Utopia 4: Movie Day

“The Gods of the Copybook Headings”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, And their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled And began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, And Two and Two make Four, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings Limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, It was at the birth of Man. There are only four things certain Since Social Progress began: That the Dog returns to his Vomit And the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger Goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, And the brave new world begins, When all men are paid for existing And no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, As surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings With terror and slaughter return. Rudyard Kipling

[This, by the way, catches you up to the rest of the blog sites.  Submissions will be weekly from here out.–TP]

Utopia 4:  Movie Day

“The turbulence of the early 21st century set the stage for our world as it is today.” Said a placid female voice.

The room was dimly lit, and the front board was converted to a movie screen filled with clips of gas burning cars, smog filled cities, soldiers marching, a middle aged black man pounding a podium, protesters being arrested, and emaciated and worn out people walking on a road somewhere.   Jack did not often use this medium to teach his class but he allowed it today because it would give his students a quick overview of what was to be this years main topic is history and community studies.

“The end of the 20th century had been filled with growth and opportunity.” The students recognized pictures of Bill Gates, the New York stock exchange, and President Bill Clinton smiling into the camera as he walked somewhere important.

“Yet the clock was ticking, and despite desperate warnings from scientists, it was business as usual until The Catastrophe was well underway.”  Pictures of a tall man in a coat with big boots  sitting on a park bench with a globe sitting next to him and then pictures of documents with red ink through some of the paragraphs floated over the screen.

“Actually, the seeds of America’s most destructive tendencies were sewn more than 100 years previously.  Although the Great Catastrophe was a global event, much of what happened centered around the American economic and political systems and decisions that were made two generations earlier.

“The printing of money was taken over by the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913.”  Black and white choppy pictures of men in top hats shaking each others hands.   “This was a group of privately owned banks that controlled the printing of money and the interest rate at which money was loaned.  The money they printed was in effect loaned back to the United States Government.   To keep the economy a float, new loans had to be constantly created.  During times when loans were slow the Fed, as it was known, printed more money thus creating inflation and devaluing the American Dollar and the amount owed. This created significant hardship to the American citizenry on a near constant basis for over 150 years.”   Pictures of people arguing at the gates of a factory and a despondent looking man trudging out to his front lawn to place a “for sale” sign.  “However, the average citizen remained ignorant of basic economics and unable to understand how their lives were being harmed by these conditions.

“The fact that loans needed to be constantly generated meant that the economy had to be in a constant state of growth to service the interest on the loans.  ‘Growth’ was actually a euphemism for the natural resources of a country being liquidated.”  Pictures of oil being pumped from the ground, forests being cleared by huge machines that sawed down a tree in seconds and then stripped it of branches before laying it in a pile, massive amounts of fish being dumped on the deck of a boat from a giant net, and a huge scar on the Earth’s surface filled with dump trucks extracting some sort of ore before they rolled across the screen and out of view.

“Americans were lead to believe that growth in the economy was unequivocally good.  In fact the only marker of the economy that was regarded as legitimate was the Gross Domestic Product.  A measure that does not take into account the liquidation of resources or the debt of its citizens.  The public was led to believe that the economy could continue to grow indefinitely at an ever increasing rate.”  Increasingly rapid pictures of people shopping, going to the movies, driving on roads, swimming at a beach, attending a dinner party, a dirty and contaminated river.

“It could not.”  The screen went blank for a fraction of a second.

“On two occasions the entire system collapsed causing massive bank closures and widespread mayhem for American citizens.  The first was the Great Depression in the 1930’s.”  Black and white jumpy pictures of men in hats standing in line looking desperate.  “The second was the Great Reordering in the mid 21st century that brought about the final demise of the system.”  A picture of busy men on an open floor turning around and standing silent and still as they watched numbers on a board plummet.  “In between these two economic disasters the system continued to be in a near continuous state of crisis requiring constant manipulations by the government.”  An old bald man with very big glasses testifying before Congress.   A tall man and a man with a beard looking worried also testifying.

