We find our comfort where we can
Somebody who signs 'synchronicity' wrote me the following about my last post:
As ugly as things are I would really just like to rip the band-aid off and get the entire ugly truth out in front of us right now so we can at least know what we are up against.When I read that something jumped inside me.
"Of course, that's it!"
I suddenly got the feeling that "tearing the band-aid off" is what this global economic crisis is really about.
The encouraging thing about the period that began with Bush-II is the viral raising of consciousness that is occurring. This is bound to lead to change, sooner than later.
Without the threat of the Soviet Union hanging over us like the bogeyman, more people are willing to openly criticize the evils of capitalism itself without fear of being blacklisted or having to register as agents of some foreign power.
The most naturally revolutionary place on earth, Latin America, is finally moving back to the left where they were before Milton Friedman and his Pinochets got hold of them... A magnet for all.
This, hopefully will revive their literature and poetry, which was so powerful and free before the milicos started disappearing the poets (I will say this for Latin American military dictators, they have at least enough respect for art to take the trouble to kill poets) and the juices of the future Pablo Nerudas and the Victor Jaras will start flowing once again and put the words and music to all our marching feet.
Actually, I'm such in such a good mood today, that I even see a very positive side to the enormous power of Jewish people in America's alienating and idiotizing infotainment industry and the Israel Lobby's power to neutralize congress and terrorize dissidents, even their ability to convince the ignorant and unwashed Christian peasants of America, nature's antisemites, to fanatically support Israel so as to be able to rent Jesus enough space to hold the Apocalypse.
I
find this positive, because, normally, all through history up till now,
a deep recession-depression, like we are experiencing, one with massive
unemployment and home foreclosures in the midst of two losing wars --
and more to come -- would be something that the powers that be would
simply blame on the Jews as an element of distraction, then a pogrom
would ensue, and after letting some blood to satisfy the mob, it would
all be back to business as usual.
This ploy has worked for ages... Christian rulers have sworn by it as a fool proof gambit for centuries.
Since the Jewish people are not really responsible for all the ills of this world, but only use the system, -- like skillful sailors use the wind -- this would mean that the root cause (the system itself) would never stand revealed.
Keeping this from happening is why persecuting Jews has always been so popular.
However, today's Jewish power means that the simple expedient of blaming everything on the Jews is not available, so we may actually finally get to the bottom of who and what are really responsible for all of this misery.
I have long thought that the real revolution, when it comes, will finally happen in what Cuban poet and revolutionary, José Martí called "the belly of the beast", the United States of America itself.
And it will surprise us with the same loose jointed speed as Internet or sagging trousers
Not until people are actually starving will there be any revolution. The dollar menus are what keep us from getting to that point.
September 9, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah yes ... the old . . .
But in our case ... double-cheesburger instead of brioche.
~OGD~
September 9, 2009 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mmm.
The revolution is inevitable. Of course, they said that in 1848.
Problem is, there weren't nearly as many of they as they thought.
September 9, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a little like waiting for the Messiah isn't it?
September 10, 2009 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
The United State is a very strange place, where things often change overnight. There is definitely a sensation that the present model is running out of gas... Can the system survive if Americans can no longer charge everything on credit cards which are paid for by Chinese savings?
September 10, 2009 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes.
September 10, 2009 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem with waiting for the revolution is that it might happen after 400 years of misery, during which time the ultra-rich helicopter into their guarded communities over the toxic-waste-filled slums below.
September 9, 2009 8:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If we look at other recent American "revolutions" such as Internet or Google they are quite surprising. America is often unpredictable. The form this change might take could be very original.
What I find significant is that so many people are openly questioning our system. That hasn't really happened since the days of McCarthy. Ideas and opinion move virally these days... something is cooking.
September 10, 2009 2:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
I remember way back when in college when one of my professors teaching a course on South Africa stated that if looked at South Africa and the United States just before 1948 and asked which one was more likely to institute an apartheid system, most would have bet on the the US. But something happened, and the country switch trajectories so the US got the civil rights act and SA got institutional racism.
September 10, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink