Recent Rants
Ron Paul is not the Man
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
December 28th, 2007 (www.mountainsentinel.com) Ron Paul is not the man for me. Trusting an unregulated free market is like trusting a ravenous beast to watch over your children.
Certainly, the system we have is not working. Certainly we have to stop the imperialist conquest of the Middle East. Certainly we have to do something about the immigration problem. Certainly we have to find a better way to end inequality, be it racial or economic.
But simply cutting government oversight, adopting an isolationist policy and adhering to an unfettered free market philosophy will not solve any of these problems.
The current imperialist conquest of the Middle East is simply a new stage in the US-led conquest of the world. This is a conquest that began when the first Europeans set foot in America. It began with the conquest of the American Indians. The foundation of the empire was forged with slave labor and the sweat of an exploited working class.
Once North America was conquered its resources were used to consolidate its position as the preeminent power in the world. In the last century, that power was used to extort the wealth of the rest of the world. This stolen wealth made the US what it is. It made the American Dream a possibility, while impoverishing the rest of the world to do so.
Now we are entering a new era of contracting resources, even as our corporate overlords reach for a new global power base. So we must ensure our hold over the world's remaining resources through military might. We are trying to squeeze a little more room to grow, even as an economy predicated on constant growth begins to falter.
It is no wonder that foreigners are flooding this country, when we have stripped the resources from their homelands. Closing our borders will not solve this problem, no more than the drug war solve the ongoing flood of illegal drugs.
Likewise, segregation and other affirmative action policies of the mid-1900s do not work. Or to restate that, they achieved just as little as they were meant to do. A small portion of the black population was bought off, while others were told that they could aspire to the American Dream. Meanwhile the largest segment of the black population, which would have been subject to radical aspirations in its disenchantment with the system, was kept oppressed by the criminal justice system.
Much the same can be said for the working class reforms of the early 20th century. Their true success was in breaking the back of working class solidarity and resistance. They built a complacent class to stand as a buffer against worker dissatisfaction. By the mid-century any change of organizing a radical alternative was expunged from the political landscape. Generations of ignorant consumer sheep have been bred since.
If we would truly solve all of these problems, then first we must undertake a massive redistribution of wealth. The descendents of the American Indians and the descendents of the slaves are still owed restitution. The poor of the world are owed restitution. And the US working class is owed restitution. The playing field the whole world around must be leveled off. Only then can we talk about what system is to be put in place of the current failing and abusive system.
The US is only major power opposed to the UN Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration recognizes the right of every human being to food, clothing, housing and economic security. The US has long stood virtually alone in its opposition to this declaration because the recognition of such rights simply is not possible under the system of exploitation that we call the free market.
Without a doubt, Ron Paul will not sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Nor will he make any reforms or restitutions that will help to absolve the long standing inequalities and injustices mentioned earlier in this essay. What he will do is finish the work of George Bush and his predecessors, transforming the US into a fascist land where money rules absolutely.
Our Masters, Ourselves
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
This article originally appeared at carolynbaker.net.
Corrupt beyond Redemption
2/11/07 (www.mountainsentinel.com) Those of us living in the US live in a fascist system, right now, today. We live in a system where powerful corporations call the shots, both nationally and globally. They do this beneath a façade of democracy, a façade that has grown exceedingly thin. And every day they come closer and closer to allowing this façade to drop.
It should be quite plain by now that our government does not heed the public mandate. They have not stopped the war in Iraq, they have not moved to impeach Bush and Cheney, they refuse to discuss a working solution to global warming, and they will do nothing about outsourcing, capital flight and impoverishment of the US working class.
Yet activists in the peace, environmental and labor movements continue to lobby the government for change. We are content to wait until the next presidential election and replace the incumbents of one crooked party with the candidates of another crooked party. Yet no election is going to make the slightest bit of difference in solving the problems with which we are faced.
Our politicians are bought off. Most of them are members of the privileged class to start with, and once they leave office they will go to work for the very firms they should now be attempting to regulate. The move to privatize has reached critical mass; we have sold off our infrastructure and our vital government services to corporations — worse than sold, we have handed these things over while promising to subsidize their ownership with taxpayer's dollars. The privatization mania has gone to the point that we have now largely privatized our military and police services to private firms whose first loyalty is clearly not to the US public.
The building of a fascist system within the façade of democracy has been in progress for a long time. It can be traced back to the days of the Great Depression and even further. The move towards fascism accelerated in the 1970s and particularly in the 1980s. Privatization, outsourcing, labor and environmental deregulation, mergers and in particular media monopolies have all been tools in producing this transformation. Global trade agreements consolidated fascist power throughout the world, while formalizing the supremacy of international corporations over federal governments.
By the turn of the century, the advance of fascism had reached the point that corporations and political lackeys in the Bush administration could act with impunity, openly trashing the US Constitution and the Geneva Conventions while making jokes about it. What previous administrations used to do in secret, the Bush administration does in the open, and then grants itself immunity from future prosecution.
And now Bush has granted himself the power to abrogate the constitution and suspend elections through the declaration of martial law. He can do this for any perceived threat, whether it involves terrorism, economic crisis, environmental catastrophe, or social upheaval. Soon even the trappings of democracy will become unnecessary, and the US public will find themselves living in a repressive police state without any of the freedoms and protections from abuse that we have for so long taken for granted.
None of our elected officials wish to repair these breeches in our governmental system. Instead, they are all lining up to profit from them. Instead of taking up the public mandate, they are vying with each other to feed at the corporate troughs and assume the mantle of fascist dictator.
The Shame of Our Flag
The United States is the power behind world repression. Since World War Two we have made it our policy to support the corporate exploitation of resources and populations the world over, so long as the bulk of those riches flowed into the US to maintain US consumption and economic growth.
The US is the leading producer of greenhouse gasses. Yet the US is the one country that has refused to do anything about them. It is the top consumer of world resources, consuming at a level far exceeding the carrying capacity of the environment. As such, the US is largely responsible for resource depletion and mass extinction.
Yet even our gluttonous over-consumption is not enough to sustain economic growth. So we have turned to juggling bubbles of debt. The public is told that it is their patriotic duty to consume, consume, consume, even as their adjusted income continues to shrink. To fulfill our patriotic duty, we take out second and third mortgages, and we max out credit cards. Our debts are then repackaged and sold off as investments.
Now these bubbles are becoming unmanageable. Foreign investors, the other pillar of our economy, are beginning to divest themselves of the US dollar. A major economic crash is imminent, a crash that could make the Great Depression pale in comparison. Once this crash is complete, plans are already in place to replace the US dollar with the North American Amero, to establish the supremacy of the North American Union over the federal governments of the US, Canada and Mexico, and to keep the public in line through the establishment of a repressive police state.
Meanwhile the US Empire and the conquest of the rest of the world will continue. Under the guise of fighting a war on terror, we have assumed the right to attack any country we wish through so-called pre-emptive strikes. We can imprison anyone anywhere indefinitely, without filing formal charges. And we can use any amount of force necessary, even torture.
The country we live in has become a fascist empire. Our government and our corporations have joined together to commit crimes against humanity and crimes against the planet. If allowed to go on, all of us will suffer — all of us but our elite masters. That is, if their insane greed does not destroy this planet's ability to support complex life.