“The first signs of change came in Australia.  Because this continent was mostly desert already, Catastrophic Climate Change hit that nation first and hardest. Forest fires raged for months at a time, and whole neighborhoods were destroyed.”  A dark sky filled with dramatic pictures of forests and houses on fire while people ran with the few of their possessions that they could carry. “But it was not until the year after the fires started that the wheat production for Australia dropped 57%.”  A picture of a worried looking woman in a store eyeing a loaf of bread.  “Suddenly the people of Australia saw that their leadership had not taken their well-being into account.  In the Tuesday Massacre Australia’s leadership was dismissed and new leadership was elected.  It was a harbinger of things to come but even then the Australian people failed to realize the connection between their financial system and the failures of their own government .”  Pictures of people celebrating at political rally.

“The next sign of systemic distress was food riots. Several countries broke out in what were called ‘food riots‘ by the press but were actually rebellions against unresponsive leadership and the meddling of the World Bank into their country’s financial affairs, as much as riots for food. Oddly these were not due to an actual lack of food but due to speculators within the capitalist system driving food prices out of the reach of the poor.  Food itself at the time of the first riots was still quite plentiful and pricing was not responding to the usual forces of supply and demand.  The poor, who were usually seen as unsophisticated, actually seemed to recognize this fact before the financial world became aware of it.   It was widely felt by poorer nations that the purpose of the World Bank was to pave the way for speculators to ravage the poorer countries and keep the poor and powerless at the mercy of the rich and powerful.” Pictures of farmers in Bolivia and Mexico marching. An Asian man with a sign stating that the WTO kills farmers climbed to the top of a gate and plunged a knife in his chest.  There were several gasps from the class at this scene.

“The United States was at the nadir of journalistic integrity at this time.  Most people were blissfully unaware of many of these events and of the near continual warnings of economists and scientists about coming catastrophe.  The world turbulence went virtually unnoticed.  Most of the US had little or no idea what was occurring in their own country let alone on a global scale.  Multiple diversions were employed to keep the US population ignorant or complacent to the events of the outside world.  The typical American spent an average of 24 hours a week at beguiling entertainment but little time contemplating their predicament or possible solutions.”  Pictures of people at sports games, and playing video games.  Scenes of people watching TV.  Several TV shows flashed across the screen with names like “Heroes”, “Lost”, and “American Idol”.

“Even the ‘news’ programs at the time covered more entertainment than they did international or environmental affairs.”  Flashy, colorful pictures of good looking men and women getting in or out of large cars, or looking not so well dressed and flashing angry looks at the camera.

“But the First Amendment to the Constitution was not completely disregarded.  Alternative news sources sprung up throughout the country.  In the 1940’s Pacifica radio was started by a pacifist in San Francisco.  Pacifica developed into a broadcasting network that gave critical analysis of the government’s actions.”  A video of a pleasant looking woman with salt and pepper hair reading the news in front of a monograph of the Statue of Liberty.   “Many radio stations began to follow suite but Federal Communications Commission regulations were changed to try to decrease the number of voices that contradicted the main line of the government and big business.  At the same time requirements for allowing time for contradictory messages to be included on main news sources were undercut.

“With the invention of the internet, however, voices that had been silenced in America could suddenly be heard.”  Internet pages that read The Daily Kos, Firedog Lake, and The Huffington Post appeared and faded into each other.  “The FCC  tried to change the rules to silence these voices as well but opposition to the changes prevented a complete silencing.  The stage was set for the Great Reordering.”  Pictures of people lining up to testify at a microphone in front of a panel of board looking officials.

“The end of 2008 saw the second crash in the American Stock market.” Pictures of headlines with the number 777 on them and downward arrows.

“The American Debtor economy began to unravel with home mortgages first but rapidly spread throughout the American economy.  Banks and insurance agencies teetered on the edge as banks became insolvent.  Businesses that relied on debt or perpetual growth collapsed.  Unemployment skyrocketed, and the value of the dollar collapsed under its own debt weight.  Most of the Western world’s currencies had been tied to the American dollar and as it collapsed it took these other currencies down with it.

