical changes which are now underway: including a global paradigm shift, the emergence and rebirth of a multipolar world, and the decline and fall of the corporate-state oligarchy and empire of the North-West, formerly and foolishly referred to as “Western civilization”, “the Western world”, or “the West”.

As the global tectonic shift accelerates, in all of these ways, the rebirth of the world will begin to emerge, and become more and more visible, and in time, undeniable.

In historical terms, the world is changing and shifting now in extremely rapid ways. Some trends are ominous in the extreme. Others are deeply hopeful, liberatory and enlightening. In the short term, which side predominates in our personal lives, depends largely on how we choose to live, and even more so, on where we place ourselves, with some regions becoming increasingly dystopian, while other places experience freedom, a renaissance, and a rebirth.

In the longer view, however, we can say with certainty that no empire lasts forever. All empires fall. And the Western corporate oligarchy, which has now mutated into the new billionaire-ruled communist-fascist empire, is collapsing now, slowly, but with accelerating speed. In its death throes, it is a wounded, montrous predatory beast, extremely dangerous. But it is dying, nonetheless. And the plutocrats know it. That’s why the billionaires are resorting to the desperate measures of fascist totalitarianism, while building bunkers as fast as they can.

(See my essays and books: The Failure Of Propaganda, Sinking All Ships, Importing From China, The Worst Of Both Worlds, The Global Tectonic Shift, The Collapse Of The West, Slavery Or Rebirth, Enlightened Democracy, and The People vs The Elite.)

A new day is dawning for humanity. A new world is indeed being born. But like all births, there is pain. Keep a long term perspective – and never surrender. There is, as Thoreau said, more day yet to dawn.

*

The hope doesn’t come from corporate-communist China, by the way, as many people on the Left naively have come to believe. That is simply another example of large currents of the Left temporarily losing their minds – in the same way that much of the Left supported the Soviet Union, from 1917 into the 1950s, until the New Left of the 1960s reverted to the Left’s original heritage and roots, which are fiercely libertarian; and in the same way the neo-Maoist “Left” now, today, unwittingly supports the totalitarian corporate-fascist coup, that is presently underway. Idiocy by any other name would smell as foul – and still does.

China is a totalitarian police state. End of story. It may help defeat and dethrone the globally dominant, but rapidly collapsing Western technocracy, or corporate-fascist empire, but it is certainly not the hope for the world.

Supporting China is no different from supporting the neo-Maoist wokesters – or supporting Stalin. Totalitarianism is demonic egomania, and tyranny, utterly unacceptable and intolerable under any circumstances – just as the new corporate-fascism of the Western oligarchy is utterly intolerable.

Hope lies, as always, with the grassroots, with the people. It is we who will save and liberate ourselves, together – and no one else.

The world is changing. And it is the people who have the greater power, as always – and it is leadership from below, from millions of points of light, which is where our true hope lies: now, more than ever before.

JTR,
January 17, 2024,
Villa Samadhi,
Uruguay

Political Philosophy & The Future Of Humanity – In A Nutshell

I will be brief. Fuller elaborations I have already made elsewhere. Here is the gist.

Excellent talk, this is, in the video linked below, but incorrect here: “Nobody in the West is presenting an alternative.” I did. See my books, Enlightened Democracy, and, The People vs The Elite.

Also, China’s model is not “basically correct”! It’s totalitarian! It is economically a better model, but politically indefensible! We must move beyond foolish dichotomies of thinking we can have either neoliberalism or totalitarian “socialism”, Chinese-style.

A democratic socialism with a mixed economy and fierce protection of human rights, constitutional democracy and freedom is infinitely preferable to either model, as should be self-evident to all.

Or we can reframe it, calling it a New Deal, an anti-authoritarian, pro-freedom Green New Deal, of the people, by the people, for the people – a republican-democratic vision that comes from the grassroots, and empowers, liberates and uplifts the people, while healing our troubled world. Red Scare thinking is still widespread, though it is based in propaganda and paranoia, therefore, the reframing of terms may be helpful. Either description is appropriate, however.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Io0H1i7Xf8s&si=PYywWrWZOTHdU3OG

How can fascism be viewed as intolerable, which it is, while China’s CCP totalitarianism is perfectly fine?! Intelligent, brilliant people, with giant, extremely dangerous blindspots… that is just sad.

I love these two, brilliant people, which is why it is so painful to see their complete blindspot regarding China’s totalitarianism. Just because China is the biggest power in the Majority World does not mean it must be the sole alternative model! China may be an ally, but it is definitely not a model society to be followed!

A little imagination, please. We have limitless options; and not only two.

Excellent discussion, that video presented, but dangerously naive. We can and must do better – and envision something more.

See also:

The Shock Doctrine

Necessary Illusions

Year 501

Oneness vs The 1%

And my own writing:

Enlightened Democracy

The People vs The Elite

Sinking All Ships

Importing From China

The Failure Of Propaganda & The Resort To Fascism

The Worst Of Both Worlds

The Collapse Of The West

and

Slavery Or Rebirth (Coming soon)

J. Todd Ring,

Villa Samadhi,

Uruguay,

January 5, 2023

Uniting The People – Yes, it’s happening

Jimmy Dore, from the populist left, and Tucker Carlson, from the grassroots centre-right, can not only have a conversation, but a respectful one – and furthermore, they are allies and friends. This is exactly what we need. As I said, in the title of my second book, it is now a matter of The People vs The Elite. Unite the people now. And stand.

And yes, we need a revolution – and now.

*

Here is my open letter to Jimmy and Tucker, for anyone who may be interested:

Jimmy and Tucker, you have to read my essay, The Failure Of Propaganda & The Resort To Fascism. It’s pinned to the top of my Twitter page, and is also on WordPress.

Then read my essays, Sinking All Ships, Importing From China, The Worst Of Both Worlds, Flashdrive Revolution, and When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds.

And do read my books, which I know you would love:
Enlightened
Democracy,
The People vs
The Elite,
The Collapse of
The West,
And
Slavery Or
Rebirth.
We need an honest and in-depth analysis, a strategy and a vision. Here it is, frankly, I would say.

Wonderful, extremely important work that you are doing, I must also say – along with Vandana Shiva, Gerald Celente, Whitney Webb, Russell Brand, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, and many more. Never surrender. We are winning, despite the hard fight ahead. That is to say, the awakening and renaissance have begun, and the tide has already turned. Remember that.

• J. Todd Ring,
  Villa Samadhi,
  Uruguay,
  December 14, 2023

Why The Globalist Technocracy Will Fail

The globalist corporate elite have announced their plans for the world, via the WEF, the World Economic Forum’s publicly released vision for 2030, among other venues. Their plan is most accurately described as a global neo-colonial imperialist project of consolidating and further centralizing all power, all wealth, and all ownership, in their hands.

It is a hybrid global system they are pushing hard to construct now, which fuses Western corporate-fascism with Chinese corporate-communism, technocracy, transumanism and neo-feudalism. To call their vision dystopian would be a radical understatement. But their plan, which has been described as the Third Industrial Revolution by Jeremy Rifkin, the seemingly well-meaning but woefully naive intellectual in residence to the ruling Western power elite, who makes Klaus Swab and Yuval Harari look like the pseudo-intellectual talking poodles that they are; and which has been called The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab, the lapdog spokesperson for the corporatist power elite; will fail. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as well as by evil ones. Here is why the technocracy will fail.

1. Global warming and the ecological crisis broadly can only be adequately addressed if small-scale, community-based, regenerative organic agriculture, permaculture, agroecology and holistic management are at the centre of our response. The elitists at the WEF and in Beijing, however, refuse to share power; therefore, this plan, which empowers the people and is radically decentralist, is rejected outright. That leaves the plutocrats of the West and the oligarchs of the East, only one choice remaining, and that is to further back the utterly failed petrochemical-industrial agriculture model, which has already been proven to be an economic, social and ecological disaster.

Pursuing the elite-driven, hyper-centralist plan, with industrial agriculture as its foundation, will only lead to further acceleration in species loss, pollinator die-off, global warming, global toxicity and pollution, aquifer depletion, soil erosion and soil depletion, pesticide and herbicide resistslant super-pests and super-weeds spreading, desertification, crop failure, food shortages, skyrocketing food prices, global famine, social unrest, riots and revolution, and systems collapse. And no amount of “big data”, “connectivity”, AI, lithium batteries, smart phones or surveillance, can possibly save it.

It is a system that is rapidly destroying its own social and ecological foundations. In other words, the power elites’ plan is just another historical example of imperial hubris and imperial over-reach, leading to inevitable collapse.