Something has to be done to stop this madness, the sooner the better. And that goal will not be achieved by voting, writing letters to our congresspeople, or marching on the capitol. Our only recourse to prevent the unthinkable is a major uprising.
Disinformation & Complacency
Right now, we simply cannot stage a successful uprising within the US. Those of us who are aware of the many issues I mentioned above are reaching the point where we know an uprising is necessary. But we do not have the numbers to pull it off. If we were to attempt such an uprising right now, they would simply round us up. If enough of us rose up, it would give them an excuse to declare martial law, formalizing their fascist dictatorship.
There are simply too few of us at this point. For each of us who recognizes the necessity of a mass uprising, how many people do we know who are unaware of the impending crises that we are facing? How many are somewhat aware, but think that these problems will be solved for us? How many still think that all we have to do is petition our elected leaders or vote the scoundrels out of power?
The public is uninformed. They do not know what crimes the government has committed and is committing under our names. They do not know what major crises are bearing down on us. They do not know that democracy is dead in the US and we live in a fascist system. They do not know this because the media they are exposed to does not discuss these things.
Our media conglomerates are part and parcel of the fascist system we live under. They will not permit an honest discussion of the problems we are facing. Or, if they allow such a discussion, then they will keep it framed in a fashion that supports the fascist system.
The majority of US citizens believe we invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was involved in 9-11. The war was necessary to fight terrorism. Sure Bush was wrong about the weapons of mass destruction, and his administration has fumbled this war all along. But we had to invade Iraq to fight the terrorists.
Back up. Who ever said that war was the way to solve the problem of terrorism in the first place? Terrorism is a problem for law enforcement. You hunt the terrorists down, you arrest them, you place them on trial and if they are found guilty you hold them culpable for their crimes. Then you resolve the problems of repression and desperation that give birth to terrorists in the first place. You do not declare war against other countries, using war (which is state terrorism) to increase the level of repression and desperation, breading more terrorists.
This is just one example. Where the media does allow discussion, it first establishes a framework that supports the overarching goals of the fascist system. And once the discussion is over, it lulls the public back into a stupor by moving on to sitcoms, cop shows, sporting events, OJ Simpson and Brittany Spears.
So if we are going to stop this madness, we need to begin talking to the people around us, helping them to understand the situation we are in. This can be a long process, depending on how far each person is sunk into denial and complacency. Talk to them, give them information, answer their rebuttals, but do not put too much pressure on them at one time. Let them digest what you have said and work through it for themselves. And move on with your argument when you perceive that they are ready for more.
Currently the US population is too complacent to stage a mass uprising. We have it too easy. To some extent or other, we are insulated from the problem. We have been co-opted by our own consumption and our 401k's. The media keeps us insulated from the real world, and the system keeps us comfortable.
But that is beginning to change. People are being squeezed tighter and tighter by the economy and corporate greed. Rising energy prices due to declining energy supply will have a growing impact on our lives from here on out. Life in the US is going to become increasingly uncomfortable from now on.
Talk to people about their discomfort, help them to understand how this relates to the world at large, the avarice of our corporations and the treachery of our political system. Minorities such as Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians are already well aware that we live in a police state. Reach out to them. The poor are well aware of how unfair our system is. Reach out to them. Yet be aware that the disaffected are already being preached to by media mouthpieces and by religious fundamentalists. But every day more and more people become aware that something is wrong. Reach out to them.
Drawing Momentum from the Crash
Oil has already peaked. Production began declining in 2006, and is now diminishing at a rate of 7% per year. The latest studies show that natural gas, coal and uranium will soon follow. (Steep decline in oil production brings risk of war and unrest, says new study. The Guardian, October 22nd, 2007.)
What, you mean you hadn't heard?
Overall, energy prices are going to keep going up. And as the price of energy goes up so will everything else. At some point, the economy will crash. Hunger will become a problem all over the world, even in once prosperous nations such as the US.
Global Environmental Outlook 4 has just been released. This is a publication of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) produced by 390 experts using data compiled over the last two decades. They warn that we must act now to safeguard our own survival and the survival of future generations. (Save the planet? It's now or never, warns landmark UN report. AFP, October 25th, 2007.)
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner is quoted as saying, "The systematic destruction of the Earth's natural and nature-based resources has reached a point where the economic viability of economies is being challenged — and where the bill we hand on to our children may prove impossible to pay,"
The report also recognizes that overpopulation is a very real problem, something that many on the left refuse to acknowledge. The report warns that our population is now so large that we have exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet. The amount of resources necessary to sustain our population exceeds what is available.
Life on this planet, and life in the US, is going to become increasingly uncomfortable. More and more, people in the US are going to be caught in a bind. We will not be able to make ends meet, and we will discover that the system is failing us. As time goes on, the public will become increasingly dissatisfied and even angry.
It is up to us to reach out to these people, help them understand, and help them channel their anger and dissatisfaction to constructive ends. We can begin right now by seeking out others who are aware. Attend meeting of activists, particularly peace groups. I have found that people attending events sponsored by Veterans for Peace are particularly receptive to this message. Peace activists in general seem to be more aware than many other activists that they cannot reach their goals through the system. It also seems that global warming activists are more likely to believe that they can work through the system.
Attend meetings, and talk about how the system has become irredeemably corrupt. You will find others who have come to this conclusion. Talk about the necessity of a mass uprising, similar to the uprising in Venezuela following the US-backed coup against President Chavez. If the Venezuelans did it, so can we.
At a recent meeting that I attended, someone came up with an excellent suggestion. He said he would like to see people everywhere go out en masse and sit down on the highways and the expressways, stopping the flow of commerce. This is what we need to do: stop business as usual. We must bring the system grinding to a halt, insisting on a return to sanity, and a move toward sustainability and egalitarianism.
As things get worse, the time will come when people are ready to create such an uprising. For now, we must seek out those around us who already aware of the necessity. And we must do what we can to help wake up everyone we know.
Don't Fool Yourself
The government is already preparing to deal with public disaffection. Why else do you think they are rolling back our liberties and paving the way for martial law? They know all about energy and resource depletion and all the various other approaching crises. They know that life is going to become increasingly hard for many of us, and they know that those suffering these hardships are going to become troublesome. They know that some of us will try to organize an uprising, and they probably know many of us by name.
When the time comes, they think they can deal with us, and even use our efforts to their advantage. For that reason, we must make this uprising very organic in nature. There should be no leaders. There should be only the recognition that business as usual cannot go on and a willingness to do what it takes to bring the madness to a halt.
People need to understand that we are faced with a madness that will make life miserable for us and for generations to come, if it does not severely damage the viability of this entire planet. Yet they also need to know that each of us has the power to stop this madness, simply by ceasing to take part in the system that perpetuates this madness. We are all armed with monkey wrenches, it is time to use them. It is time to take back our power and to realize that we, ourselves, are our own masters. And let us never delegate that power or that responsibility again.
The Crash is a Good Thing?
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Freefall
30/9/07 (www.mountainsentinel.com) Since Bernanke cut interest rates last Tuesday (Sept. 25th), the already weak dollar has gone into a tail spin. Bernanke's banker friends complained that they did not have enough money to cover their obligations and Bernanke responded by revving up the presses and printing up a slew of fresh funny money. In doing this he ignored the rest of the world, which was hoping that he would show some backbone and stand firm in support of the dollar. So now, everywhere you look, the dollar is losing its value against other currencies.
The Saudi's unpegged their currency from the dollar for the first time since the oil dollar was established. They had no choice; it would have been suicide for them to follow Bernanke's move. And elsewhere, other countries will have to follow suit or the US will drag them down. Japan is scrambling for shore.
Not long after the cut in interest rates, the dollar passed a key point against the Euro when it surpassed 1.41 dollars to one Euro. Since then the value of the dollar has continued to drop. The US dollar has been dropping against the Euro since January 2003. It now worth less than 59% of the value it had four years ago. At this point a dollar crash is nearly inevitable. US dollars may soon have as little value as confederate dollars.
For many years we have depended on foreign investors to support our economy by stockpiling our currency. These foreign investors cannot hold onto their dollars for much longer. Already they have lost over 40% of their investment. They will have to cut their losses and divest. This has already started to happen, and as the sell-off accelerates the dollar will find itself in a freefall which will quickly leave it a worthless currency. A massive sell-out could see the dollar losing as much as 90% of its value within days.
Snake Oil
You would not know any of this from the major news networks. They are trying to tell us that the drop in the dollar is actually a good thing. They reason that foreign consumers will flock to the US to buy devalued goods. This is a load of crap, and they know it.
US goods will not devalue. There are very few goods that are wholly US-made today. Most are at least partially manufactured offshore. Because of that, US goods will not devalue, they will simply go up in price. Soon, US consumers will find that their dollars can only purchase half of what they currently buy. And this ratio will worsen as the dollar continues to plunge. Once this crash is complete, US consumers will learn that they have lost everything. They will find that their salaries, their pensions, their health insurance coverage, everything is worthless.
So why is the media trying to sell us this lie? Simply to keep up consumer confidence. If US consumers understood what was really happening, there would be a panic. The truth could cause a run on the banks. Along with foreign investment, consumer spending is the only other pillar supporting the US economy. Consumer spending has already become sluggish. If the reality of our situation were understood, US consumer spending would quickly crumble.
The smart money is already fleeing the US market. It is diversifying into precious metals and a host of other currencies. It is quietly moving outside of the US. This migration has been going on for years, but now it is beginning to speed up. Yet, while this flight is going on, they want the general public to remain unalarmed. The smart money is trying to make its exit before a stampede blocks the fire doors. There were only so many lifeboats on the Titanic and the first class passengers were evacuated before anyone else was allowed out of steerage.
Black Monday and Bloody Tuesday
Monday, October 1st is the day of fiscal reckoning. October 1st is New Year's Day for businesses, and on that day all the banks are required to open their books and honestly assess their current standing. The fear for the last couple months is that more than a few banks may close their doors. On Monday, we will find out for sure.
For several years now, the banks have been playing wide and loose with loans and investments. Spurred by low interest rates, they lured in consumers and home owners into mortgages and loans that they simply could not afford. It used to be that a bank would underwrite and fund every loan it made. But in the past decade, banks have developed the practice of making loans, storing them on their balance sheets for a short period of time and then packaging them into derivatives called collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). These CDOs were then sold off to investors expecting a high rate of return on the investment. Through this mechanism, the banks did not tie up their own collateral with the loans they issued, so they could issue more and more loans.
CDOs were bought up by insurance companies, hedge fund managers, pension funds and even other banks throughout the world. Due to low interest rates, these managers even purchased CDOs with borrowed money. The CDOs themselves became collateral for more borrowing.
There are hundreds of billions of CDOs out there, and until now it has been mostly speculation as to what percentage is junk. Monday, October 1st the banks will have to fess up, and we will know once and for all whether or not they are capable of covering their losses. The losses in CDOs will be amplified and complicated by the problem of commercial paper.
“Commercial paper is highly-rated short-term notes that offer investors a safe haven investment with a yield slightly above certificates of deposit or government debt. Banks use the money to purchase longer-term investments such as corporate receivables, auto loans, credit card debt, or mortgagees.” (Wall Street Journal 9-5-07)
There is $2.2 trillion in commercial paper in the US. Much of this commercial paper is currently worthless because it is tied to toxic CDOs. Yet the banks are obligated to cover this commercial paper and refinance it regularly. Right now nobody will touch anything connected to CDOs, so the banks are sitting on whatever commercial paper they have in their possession and will have to cover its finances and make up for its losses on their own.
And here is the problem. The banks do not have the collateral to cover hundreds of billions in commercial paper and failing CDOs. So they have turned to the Fed, and their friend Bernanke has tried to come to their rescue by making billions in emergency bank loans and by lowering the interest rate. This lowering of the interest rate will not be used to lure in more shady mortgages. Nobody is offering mortgages right now. The funny money the Fed is currently printing up is supposed to help cover the banks' losses.
Unfortunately, it is too little too late. Nor would it solve the problem anyway. The toxic CDOs are still there, as is the commercial paper. At best, the lowering of interest rates will simply buy a little time, while making the crash worse when it does come. That is all Bernanke was hoping to achieve when he lowered rates last week. And he did this as a wager that the weak dollar would not unravel as a result.
That is precisely what is happening. The dollar is unraveling, and on Monday, October 1st, we will find out just how much help Bernanke provided to his banker friends. If the banking news is as grim as many analysts believe it will be, then we will hear of banks defaulting and closing their doors. Thousands of small businesses and millions of regular customers will find that they cannot access their accounts. Where they can do so, there may be runs on the banks until they do close their doors.
A Black Monday will likely be followed by a bloody Tuesday as the banking news leads to a route on the stock market. In this climate, the dollar is likely to plummet even farther as foreign investors hurry to divest themselves of their shrinking dollars. It could all be over for the US economy before the week is out. And we may well see our once vain public standing in soup lines by the beginning of November.
Police States & the North American Union
Yes, we already live in a police state. But after the economy crashes, they will act to consolidate this police state and bring it to a new level of repression. Protests will be dealt with severely and encampments of the homeless will be aggressively policed.
It is possible that they will ram through new debt regulation that could turn the US into a nation of debt-servitude. The power-players may walk away from their financial obligations, but they will not want the general public to do so. If you can declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy, do so right now. Otherwise, try to discharge all of your debts while the dollar still has some value.
Eventually the government will announce that it is abandoning the dollar and creating a new regional currency: the Amero. This new currency will coincide with plans for consolidating the US with Mexico and Canada. It will be announced as our answer to the European Union, and will be touted as the road to future prosperity.
It probably will bring some prosperity to large corporations. But for the rest of us, it will mean lower wages, environmental destruction, a strengthening of the police state and the further encroachment of fascism. The North American Union is just more snake oil to benefit the rich and oppress the rest of us.
Stock Up and Drop Out
What can be done to prepare for the worst? The best thing you can do right now is to stock up on essential goods before the dollar collapses and prices go up. Purchase dried goods such as beans, grains, flour, dehydrated milk and dried fruit. It would be wise to stock enough of these durables to last your family for a month. Keep them someplace dry and air tight.
You might also invest in other items such as soap, razor blades, batteries, gardening seeds, socks, and other small but important items. A good supply of fishing gear could come in handy. Bicycles, spare tires and bicycle trailers would also be good items to have around.
These are goods that you will find useful. They are also goods that will have a high barter value if the dollar becomes worthless. If you think about it for a while, you can probably come up with a long list of such items. Things such as deodorant, spices, solar stoves, water purification kits and/or tablets, antibiotics, vitamins and other first aid supplies could also be worth a premium.
After stocking up, it is time to wash your hands of the system which has brought us 9-11, the "War on Terror," global warming, energy and resource depletion, environmental destruction and increased economic disparity. George Bush told us how to do this when he told us that it was our patriotic duty to consume.
Stop consuming. Find some like-minded people and work on disconnecting yourself from the system. Default on your debts if you can and pay them off if you cannot. Leave your job and find a way to support yourself outside of the system. Stop going along with business as usual and build that sustainable lifestyle that we all know is the only sane alternative. Don't put it off any longer. Start right now while there is still a chance. Or you will find yourself slaving away in a collapsing police state in short order.
In Case of Martial Law, Break Glass
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Please Distribute Widely
15/09/07 (www.mountainsentinel.com) Bush now has the ability to declare martial law at his own discretion, and in so doing dissolve the other branches of government, throw out the constitution, and suspend elections. He appropriated the right to do this largely by executive order. He can declare martial law whenever he deems there is sufficient cause; cause being an act of terrorism, an economic crisis, an act of war, civil unrest, or a natural catastrophe. For more information about the executive orders and legislation granting Bush these rights, please watch the short video at mountainsnetinel.com (What We Choose to Ignore), or visit the US Martial Law Timeline.
Hard as it might be to believe, there is a very real possibility that Bush will exercise these rights before his term ends. All he needs is an excuse. At present, the economy is on the verge of collapse, the Iraqi Occupation is going badly no matter what Bush and his chosen generals say, energy supplies are unable to keep pace with demand, disapproval of the Bush administration is growing, and Bush wants to attack Iran and so complete his Middle East conquest. He has all the reason in the world to declare martial law. All he lacks is a sufficient excuse.
Many people who follow the news are worried that Bush will declare martial law sometime in the months ahead. If natural crises prove insufficient, they are afraid that he will stage another 9/11. The current economic climate is very similar to the climate at the time of 9/11, though the present brewing economic hurricane will be much worse than the dot.com bust. The economic crises we currently face could very well result in bank closings, the crash of the US dollar, and the impoverishment of a large segment of the US population. What is more, with peak oil and the dawn of a new era of energy depletion it is unlikely that we will be able resuscitate our economy once the collapse is complete.
In the past couple weeks, we have heard about nuclear weapons being "mistakenly" shipped across the country onboard B-52 bombers. These weapons, which have a very limited capacity, were accidentally shipped to one of the bases that coincidentally functions as a staging grounds for the Middle East. While it is possible that these weapons were intended to be used for tactical strikes against Iran, I think it more likely that they were going to be used on US troops in Iraq, or perhaps even citizens within the US. A nuclear terrorism attack would clear the way for an immediate attack on Iran and provide a sufficient excuse to declare martial law within the US. (See Was a Covert Attempt to Bomb Iran with Nuclear Weapons foiled by a Military Leak? by Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D.)
This sounds far-fetched and paranoid, doesn't it? Well, word is circulating around Wall Street that billions in put options were made at the end of August. Put options are short term bets that a corporation will do poorly. From the number and size of these puts, some big players are betting that the stock market is going to take a major fall before the end of September. The last time there was a move in put options this large was just prior to 9/11.
(See Dispelling the 'Bin Laden' Options Trades, 'Bin Laden' Options Trades Have Wall Street Whispering, and $4.5b bet on another 9/11 within 4 weeks)
Whether or not there are plans to stage another terrorist event, the fact remains that Bush has cleared a path towards establishing a dictatorship within the US. Given Bush and Cheney's psychological profiles, it is unlikely that this pathway was cleared for altruistic purposes, and it seems equally unlikely that they will not now take advantage of it. Nor did Bush clear this pathway for some future president. Bush and Cheney are both far too selfish and egotistical for that. So it is likely that Bush will walk this path sometime before the next election.
Now the question arises, what will we do if Bush declares martial law and usurps our government?
What to Do
Should Bush declare martial law, life in this country will quickly become untenable for a great many of us. Halliburton subsidiaries are currently building internment camps to house detainees. The first sweep will pick up radicals and known dissenters, along with Blacks and Hispanics. Successive sweeps will capture more disruptive minorities, along with any newly vocal critics.
Knowing this, my first impulse was to head for the woods and disappear in the event of martial law. Yet this would not solve the problem. And I would have to hide forever, while my family and friends suffered the consequences. Hiding is not an option; the only recourse is to fight back.
The establishment of martial law and dictatorship depends on a majority of the public going on with their daily lives as usual. They cannot arrest everyone; they cannot even arrest a sizable portion of the population should they all decide to resist in solidarity. Therefore, the key to defending our country against martial law and dictatorship lies in massive resistance and solidarity.
If martial law is declared we must, each of us, tell everyone we know that the US government has been overthrown. Everyone must know that it is time for each of us to stand up and resist. Do not go to work, do not go to school. That is what they want us to do. Far from complying, it is our duty to rise up for freedom and justice. Our forefathers and foremothers would be ashamed of us if we did anything less.
Simply refusing to serve is not enough. Nor is a march through downtown an adequate response. Short-term protests will be dismissed as soon as they end. Nor is any resistor safe so long as he or she remains at home. We must rally, for safety and power. And we must stay together until the dictatorship is toppled and martial law is ended.
Rallying
There are a few possible targets for rallying. Progressive communities such as college towns would be relatively safe places to rally, and might attract large numbers of people supported by the local community. Yet for greatest effect, rallies should target seats of government and finance. The most effective targets would be state capitals, Wall Street, and Washington DC. For those desiring an even more confrontational approach, you could rally at military bases and National Guard armories. Bear in mind that these military targets have the greatest potential for bloodshed.
It would be best to plan rallying locations ahead of time. There is no telling how disrupted communications might be after martial law is declared. If the internet is still functioning, that would be great. But do not plan on it.
Print up flyers explaining what is taking place and what needs to be done about it. Tell people that it is their duty to resist. Let them know where they can rally to protest. If need be, drive down the street with banners and/or megaphones.
Above all, make it clear that these rallies will not end until the coup leaders have been arrested and martial law has ended. Ceasing our efforts before our goals are achieved is simply not an option. What is more, we will all be safer if we stay together. They cannot pick us off separately; they will have to deal with us en masse.
Breaking Hard
We should be prepared for the worst. It is likely that they will try to break our rallies with force. Stand fast and be prepared. It would be wise to learn how to improvise body armor, procure helmets with safety visors, and gas masks. First aid stations should be established at all rallies.
Above all, resist any impulse towards violence. Violence will achieve nothing, but will provide them with an excuse to crack down. The violent overthrow of government by the masses simply isn't possible in this day and age, nor is it desirable. Our strength lies in our solidarity and our ability to bring the machine to a screeching halt. When we resort to violence, we have compromised our strength and made ourselves weak.