“As it became obvious that international banks had created more debt than the estimated worth of the entire planet at the time, there was no way they could repay all the debt as their creditors panicked and began to clamor for their money. Incredibly no one seemed to notice as the debt piled up to these astronomical levels.

“The leaders of the time floundered.”  A picture of an aged and worried looking President Bush at a press conference.  “They had existed for decades under the prevailing capitalist philosophy that greed is good and were now learning  that the world was interconnected beyond their reckoning.  They were learning that destruction of one sector of the economy eventually will effect all sectors of the economy.  But they were slow to learn this lesson.

“The first response of many of the governments was to allow the home owner to be evicted, the factory worker to be unemployed and the small business owner to close his doors in favor of giving vast and unheard of sums to the banker to try and stem the unwinding of the debt crisis.  The bank took the money, but then had no one in whom they trusted enough to lend it to.  The market remained frozen as the people who usually seek banking were in no position to do so.  The stock market responded with a slow but persistent slide downward.”  A bald man in rolled up shirt sleeves ranted and pounded a table in front of a graph with downward arrows.

“The major governments of the globe continued to dump tax dollars into the system in an attempt to revive it. This created even more debt for the workers. So much debt was created that creditors doubted the ability of the United States and other Western nations to pay the bill when the time came. An international run on the American banking system ensued.” Pictures of people in Asia massing at the doors of a bank as the bank manager struggled to close the doors.

“It soon became apparent that the natural resources backing the dollar were depleted.  American oil had largely already been used.  Forests had been demolished.  Fisheries were collapsing.  American industry had moved over seas. The military might that had forced many nations into line with the dollar was now over extended in two wars.

“The 2008 election showed the beginnings of popular descent.  America elected an Afro-American man to be president for the first time in history because he promised big changes in the governance of America.”  President Obama taking the Oath of Office.  “Unfortunately, President Obama relied on the advice of people who were firmly established in the old economic models.”  A pleasant looking, young man in a suit waved at the camera.  A line up of well dressed men and women against a blue background dotted with the American flags smiled at the camera.   “The American currency of the time, the dollar, crumbled in his first term, it appeared that he was unable to give the change the people needed.

“Complete economic collapse ensued at the same time as the effects of soil depletion, peak oil and catastrophic climate change were starting to be felt.  It was a perfect storm.

“As it became clear that the financial policies of world leaders had increased the disparity between the rich and the poor, peak oil began to squeeze the middle and lower classes.” Pictures of gas pumps with employees changing the pricing on the signs.

“As peak oil developed, food prices increased as well.  This time it was not due to speculation but actual shortage. Globalization of the world’s food supply meant that only a few crops were available locally in any one area.  All other foods needed to be brought into localities via petroleum dependent transportation. Food was often shipped over a 1000 miles to the consumer of that food.” Pictures of trucks and trains with diesel engines filled the screen. Behemoth boats were filled with thousands of massive shipping containers, as smoke streamed from their stacks. No sails or other wind generators were in site.  Aerial pictures showing how much of the ground was eaten up by asphalt roads. Huge black barren parking lots seemed to eat up all of the available land as trucks hauling double containers in tandem pulled in and out of these lots.  The class murmured and shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

“Additionally, soil conditions were so completely decompensated that food could not be grown without petroleum dependent fertilizers and pesticides.” Pictures of fields with uniform crops in rows being sprayed with pesticides by a helicopter. Several of the children wrinkled their noses at this scene.

“At that time the mid portion of the United States was where most of the food was grown for the entire nation.”  Pictures of huge fields of wheat being harvested by large machines under an impossibly blue sky.   “Changes in the rain patterns due to Global Climate Change created the birth of The Second Dust Bowl in the midportion of the country.”  The picture changed to dust clouds over withered crop land as a skinny, equally withered woman leaned against her already packed car.

