"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
|
"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
|
|
|
|
The answer is to expand the public space at the expense of the private space. Such measures
The ultimate goal that democratic forces wish to attain is the institution of an effectively egalitarian society with freedom and justice for all. Such a society is capable of ordering itself with simple, open and rule based electoral systems. The problem is how to go about reversing a trend toward
What if they built all those concentration camps and had no one to put in them? Our current plutocratic leadership is stone cold crazy, both paranoid and psychotic. It is never a good idea to assault crazy people directly. The conclusion I am forced to come to is that, if a society is serious about enjoying truly democratic rule, it must first achieve a measure of economic egalitarianism. The path to this goal seems to be best served by progressive forces withdrawing from the conventional economy dominated by regressive folks and choosing instead into move toward cooperative and mutual aid associations in order to create an alternative economy that is strong enough to meet basic needs. It is usually impossible to slay the beast of concentrated wealth outright, but it is possible to bleed it until it is too weak to assert dominance. An economic system that is impoverishing the majority of the population does not deserve our support or participation. A well-written and insightful exposition of this point of view is presented by Daniel Quinn in his small book Beyond Civilization. Almost anything that substitutes local sources of goods and services for corporate ones extracts another drop of blood from the beast. It doesn't seem like very much at the time, but every effort to feed, clothe, house and care for ourselves that does not send money toward the center of the exploitive economy are blows that can, when taken cumulatively, weaken the beast to the point of harmlessness. Barter, local currencies, gift exchange systems such as Free Cycle, farmer's markets, back yard gardens and, of course, any form of collective labor action, are all complementary efforts. In an odd way, the reactionary forces will be helping us with our struggle to be free, as they progressively destroy social programs and public services. If they are no longer able to control the meager sources of survival represented by such programs as food stamps, Social Security and unemployment entitlements, then people will be forced to begin to depend on each other, and in the process develop a greater social consciousness and a greater commitment to egalitarian values. When reactionary forces no longer are running the schools, students can be taught real history and economics rather than the grossly distorted versions currently taught. When exploiters no longer have a medical care system to run, then folks will need to start to learn self-help, mutual care and viable alternative treatments that are not industrially based. When we have freed ourselves from economic oppression, we can begin again the process of constructing a society committed to social justice that is organized at regional and national levels. But to try to reform the current system from within before achieving some degree of economic equality is just an expression of wishful thinking. Besides, such a futuristic society will be well-served by growing out of a culture of self reliance and local community organizing. It will be stronger and more sustainable, more just and more fun. So the true revolutionary in these times does not seek decisive confrontations with immoral authority, knowing such confrontations will only lead to a general destruction and immense suffering. Better to kill the beast with a thousand wounds. Learn to reject the "gifts" of the corporate society for what they are, poisoned apples with a pleasant appearance and a deadly effect on our freedoms. For instance, in many marginal communities every household, no matter how poor, seems to have cable TV. A local campaign to encourage people to cancel cable service, and substitute the sharing of DVDs instead, could immediately increase, in effect, every households after-tax income by forty or more dollars a month and provide commercial free access to (last season's) favorite network programming to boot. Personal and community gardens, especially if combined with cooperative canning operations, could shift even larger amounts of cash away from the corporate economy and allow for community investment in locally-supported public services, such as cooperative day care or cooperative home schooling. A local community that organized to purchase and share a T1 line and distributed service wirelessly could recoup the exorbitant charges for the grossly inadequate internet services currently being offered, and avoid the kind of censorship the big corporate providers are gradually instituting. As gas prices soar, locally organized ride share and informal taxi services will become attractive. Available options are limitless. Some forms of these alternatives are being used successfully right now in scattered communities across the country. When we start listening to each other, rather than to the voice of authority shouting at us through the mass media, we will be able to learn from successful efforts how to institute these self help measures in our own communities. The importance of these self-help cooperative activities lies primarily in the experience that people will gain in organizing themselves to meet their needs and the consequent retreat of a culture of dependency and the infanitilization of the populace that unavoidably accompanies dependence on centralized and authoritarian power. We will end up with fewer toys and more self-respect. When the reactionary forces pull the corporate teat from the mouths of poor and economically marginal people, they will have struck a major blow against themselves because folks will no longer have an alternative to taking up the work of mutual aid in service of survival. Hence, I am encouraged as I see the rapidly expanding efforts by our corporate elite to impose austere living conditions on the population in an effort to wring the last measure of concentration of wealth from our society. When we are no longer dependent on them they will become irrelevant. Authoritarianism and centralized control will become an anachronism, and we will begin to live as more complete humans expressing such human ethical and moral values as democratic rule, social justice and mutual respect. I look forward. © by the author.
|
|