2. The Davos-WEF/Bejing-CCP plan relies on vast quantities of rare earth minerals, that simply aren’t there – lithium being just one example. Therefore, it is not renewable energy which will save us, but the more humble and courageous approach, of admitting that we have been addicted to materialism and consumerism, and that a voluntary simplicity, combined with decentralization, re-ruralization, re-localization, horizontal rather than vertical power relations, and a radical increase in quality of life, diversity, and freedom, are what are urgently needed now.

Again, the plan of the power elite is based in hubris, and wishful, magical thinking, or else in outright lies, and can only result in systems collapse.

3. The plan of the now deeply intertwined and partnered Western and Eastern power elites, rests upon further heights of complexity, in an already vastly over-complicated modern society. It furthermore centralizes power in an even more extreme manner and degree than already exists. And it further increases the already stratospheric inequality, in both power and in terms of wealth – “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” As has been known for a long time, by Tainter, Aristotle, and others, over-complexity, excessive centralization, and excessive inequality, all lead to the collapse of regimes, empires, civilizations and societies. But, as is typical, imperial power elites are driven by egomania, power-lust and greed, and therefore, their hubris becomes their downfall, because imperial over-reach is something they cannot help, but compulsively fall into, every time. No matter how tall the ziggurat is built, it remains a castle made of sand – and the tide is coming in.

4. The financial and economic collapse that is rapidly approaching, which will make the Great Depression look mild, will devastate the ability of the Western and Eastern power elite, both, to carry out any such bold plans, beyond mere coping with matters of survival, as their empires collapse – financially and econonically, and also socially and politically, as revolution and rebellion explode world-wide, in the wake of the combined squeeze on the people – of economic devastation, simultaneous with a growing authoritarianism and staggering inequality.

The harder the oligarchy squeezes the people, the more rapidly the explosive flash point is reached. It is like squeezing plutonium: add enough heat and pressure – and boom. But again, all emperors and all empires do the same thing: imperial hibris breeds imperial over-reach, which brings collapse. So boom it is. Bastille Day is coming, fast.

5. Global oil production peaked several years ago, meaning, the era of cheap, abundant, fossil fuel energy is rapidly coming to an end. Between peak oil, and a peak in nearly everything else, including critically important rare earth minerals, the power of the twinned, Siamese empires of Davos and Beijing, and their ability to project their power, not only globally, but even locally and regionally, is rapidly crumbling beneath their feet. These two leading crime syndicates, which are the twinned, and now deeply intertwined, dominant empires on Earth, may be able to retain control of certain nations, regions, and totalitarian mega-cities for a while yet, but their twilight is approaching – and their collapse is now irreversible, and well underway.

6. Meanwhile, a global awakening, and a new renaissance, is not only emerging, accelerating, and growing fast – by now, it is unstoppable. The ruling power elite are trying to hold onto a dying worldview, paradigm, ideology, and system. But history is against them.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. And the pen is indeed mightier than the sword. The idea of freedom, with ecological stewardship, diversity and peace, is simply far more inspiring, and compelling, than an elite-ruled plutocracy, technocracy, or neo-feudal oligarchy, where a handful of people hold total power, and the values of freedom and individuality are said to be quaint relics of the past, “legacy” values, to be abandoned and dispensed with, in the pursuit of an imagined “greater good” – which is itself a lie. The people are waking up. And moreover, they are also waking up to their power.

7. As David Hume, Eitienne de La Boite, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Thoreau, among many others, have realized, the people always have the greater power. The ruling power elite depend upon, and need the people, but the people do not need the power elite. That means the people always have the greater power. Moreover, we outnumber the ruling power elite by nearly a billion to one. They have no chance.

When the people become fed up with a ruling system, power elite or regime, they will shake it off, like a dog shakes water off its back. And that time is coming soon. The plutocrats know this – which is why they are building bunkers as fast as they can, or else are daydreaming, a la Bezos and Musk, of blasting off into space. But even their bunkers will only forestall the inevitable, and for a very short time at that. Ozymandians of today, take note. Your time in power is nearly up.

Conclusion:

What do we have on offer now, at this most critical juncture in recorded human history, in terms of a vision for the future? Well, we have many voices, but few options.

There are, of course, many who echo Jordan Peterson, in saying that global corporatist neoliberalism is the best of all possible worlds. They can be dismissed at the start, being the Dr. Panglosses of our present day.

Then there is the dark Orwellian technocratic vision of Klaus Schwab and the new Royal Court, the new Palace of Versaille, which is the corporate-state de facto government, as the Financial Times calls it – the World Economic Forum – which aims for a global Borg society, based in transhumanism and technofeudal totalitarianism, in which “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” If you like nightmarish dystopianism, this vision may be appealing.

Or we have the equally bleak vision of Yuval Harari, telling us the world is full of “useless eaters”, who are presumably disposable, along with the lucky few, who, like himself, will be willing if not eager Borg slaves, rather than be liquidated.

Yuval and “Dr. Evil” Klaus Schwab are in accord here, of course, both being the talking poodle lapdogs of the ruling corporate oligarchy. Both preach the beatitudes of neo-fascism and technofeudalism. Hell on earth, is what their “vision” amounts to.

Then we have the rosy eco-lah-lah of the tragically naive and blinkered Jeremy Rifkin, with his magically appearing mountains of lithium, with which to power his techno-wonderland, in which the elephant in the room, which is the emerging totalitarian police state, is imagined not to exist, and to be no threat at all. Cue the Pink Floyd, Sheep.

Or, we have several voices bearing imminent sanity, including, frankly, Vandana Shiva and myself, saying that it is now a matter of Oneness vs The 1%, and The People vs The Elite – and what must be done is to embrace our freedom and our power, and to heal our world through a much more thoughtful ecological stewardship, through unity in diversity, through a globally networked and federated decentralization of power, and through a rejection of all empires and oligarchies: to reseed the world and the future of our one human family on Earth, and build a better world for all, through a global renaissance and rebirth – based in the cardinal founding values of freedom, compassion, diversity, mutual aid, ecology and peace.

I think our choice should be clear. It is now a matter of freedom and rebirth, or technocracy and slavery, followed by collapse, and the extinction of the human species itself.

*

It is now a matter of slavery or rebirth. Let the revolution begin. And let it be Gandhian, as it must be, for strategic reasons alone. The empires are falling. The time is now.

J. Todd Ring,

Author of Enlightened Democracy, The People vs The Elite, The Collapse Of The West, and Slavery vs Rebirth.

Villa Samadhi,

Uruguay,

November 17, 2023

East & West, North & South: Collapse & Rebirth

“When East meets West, sparks will fly.”
– Chogyam Trungpa

Sparks are flying now, in the meeting of East and West, and North and South, and in the emerging renaissance, which is its fruit and result.

*

“Religion is not so much a revelation to be attained by us through faith as an effort to unveil the deepest layers of man’s being and get into enduring contact with them.”

– S. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions & Western Thought

That statement, above, by the Oxford Chair of Eastern Religions & Ethics, gives a good summary of the difference in emphasis and approach between East and West. The West emphasizes ideology, doctrine, the written word, and faith and belief in the holy creed – be it secular or religious; while the East, at least traditionally, and for millennia, emphasizes direct experience and radical empiricism. This Western obsession with ideology, along with the doctrine of original sin, is where East and West parted ways.

The statement by the Buddha puts it directly: “Don’t take anyone’s word on anything. Examine things for yourself.” Meanwhile, in the West, we are deeply indoctrinated to simply believe what we are told – whether by neoliberal or techno-feudal economists, pundits, media mouthpieces and business and political elites, or by scholastic, “educational” or religious authorities – despite our pretenses of being a scientific society, based in reason, freedom and empiricism, which has always been a highly dubious claim, and is now, quite simply, wild self-deceit.

But it should be added that while the East emphasizes experience and empiricism, while the West emphasizes doctrine, creed, ideology, revelation and faith, naturally, faith exists in the East, while experience is not entirely forgotten in the West. The issue is a matter of balance. And we in the West, ain’t gots none.

The central problem with the West, however, along side the corporate take-over, the nihilism, materialism, consumerism, hedonism, narcissism, addiction to entertainment, voyeurism, compulsive busyness, mad frenetic chronic compulsive rushing, the mistaking of data and information for knowledge, understanding or wisdom, the obsession with quantity over quality and surfaces over depth, and alongside the pervasive, rampant and pandemic escapism, capitalist-Puritanism, neo-Maoism, and transhumanism, technology fetish, profound and growing multi-variant forms of alienation, stratospheric and growing inequality, supreme cultural arrogance and hubris, insular inward-looking parochialism, the echo chamber of surrounding ourselves always with people who agree with us, group-think, scholasticism, obedience to authority, conformity and herd mentality, vast over-complication, devaluation of the feminine, the natural, the bodily and physical, the simple (in a foolish preference for the complex), and the right brain mode of perception, along with a number, quantification and data fetish (though in reality the map is not the terrain), and the neo-feudal technocratic globalist imperialist elitist coporate-communist-fascist empire itself, which is now in the early stages of collapse, along with Western “civilization” itself, is the idolatry of ideology, and the inextricably intertwined fear and mistrust of ourselves, one another, nature, life, and our own thoughts, feelings, intuition, senses, experience, and inner life.

