Capitalism’s worst crisis in a generation has seen the personalizing of social problems proceed with a vengeance usually reserved for foreign leaders . While we have long had our collective consciousness shaped into despising individual alien monsters, like Hitler, Saddam, or Osama, the recent hit list of bad guys is composed mostly of Americans. There is always some hatred generated for whoever fronts for corporate capital and allegedly presides over the system, like Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama, but it hasn't yet led to embargoes or bombing raids on the American people. That is reserved for the foreign bad guys and used as rationale for mass murder. But this economic crisis finds new home grown satanic villains , made to seem responsible for the near total demise of the financial system, if not capitalism itself.
Like the AIG execs whose bonuses led to manipulated public outcry, with congressional weasels - who normally bankroll wealth with the wages of workers - joining in expressions of shocked outrage. That these criminally overpaid hustlers were to receive bonuses which, in total, amounted to about .006% of what taxpayers had already tossed into the AIG investor class coffers mostly passed unnoticed, while the outrage at them has been programmed into a collective vein bursting rage, including idiotic death threats. We have taken 80% ownership of AIG, but with 0% control, under the direction of the same government hypocrites howling about what amounts to chump change by comparison. This is part of the program to serve the rich by robbing the public purse, and to further savage public consciousness in the process.
And in that trend, no demonized monster has incurred more anger and vindictive hatred than Bernard Madoff. He is the supposed king of Ponzi schemers, in a system that has been nothing more than a massive Ponzi scheme for years now. While an honest appraisal of what he is alleged to have done would guarantee him sainthood among the pantheon of charlatans who have helped build the imaginary foundation of modern capitalism, poor Bernie has become the daddy of all satanic creations.
First the unashamed public hand wringing about a jew who dared to take advantage of other jews, and then the sheepish discovery that he had taken even greater advantage of the majority non-jews. After this, a nonsectarian, more generally inclusive chorus of “how could he do this to us”, mostly coming from people so wealthy that they could afford their losses without any pain at all, but including some gullible enough to contradict the old axiom about not putting all your eggs in one basket. These people saw their individual fortunes vanish overnight, but those fortunes were really never there in the first place, and if Bernie had not become tired and worn by his hustle he might still be inducing greed mongers to jump on his bandwagon and make money by investing in themselves, while believing someone else was providing the loss for their profit.
As the nation spins through a cycle only the neanderthal right can call socialism, the public sinks into trillions more dollars in debt to bail out the system which has created our problems. But we are to think only about individual villains who are the supposed cause of all that has gone wrong, which is like blaming a meteorologist for a hurricane. Having an individual demon to despise keeps people from questioning the system which creates such negative icons, thereby making it safe for our rulers to continue ruling while the scapegoats they advertise for public consumption arouse the anger that should be directed at them.
As the new N word - nationalize - becomes more unspeakable than the other N word, taxpayers take majority ownership of financial institutions, but exercise absolutely no control over them, entrusting that to the same people who ran these billion dollar cathedrals for wealth worshippers into the financial fiascos they have become. Meanwhile, we are supposed to hate outrageously overpaid CEOs who have existed for nearly a generation now but who have escaped any scrutiny until this moment. This, while the slack jaws of the right screech about socialism, communism, and the end of free enterprise, which has never begun for most Americans, and what passes for the left shudders in fear that it will be judged extreme if it does anything more than shudder in fear.
Far worse then Bernie and the Scapegoats were the Enron swindlers, who literally stole their employee’s pension funds. Those people were left with nothing for their retirement, but now we are to grieve for fund losers who may not be able to visit the Bahamas as often as they used to, and have watched their dividends based on derivatives based on leveraging based on lies, vanish from the imaginary world of religious finance. While thousands of Americans lose homes, jobs and health care, the imaginary wealth generated and lost by a tiny minority at the top incurs manipulated majority wrath directed at their agents and servants, but without question for them, and the corrupt economy within which the entire criminal conspiracy operates.
In places like El Salvador and France, new governments are elected and millions march in the streets in protest, while here, we are moved to hate scapegoats while worshipping and financing their creators. A public divided into identity groups and relatively powerless unions becomes easy to work into a frenzy over individual villains while kept from noticing that the problem is the social institution and not its individual sales and accounting staff. Hopefully, and before it’s too late, we can learn from the example of other nations and social movements, which are demanding and getting radical social change , rather than accepting the status quo by their forced concentration on punishing individual celebrity villains.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Five Hundred Years of Global Terror
An era that began in the 15th century may be coming to an end, and though we should hardly expect neat, quick and final solutions to the problems it has created , there is reason for hope . Humanity faces potential calamities both in social and natural environments, but we may also be entering an age of peace and prosperity. If we continue the western dualist mode of profit or loss, win or lose, either one or the other, and do not create balance between extremes, failure seems certain.
Our numerous dilemmas can be described as political, or economic, or natural , if dealt with in the failing model. But most of our problems are directly related to the system of political economics which treats all of nature, including humanity , as profit creating commodities for sale, purchase, rent or hire in a market. This social reality is accompanied by the attempted shaping of individuals into ethical, moral beings, in total contradiction to the antithetical immorality of the profit or loss system which rules the marketplace, and most subdivisions of religious franchise within its massive global mall.
Shattering any balance between individual and social behavior can make it possible for humans to attend a church, temple or mosque, seek guidance through immaterial spirituality, and perform material acts of love, charity and humanity through these religious organizations. Then, stepping out of religion and into material reality of another kind, they can be manipulated into supporting racial hatred , theft, cheating and the mass murder of wars. Separating the self and the society in this destructive way has offered a rationale for all our worst social behaviors . The present age is one in which the overarching rule of nature seems to be telling us, at least those willing and able to heed its message, that the natural world can no longer tolerate such treatment. Much of humanity , especially the great majority who have borne the burdens of what we call western civilization, is also indicating that they can no longer tolerate living in a way that makes it possible for a minority to lavish in luxury while billions live in squalor, pain and misery.
Many would call this an age old story which mankind has been involved in for millennia, and they would be at least partly correct. What is new is that the condition of injustice is not only being found intolerable by growing numbers of humans, but by nature itself . If this epoch does not pass into history with some form of uncharacteristic grace because of democratic decisions made by reasonably enlightened and hopeful people, it may well go out in the worst tragedy mankind has ever experienced, outside of mythology and legend.
The handwriting has long been on the wall, but even with a new leadership which seems to have the capacity to read , there is still a serious lack of comprehension . Instead of seeing a profound message for radical change, they are reading graffiti which they think can be safely erased by a new coat of paint. An emerging global majority must take action and control away from the destructive forces of the status quo. We need to understand that humanity can no longer be economized, socialized and governed in the same way that it has been during this era, because nature itself, both through its social populations in revolt, and its natural systems in breakdown, will no longer allow it.
The political economics of our time began in the latter part of the 15th century, when europe discovered, developed and colonized much of the rest of the world. That same age was one of invasion, slavery and mass terror for those who had the misfortune to be discovered, developed and colonized. Long struggles helped end overt colonialism after the second world war,though it began anew in Palestine. But the neo colonialism of the west continues to this day, with domination of much of the world still coming from western capitalism, enforced by massive military power . While imperial capital is still capable of mass destruction and murder beyond any previous earthly force, it’s total rule is coming to an end. That is good news for humanity, but it is provoking hysteria among those most wedded to the dying order. And these hysterics are armed with nuclear weapons, which they have used in the past and threaten to use in the future, while they rail about alleged threats coming from those they have abused for centuries.
Some see the present crisis as limited to finance capital, but it is much more serious than that . If finance is the brain of capitalism, then capitalism is simultaneously suffering from alzheimers, AIDS, and terminal cancer. The short term drug relief brought by public financed bailouts for private wealth and increased imperial force in foreign countries cannot sustain racial supremacy and class injustice much longer . They may give the patient hallucinogenic visions of a continued future for this system of waste and despair that the planet and its people can no longer abide. But before this malevolence passes, it could destroy everything previously built, along with all those who labored to build it, and whose lands were drained of life for the wealth of some western nations.
Global terrorism did not originate on 911 or in the middle east. It began with the imperial conquest of centuries past, and its end will mean emancipation for all the people of the world. Can they, can we, bring it about before the worst case scenario is realized? We need to not only say, yes we can, but do it. And we’d better hurry .
