Indeed, the human species is in peril. There is no doubt in my mind that we as human are seen as a product to be invested in, to be exploited, te be indebted, to be manipulated, to be polarized, to be abused and all of these treatments need to happen with your, our consent.
Awareness is an efficient tool, but it is not trendy unfortunately.
None of your commenters have mentioned "The Matrix" yet? That's a frame through which I analyse the people who DON'T see how it's All One War. The happy dream of "Freedomerica" represents is magnetic for lots of people. Especially the ones outside Amerikkka who are trying to grab a Golden Ticket to enter, but also plenty of the hypnotised population within it. Amerika is shiny technostuff. Heaps of great food. (Forget the occasional horrible pizza or gut-burning Pakistani platter) Democracy. Being allowed to get your freak on however you want. That's the image that's sold to the world, and a lot of people believe it. It's a lovely vision. The United (for now) States has had the greatest sales job in since the Roman Empire. In the Matrix movie, the unconscious flesh-bags dreamt of having wonderful lives too. Waking up to see the tubes and wires that actually surrounded them was too much to take. Better to blue-pill back to sleep. Your perspective is correct, Alon (that's why I read you) but it's a hard thing to admit. Plenty of people I know back in the U.S. (including my own daughter) acknowledge the faults of the place, but they don't want to internalise the "One Big War" mindset. So much easier to close their eyes and cover their ears to shut out the Negative Nellies who try to pop the bubble of illusion. I keep trying to be a Morpheus, but not too hard any more. You're in California now. You know how nobody likes to have their buzz harshed.
Man, I love your comments, and agree with everything you say (I was comparing the red/blue pill in The Matrix to the story of Tree of Life/Tree of Knowledge in the bible many years ago in a university class, and everybody laughed but the professor didn't).
At the risk of sounding full of myself, the book I'm writing will make this idea accessible to everybody who can read. Precisely this oneness of all struggles
I completely agree! Above all, this system is a destroyer of communities. We humans are communal animals. We rely on each other to thrive. Isolated from each other we are no longer human.
To know the empire has gone off the rails all you need to do is look at our public institutions like schools, hospitals and universities, everything there is being managed today by money-people for profit and greed. We the public have become almost a nuisance to them. So if they do this at home they are probably doing it outside (and much worse) in other countries. We are still eating the leftovers from the lies of WMD's and the "war on terror" that followed 911 (23 years ago). Was it even recognised as a crime? No. Has anyone got arrested for this? Nope... there you go.
I agree that our enemy is the anti-humans forces, but not only American. The Spanish conquistadores were also genocidal. I think it's a race war, white against brown, a human against machine war, a multiple front war. I need to think more about it, but yes, capitalism is the big monster in the room that is eating us all alive, including the planet. We need to unite, as the gaucho Martín Fierro says, "Los hermanos sean unidos, esa es la ley primera, porque si entre ellos se pelean los devoran los de afuera."
The tuciclides trap live and direct: an empire that dies and another one replaces it. Too bad the dominant social and economic ideology does not fall with the empire.
I don't disagree that we are dealing with the manifestations of a single overriding, anti-life, and total control, phenomenon. There's always the concern that something so big will seem overwhelming and incapable of being thwarted. Breaking it into more graspable portions might make it easier to deal with, at least for some. I think keeping the overall picture, but realizing that we may need to tackle the various tentacles on their own, might be the most effective way to engage the most people in trying to curb the beast. Personally, when something gets too big, it becomes amorphous, and I am less able to follow or handle it. It's a bit like how difficult it is for me to get much out of symphonies, as compared to chamber music and solo recitals.
I think there is the power of catharsis and resolution is seeing the connectedness, and feeling like you're fighting many different and isolated battles
Indeed, the human species is in peril. There is no doubt in my mind that we as human are seen as a product to be invested in, to be exploited, te be indebted, to be manipulated, to be polarized, to be abused and all of these treatments need to happen with your, our consent.
Awareness is an efficient tool, but it is not trendy unfortunately.
Stupidity is better rewarded, pretty sad reality.
None of your commenters have mentioned "The Matrix" yet? That's a frame through which I analyse the people who DON'T see how it's All One War. The happy dream of "Freedomerica" represents is magnetic for lots of people. Especially the ones outside Amerikkka who are trying to grab a Golden Ticket to enter, but also plenty of the hypnotised population within it. Amerika is shiny technostuff. Heaps of great food. (Forget the occasional horrible pizza or gut-burning Pakistani platter) Democracy. Being allowed to get your freak on however you want. That's the image that's sold to the world, and a lot of people believe it. It's a lovely vision. The United (for now) States has had the greatest sales job in since the Roman Empire. In the Matrix movie, the unconscious flesh-bags dreamt of having wonderful lives too. Waking up to see the tubes and wires that actually surrounded them was too much to take. Better to blue-pill back to sleep. Your perspective is correct, Alon (that's why I read you) but it's a hard thing to admit. Plenty of people I know back in the U.S. (including my own daughter) acknowledge the faults of the place, but they don't want to internalise the "One Big War" mindset. So much easier to close their eyes and cover their ears to shut out the Negative Nellies who try to pop the bubble of illusion. I keep trying to be a Morpheus, but not too hard any more. You're in California now. You know how nobody likes to have their buzz harshed.
Man, I love your comments, and agree with everything you say (I was comparing the red/blue pill in The Matrix to the story of Tree of Life/Tree of Knowledge in the bible many years ago in a university class, and everybody laughed but the professor didn't).
At the risk of sounding full of myself, the book I'm writing will make this idea accessible to everybody who can read. Precisely this oneness of all struggles
I completely agree! Above all, this system is a destroyer of communities. We humans are communal animals. We rely on each other to thrive. Isolated from each other we are no longer human.
Yes, there is no community of colonial capitalism. Not even a healthy individualism. It makes people sick
To know the empire has gone off the rails all you need to do is look at our public institutions like schools, hospitals and universities, everything there is being managed today by money-people for profit and greed. We the public have become almost a nuisance to them. So if they do this at home they are probably doing it outside (and much worse) in other countries. We are still eating the leftovers from the lies of WMD's and the "war on terror" that followed 911 (23 years ago). Was it even recognised as a crime? No. Has anyone got arrested for this? Nope... there you go.
I'm pretty sure the vast majority of them don't even know the US is occupying Syria's oil and wheat fields.
Well-said, and I completely agree. I look forward to reading your book!
I agree that our enemy is the anti-humans forces, but not only American. The Spanish conquistadores were also genocidal. I think it's a race war, white against brown, a human against machine war, a multiple front war. I need to think more about it, but yes, capitalism is the big monster in the room that is eating us all alive, including the planet. We need to unite, as the gaucho Martín Fierro says, "Los hermanos sean unidos, esa es la ley primera, porque si entre ellos se pelean los devoran los de afuera."
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those attempting to gain positions of power had to be screened for being psychopaths?
Yes, that's a big dream (:
My suspicion is, though, that normal narratives produce normal political leaders
The tuciclides trap live and direct: an empire that dies and another one replaces it. Too bad the dominant social and economic ideology does not fall with the empire.
Capitalism will die with the US empire.
This is so true
Yep.
I don't disagree that we are dealing with the manifestations of a single overriding, anti-life, and total control, phenomenon. There's always the concern that something so big will seem overwhelming and incapable of being thwarted. Breaking it into more graspable portions might make it easier to deal with, at least for some. I think keeping the overall picture, but realizing that we may need to tackle the various tentacles on their own, might be the most effective way to engage the most people in trying to curb the beast. Personally, when something gets too big, it becomes amorphous, and I am less able to follow or handle it. It's a bit like how difficult it is for me to get much out of symphonies, as compared to chamber music and solo recitals.
I think there is the power of catharsis and resolution is seeing the connectedness, and feeling like you're fighting many different and isolated battles