A little more balance is clearly needed. Fortunately, a renaissance, an awakening and a paradigm shift, are now underway, to correct just that problem – thankfully for the Earth, and all beings on it, including ourselves.

*

Collapse & Rebirth

As my great Swiss aunt Heddie liked to say, “Complicated works too.” That is, until it doesn’t. Read Tainter, When Technology Fails, and A Short History Of Progress. If we insist on over-centralization, hyper-concentration of power, vast inequality and the over-complication of just about everything, our civilization will assuredly and inevitably collapse, as Tainter, Aristotle, and others have pointed out. In fact, Western civilization is collapsing now, for these and other reasons.

The question now, for those not lost in a frankly psychotic dissociation from reality, based in a stupor of cowardly willful ignorance and the fog of denial, is what do do in response?

My advice would be to study history, philosophy, mythology, world literature, cultures and religions, as well as political-economy and sociology, and learn to have a great deal more humility and open-mindedness, along with a reaffirmed confidence, and an unconditional, unshakable self-dignity, as the children of God that we truly are. However, in a more immediate sense, what is needed, or at least, most sensible, all things considered, is to disconnect and decouple from the dying system, and the dying empire, of the techno-feudal North-West corner of the globe, which is now a sinking ship on fire, on which, the captain, crew, and the great majority of the passengers, have all gone insane.

Disconnect, decouple, move to strong ground, simplify, slow down, read, discuss and reflect; then, reconnect, renew, reawaken and rebuild. The game is over for the (North)-West – at least for the time being, and for an as yet undetermined period into the future, perhaps lasting centuries, or perhaps only decades or years. In any case, it’s time for the intelligent and the brave to abandon ship, and move on. And the exodus has already begun.

The new renaissance has also begun. But it is not centred in the North-West, in Europe and its favoured colonies of Canada and the United States. Its primary centres now, are in the Global South and East. Relocation is now a good idea, if not a matter of basic sanity, or sheer survival. If you’re not going to leave that sinking ship of El Norte, as I have been calling it, then I pray you good luck. You’re going to need it.

Whatever you do, hold onto your hats. We are in for a wild ride ahead.

Keep a sense of humour and good cheer, as much as you can, along with an arial perspective, and a long term view. We’re going to need these things as well.

Grim, or beatific? It depends on where you locate yourself, and of course, on the attitude you take. This is a global rebirth, while one part of the world collapses and enters a dystopian dark age, and other parts of the globe experience liberation, a renaissance and rebirth. Where do you want to be?

Whatever you choose to do, remember, everything is impermanent, and all things are transmutable – it ain’t over ’till it’s over; and there is more day yet to dawn.

JTR,
November 8th, 2023
Villa Samadhi, Uruguay

Greenwash, Lithium & Eco-Fascism

Proved:

Greenwash Is Ecoterrorism, Eco-Fascism, and High-Tech, Neo-Feudal, “Green” Imperialism.

Indigenous cultures in the “lithium triangle” of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia are being robbed, subjugated, poisoned and plundered, to make Teslas and cell phones. Corporate-state violence is the continuing norm, in response. Welcome to “Green” Imperialism. This is the primary camouflage, among various other psyops and modes of propaganda and psychological warfare, of the Davos/WEF corporate-state empire’s, Great Reset and Green New Deal. It is eco-fascism – and it is as ecodical, as it is genocidal, imperialist, techno-feudal and fascistic.

Cell phones, tablets, laptops and electric cars are all based in unsustainable, ecodical, extractive, environmental imperialism. No more greenwash.

*

Note that I have personally been deeply involved in the environmental movement for four decades, having fund raised and canvassed for Greenpeace and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, helping to build the Green Party of Canada when it was new to the country, and having written the draft constitution for the Green Party of Peterborough, when it was just being born, in my university town.