Copyright (c) 2009 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Our numerous dilemmas can be described as political, or economic, or natural , if dealt with in the failing model. But most of our problems are directly related to the system of political economics which treats all of nature, including humanity , as profit creating commodities for sale, purchase, rent or hire in a market. This social reality is accompanied by the attempted shaping of individuals into ethical, moral beings, in total contradiction to the antithetical immorality of the profit or loss system which rules the marketplace, and most subdivisions of religious franchise within its massive global mall.
Shattering any balance between individual and social behavior can make it possible for humans to attend a church, temple or mosque, seek guidance through immaterial spirituality, and perform material acts of love, charity and humanity through these religious organizations. Then, stepping out of religion and into material reality of another kind, they can be manipulated into supporting racial hatred , theft, cheating and the mass murder of wars. Separating the self and the society in this destructive way has offered a rationale for all our worst social behaviors . The present age is one in which the overarching rule of nature seems to be telling us, at least those willing and able to heed its message, that the natural world can no longer tolerate such treatment. Much of humanity , especially the great majority who have borne the burdens of what we call western civilization, is also indicating that they can no longer tolerate living in a way that makes it possible for a minority to lavish in luxury while billions live in squalor, pain and misery.
Many would call this an age old story which mankind has been involved in for millennia, and they would be at least partly correct. What is new is that the condition of injustice is not only being found intolerable by growing numbers of humans, but by nature itself . If this epoch does not pass into history with some form of uncharacteristic grace because of democratic decisions made by reasonably enlightened and hopeful people, it may well go out in the worst tragedy mankind has ever experienced, outside of mythology and legend.
The handwriting has long been on the wall, but even with a new leadership which seems to have the capacity to read , there is still a serious lack of comprehension . Instead of seeing a profound message for radical change, they are reading graffiti which they think can be safely erased by a new coat of paint. An emerging global majority must take action and control away from the destructive forces of the status quo. We need to understand that humanity can no longer be economized, socialized and governed in the same way that it has been during this era, because nature itself, both through its social populations in revolt, and its natural systems in breakdown, will no longer allow it.
The political economics of our time began in the latter part of the 15th century, when europe discovered, developed and colonized much of the rest of the world. That same age was one of invasion, slavery and mass terror for those who had the misfortune to be discovered, developed and colonized. Long struggles helped end overt colonialism after the second world war,though it began anew in Palestine. But the neo colonialism of the west continues to this day, with domination of much of the world still coming from western capitalism, enforced by massive military power . While imperial capital is still capable of mass destruction and murder beyond any previous earthly force, it’s total rule is coming to an end. That is good news for humanity, but it is provoking hysteria among those most wedded to the dying order. And these hysterics are armed with nuclear weapons, which they have used in the past and threaten to use in the future, while they rail about alleged threats coming from those they have abused for centuries.
Some see the present crisis as limited to finance capital, but it is much more serious than that . If finance is the brain of capitalism, then capitalism is simultaneously suffering from alzheimers, AIDS, and terminal cancer. The short term drug relief brought by public financed bailouts for private wealth and increased imperial force in foreign countries cannot sustain racial supremacy and class injustice much longer . They may give the patient hallucinogenic visions of a continued future for this system of waste and despair that the planet and its people can no longer abide. But before this malevolence passes, it could destroy everything previously built, along with all those who labored to build it, and whose lands were drained of life for the wealth of some western nations.
Global terrorism did not originate on 911 or in the middle east. It began with the imperial conquest of centuries past, and its end will mean emancipation for all the people of the world. Can they, can we, bring it about before the worst case scenario is realized? We need to not only say, yes we can, but do it. And we’d better hurry .
Copyright (c) 2009 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Friday, February 27, 2009
Regression Is Not Progress
Further problems are being created by the proposed solutions to an economic crisis more serious than the Great Depression. As in the 1930s , government employees of great wealth are attempting to bail out the failing system at public expense, thereby making things worse and avoiding what is for the good of humanity. Capitalism has achieved massive private profits for a minority only by generating staggering loss for a majority burdened with unpayable debt. Perpetuation of this system could lead to total disaster. But its failure presents an opportunity to bring on an age of equality and social justice such as the world has never known. The question is whether this collapsing economy will take us down with it, or whether we will transform it into a life enhancing system to advance all humanity, before it destroys everything .
A ruling power so obsessively blinded by wealth , greed and violence that it can see neither the forest nor the trees, is in process of tearing down the natural and human made structure of the world. If the majority does not act to acknowledge what the earth and political economics have been telling us for a long time now, civil society may pay the ultimate price for this barbarically uncivil and perversely anti social system.
As Bernard Madoff explained to an intently listening congregation of believers in his Ponzi scheme , a profit on one side of the ledger means a loss on the other. This is a hard and fast rule of the collapsing economy , which may yet fall on our heads unless we see that he and his ilk profit because we are all absorbing the loss . And we may pay the ultimate price unless we change the system that brings us to this critical juncture.
The indecisive billion dollar steps being taken taken on the multi trillion dollar path to a bail out of capital amount to applying a gigantic wad of bubble gum to patch the gaping hole in the Titanic. It will work for a while, but eventually water will come rushing in and the photogenic new captain and his family will go down along with the crew and passengers who have been made to pay for a colossal shipwreck. Whether the call is to abandon ship , mutiny or create social revolution, it should be obvious that radical change, not minor reform is necessary .
This is not simply a crisis of finance capitalism: Capitalism itself is the crisis. The sooner we realize that , the sooner we can help transform global society into one that assures liberty and justice for all, and is in environmental balance with nature . Another world is not only possible, but absolutely necessary. And it must be one in which the human development of the whole community is far more important than the creation of private profits for a few. The acquisition of capital for some can no longer be allowed to threaten the dissipation of society for all.
Repeating past attempts at reform of a crippled system, even if applying new names or labels, will only bring short term progress. Whether the economic product is called a new deal, a great society or a free market , like all drugs it will only provide temporary relief . Each reform pleases a part of society by creating gains for them, but always at the expense of the rest who eventually respond to calls for more reform to benefit another group , which continues the cycle. But this divide and conquer game has now run its course, and we need to understand that to succeed only by guaranteeing another’s failure is what’s leading us to political, economic and moral ruin.
And anti or pro government passion isn’t the answer if it doesn’t identify a state controlled by minority wealth as the real problem. It needs to become passion that sees the only real solution through recreating government to become a democratic expression of the majority.
Massive consumer debt incurred while earnings declined has enriched a minority with imaginary money, but that is presently vanishing from an electronic fairyland. While working people became a middle class only by absorbing hundreds of billions in private debt, capital’s governing class has been borrowing tens of billions of dollars every week for years now, creating a public debt so large it has more zeros than normal calculators can record.
We have depended on foreigners buying our public debt in order to finance a murderous foreign policy, while denying housing, health care and education to millions of our people. Meanwhile, workers with falling wages have been consuming things they often don't need and can’t afford except by going into deeper private debt. None of this can continue , and if we don't radically change our social behavior , material reality will deal with us the same way the ocean dealt with the Titanic.
Instead of private non-profit organizations attempting to provide service for people victimized by the system, we need a public non-profit organization, truly democratic government, to see to those services. This would allow private for-profit organizations to perform in a market not dependent on them for survival, but only for the things that make life more pleasant once survival has been assured. But none of that can happen if we continue increasing our burdens, and that of the earth itself, in order to go on destroying other societies in the name of a degenerate definition of freedom, while we destroy our own in the process .
All we’re being offered now is a great regression that will do nothing but make this great depression worse. In the words of a famous philosopher “ the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” Progress demands we save ourselves by creating a cooperative, democratic, and socially responsible world. That’s the only real way out of this mess.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
A ruling power so obsessively blinded by wealth , greed and violence that it can see neither the forest nor the trees, is in process of tearing down the natural and human made structure of the world. If the majority does not act to acknowledge what the earth and political economics have been telling us for a long time now, civil society may pay the ultimate price for this barbarically uncivil and perversely anti social system.
As Bernard Madoff explained to an intently listening congregation of believers in his Ponzi scheme , a profit on one side of the ledger means a loss on the other. This is a hard and fast rule of the collapsing economy , which may yet fall on our heads unless we see that he and his ilk profit because we are all absorbing the loss . And we may pay the ultimate price unless we change the system that brings us to this critical juncture.