“The US started to face food shortages for the first time in two generations.”  Pictures of empty grocery shelves.   “A food crisis that had been raging throughout the globe suddenly came home to the United States.”  People in color and in more modern dress were shown lining up at a church for food. A picture of a woman coming out of the church wringing her hands and explaining something to the crowd. The crowd becomes angry and starts yelling at the woman. A stone hits the woman in the shoulder. The door behind her opens and she is dragged inside and the door is slammed behind her as the crowd descends on the doors and begins to pound on them.

“Migrations from the former Bread Basket of the United State to the coastal and more Northern regions began to move millions of people searching for food and water.”  Long lines of people on a highway.  Some are still in cars but most are walking and carrying their possessions somewhere as dust blows across the road with no living vegetation in sight.  “Thousands of people died in those few years but The Catastrophe was hardest on the very young and the very old.”  A picture of a very small body face down at the side of the road partially covered in dust.  Several gasps were again heard from the class and there were some murmurs.   Jack held up his hand and they quieted quickly.

“Riots began to break out and unrest was rampant.   Many people were not satisfied by the change that President Obama brought to the administration.  The feeling was that the change was not widespread enough, rapid enough or radical enough.  The wall between the public and their reality that the media had provided began to break down.  By 2012 President Obama barely held on to the Presidency.  His Vice President, Joe Biden, was unable to talke the post in 2016 and  lost the election to President Wilkerson in a very close race.  Many were not satisfied with this change and as the new President struggled to bring the emergency under control within the confines of a government controlled by corporations. ”  Pictures of rioting people.  A picture of a large group of women outside of the White House marching and banging on cooking pans.  The police come and even though the women ran the police capture most of them.  They were herded into waiting vans.

“Although there was a Working Families Party prior to 2016, it was essentially powerless and unorganized.”  Pictures of a small group of college age kids meeting in a New York apartment.   “In 2016 it started to take hold as a populous level.  The Working Families Party had for years been slowly increasing the number of seats it held in local governments and in Congress.

“The Democrats and the Republicans for decades had held a monopoly over the media to keep the conversation between just their two parties.  In 2009, however, the Republican party had been fatally wounded by the disastrous Bush Administration and never quiet recovered its popularity.”  Pictures of a smiling President Bush waving as he climbed into a helicopter to the sound of the crowd booing him.  “The Republican party was being deserted by more moderate thinkers and it was increasingly led by right wing radicals that were out dated in their rhetoric.

“This left a vacuum to be filled and the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the American Socialist Party and  The Working Families Party hotly competed for the vacancy.  It was The Working Family Party that began to produce “Educational Videos”.  These digital videos were mailed out in mass mailing and sent via e-mail.”  A picture of a woman standing at a mailbox looking curiously at a small disc in an envelope.   “They became part of the “viral video” craze that was going on at that time.

“The years of empty entertainment by mass media had left the American public ill prepared to understand their own situation. These ‘educational’ videos filled in the gaps of understanding that had been left by years of empty entertainment. These videos were produced by some of our most famous directors and producers of our time.  They were entertaining, humorous and most of all introduced the American people to the realities of the world the mass media has tried so hard to ignore.  They began to give the American public an education in concepts and ideas that they hungered for.”  A scene from one of there videos showed a well groomed man in casual clothes introducing a man in a bowler hat meant to represent a banker and a hapless couple meant to represent homeowners seeking a loan.  The pleasant looking man then started explaining the banking situation using the characters to pantomime the situation.  To Jack’s class this looked rather juvenile and some of the giggled at the scene.

“As the knowledge of how they had been mislead began to hit the American psychi, the people began to demand more from their leadership.  In the next 2 years Congressional and Local leadership that did not comply with the ideals set forth in the videos by the Working Families Party were rapidly and summarily removed from office. The balance of power in Congress was swing away from corporate interests and back to the people.”  A picture of Congress with mostly white men in suites began to fade to a group more populated with people of color and women in more casual dress.