My roots are deeply libertarian left, and solidly, deeply green, as well as anti-war, anti-racist, pro-diversity and equality, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. I am no right-winger on a rant of corporatist-globalist neoliberal apologetics, that is certain, and undeniably clear.

Nor am I naive, nor inclined to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and smugly and foolishly pronounce all environmentalists as eco-fascists – which is a dangerous and flatly untrue obfuscation, confusion, illusion, and lie, which is being paraded commonly as informed opinion. It is not. It is idiocy and ignorance on the part of many; and sheer propaganda and lies on the part of the globalist corporate-state power elite, and their willing tools and intellectual prostitutes – which includes all of the corporate/state media, the presstitutes, virtually the entire political class of the Global North, and much of the Global South, most of academia, and a great number of “scientists”, “thought leaders”, religious leaders, and pop culture celebrity gurus.

Beware the herd instinct. Question everything – especially authority, your own club, clique, sect, tribe, clan or social circle, and everything you thought you knew for certain.

Question everything. Think for yourself.

*

The great majority of Earth’s people now reject fascism, communism and dictatorship, authoritarianism and totalitarianism, imperialism, racism and colonialism, and they lean strongly towards a left libertarian nexus of values, including freedom, decentralization, diversity, equality, ecology and peace. These are also the values and sympathies of the global green movement, at the grassroots. The fact that the big NGOs have now been co-opted and corrupted by their ties with the corporate elite, does not change that fact.

Question everything. The Green Left is back. And it is decidedly libertarian, and on the side of freedom, indigenous peoples, and the people of the world, everywhere.

But having said that, what we need most, is not a renewed, anti-authoritarian Green Left – but a uniting of the people. If you believe that freedom is fundamental, that peace is vital, that fascism, communism, technocracy, neofeudalism, colonialism, imperialism, or any form of tyranny over human beings and life on Earth is an intolerable abomination, and that the Earth we live on and share must be protected and cared for, and not merely plundered, pillaged, poisoned and destroyed, then we are allies – whether you are on the political left or right, rich or poor, urban or rural, or where you come from, or how you look.

Stand now. And unite the people.

It’s time to heal the people and the Earth.

Let the Renaissance be born.

JTR,
November 6, 2023

https://www.globalresearch.ca/ravages-lithium-extraction-chile/5718609

BLOWBACK – And Collapse

JFK, MLK, The CIA – And The Collapse Of The West

Yes, the evidence is clear: the CIA killed JFK, RFK, MLK, and Malcolm X. They are the goons of the corporate-state oligarchy. What did you think they do? Defend freedom and democracy? Were you born yesterday? (Read, Killing Hope, Class Warfare, Necessary Illusions, Year 501, The Shock Doctrine, and The CIA’s Greatest Hits.) Of course they’re a goon squad.

Read Blowback: America’s Secret Recruitment of Nazis. The SS, the Gestapo, the CIA… same shit, different pile. They’re hired thugs. That’s all they are.

Rare exceptions, are people like Ray McGovern – an intell agent with actual intelligence, a brain, a heart, a spine, and integrity. For the rest, the more fitting name would be something like, the Central Ineptitude Agency – or the BTI… Brainless Thugs Incorporated.

JTR,
November 3, 2023

P.S.:

Watch the video introduction to my newest book, on Rumble:

The Collapse Of The West:

Exodus

&

The Global Tectonic Shift

A Video Excerpt From My New, Multi-Media Book, By Way Of Introduction

By J. Todd Ring,
Author of Enlightened Democracy,
The Failure Of Propaganda, and The People vs The Elite
October 2023,
Villa Samadhi,
Uruguay

Note also:

Did the CIA foresee the collapse of the Soviet Union? Nope. Central Ineptitude Agency. Did the major media, academics, talking head pundits, politicians, business “elite”, or pop culture gurus foresee the collapse of the Soviet Union? Nope. Only one person is on record as having predicted the collapse of the Soviet Empire. But it happened anyway.

Now, I am telling you, the Davos/WEF-based, Western corporate-state empire is collapsing, and it is taking down what has been called Western civilization, along with it.

Given that only five people predicted the global economic crisis of 2008 – and I was one of the five – you might want to take heed, when I say that something extremely big is fast approaching.

Or not. Your call. Be bug splatter if you choose to be.

Your choice. You have been warned.

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