Appeal to the police and the National Guard that you are the citizens they were hired to serve and protect. Help them to understand what has happened. It may be that many of them will side with you.
If the military does attack, stand firm, but be prepared to give up ground and reform elsewhere. Do not simply scatter and give up. In the face of a military advance, pass along word of a secondary rallying point. And send an advance team to secure that area and prepare.
Remember, martial law and the establishment of dictatorship will only succeed if we let it. Know that if you do nothing as martial law is declared and nothing as they come for your neighbors, then the day will arrive when they come for you. Or you will be left to answer for what has happened while you were looking the other way and going on with your own life.
We, the people, have the power, and never let us forget that.
Abolish the Fed, for a Start
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
31/08/07 (www.mountainsentinel.com) The Federal Reserve Bank should be abolished. It is a private institution, not a branch of the federal government, given the right to print money and so control our economy. It was established in defiance of the constitution and the intentions of our founding fathers, who rebelled against the central bank of England as much as against King George. The Fed is responsible for our system of debt financing, which is nothing more than a legalized pyramid scheme.
Thomas Jefferson warned us explicitly against ever establishing a central bank: "The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."
It certainly appears that Jefferson knew what he was talking about.
However, if we are aiming to solve our socioeconomic and environmental problems, we cannot stop at dismantling the Fed. The Fed was, after all, only established as an instrument of powerful corporations and financiers. And the history of the United States in the decades prior to the establishment of the Fed is a story of oppression and class warfare. Working people were being starved and mistreated in this country long before the establishment of the Fed. The working class had to fight for everything from their right to vote to their right to earn a decent wage. Worker movements were violently suppressed by the federal government and private militias. The Great Upheaval of 1877 is the story of how worker unrest almost toppled the entire government, from the Atlantic the Mississippi.
No, our problems lie much deeper than the establishment of the Fed. At the heart of our problems is the nature of the business world. We live in a democracy, yet most of us spend our working days chained to the yoke of the most authoritarian form of dictatorship. Social democracy cannot succeed while the work world is a dictatorship. The powerful players of the business world will wind up corrupting the government until it listens only to them and is transformed into fascism.
Thomas Jefferson warned us against the powers of corporations as well: "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
Abolishing the Fed would do nothing to solve this deeper problem, which is more basic to social inequality and injustice. Some of the most notable advocates of abolishing the Fed say nothing about the dictatorship of the workplace or the power of corporations. Civil libertarians such as Ron Paul, who do campaign for the abolition of the Fed, also support trimming the government down to nothing and leaving all the power directly in the hands of the corporations. They never talk about the dictatorship of the workplace, opting instead to lavish praise on the free market.
Now, I am all for the abolition of the Fed and centralized government. Yet if we were to move to some laissez-faire socioeconomic system, then we will wind up in an even worse situation than in 1877, when the working class was so totally oppressed that they rose up all over the country. For the working class, the outcome of laissez-faire will be starvation wages, epidemic homelessness, 14 hour workdays for those who have a job, and child labor.
William Blum has done a very good job of pointing out errors of Libertarians. Scan down through his Anti-Empire Report for August 10th, 2007, until you reach the heading "Libertarians: an eccentric blend of anarchy and runaway capitalism." http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer48.htm
Mr. Blum explains what would happen if we did away with government and left corporations in charge of the system. But this is not to say that we need a powerful centralized government. There is another way.
By all means, let's abolish the Fed and dismantle the centralized federal government and replace it with localized federations where all decisions must be ratified by the local citizens. At the same time, let us not neglect corporate power. Let us replace workplace dictatorship with workplace democracy and return corporations back to the community-chartered endeavors that they once were. This is the way to maximize equality and freedom while ensuring a just socioeconomic system.
Technology Addicts
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Cartoon Day
27/08/07 (www.mountainsentinel.com) When I was a child, Saturday was my favorite day of the week. On Saturday, all of the networks ran cartoons from early morning until noon. All morning, I would veg out while watching my favorite shows, with occasional breaks to bounce around the room pretending I was some superhero.
One day I was strolling along the shore of one of the Great Lakes with my father and my Grandfather. Somehow I must have brought up the subject of Saturday morning cartoons. My dad told me that when he was a kid, they did not have televisions. My Grandfather took it one step farther, stating that when he was my age, they did not even have radios. I thought about this for a moment, then I turned to my Grandfather and asked, "What did you do on Cartoon Day?"
My Grandfather was born right after the turn of the century, at the beginning of the technological explosion that was the Twentieth Century. When he was a child, they had no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no phone. He lived on a farm where they produced almost everything they needed, or they went without. There were no superstores, no convenience stores, and no strip malls. Every few weeks they went to town for supplies. Otherwise, they made do with what they had.
If they wanted to go somewhere, they walked. Or they hitched up the horse to the wagon. If they needed to travel more than 20 miles, they boarded a train. For the most part, however, everything they needed could be found at home, or within a five mile radius.
For entertainment, they visited with neighbors and relatives. They socialized. They practiced the nearly lost art of story telling. They read the newspaper for both information and entertainment. Books were cherished, and were read and reread, and passed along to be shared. A trip to the library was like a visit to a candy shop.
If they wanted to listen to music, they played an instrument, whistled, and sang. Or they visited with someone who did these things. Music was a live phenomenon, generally associated with dancing and socializing. The first recorded music was a novelty that did not compare to live music, due to the poor recording quality.
They discussed the events of the day, and they planned together to meet all contingencies. They lived in the moment. The reality of their day was the reality of their immediate environment, from which they derived all of their sensory input and most of their information.
For the most part, people were content. They were used to the discomforts and hardships of daily life, and they took solace in the quality of life they provided for themselves. They took pride in their work, and they found fulfillment not only in what they did, but in what they shared with others.
Within three generations, all of this had changed. By the time I was born, we were living in an artificial world where everything was canned, even our view of reality. The informed and capable population had been transformed into consumers. Reality had become the stores we shopped at, the products we purchased, and the mass media entertainment which kept us distracted. Work had become the meaningless production of widgets, the juggling of accompanying data, or the service of selling those widgets to other consumers. Our social life consisted of shopping, going to the movies, or visiting some amusement park. Our physical reality was bounded by the confines of our car, our home, and our office or factory. We had traded fulfillment and sufficiency for comfort and convenience.
Isolation & Artifice
I did not get my driver's license until I was eighteen. I never liked cars the way many boys did, and I avoided being assimilated by contemporary society as much as possible. When I finally did get my driver's license, it was because of necessity. I could not work and go to college otherwise.
When I started driving, one of my first observations was how confining cars are. Previously I had walked, bicycled or hitchhiked wherever I needed to go. In doing so, I interacted much more directly with the environment around me. I talked to neighbors and friends, I traveled through woods and fields, and through less traveled byways. All my travels were adventures where I explored the world around me, made new friends and visited with old friends.
From a speeding car, the world I had known intimately sped by outside my windows. I was divorced from it even as I sped through it. I was isolated in the artificial environment of my car interior. My travel was confined to the roads built for automotive travel, especially the highways, interstates, and other major roads. The other people I encountered were no longer interesting interactions, but merely obstacles that got in my way and that fought with me for supremacy on the road. The easy going days of wandering were replaced by the frenzied rush to get where I was going, and road rage.
The car had divorced me from the world around me and substituted a hostile and artificial environment in its place. The road took me only to commercial establishments where I could only socialize as a consumer.
In the late 1970s the first walkman appeared, and I began seeing people walking through the neighborhood, riding bikes and even driving cars with headphones on. I was struck by how cut off they were from the environment around them. Here they were walking through a neighborhood or hiking through a park, and a big part of their sensory input was something artificial and completely divorced from the reality around them. Someone could sneak up on them without them even hearing it. They were cut off and removed from the moment; they were not living in the moment, they were living in an abstraction.
Over the past century our lives and what we perceive as reality have increasingly become an abstraction. We no longer provide for ourselves. We buy everything we need prepackaged from stores. Most of us don't even know where the meat we eat came from. If we did, few of us would eat it. We have removed ourselves from the sacred act of obtaining food. Food has become a commodity, and the living things that provide it, be they plants or animals, have become things that we treat with complete disrespect.
We spend most of our lives in artificial environments, either in our cars, our place of business or our homes. All of our input there is artificial and abstracted. Recently, my family has moved into an apartment with central air. We kept the windows open and the fans on until it grew too hot to do so. The noise of the neighborhood was disturbing, but it tied us to the world around us. When we finally closed the windows, it was like living in a vacuum. The apartment was quiet and stifling. We finally compromised by keeping the windows open enough so that we could interact with the world outside, but not so much that they would completely compromise the air conditioner. We would not even turn the air conditioner on, but that would make it impossible to do anything in this apartment except swelter.
This gives me some clue as to why so many people must keep their television on even when they are not watching it. Their house is an artificial, closed environment, lacking the normal sensory input of a real environment. It is unnatural. And the television makes them feel like they are a part of something. It gives them the impression that they are interacting with the world around them. Of course, they are not interacting with anything. They are simply being subjected to mindless stimulation.
Studies have shown that our critical mind turns off as we watch television. We disengage and zone out. It is, in fact, the perfect frame of mind for indoctrination and brainwashing. And it is in this condition that we take in the vast majority of our sensory input, from which we build our view of reality. Our reality is dictated to us by news shows, talk shows, sitcoms and one hour dramas. Increasingly, the world we react to is the world created, edited and framed by Hollywood and the network studios. We draw our view of reality more from this artificial stimulus than from the neighborhood where we live.
Throw in video games, pop music, and the internet and our view of reality becomes increasing divorced from reality — divorced and perverted.
The internet is a very powerful tool. Without it neither I nor many other people would have a voice. It is one of the few avenues left for free communication, the distribution of information and news, and the promotion of critical thinking. Yet, when I hear people talk about internet communities, I have to shake my head. And when I find people on various forums who must spend much of their time reading and posting on the internet, I wonder if it has become a substitute for real social interaction.
It is great that we can use the internet to inform ourselves, and to communicate with others the whole world over. Yet most of this communication remains on the internet, and as such it is an innocuous outlet. Sure we are informed, but that does not do anything if the most we do with that information is to sign an online petition or email our Congressperson.
Though we are informed, we do nothing to change the direction in which the world is heading. Why? Because that would call for initiative and effort. That would require us to get up out of our chairs, leave our comfortable homes, communicate directly with other people, organize and take action. And all of our technology has bred us for comfort and convenience. Getting out of that chair and actually doing something requires too much effort. And besides, all of our media input tells us the world is a dangerous place and our efforts are bound to fail. You can't fight city hall, much less the corporations.
And the technology continues to advance. Now we have ipods and cell phones. Next it is a handheld unit that combines the ipod, the cell phone and the internet all rolled into one. Next will come a headband that incorporates all of the above and transmits the input directly to the brain. And finally there will be an implant.
Comfort & Convenience
I estimate that at least 90% of our technology consists of innovations in comfort and convenience. Perhaps all of it. Dish washers, clothes washers, vacuum cleaners, power saws, drill motors, heaters, air conditioners, refrigerators, the automobile, the telephone, the cell phone, television, computers, the internet, all of these can be classified as technological comforts, conveniences, or both.
Water always seeks its lowest level. And it is human nature to always look for the easiest way to do things. There is a temptation to say that it is all about the conservation of energy. Yet it takes more energy to run a dishwasher than it does to wash dishes by hand. And when you take into consideration the production of the dishwasher itself, it is more environmentally destructive. The same could be said of any other technology. What technology does is to displace the energy costs and the entropy costs of previously un‑automated chores. Yet it invariably does so at an added energy and entropy cost. Over time, these costs do add up, even when you have an abundant source of energy such as fossil fuels.
While each technological advance appears to make life a little easier, it also robs us of something, something intrinsic yet extremely valuable. Each comfort and convenience removes us farther from the real world and robs us of the achievement of coping with that real world. Each advance makes us more dependent on technology, and less inclined to do and think for ourselves. It diminishes our self-sufficiency, and in so doing erodes our freedom.
We become dependent upon technology and upon the system that provides it and the energy to run it. We forget how to do things for ourselves. At one time, people made their own soap. The first commercially available soap was a novelty. Then people found that it was easier to buy a bar of soap or a box of detergent than it was to make it themselves. Now very few people have a clue how to make their own soap. Purchasing soap has gone from a novelty to a necessity. And this same process occurs with every technological innovation, no matter how seemingly trivial.
Along the way, the public is transformed from self-sufficient, informed citizens capable of thinking and doing for themselves, into consumers led by the nose and driven by urges. We become weak, lazy and easily manipulated. We become a nation of obese, soft-headed cattle, addicted to technology, dependent upon the providers of that technology, and always hungry for the next innovation, and quick to turn it from a novelty into a necessity.
We have become technological gods, but we are quickly losing our ability to survive without our technology. Within the next few advances of technology, once chipping augments our ability to think then we will quickly devolve into technology-enhanced zombies. We will lose the ability to even think without the aid of technology, much less to survive. You may laugh and say this is farfetched, but it is not. The technology for inserting microchips into human beings already exists, along with plans to use this technology to monitor the public. And the technology that will allow microchipped computers to interface with the human brain is in the works. Considering the recent scramble to purchase iphones, consumers ought to be delirious over a brain implant that could do the same.
(As an aside, I am personally so removed from these new technologies that I had not heard of the iphone until just a couple months ago. And I had to look up the name of it for this article.)
Speculation on future technology aside, we are now so addicted to our technology and so lost without it that much of the population would not survive if they had to revert to a pre-technological lifestyle. Civilization would come crashing down if even a portion of our technology was to fail. In fact, our civilization would probably crumble if our technology simply became more expensive to support, or if energy depletion led to rationing, brown-outs and black-outs.
Spoiled Brats
Recently the phenomenon of Bee Colony Collapse Disorder has been in the news. It has led to a lot of speculation and not a little hysteria. According to studies of apiaries (bee farmers), across the United States, nearly 50% of the bee hives failed between September of 2006 and March of 2007. In some places the rate of collapse was as high as 90%. And a similar failure has been noticed in wild bees. This is extremely important when you consider that almost everything that grows depends upon bees for pollination.
Until a few months ago, no one had any clue as to what was causing the collapses. There was speculation about pathogens, susceptibility to pesticides, some problem caused by genetically modified crops, and a swarm of other possibilities. Many people considered that cell phone towers might be a leading contender. The electromagnetic signals emitted by cell phone towers are known to disrupt the communication and navigation abilities of honeybees.
While the speculation was rife, I began asking people if they would part with their cell phones if it should turn out that they were the culprit behind Colony Collapse Disorder. While some people were troubled by the loss of pollinators, none of them made any indication that they would be willing to part with their cell phone.
Subsequent studies have eliminated cell phone towers as a suspect. It appears that there is a pathogen at work here, though a specific pathogen has not yet been identified. When fresh bees from Australia were introduced to a collapsed hive that had been left untouched, they also quickly failed. When the hive was first cleaned out but not completely disinfected, the bees had a very hard time of it. But when the hive had been thoroughly disinfected, the bees did well. These experiments are sufficient to conclude that the culprit is a pathogen.
So cell phones are of the hook. Yet the consuming public is not.
Had cell phone towers been the culprit, would we have torn them down, rather than risk the collapse of all agriculture? No way. The cell phone companies would have pointed to the massive financial losses they would have sustained, and they would have been backed up by millions of consumers whining to keep their cell phones.
There are many other problems associated with cell phones and cell phone towers, and it will be some time before we will know the full effects of massive cell phone use on the environment and on public health. So tell me, will you give up your cell phone? Would you give it up if it had been the culprit behind Colony Collapse Disorder? Be honest with yourself.
For my part, I will state that I have never owned a cell phone and have no intention to purchase one. My daughter has a cell phone which was given to her by her mom. And my wife has one that was given to her by my step-son, but she has not used it since it ran out of minutes months ago. I can see the convenience of owning a cell phone, but I have no desire to wear a phone on my belt. I like my privacy, and I don't much enjoy even talking on a land line.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that we are addicted to our technology. We would not freely give it up even if our lives were threatened by it. If our use of and access to technology is impinged even slightly, we will scream bloody murder. While we may talk big about the need for sustainability and a healthy environment, we would easily sacrifice the rest of the world to maintain our technological addiction, all for the sake of our comfort and convenience.
And our leaders know this. As Dick Cheney said, the American lifestyle is not up for debate. Since WWII, our foreign policy has revolved around a single point: making sure the US public — and US corporations — have first pick of the rest of the world's resources. Many, many people have been killed and tortured for our comforts and convenience, many movements for democracy, equality and social justice have been put down, and many governments that sought to address the concerns of their own citizens have been toppled. The result has been large scale environmental destruction, desperation, and terrorism, while our gluttony has quickly depleted the world's resources.
It is doubtful that we will change. It is extremely unlikely that we will wake up any time soon and choose to go cold turkey. Certainly, a few of us will do that. But most of us will not. Most of us will talk a good talk and mean well, and we will sit back and wait for a technological solution to the problems we face. But technology does not produce solutions. It only produces comforts and conveniences.
When those comforts and conveniences are impinged, we will scream bloody murder. We may even riot and hang a few gas station owners, shoot a few Arabs and drag a few Mexicans behind our cars. But we will not be revolting for change and responsibility, we will whining for our comforts and conveniences.
And we will line up at the stores to receive our implants, so that we can have our own personal interface with technology, and become thoroughly monitored and managed in a new corporate police state. And when our technology ultimately collapses, most of us will die from our inability to provide for ourselves. And the majority of those who are left will be little more than serfs, serving their corporate feudal lords.
We are a society of addicts. We have been addicted since birth. As such, we all fit the psychological profile of addicts; we are all subject to the dysfunction, the codependency and the denial of addiction. No wonder why everywhere you go, people behave the way they do. Our leaders know this. In fact, they depend upon it. No one is as easily controlled as an addict. Our corporations are all pushers, and our economy is a gigantic methadone program.
Wake up people, or resign yourselves!
Hello. My name is Dale, and I am a technology addict.
What is Bush up to Anyway?
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
25/08/07 (www.mountainsentinel.com) This is a question many people are no doubt asking. With most of the US population turning against him, and a rising number of people calling for his impeachment, Bush pushes on with his plans. Over the last few months, he has strengthened his arguments that he is above the law. He refuses to answer to Congress, and instead manages to bend the legislature to his own will. And during the last few months, he has rammed through legislation and signed executive orders which set the stage for a transition into martial law and dictatorship.
"But that could never happen. The public would never stand for it." Just as the public never would have stood for many of the things that have happened over the last several years, including the torture of POW's and domestic spying? The public has become beside the point.
For myself, I would consider that Bush was laying the groundwork whereby a future President (Giuliani perhaps) could establish a dictatorship and a total police state. However, it is in neither Bush nor Cheney's makeup to leave anyone else to reap the fruits of their own hard work. If the hand of martial law is to be played, it will happen within the next year, before the 2008 elections.
Our economy is already collapsing. The Fed's remedy has been to dump more funny money into the market and lower the interest rates. These actions may give the market a moment's breath, yet in the long run (and not very long at that) they will only be adding fuel to fire. Economic collapse is one of the conditions under which Bush now has the right to suspend the constitution and declare martial law.
In the meantime, Bush will press an attack upon Iran. This new war will tie up any troops that remain uncommitted, and assure that there are no military troops or national guard left within the United States to handle internal policing problems. An attack upon Iran would probably lead to conflict throughout the Middle East, disturb the flow of oil and lead to a crisis in energy prices, and perhaps the availability of energy itself. If Bush attacks Iran, we may very well see blackouts spreading throughout the US within a year. And then there is always the possibility that terrorists might retaliate within the US, or an apparent retaliation might be staged.
Here is the scenario then. Bush attacks Iran. The economy collapses and we experience an energy crisis. Warning of terrorist attacks and civil unrest, Bush declares martial law, suspending the constitution and presidential elections. Dissidents and dissenters are rounded up and interred into camps built and operated by Kellog, Root and Brown, and staffed by Blackwater security personnel. During subsequent years, the consolidation of North America picks up speed, and the economic collapse is used to put a new regional currency in place, the Amero.
Sound implausible? I certainly hope so. Yet I am afraid that we will see something very much along these lines. Watch the latest videos on this website for more information on how all of this has been engineered, and an account of a previous attempt to establish fascism in the US, on the eve of WWII.
Sarah Meyer has put together a US Martial Law Timeline. This site serves to archive all the important news releases, editorials and legislation concerning the US move towards dictatorship. It is a great resource for understanding what is going on. US Martial Law Timeline
Solutions and Positive Assessments
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
(www.mountainsentinel.com) Aug. 24th, 2007. I was asked to review Escape from Suburbia, the latest effort by the director of The End of Suburbia. Now, I could have offered up a bit of saccharine dripping prose and let it go at that. It would have pleased everyone connected with the film without making waves. But it would not be honest. It is too late in the game to simply go on pleasing people. It is time to be honest, even if it hurts.
Escape from Suburbia was supposed to show how people who are aware of energy depletion and the other problems that threaten to destroy our civilization are dealing with it. The film follows the efforts of three groups of people, a gay couple from New York, a single mother from Toronto, and a couple of well-educated hippies from Oregon. It also looks at the fate of a community garden in LA and the efforts of a small town in California. Along the way there are lots of blurbs by the talking heads of peak oil.
The most honest and informative segments of the documentary are the portions following the couple from New York and the scenes about the South Central Community Farm in LA. The couple in New York came across as very concerned, both for themselves and for others. They could find no easy answers, and their efforts at community organizing and learning essential skills only served to make them aware of how truly desperate the situation is. They do not want to be trapped in New York when things start breaking down, yet they do not know where to go or how to provide for themselves once they get there. In the end, their situation remains unresolved. They continue to take what steps they can, learning survival skills while looking for a way out of New York.
The portion of the film dealing with South Central Community Farm illustrates both the vulnerability of community gardens within our socioeconomic system and the plight of poorer people in dealing with what is to come. The story of the SCC Farm should stand as a warning beacon to all community farms. They only exist by the grace of corporations and government. Until community gardens are recognized as vital to community health and are protected by law, they will remain vulnerable whenever the government or some powerful investor wishes to appropriate the land. As long as we continue to live under the current socioeconomic system, then community gardens will require strong legal protections to keep them safe.
The fate of SCC Farm, taken in conjunction with the fate of New Orleans' poorer residents, demonstrates that the poor will not be cared for. Instead they will be preyed upon and will suffer the brunt of the coming collapse. In truth, the working class, and in particular the lower working class, is the alternative energy source the elite intend to use to replace their consumption of fossil fuels. And this is the system they are quietly working to set in place.
I have said elsewhere (Mountain Sentinel Vol. 1, No. 4) that we must recognize that relocalization is a radical idea. It is radical because it seeks to replace the dominant system with one that is more healthy and equitable for all. And whenever a radical movement rises to threaten the dominant system, it must fight for its survival or be crushed ruthlessly.
So far, relocalization has posed no threat to the dominant system. Where it is happening at all, it is marginalized. Most people are not even aware of it, and it holds little appeal to them. They prefer to shop at Walmart, drive their SUVs and yak on their cell phones. But when relocalization efforts do become visible, and when society has collapsed to the point that relocalization begins to appeal to the masses, then you can be certain that government and corporations will do their best to stamp it out. Either that or subvert it so that it is made profitable to them.
The other two case studies in the documentary are less realistic. The single mother in Toronto is a successful ad exec, who is turning her attention to preparing the city and its suburbs for the transition. She seems to believe that the best solution can only come from within the dominant system. Her efforts are to enhance the greening of energy depletion preparedness. We see her chumming up with optimistic local politicians. In one scene, she drives through a suburb while talking about how the people there will be fortunate that they can grow food on their yards.
Such might be the case if technological collapse were as simple as turning off a light switch and waking up one morning aware of what needs to be done and possessing all the skills and experience necessary to do so. On the contrary, the collapse of complex systems is a very messy thing where each little failure has unforeseen consequences, until many such failures manage to bring the whole system crashing down.
Maybe people in the suburbs will be able grow food on their yards, if they can keep their houses. The problem is that most of them will lose their houses in the economic crash which will probably be the first major effect of energy depletion. This is already happening. Once gasoline prices rise to the point that they can no longer afford to drive to work (if they have a job left), then they will not be able to make their house payments. Nor will they have the money to invest in turning their yard into a garden, or to pay their water bills so they can irrigate that garden.
Even if they do manage to hang on to their homes and grow food in their yard, how will they heat that house in the winter and cool it in the summer. All houses built in the last 60 years are designed for artificial heating and cooling. Without that furnace or central air, they will be very uncomfortable places at best. Sure, a wood stove can be added to help heat the place in the winter. But if everyone living in a suburb turns to wood stoves, where will they get the wood?
And what do you do when the water and sewer system fail? Dig a community latrine. What about water for bathing and washing clothes? Never mind the water to irrigate those gardens. And don't forget that where many people dwell close together without adequate sanitation, disease and plague will rear their ugly heads.
These are only two examples of problems that communities will probably face. In the collapse of a complex technological society, there will be many such problems, some of which are simply unforeseeable. And many of these problems will reinforce each other, making the situation even worse.
Finally we have the couple moving from Oregon to an ecovillage in Canada. This story is very appealing, and it is my hope that they succeed. Those of us who are aware of what is to come would all like to join such an ecovillage. Unfortunately, most of us cannot due to various circumstances. To be honest, if all of us were able to do so, all of the existing or possible ecovillages would quickly be overpopulated. And if this inundation did not lead to their collapse, then the movement would quickly grow big enough to present that threat to the dominant society that I mentioned earlier.
Ecovillages and retreats into the wilderness will face a number of problems in the coming years. If they are not successful in making themselves self-contained, then their economic connections to the outside world will be susceptible. If they manage to succeed they will attract attention as the surrounding society decays. It is possible that they might be viewed as a threat by the elite, in which case they will have to fight for survival or risk being subverted. They may have to defend themselves from brigands and starving, homeless masses. Or they may find that their land is appropriated for its resources. They had best be prepared to defend their ecovillage with whatever it takes.
Among these various case studies there was ample commentary by the talking heads of peak oil. Much of this commentary could have been chopped from the film with little loss. None of the talking heads of peak oil featured in the film are truly experts on the subject. None of them are even scientists. Their greatest talent seems to be self-promotion.
I would like to have seen the documentary follow some case studies of people who do not have multiple degrees, lucrative jobs, or the necessary skill sets to make an easy transition. This would have made the film more honest in its portrayal. The closest thing the film offers to this substrata of society is the couple from New York and the SCC Farm.
Perhaps the poor remain unaware of the approaching crisis, or perhaps they simply do not want to know about it. It could be that they have their hands full trying to survive from day to day, much less worrying about the future. It could be that they are well indoctrinated to the dominant system and believe that our "leaders" will save us. They might think that these problems are moot because the ascension and the apocalypse will take place before resource depletion and environmental destruction ever take their toll. Or it could be that they see there is very little they can do to prepare and are so frightened of what lies ahead that they simply cannot allow themselves to think about it.
This documentary would have been much more helpful if it had looked at the majority of the public that remains unaware of the problem. It could have focused on efforts to wake people up, and explored the reasons why people try to keep their eyes closed to the approaching crisis. That would have been very informative and most helpful. Show people working through all the stages of grief, and how best to deal with them.
To be fair, that may have been beyond the mandate of this film. While I can't say for certain, I suspect that the financers of this documentary were looking for a positive message about how people are preparing for energy depletion and the environmental crisis. I know that in my own experience, the publishing industry is not interested in the story unless positive solutions can be offered. For their part, they say that the public does not want to hear about a problem without a solution. I have had to bow to this in my own writings.
What is really needed is a documentary or a book on how to wake people up, with real case studies. If the general population does not wake up to the full scope of the problem then there is no solution. Or rather, the solution which will be put into place will entail the exploitation of everyone and everything for the continued benefit and domination of the elite.
If you want an honest note of salvation then this is all that I can offer you. Everyone needs to wake up damn soon. The population needs to wake up and understand that they cannot trust the solution of this problem to anyone but themselves. And then they must act. And if this does not happen in short order, then we are all fucked.