The indecisive billion dollar steps being taken taken on the multi trillion dollar path to a bail out of capital amount to applying a gigantic wad of bubble gum to patch the gaping hole in the Titanic. It will work for a while, but eventually water will come rushing in and the photogenic new captain and his family will go down along with the crew and passengers who have been made to pay for a colossal shipwreck. Whether the call is to abandon ship , mutiny or create social revolution, it should be obvious that radical change, not minor reform is necessary .
This is not simply a crisis of finance capitalism: Capitalism itself is the crisis. The sooner we realize that , the sooner we can help transform global society into one that assures liberty and justice for all, and is in environmental balance with nature . Another world is not only possible, but absolutely necessary. And it must be one in which the human development of the whole community is far more important than the creation of private profits for a few. The acquisition of capital for some can no longer be allowed to threaten the dissipation of society for all.
Repeating past attempts at reform of a crippled system, even if applying new names or labels, will only bring short term progress. Whether the economic product is called a new deal, a great society or a free market , like all drugs it will only provide temporary relief . Each reform pleases a part of society by creating gains for them, but always at the expense of the rest who eventually respond to calls for more reform to benefit another group , which continues the cycle. But this divide and conquer game has now run its course, and we need to understand that to succeed only by guaranteeing another’s failure is what’s leading us to political, economic and moral ruin.
And anti or pro government passion isn’t the answer if it doesn’t identify a state controlled by minority wealth as the real problem. It needs to become passion that sees the only real solution through recreating government to become a democratic expression of the majority.
Massive consumer debt incurred while earnings declined has enriched a minority with imaginary money, but that is presently vanishing from an electronic fairyland. While working people became a middle class only by absorbing hundreds of billions in private debt, capital’s governing class has been borrowing tens of billions of dollars every week for years now, creating a public debt so large it has more zeros than normal calculators can record.
We have depended on foreigners buying our public debt in order to finance a murderous foreign policy, while denying housing, health care and education to millions of our people. Meanwhile, workers with falling wages have been consuming things they often don't need and can’t afford except by going into deeper private debt. None of this can continue , and if we don't radically change our social behavior , material reality will deal with us the same way the ocean dealt with the Titanic.
Instead of private non-profit organizations attempting to provide service for people victimized by the system, we need a public non-profit organization, truly democratic government, to see to those services. This would allow private for-profit organizations to perform in a market not dependent on them for survival, but only for the things that make life more pleasant once survival has been assured. But none of that can happen if we continue increasing our burdens, and that of the earth itself, in order to go on destroying other societies in the name of a degenerate definition of freedom, while we destroy our own in the process .
All we’re being offered now is a great regression that will do nothing but make this great depression worse. In the words of a famous philosopher “ the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” Progress demands we save ourselves by creating a cooperative, democratic, and socially responsible world. That’s the only real way out of this mess.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A Tale of Two Countries
by Michael K. Smith
If happiness were measured by material consumption, people in the U.S. would be far more content than people in Guatemala, where the daily struggle to survive ranges from difficult to grim. But enjoyment is notoriously elusive and there is no evidence that higher superfluous consumption yields greater satisfaction, quite the contrary. The hectic pace consumerism requires makes the pursuit of happiness look like a dog chasing its own tail. As a Guatemalan weaver in Todos Santos Cuchumatan told the late author Victor Perera a generation ago:
"Here we have the violence, but most of the time we are tranquilo. Santa (the weaver's sister, then living in the U.S.) writes that she is surrounded by commotion all the time, and time slips through her fingers. There are dollars there, and many conveniences, but everything is expensive, and the people are not calm; they are running all the time, and never have time to sit and watch the sun set behind the mountains." (Perera, p. 142) Touche.
And then there is the perverse cruelty of the maldistribution of wealth in the U.S.. A different Mayan immigrant told Mr. Perera that for this reason the U.S. was far from realizing a superior way of life: "After visiting New York, I realize our Mayan communities have more culture than I thought. In spite of the city's great wealth and high technology, I found poor and broken people everywhere, most of whom did not appear to have a home. North American evangelicals come to tell us what to believe in, but their own people do not know what to believe in. Their anthropologists come to study our customs, but don't seem to pay any attention to the homeless people in their own cities. North Americans should work to save their own culture before they come down to Guatemala to save ours." (Perera, pp. 150-1)
Good advice. But evangelizers are notoriously deaf to good advice. And if the truth be known the Church of Consumerism is just as impervious to reason as any form of Protestant faith, with cars and consumer electronics having long since run off with the popular imagination. Indeed, if you really want to know how powerful a force American consumerism is, consider the comments of a young Tz'utujil guerrilla during Guatemala's war years. While U.S.-trained death squads were wiping out entire villages, Mayan recruits watched Rambo, the helicopter serial "Air Wolf," and other high-tech Hollywood war films. "We know they are counterrevolutionary propaganda," the man said, "but they're exciting." (Perera, p. 192)
Fortunately, some aspects of consumer culture - like disposable relationships - have not caught on in Guatemala. Institutional care for the elderly, for example, is very rare, and grandparents remain treasured family members as long as they live. Old age is not treated as a disease, nor regarded as something to be dreaded. It is a time, like all other times, to enjoy being surrounded by loved ones, caring and being cared for in return. The inescapable realities of illness, aging, and death do not become the morbid preoccupation of solitary individuals, but are confronted by the family as a whole. No one faces crisis alone.
The Guatemalan family, in fact, remains stubbornly resistant to the kind of division and break-down increasingly evident under rampant consumerism in the U.S. The goal of life is not to become "independent" of one's parents as soon as possible, but to mature properly under their loving guidance - and not only theirs. An army of aunts, uncles, and grandparents are far more than just a photograph in a dusty album; they are full participants in family life, actively loving, cherishing, and counseling the children at all stages of development. Whereas American teenagers are typically ashamed to be seen in public with their parents, Guatemalan young people regularly go off to parties with them. When they begin to have children themselves, this is not so much starting "their own" family as it is continuing the family from which they come and to which they always return.
This is not to say that Guatemalan family life is ideal. There's no utopia, and one can find any number of instances where parents mistreat their children and vice versa. Poverty takes a horrendous toll, and it would be naive to expect that love alone could overcome its relentless cruelty. Many children are put out to work before they have had any chance to acquire an education, and the country is plagued by young delinquents who fill the emotional void they experience at home by joining gangs. However, in many cases this is due to the fact that parents have had to abandon their children to go work and send back money from the United States.
This transmigration of workers is born of profound economic need. Poverty is endemic in Guatemala, where almost half the babies suffer from malnutrition, illiteracy is over thirty percent, and 40% live in extreme poverty. Only a tiny minority of Guatemalans make it to high school, while the percentage of college graduates is microscopic. Gang related violence is pervasive, unemployment is high and rising, and indigenous peoples - about sixty percent of the population - continue to be marginalized. Appalling levels of violent crime are fuelled by poverty, easy access to weapons, the legacy of colonial and imperial violence, and the absence of law enforcement and judicial integrity.
Nevertheless, economic need, no matter how dire, has not displaced central elements of indigenous Guatemalan culture. Even in spaces expressly reserved for economic exchange, for example, consumerism has nowhere near the hold it has on the U.S. It is true that supermarkets are increasingly popular, but Guatemalans still travel long distances to attend open-air marketplaces, where socializing is as much a part of the scene as buying and selling. In fact, for the many who still make the trip on foot, haggling over prices and selling handcrafts or crops are merely happy excuses for the social exchanges that lie at the heart of a communal way of life. Gossip is traded as readily as money, and typically with great theatricality and accompanied by regular outbursts of laughter.
This readiness to incorporate enjoyment into the productive day, as well as to dance and celebrate whenever an occasion to do so presents itself, is characteristic of Guatemalans. No doubt the roots of this predisposition go deep, but one can't help wondering if the terrible social violence that has long plagued the country, and plagues it still, doesn't instill in everyone a desire to express the joy of being alive whenever there is a chance to. For every Guatemalan knows, without having to say so, that life is tragically ephemeral and the next disaster is right around the corner. The unspoken logic seems to be that, since none of us can count on being here tomorrow, let the good times roll tonight!
It would be difficult to find a country of more stark contrasts than Guatemala. The abundance of love, affection, and tenderness expressed around hearth and home clash sharply with the savage violence in the world outside. While Guatemalans are sweet, modest, and kind, Guatemala is one of the most violent places in the world, with approximately 500 murders a month in a country the size of Ohio. Perhaps nowhere is there more emotional security and less physical security than in Guatemala.
According to human rights attorney Sergio Morales, 2008 was the most violent year in Guatemalan history, quite a claim in a country where 36-years of state terror killed 120,000 people (mostly civilians) between the early 1960s and the declaration of official peace in 1996, with another 46,000 disappeared and unaccounted for. The transitive verb, "to disappear," was born of this holocaust.
The war being officially over, the current level of lethal violence is now called "crime." The national newspaper "Prensa Libre" reported soberly at year's end that there were 5,834 murders between January 1 and the first days of December. Roberto Canton of the Chamber of Commerce declared that 20% of stores are assaulted daily. But nobody really knows how many robberies there are because victims often don't bother reporting them. The same goes for kidnappings. Many families prefer to pay ransom rather than risk the lives of the rest of the family by involving the police.
Clearly, the vast underlying conflicts of the war years remain unresolved, and often cannot even be faced. The killers have never been put on trial and the country's current democratic facade is rooted in a compulsory national amnesia about the perpetrators of a mass murder the Catholic Church called "genocide" in 1982. The past is "history," and history is by definition what no longer matters. As a young man in Santa Cruz de Quiche commented to Canadian author W. George Lovell some years ago: "It's strange. We know who killed my father. They are our neighbors. One lives right over there and two others just up here. When we meet them out walking, we still say hello. We talk with them, but not about my father. He's never mentioned. We talk about other things: animals, the price of food, how the corn is doing. They know we know. But we don't do anything. I don't know why." (Lovell, p. 42)
On the other hand, if the current world-wide economic crisis produces a 1929-style collapse, Guatemalans may prove themselves better able to ride out the disaster than middle class (North) Americans. Whereas most Americans have long forgotten self-reliance, Guatemalans retain important practical skills indispensable to survival: sewing, carpentry, working the land, cooking from scratch. For those with a practiced eye the vulnerability of the de-skilled American people to destruction at the hands of increasingly irrational leaders was apparent quite some time ago. At a seminar in Oregon in the 1980s, Mayan immigrant Calixta Canek warned former U.S. ambassador to Guatemala Frederick Chapin that the U.S. was not immune to the catastrophe it was sowing in her native land: "I see the same forces building here that are destroying my country. Your great wealth and your culture will not protect you from the disintegration of this society, which is hastened by the greed and blindness of the people who lead you. The harm your State Department and your Pentagon and your presidents have done to our small, unprotected communities will also be done to you." (Perera, p. 322)
This is difficult to dismiss now that U.S. leaders have bankrupted the country, trashed major portions of the Constitution, and signed on to make permanent war against Israel's endless enemies.
Sources:
Victor Perera, Unfinished Conquest - The Guatemalan Tragedy, (University of California, 1993) (This book is available online)
Trish O'Kane, Guatemala - A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture, (Interlink Books, 1999)
W. George Lovell, A Beauty That Hurts, (Between the Lines, 1995)
Lisa Vaughn, Guatemala, (Kuperard, 2007)
Leonardo Cereser, "Sin estrategia contra inseguridad," Prensa Libre, 27 de diciembre de 2008
-----Michael K. Smith is the author of "The Madness of King George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker), "Portraits of Empire," and "Rise to Empire" (forthcoming) from Common Courage Press. He can be contacted at proheresy@yahoo.com
If happiness were measured by material consumption, people in the U.S. would be far more content than people in Guatemala, where the daily struggle to survive ranges from difficult to grim. But enjoyment is notoriously elusive and there is no evidence that higher superfluous consumption yields greater satisfaction, quite the contrary. The hectic pace consumerism requires makes the pursuit of happiness look like a dog chasing its own tail. As a Guatemalan weaver in Todos Santos Cuchumatan told the late author Victor Perera a generation ago:
"Here we have the violence, but most of the time we are tranquilo. Santa (the weaver's sister, then living in the U.S.) writes that she is surrounded by commotion all the time, and time slips through her fingers. There are dollars there, and many conveniences, but everything is expensive, and the people are not calm; they are running all the time, and never have time to sit and watch the sun set behind the mountains." (Perera, p. 142) Touche.
And then there is the perverse cruelty of the maldistribution of wealth in the U.S.. A different Mayan immigrant told Mr. Perera that for this reason the U.S. was far from realizing a superior way of life: "After visiting New York, I realize our Mayan communities have more culture than I thought. In spite of the city's great wealth and high technology, I found poor and broken people everywhere, most of whom did not appear to have a home. North American evangelicals come to tell us what to believe in, but their own people do not know what to believe in. Their anthropologists come to study our customs, but don't seem to pay any attention to the homeless people in their own cities. North Americans should work to save their own culture before they come down to Guatemala to save ours." (Perera, pp. 150-1)
Good advice. But evangelizers are notoriously deaf to good advice. And if the truth be known the Church of Consumerism is just as impervious to reason as any form of Protestant faith, with cars and consumer electronics having long since run off with the popular imagination. Indeed, if you really want to know how powerful a force American consumerism is, consider the comments of a young Tz'utujil guerrilla during Guatemala's war years. While U.S.-trained death squads were wiping out entire villages, Mayan recruits watched Rambo, the helicopter serial "Air Wolf," and other high-tech Hollywood war films. "We know they are counterrevolutionary propaganda," the man said, "but they're exciting." (Perera, p. 192)
Fortunately, some aspects of consumer culture - like disposable relationships - have not caught on in Guatemala. Institutional care for the elderly, for example, is very rare, and grandparents remain treasured family members as long as they live. Old age is not treated as a disease, nor regarded as something to be dreaded. It is a time, like all other times, to enjoy being surrounded by loved ones, caring and being cared for in return. The inescapable realities of illness, aging, and death do not become the morbid preoccupation of solitary individuals, but are confronted by the family as a whole. No one faces crisis alone.
The Guatemalan family, in fact, remains stubbornly resistant to the kind of division and break-down increasingly evident under rampant consumerism in the U.S. The goal of life is not to become "independent" of one's parents as soon as possible, but to mature properly under their loving guidance - and not only theirs. An army of aunts, uncles, and grandparents are far more than just a photograph in a dusty album; they are full participants in family life, actively loving, cherishing, and counseling the children at all stages of development. Whereas American teenagers are typically ashamed to be seen in public with their parents, Guatemalan young people regularly go off to parties with them. When they begin to have children themselves, this is not so much starting "their own" family as it is continuing the family from which they come and to which they always return.
This is not to say that Guatemalan family life is ideal. There's no utopia, and one can find any number of instances where parents mistreat their children and vice versa. Poverty takes a horrendous toll, and it would be naive to expect that love alone could overcome its relentless cruelty. Many children are put out to work before they have had any chance to acquire an education, and the country is plagued by young delinquents who fill the emotional void they experience at home by joining gangs. However, in many cases this is due to the fact that parents have had to abandon their children to go work and send back money from the United States.
This transmigration of workers is born of profound economic need. Poverty is endemic in Guatemala, where almost half the babies suffer from malnutrition, illiteracy is over thirty percent, and 40% live in extreme poverty. Only a tiny minority of Guatemalans make it to high school, while the percentage of college graduates is microscopic. Gang related violence is pervasive, unemployment is high and rising, and indigenous peoples - about sixty percent of the population - continue to be marginalized. Appalling levels of violent crime are fuelled by poverty, easy access to weapons, the legacy of colonial and imperial violence, and the absence of law enforcement and judicial integrity.
Nevertheless, economic need, no matter how dire, has not displaced central elements of indigenous Guatemalan culture. Even in spaces expressly reserved for economic exchange, for example, consumerism has nowhere near the hold it has on the U.S. It is true that supermarkets are increasingly popular, but Guatemalans still travel long distances to attend open-air marketplaces, where socializing is as much a part of the scene as buying and selling. In fact, for the many who still make the trip on foot, haggling over prices and selling handcrafts or crops are merely happy excuses for the social exchanges that lie at the heart of a communal way of life. Gossip is traded as readily as money, and typically with great theatricality and accompanied by regular outbursts of laughter.
This readiness to incorporate enjoyment into the productive day, as well as to dance and celebrate whenever an occasion to do so presents itself, is characteristic of Guatemalans. No doubt the roots of this predisposition go deep, but one can't help wondering if the terrible social violence that has long plagued the country, and plagues it still, doesn't instill in everyone a desire to express the joy of being alive whenever there is a chance to. For every Guatemalan knows, without having to say so, that life is tragically ephemeral and the next disaster is right around the corner. The unspoken logic seems to be that, since none of us can count on being here tomorrow, let the good times roll tonight!
It would be difficult to find a country of more stark contrasts than Guatemala. The abundance of love, affection, and tenderness expressed around hearth and home clash sharply with the savage violence in the world outside. While Guatemalans are sweet, modest, and kind, Guatemala is one of the most violent places in the world, with approximately 500 murders a month in a country the size of Ohio. Perhaps nowhere is there more emotional security and less physical security than in Guatemala.
According to human rights attorney Sergio Morales, 2008 was the most violent year in Guatemalan history, quite a claim in a country where 36-years of state terror killed 120,000 people (mostly civilians) between the early 1960s and the declaration of official peace in 1996, with another 46,000 disappeared and unaccounted for. The transitive verb, "to disappear," was born of this holocaust.
The war being officially over, the current level of lethal violence is now called "crime." The national newspaper "Prensa Libre" reported soberly at year's end that there were 5,834 murders between January 1 and the first days of December. Roberto Canton of the Chamber of Commerce declared that 20% of stores are assaulted daily. But nobody really knows how many robberies there are because victims often don't bother reporting them. The same goes for kidnappings. Many families prefer to pay ransom rather than risk the lives of the rest of the family by involving the police.
Clearly, the vast underlying conflicts of the war years remain unresolved, and often cannot even be faced. The killers have never been put on trial and the country's current democratic facade is rooted in a compulsory national amnesia about the perpetrators of a mass murder the Catholic Church called "genocide" in 1982. The past is "history," and history is by definition what no longer matters. As a young man in Santa Cruz de Quiche commented to Canadian author W. George Lovell some years ago: "It's strange. We know who killed my father. They are our neighbors. One lives right over there and two others just up here. When we meet them out walking, we still say hello. We talk with them, but not about my father. He's never mentioned. We talk about other things: animals, the price of food, how the corn is doing. They know we know. But we don't do anything. I don't know why." (Lovell, p. 42)
On the other hand, if the current world-wide economic crisis produces a 1929-style collapse, Guatemalans may prove themselves better able to ride out the disaster than middle class (North) Americans. Whereas most Americans have long forgotten self-reliance, Guatemalans retain important practical skills indispensable to survival: sewing, carpentry, working the land, cooking from scratch. For those with a practiced eye the vulnerability of the de-skilled American people to destruction at the hands of increasingly irrational leaders was apparent quite some time ago. At a seminar in Oregon in the 1980s, Mayan immigrant Calixta Canek warned former U.S. ambassador to Guatemala Frederick Chapin that the U.S. was not immune to the catastrophe it was sowing in her native land: "I see the same forces building here that are destroying my country. Your great wealth and your culture will not protect you from the disintegration of this society, which is hastened by the greed and blindness of the people who lead you. The harm your State Department and your Pentagon and your presidents have done to our small, unprotected communities will also be done to you." (Perera, p. 322)
This is difficult to dismiss now that U.S. leaders have bankrupted the country, trashed major portions of the Constitution, and signed on to make permanent war against Israel's endless enemies.
Sources:
Victor Perera, Unfinished Conquest - The Guatemalan Tragedy, (University of California, 1993) (This book is available online)
Trish O'Kane, Guatemala - A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture, (Interlink Books, 1999)
W. George Lovell, A Beauty That Hurts, (Between the Lines, 1995)
Lisa Vaughn, Guatemala, (Kuperard, 2007)
Leonardo Cereser, "Sin estrategia contra inseguridad," Prensa Libre, 27 de diciembre de 2008
-----Michael K. Smith is the author of "The Madness of King George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker), "Portraits of Empire," and "Rise to Empire" (forthcoming) from Common Courage Press. He can be contacted at proheresy@yahoo.com
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A Democratic State: In Palestine, and the U.S.A.
The Jewish state of Israel was anti-democratic from its inception , though the lie calling it the only democracy in the region has become truth for the criminal, the ignorant and the insane. Unfortunately, that unholy trio still wields power, but it represents minority control of a failing system which is bringing the world closer to major loss of social and environmental life. The democratic majority must take control from these seriously disturbed forces, and not just in Israel, before they bring further destruction not only to one state , but to civilization .
Textbook behavior that is called insanity when practiced by individuals is more deadly when practiced by states. America’s policy towards Israel has been endless repetition of failed practice for more than sixty years and it approaches homicidal madness . More than the middle east is threatened if America keeps repeating uncritical and costly support for the jewish state
Israel is armed with nuclear weapons and is founded on a cultural narrative of doom that sees all others as potential mass murderers of what is believed to be, in contradiction of science and logic, a jewish race. Hopefully they can be disarmed by democratic power , but their continued denial of democracy unless it means perpetuation of their rule can only force more deadly measures. The Jewish colonial state that was once Palestine must eventually become a democratic state of all its people, so it may again be the place where Christians, Jews and Muslims used to live in peace , before a European master race ideology brutalized a nation. That ideology threatens to destroy much more in order to maintain a state and a system which will bring global disaster if we allow it to continue. But without democracy in the USA, chances of achieving it in Palestine may be impossible.
Expressions of sadness by a minority of american jews who profess disillusion with Israel, but still use a collective “we” when speaking of that foreign nation , must be replaced with political action by a majority of all americans. They need to deal with supposed political representatives of the American people who use that same collective “we” when speaking of the jewish state, answering its needs at the cost of American dollars and safety.
It is the American government and American tax dollars that finance that racially pure state, that arm its military and support every murderous action it undertakes against a colonized people. And it must be understood that the overwhelming majority of Americans and their supposed representatives are not jewish. It is the responsibility of all, not simply jewish Americans, to put a stop to the immorality. The havoc we wreak is heavily influenced by jewish political and financial power, but it is craven cowardice and greed on the part of our politicians , more than 90% of whom are not Jewish , and pathetic weakness on the part of american citizens, more than 90% of whom are not jewish - that allows it to continue.
More important than any of the dozens of minorities that claim membership in a separate race , tribe or ethnicity - an idea strengthened by identity group culture and the divide and rule politics of affirmative hyphenation - is the collective majority of American money and military power which perpetuates the apartheid state, destroys nations and regimes for its benefit, and creates the weapons with which Palestinians and others in the area are murdered. The hatred which this inspires is not subject to identity group hyphenation; it simply amounts to hatred for America and Americans. And it is the un-hyphenated American people, not one identity group, who must take responsibility to create substantial change before it is too late.
The move to Boycott, Divest and Sanction has been invigorated by nations that not only criticized the slaughter in Gaza, but recalled ambassadors and threatened to sever diplomatic relations with Israel. Now, American labor unions, municipalities and other institutions must be pressured to stop investing in Israel , purchasing its stocks and bonds to finance its racial supremacy. They should follow the lead of the Congress of South African Trade Unions . When COSATU calls the situation in Palestine worse than what they experienced under apartheid, it is long past time for tolerance or excuses from any who consider themselves humanitarian supporters of social justice for all, and not just some.
And that policy should be carried out against politicians who represent Israeli interests before those of the USA. They must be publicly identified and sanctioned , with no fear of the retaliatory name calling , political and financial pressure which will result. Whatever identity group may be claimed by some politicians, too often they perform for Israel with little regard even for their alleged group. When the governor of New York and the Mayor of Los Angeles shamefully parade in public as supporters of the slaughter in Gaza, they should not be regarded as friends of any Americans, no matter the ethnic or racial hyphenation they hide behind. It is their performance as Americans that is disgraceful, if not traitorous, when they do harm to this country in order to serve the interest of another. Our cultural diversity is a unique american strength , but when it is used as a weapon to advance immoral policy at the expense of the majority, it becomes a deadly weakness.
All politicians must be identified as working for israel when that is what they are doing, and pressured to begin representing American interests , or be boycotted, divested and sanctioned out of office. This must be done now, with purpose and conviction and without fear. Anything less will not only mean continued bloodshed and misery in the middle east, but the strong possibility that it will come home to all Americans, and without any safety or concern for those of us who try to hide behind our hyphenated Americanism .
Textbook behavior that is called insanity when practiced by individuals is more deadly when practiced by states. America’s policy towards Israel has been endless repetition of failed practice for more than sixty years and it approaches homicidal madness . More than the middle east is threatened if America keeps repeating uncritical and costly support for the jewish state
Israel is armed with nuclear weapons and is founded on a cultural narrative of doom that sees all others as potential mass murderers of what is believed to be, in contradiction of science and logic, a jewish race. Hopefully they can be disarmed by democratic power , but their continued denial of democracy unless it means perpetuation of their rule can only force more deadly measures. The Jewish colonial state that was once Palestine must eventually become a democratic state of all its people, so it may again be the place where Christians, Jews and Muslims used to live in peace , before a European master race ideology brutalized a nation. That ideology threatens to destroy much more in order to maintain a state and a system which will bring global disaster if we allow it to continue. But without democracy in the USA, chances of achieving it in Palestine may be impossible.
Expressions of sadness by a minority of american jews who profess disillusion with Israel, but still use a collective “we” when speaking of that foreign nation , must be replaced with political action by a majority of all americans. They need to deal with supposed political representatives of the American people who use that same collective “we” when speaking of the jewish state, answering its needs at the cost of American dollars and safety.
It is the American government and American tax dollars that finance that racially pure state, that arm its military and support every murderous action it undertakes against a colonized people. And it must be understood that the overwhelming majority of Americans and their supposed representatives are not jewish. It is the responsibility of all, not simply jewish Americans, to put a stop to the immorality. The havoc we wreak is heavily influenced by jewish political and financial power, but it is craven cowardice and greed on the part of our politicians , more than 90% of whom are not Jewish , and pathetic weakness on the part of american citizens, more than 90% of whom are not jewish - that allows it to continue.
More important than any of the dozens of minorities that claim membership in a separate race , tribe or ethnicity - an idea strengthened by identity group culture and the divide and rule politics of affirmative hyphenation - is the collective majority of American money and military power which perpetuates the apartheid state, destroys nations and regimes for its benefit, and creates the weapons with which Palestinians and others in the area are murdered. The hatred which this inspires is not subject to identity group hyphenation; it simply amounts to hatred for America and Americans. And it is the un-hyphenated American people, not one identity group, who must take responsibility to create substantial change before it is too late.
The move to Boycott, Divest and Sanction has been invigorated by nations that not only criticized the slaughter in Gaza, but recalled ambassadors and threatened to sever diplomatic relations with Israel. Now, American labor unions, municipalities and other institutions must be pressured to stop investing in Israel , purchasing its stocks and bonds to finance its racial supremacy. They should follow the lead of the Congress of South African Trade Unions . When COSATU calls the situation in Palestine worse than what they experienced under apartheid, it is long past time for tolerance or excuses from any who consider themselves humanitarian supporters of social justice for all, and not just some.
And that policy should be carried out against politicians who represent Israeli interests before those of the USA. They must be publicly identified and sanctioned , with no fear of the retaliatory name calling , political and financial pressure which will result. Whatever identity group may be claimed by some politicians, too often they perform for Israel with little regard even for their alleged group. When the governor of New York and the Mayor of Los Angeles shamefully parade in public as supporters of the slaughter in Gaza, they should not be regarded as friends of any Americans, no matter the ethnic or racial hyphenation they hide behind. It is their performance as Americans that is disgraceful, if not traitorous, when they do harm to this country in order to serve the interest of another. Our cultural diversity is a unique american strength , but when it is used as a weapon to advance immoral policy at the expense of the majority, it becomes a deadly weakness.
All politicians must be identified as working for israel when that is what they are doing, and pressured to begin representing American interests , or be boycotted, divested and sanctioned out of office. This must be done now, with purpose and conviction and without fear. Anything less will not only mean continued bloodshed and misery in the middle east, but the strong possibility that it will come home to all Americans, and without any safety or concern for those of us who try to hide behind our hyphenated Americanism .
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
For America Or Israel?
After the massacre in Gaza temporarily subsided, an American holiday was celebrated just one day before a historically symbolic new president took power. Neither the massacre nor the holiday received proper attention, and the new president’s inauguration was as filled with emotional form as it was empty of material substance.
Martin Luther King has become a symbol for ending America’s sordid history of racial discrimination, but little attention is paid to his criticism of capitalism and its bloody international empire. The moving lines of his “ I have a dream” speech are replayed endlessly, with more attention given those words at the soul of a sermon, rather than the body of its message repeated in many speeches and writings of King’s which criticized America’s imperial wars as well as its racism .
We’re taught to acknowledge words which do not threaten the system itself, but only the way it is exercised. Along with a sanitized King, made to seem as though he only wanted to racially integrate those carrying out social policies he criticized, we have a new CEO showing little sign that the corporation's practice will change in anything but the style, design and color of its usual product.
And our executive is no different from our legislature, as indicated in the shameful performance of a congress that operates as an Israeli Caucus when dealing with Palestine . Of 535 members , only five had the sense and courage to oppose a resolution praising the Jewish apartheid state’s slaughter in Gaza, continuing to profess admiration for the colonial horror that has existed for more than sixty years and threatens to engulf more of the world in the bloodshed its racial supremacist immorality provokes.
But a new regime has begun in America, and the hope expressed by millions not only here but the world over is inspiring. Still, for the emotional extravaganza of the inauguration not to be remembered simply as a political Super Bowl with private products consumed at public expense , those inspired by the new leader must take actions that force him into real change. Some progress is to be expected, if only that Bush is gone and we have moved on to a president who couldn't possibly be as bad.
Could he?
This administration has not been placed in power simply by a mass of voters , but by a much smaller number who educated, developed and paid for the candidate’s consciousness and service long before he appeared on the ballot. As the slaughter took place in Gaza and was loudly praised here and in Israel, where did Obama stand ? Perhaps slightly to the left of Bush, who was slightly to the left of fascism, according to many liberals. What has the agent of change had to say about Israel and the Islamic world?
He trashed his former pastor for having: “...a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."
Gaza’s people have been under murderous siege since Hamas won a democratic victory at the polls , but that plays to America’s new president as “perverse and hateful ideologies” emanating from “radical islam”. And during a campaign in which Obama thrilled millions by almost never speaking of black americans unless forced to , did he ever acknowledge uncomfortable facts like these?
In 1967 blacks earned 54 cents for every dollar made by whites, but by 2005 they had increased to 57 cents for every white dollar. That meteoric rise of three cents in 38 years means it will take more than 500 years for them to achieve dollar parity with whites. Of course there may be a speedier closing of that awesome gap now that Obama is in the White House ; like maybe only 400 years?
If we last that long, given the present deep recession with only the most hallucinogenic economists seeing any quick end to the survival problems affecting more Americans each day, and they are of every race, religion, ethnic hyphenation or political ideology. There will probably be some progress as celebrity faith and media hype translate into market gains and a rosier outlook after the dark days of the recent past. But we may have replaced a bold leader with almost no capacity to think with one who thinks carefully and cautiously, but is as likely to be bold as his predecessor was likely to be thoughtful. And if he does provoke action, will it be for the majority who voted for him , or for the wealthy and powerful minority that trained him to serve?
When the next explosion occurs in the Middle East, will he go on representing Israeli interests to the detriment of our own? How much longer can we tolerate a racist colonial regime being foisted on us as a peaceful democracy that we should finance and support to our own disadvantage? Palestine is the most serious issue confronting our nation, as continued support for the Jewish apartheid state is costing lives, money , losing world support and threatening our future more quickly than climate is changing or polar ice caps are melting.
The system of economic domination and racial supremacy that is moving us to ruin will not change as long as this government serves minority interest both here and abroad. Palestine needs to become what it once was, a land where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together in peace, but that cannot happen if America operates as a handmaiden for zionist principles that counter every positive aspect of the credos of any Abrahamic faith. This president and this government will work against American interest until we demand that they stop acting on behalf of a foreign power and start performing for the people of the USA.
All of us, and not just some of us.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Martin Luther King has become a symbol for ending America’s sordid history of racial discrimination, but little attention is paid to his criticism of capitalism and its bloody international empire. The moving lines of his “ I have a dream” speech are replayed endlessly, with more attention given those words at the soul of a sermon, rather than the body of its message repeated in many speeches and writings of King’s which criticized America’s imperial wars as well as its racism .
We’re taught to acknowledge words which do not threaten the system itself, but only the way it is exercised. Along with a sanitized King, made to seem as though he only wanted to racially integrate those carrying out social policies he criticized, we have a new CEO showing little sign that the corporation's practice will change in anything but the style, design and color of its usual product.
And our executive is no different from our legislature, as indicated in the shameful performance of a congress that operates as an Israeli Caucus when dealing with Palestine . Of 535 members , only five had the sense and courage to oppose a resolution praising the Jewish apartheid state’s slaughter in Gaza, continuing to profess admiration for the colonial horror that has existed for more than sixty years and threatens to engulf more of the world in the bloodshed its racial supremacist immorality provokes.
But a new regime has begun in America, and the hope expressed by millions not only here but the world over is inspiring. Still, for the emotional extravaganza of the inauguration not to be remembered simply as a political Super Bowl with private products consumed at public expense , those inspired by the new leader must take actions that force him into real change. Some progress is to be expected, if only that Bush is gone and we have moved on to a president who couldn't possibly be as bad.
Could he?
This administration has not been placed in power simply by a mass of voters , but by a much smaller number who educated, developed and paid for the candidate’s consciousness and service long before he appeared on the ballot. As the slaughter took place in Gaza and was loudly praised here and in Israel, where did Obama stand ? Perhaps slightly to the left of Bush, who was slightly to the left of fascism, according to many liberals. What has the agent of change had to say about Israel and the Islamic world?
He trashed his former pastor for having: “...a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."
Gaza’s people have been under murderous siege since Hamas won a democratic victory at the polls , but that plays to America’s new president as “perverse and hateful ideologies” emanating from “radical islam”. And during a campaign in which Obama thrilled millions by almost never speaking of black americans unless forced to , did he ever acknowledge uncomfortable facts like these?
In 1967 blacks earned 54 cents for every dollar made by whites, but by 2005 they had increased to 57 cents for every white dollar. That meteoric rise of three cents in 38 years means it will take more than 500 years for them to achieve dollar parity with whites. Of course there may be a speedier closing of that awesome gap now that Obama is in the White House ; like maybe only 400 years?
If we last that long, given the present deep recession with only the most hallucinogenic economists seeing any quick end to the survival problems affecting more Americans each day, and they are of every race, religion, ethnic hyphenation or political ideology. There will probably be some progress as celebrity faith and media hype translate into market gains and a rosier outlook after the dark days of the recent past. But we may have replaced a bold leader with almost no capacity to think with one who thinks carefully and cautiously, but is as likely to be bold as his predecessor was likely to be thoughtful. And if he does provoke action, will it be for the majority who voted for him , or for the wealthy and powerful minority that trained him to serve?
When the next explosion occurs in the Middle East, will he go on representing Israeli interests to the detriment of our own? How much longer can we tolerate a racist colonial regime being foisted on us as a peaceful democracy that we should finance and support to our own disadvantage? Palestine is the most serious issue confronting our nation, as continued support for the Jewish apartheid state is costing lives, money , losing world support and threatening our future more quickly than climate is changing or polar ice caps are melting.
The system of economic domination and racial supremacy that is moving us to ruin will not change as long as this government serves minority interest both here and abroad. Palestine needs to become what it once was, a land where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together in peace, but that cannot happen if America operates as a handmaiden for zionist principles that counter every positive aspect of the credos of any Abrahamic faith. This president and this government will work against American interest until we demand that they stop acting on behalf of a foreign power and start performing for the people of the USA.
All of us, and not just some of us.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Clueless in Gaza
by Michael K. Smith
"Nothing I saw in South Africa can compare with Gaza in misery, in sheer programmed oppression, in confinement and racial discrimination."
-----Edward Said, 1992
"I shall play music and celebrate what the Israeli Air Force is doing."
-----Ofer Schmerling Israeli Civil Defense official
The obtuseness of organized Jewry is clearly boundless. After caging 1.5 million Gazans like animals for years, leaving them unable to move, to work, to study, or to sell their fruits and vegetables, Israel has slaughtered more than 800 Gazans in two weeks on the pretext that the colonial subjects penned-up there pose a mortal threat to the Jewish state's existence. With the kill ratio more than 50 to 1 in favor of Israel, the perpetrators of this Holocaust now advance the intriguing thesis that they are the victims of the war, but also the victors. Jonathan Swift, eat your heart out.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that the ongoing massacre is a pilot project designed to develop new talent in the field of black comedy. Consider the remarks of Menachem Haygami, owner of a juice stand on fashionable Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv: "This war's been very successful . . .. It's very justified. Sure, people there are suffering, but also people here are suffering." In short, it's a symmetrical conflict. Perhaps there were WWII-era Germans who justified the killing of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto on similar grounds. And why not? Clearly, there was suffering on both sides.
Or consider the comments of Reudor Benziman, chief executive of Channel 10 News, a major private station in Israel. Acknowledging that the Israeli public is being spared images of Gaza's blood-spattered hospitals, he says: "The suffering of the citizens of Gaza is unbelievable. It's hell. [But] we don't pretend to show the whole picture, as though we are covering a war in Tanzania. It's our war." For Benziman, there is no obligation to show the Gazan victims because the overwhelming majority of Israelis accept the government's position that Hamas must be attacked. In other words, give the racist public what it wants. Democracy in action.
An anchor at Israel's Channel 2, the country's largest private broadcasting station, recently became the target of an online petition seeking to get her fired because her tone was considered too sympathetic to the Palestinians. Arad Nir, foreign editor and anchor with Channel 2, explains that anything more than perfunctory coverage of Palestinians coping with massive bombardment "would just make people angry." Indeed. And as we all know very well, the right to not be provoked to anger by accurate news coverage is a well-established principle of international law. Besides, what do graphic images of Gazans blown apart by the Israeli Air Force have to do with eternal Jewish victimhood anyway?
Israeli intelligence officers appear to have escalated the black humor to perverse practical joking. Officers are telephoning Gazans pretending to be sympathetic Egyptians, Saudis, Jordanians, or Libyans. After expressing horror at the war and inquiring as to how their families are doing, the callers ask where the Hamas fighters are and whether the families support them. Candid Camera never had it so good.
U.S. officials are contributing their own witticisms to the macabre comedy, giving Israel whatever military equipment it requires and backing the slaughter to the hilt, while urging the Jewish state to avoid civilian casualties as it drops bombs on one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Organized Jewry simply does not get it. You don't "soften up" an enemy with bombs, you only harden resistance. It has been a generation since Gazans rose up against the rulers of this most wretched colonial outpost, an ancient people demanding the right to be born. In that first intifada, children heaved stones at Israeli tanks, and soldiers carrying automatic rifles. Old men too feeble to hurl their defiance gathered rocks in sacks for the kids to throw. Young and old alike went on strike, established liberated zones, directed an underground economy, and shut their shops at noon to honor imprisoned compatriots.
Israel never understood this outpouring of national dignity. Shooting and cursing, the occupiers chased the defiant kids through the unpaved, pothole-ridden streets, where open sewers reeked with a stomach-turning odor. With a violent banging they arrived at the door, ransacking homes and raiding hospitals, ever in pursuit of the child "terrorists." When a bullet found its mark, leaving a corpse lying in the road, they laughed, whistled, and clapped their hands with glee.
The Palestinians, ninety-eight percent of the West Bank and Gaza, were referred to by the Israeli government as the minorities. The two percent residing in Jewish settlements replete with green lawns and swimming pools - presumed themselves their masters.
Anyone caught using the word Palestine, or displaying a map of it, or showing the colors of its flag, was subject to torture at the hands of Israeli security. But hooded interrogations did not make the Palestinians sing, while their outlawed national anthem did.
Israel has learned nothing in the intervening 21 years. It still believes that wickedness drives the Palestinian resistance, and that the democratic election of Hamas never really happened. It cannot conceive of the slightest legitimacy in Gazan efforts to survive its ever more barbaric attacks. It believes that a permanent sequence of confiscation, demolition, surveillance, arrest, prison, torture, humiliation, deportation, bombardment, and death will somehow give it the legitimacy it lacks. It is convinced that military checkpoints, magnetized ID cards, barbed wire, armed patrols, tear gas, bombs, guns, tanks, grenades, explosives, helicopter gunships, and fighter jets are the route to "security." That 60 years of such policies have only yielded perpetual insecurity has yet to penetrate the national consciousness.
Organized Jewry is in the grips of what appears to be a terminal mental illness, based on the fallacy that Jewish supremacy will bring peace to the Middle East. This is sheer madness, and it is high time for the American people to put an end to it by withdrawing the blank check Washington has issued to the Jewish state to conquer and oppress an innocent people that never did anything to deserve the theft of its land and the destruction of its culture.
An extreme illness, Malcolm X used to say, cannot be cured by a moderate medicine. Organized Jewry needs to be put on notice that Jews are merely one ethnic group among many, not the master race. A good start would be to withdraw the tax-exempt status granted to Jewish charities that funnel money to Israel.
Sources:
Griff Witte, "The View From Israel: Victors in a Necessary War," Washington Post, January 11, 2009
Steven Erlanger, "A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery," New York Times, January 11, 2009
Suzanne Baroud, "Children of Gaza, Run to the Angels," January 12, 2009, www.zmag.org
Israel Shamir, "Gaza at War," January 11, 2009, www.israelshamir.net
Mark Steel, "To portray this as a conflict betwen equals requires some imagination," London Independent, December 31, 2008
Johann Harl, "The true story behind this war is not the one Israel is telling," London Independent, December 29, 2008
"Israeli troops meet Hamas resistance deep in Gaza," Associated Press, January 11, 2009
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, "Aiding and abetting a Holocaust," January 11, 2009, www.aljazeera.com
Edward Said, "The Politics of Dispossession - The Struggle For Palestinian Self-Determination 1969-1994," (Chatto and Windus, 1994)
Edward Said, "The Pen and the Sword," (Common Courage, 1994)
Gloria Emerson, "Gaza - A Year in the Intifada: A Personal Account From an Occupied Land," (Atlantic Monthly, 1991)
Michael Palumbo, "Imperial Israel," (Bloomsbury, 1990)
-----Michael K. Smith is the author of "Portraits of Empire," and "The Madness of King George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker), from Common Courage Press. He can be reached at proheresy@yahoo.com
"Nothing I saw in South Africa can compare with Gaza in misery, in sheer programmed oppression, in confinement and racial discrimination."
-----Edward Said, 1992
"I shall play music and celebrate what the Israeli Air Force is doing."
-----Ofer Schmerling Israeli Civil Defense official
The obtuseness of organized Jewry is clearly boundless. After caging 1.5 million Gazans like animals for years, leaving them unable to move, to work, to study, or to sell their fruits and vegetables, Israel has slaughtered more than 800 Gazans in two weeks on the pretext that the colonial subjects penned-up there pose a mortal threat to the Jewish state's existence. With the kill ratio more than 50 to 1 in favor of Israel, the perpetrators of this Holocaust now advance the intriguing thesis that they are the victims of the war, but also the victors. Jonathan Swift, eat your heart out.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that the ongoing massacre is a pilot project designed to develop new talent in the field of black comedy. Consider the remarks of Menachem Haygami, owner of a juice stand on fashionable Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv: "This war's been very successful . . .. It's very justified. Sure, people there are suffering, but also people here are suffering." In short, it's a symmetrical conflict. Perhaps there were WWII-era Germans who justified the killing of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto on similar grounds. And why not? Clearly, there was suffering on both sides.
Or consider the comments of Reudor Benziman, chief executive of Channel 10 News, a major private station in Israel. Acknowledging that the Israeli public is being spared images of Gaza's blood-spattered hospitals, he says: "The suffering of the citizens of Gaza is unbelievable. It's hell. [But] we don't pretend to show the whole picture, as though we are covering a war in Tanzania. It's our war." For Benziman, there is no obligation to show the Gazan victims because the overwhelming majority of Israelis accept the government's position that Hamas must be attacked. In other words, give the racist public what it wants. Democracy in action.
An anchor at Israel's Channel 2, the country's largest private broadcasting station, recently became the target of an online petition seeking to get her fired because her tone was considered too sympathetic to the Palestinians. Arad Nir, foreign editor and anchor with Channel 2, explains that anything more than perfunctory coverage of Palestinians coping with massive bombardment "would just make people angry." Indeed. And as we all know very well, the right to not be provoked to anger by accurate news coverage is a well-established principle of international law. Besides, what do graphic images of Gazans blown apart by the Israeli Air Force have to do with eternal Jewish victimhood anyway?
Israeli intelligence officers appear to have escalated the black humor to perverse practical joking. Officers are telephoning Gazans pretending to be sympathetic Egyptians, Saudis, Jordanians, or Libyans. After expressing horror at the war and inquiring as to how their families are doing, the callers ask where the Hamas fighters are and whether the families support them. Candid Camera never had it so good.
U.S. officials are contributing their own witticisms to the macabre comedy, giving Israel whatever military equipment it requires and backing the slaughter to the hilt, while urging the Jewish state to avoid civilian casualties as it drops bombs on one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Organized Jewry simply does not get it. You don't "soften up" an enemy with bombs, you only harden resistance. It has been a generation since Gazans rose up against the rulers of this most wretched colonial outpost, an ancient people demanding the right to be born. In that first intifada, children heaved stones at Israeli tanks, and soldiers carrying automatic rifles. Old men too feeble to hurl their defiance gathered rocks in sacks for the kids to throw. Young and old alike went on strike, established liberated zones, directed an underground economy, and shut their shops at noon to honor imprisoned compatriots.
Israel never understood this outpouring of national dignity. Shooting and cursing, the occupiers chased the defiant kids through the unpaved, pothole-ridden streets, where open sewers reeked with a stomach-turning odor. With a violent banging they arrived at the door, ransacking homes and raiding hospitals, ever in pursuit of the child "terrorists." When a bullet found its mark, leaving a corpse lying in the road, they laughed, whistled, and clapped their hands with glee.
The Palestinians, ninety-eight percent of the West Bank and Gaza, were referred to by the Israeli government as the minorities. The two percent residing in Jewish settlements replete with green lawns and swimming pools - presumed themselves their masters.
Anyone caught using the word Palestine, or displaying a map of it, or showing the colors of its flag, was subject to torture at the hands of Israeli security. But hooded interrogations did not make the Palestinians sing, while their outlawed national anthem did.
Israel has learned nothing in the intervening 21 years. It still believes that wickedness drives the Palestinian resistance, and that the democratic election of Hamas never really happened. It cannot conceive of the slightest legitimacy in Gazan efforts to survive its ever more barbaric attacks. It believes that a permanent sequence of confiscation, demolition, surveillance, arrest, prison, torture, humiliation, deportation, bombardment, and death will somehow give it the legitimacy it lacks. It is convinced that military checkpoints, magnetized ID cards, barbed wire, armed patrols, tear gas, bombs, guns, tanks, grenades, explosives, helicopter gunships, and fighter jets are the route to "security." That 60 years of such policies have only yielded perpetual insecurity has yet to penetrate the national consciousness.
Organized Jewry is in the grips of what appears to be a terminal mental illness, based on the fallacy that Jewish supremacy will bring peace to the Middle East. This is sheer madness, and it is high time for the American people to put an end to it by withdrawing the blank check Washington has issued to the Jewish state to conquer and oppress an innocent people that never did anything to deserve the theft of its land and the destruction of its culture.
An extreme illness, Malcolm X used to say, cannot be cured by a moderate medicine. Organized Jewry needs to be put on notice that Jews are merely one ethnic group among many, not the master race. A good start would be to withdraw the tax-exempt status granted to Jewish charities that funnel money to Israel.
Sources:
Griff Witte, "The View From Israel: Victors in a Necessary War," Washington Post, January 11, 2009
Steven Erlanger, "A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery," New York Times, January 11, 2009
Suzanne Baroud, "Children of Gaza, Run to the Angels," January 12, 2009, www.zmag.org
Israel Shamir, "Gaza at War," January 11, 2009, www.israelshamir.net
Mark Steel, "To portray this as a conflict betwen equals requires some imagination," London Independent, December 31, 2008
Johann Harl, "The true story behind this war is not the one Israel is telling," London Independent, December 29, 2008
"Israeli troops meet Hamas resistance deep in Gaza," Associated Press, January 11, 2009
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, "Aiding and abetting a Holocaust," January 11, 2009, www.aljazeera.com
Edward Said, "The Politics of Dispossession - The Struggle For Palestinian Self-Determination 1969-1994," (Chatto and Windus, 1994)
Edward Said, "The Pen and the Sword," (Common Courage, 1994)
Gloria Emerson, "Gaza - A Year in the Intifada: A Personal Account From an Occupied Land," (Atlantic Monthly, 1991)
Michael Palumbo, "Imperial Israel," (Bloomsbury, 1990)
-----Michael K. Smith is the author of "Portraits of Empire," and "The Madness of King George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker), from Common Courage Press. He can be reached at proheresy@yahoo.com
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