“With the collapse of the American Dollar the ‘Fed’ was dissolved and the United States started to take control of its own money again.  Money stopped being created by loaning it to the government at high interest rates and was created by spending it into existence on public works projects.  The New National Bank of America printed America’s money and loaned it out directly to the American citizenry at controlled interest rates.  The interest payments from the loans then paid for more government projects.”  Pictures of the roadways being torn up and replaced by rail for shuttles.  Parking lot asphalt being jack hammered apart and trees being planted. Pictures of new buildings being built with thick walls and facing South to capture the sun.   Green house construction. A call button for the shuttle system was installed in a families home while they looked on and smiled.

“People were put back to work creating the National Power Grid.”  Pictures of men laying cable in a trench in the desert with huge arrays of solar power collection systems shining in the background.   “Cities were beautified with artworks.”  A group working on a giant mural.

“Laws were passed forcing political leadership to make due with a specific amounts of money for their campaigns that was provided by the government funds.”  A woman making a heated argument at the podium in Congress.   “TV and radio were forced to allow messages for political candidates and debates to take place for free.  A certain amount of each stations time had to be spent educating the people about their situation and had to include descenting voices or the new FCC would revoke the stations license.”  A presidential debate was shown.  The candidates entered the stage and lined up under signs that read “Democrat”, “Republican”, “Green”, “Libertarian”, “Socialist” and “Working Families”.

“The politics of the moment were on the move.  Things started to change with rapid speed.  Corporations had their ‘personhood’ rights revoked.  Solar, Wind and Wave energy were unified into the United States Energy Grid, which was run nationally.  The National Transportation system was established and took control of the budding shuttle system.  Food production laws were made to encourage local production of food, conservation of water and produce food that was safe and free of toxins.”  The large fields of uniform crops in rows attended by machines faded into circular plots with trees encircled by a variety of crops attended by people.

“Corporations had to prove some good for society before they could get licensed.  Corporations that did not prove to provide a service to society or who had created some societal ill had their license revoked and were dissolved and reorganized as cooperatives run by their employees.  No interest and low interest loans were given by the National Bank to encourage these budding cooperatives.  Corporations that survived and new cooperatives were reconfigured to produce less pollution by being made responsible for any waste that they created.  In this way the clean up of the production of products was incorporated into their cost.

“Finally the American population began to see the change in the world that they had been longing for.  And it was inescapable that the Working Families Party had orchestrated it.  In 2024 the United States elected its first Working Families Party Candidate, Ellen Garcia, for President.”  A pleasant looking Latin American woman was shown taking the Oath of Office.  “That same year the Working Families Party was in the majority in Congress.  They did not forget the grassroots that they came from and moved to make local government the cornerstone of the American Democracy.

“The ‘Grange’ system of the Pacific Northwest seemed unusually suited to this task and was adopted nationwide.  Granges were built throughout the nation and meetings began to be held on a variety of subjects almost immediately.”  Pictures of people meeting in an auditorium with a stage.   “The national voting registry was also started so that the people had a direct access to Government debates.  Ideas began to filter up from the public to the higher offices creating the American Renaissance.”

“The United State was on the move again.  Prosperity was returning even though the lifestyle that the Americans were experiencing was vastly different than their parents had envisioned.”  People were shown getting into shuttles to go to work.   “The wealth of the country was distributed more equally.  Cooperatives instead of Corporations began to dominate the economic and political landscape.”  People sitting around a table arguing about some point.  “Other nations began to copy the systems and innovations that America had created and in 2059 the International Electric Grid was created and run by the New United Nations.”  Pictures of a long table with multiple dignitaries signing a document while they chatted with each other and congratulated each other.

“President Garcia, having seen how the Security Counsel had failed the people of the world in the previous generation, argued with other national powers to dissolve the executive branch of the United Nations. With the new emphasis on community organization, famine began to be addressed productively.  Countries that had long lived in oppressive poverty were becoming self sufficient.   International violence became more a thing of a distant and barbaric past as the World Court began to take action against nations that committed hostilities toward their neighbors or their own populations.” Pictures of a large court room with a belligerent man standing at a table and yelling at the judge, immediately before he was removed from the room.

“The world had turned to a new era and the ground work was laid for a new type of politics and economy to reign.  Capitalism and communism were disappearing as a dominant architecture upon which life was based.  In its place was a system in which every American was expected to participate in our democracy and our economic structures.”

The lights went up in the room.  Several of the children yawned but none looked as though they had been asleep.

Jack stepped to the front of the room.  It was near time for them to leave and several of them were collecting their things.  “I want a two page e-report on why you think the people of the early 20th century were able to ignore their problems until they were out of control sent to me by class tomorrow.”  he stated as they began to rise and head for the door.  There was the obligatory groan from several students but in general the assignment was expected and not out of the ordinary.©

 

 

A Letter from the Land of Mordor:

Did you miss the moment when you were sucked into an epic battle to rivel that of Frodo and his ring?  Let me see if I can shed some light on it.

It took me a long time to comprehend why we can’t effectively address our looming crises of global warming, environmental degradation, mass extinction, and peak everything.  I started looking at the problem of global warming years ago and that lead to the my discovery of these other related problems.  But all these problems spiral down to one locus–capitalism.  We are locked in a life a death struggle with the basic concept on which all of the world has been based for the last 500 years.  No wonder we can not overcome the problem.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I have done well under capitalism.  Very well.  So why would I bite the hand that has graciously fed me for so long?  Because I have a daughter that I love.  And I am pretty sure that when I have grand children I will love them too.  Enough to give up the things that are familiar and reassuring to me if it means giving them a decent life.

Let me explain.

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 out of several private banks.  It remains today a group of the most powerful American banks and is used to create money.  It loans money to the government and sets the interest rate for that money. The government must then pay interest on the money. Yeah, I know. Our government is paying banks interest on money that they could print themselves for free. We can discuss the ins and outs of that later.

So the principal money is just made up by the Fed and loaned into existence. The money they print devalues the money in your hand (inflation) and you have to pay the interest on the money they create (taxes). It is because of the interest that we have to have economic growth every year. If we do not have economic growth then we can’t pay the interest on our debt and we go into recession or depression depending on the amount of money that is circulating at the time. So capitalism, as it is currently practiced, relies on infinite growth.  Our current theories about capitalism were developed in the mid 19th century.  At that time the world did seem infinite in its capacity.  Now, we are approaching a limit to what the world can provide.  Infinite growth of the world’s economies is no longer possible. But where does the interest on the principal come from? That is made up in value by “liquidating our assets”. What are our assets as a country? The air, the water, the soil, minerals, wide spaces, trees, coastlines, and fishing grounds. What happens when the environment can not withstand any more “liquidation”, the last tree is cut down and the oceans are fished out? Economic collapse.

Thus it is a basic tenet of capitalism that it is not sustainable. It relies on constant degradation of the environment.

All of our leadership is made up of people who are the winners of the capitalist system.  These people are not willing to see the end of capitalism even if it means an end to every thing else.  They are simply incapable of thinking outside of the current system.  They see this not as a problem to be solved by any means but a contest for the last man standing.

Reversing global warming and environmental degradation simply will not happen in this system. If you take nothing else away from this entire discussion this would be the one message I would give you: Your children and grandchildren are in a fight to the death with capitalism. Only one will survive and our generation gets to chose which one.

Solari

Catherine Austin Fitts

The Fiat Empire

Further Reading:

Surviving the Cataclysm by Webster G. Tarpley

Agenda for a New Economy by David Korten

The Take by Naomi Klein

Alternatives to Economic Globalization by John Cavanagh

The Case against the Global Economy by Jerry Mander

The People’s World by John Mandeley

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins

Web of Debt by Ellen Hodgson

A World in Debt by Freeman Tilden

Science Fiction Selection:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler