Jun 17 2010

Your Country is Dying

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

On the occasion of the BP oil spill disaster, President Obama’s delivered an Oval Office speech last night-a masterpiece of milquetoast faux-outrage. The speech was all about “clean energy” and “ending our dependence on fossil fuels”. Faced with the BP oil spill-likely the most severe environmental disaster ever-this was President Obama’s response: Polite outrage, and vague plans to “get tough”, “set aside just compensation” and “do something”.

President Obama missed what the BP oil spill disaster is really about. Though unquestionably an environmental disaster, the BP oil spill is much much more.

The BP oil spill is part of the same problem as the financial crisis: The BP oil spill and the banking crisis are two examples of the era we are living in, the era of corporate anarchy.

Corporate Anarchy

In a nutshell, in this era of corporate anarchy, corporations do not have to abide by any rules-none at all. Legal, moral, ethical, even financial rules are irrelevant. They have all been rescinded in the pursuit of profit-literally nothing else matters.

This is a moment in history that will be remembered for what we do, how we act. It is essential to realize that everyone’s lives revolve around keeping the oligarchy alive and well. It is essential to realize the pensions and retirements of so many require those in power to maintain the status quo no matter the consequences to the system as a whole. If we do not realize the magnitude of the problem and begin to act even though it will literally cost us, then we will fail, and the consequences will be brutal. The shared sacrifice now must begin and it must begin with those who are in power and have moved to kill the middle class, and stifle those under back breaking poverty.

It is no coincidence the only government thinking we have acted swiftly is the government trying to keep a private company alive with the fear that will hurt many more than it is now.  

The opinion leaders of the sceptered isle may be the only people on the planet to regard President Obama’s response to the oil spill as swift and effective. So why are they enraged? Because our sinister president is, apparently, single-handedly tanking BP’s share price. Or, as a headline in the Daily Express put it with classic English reserve, “Obama Is Killing All Our Pensions.”

Brits Upset

Nothing is going to stop them unless we begin to stand up, to speak to power. Those in power know by the actions of our government that they are now beyond the law. They can destroy, manipulate, and pulverize the economy and the middle and lower classes as long as it doesn’t hurt the plutocracy. They do not give a fuck.

Worst of all, BP realizes that, if it finally cannot get a handle on the oil spill disaster, they can simply fob it off on the U.S. Government-in other words, the people of the United States will wind up cleaning BP’s mess. BP knows that no one will hold it accountable-BP knows that it will get away with it.

Corporate Anarchy

I thought anarchy was for those under the boot heel of the oligarchs. We’ve now found out that the boot heel of anarchy comes straight from the oligarchs themselves.

This era of corporate anarchy is reaching a crisis point-we can all sense it. Yet the leadership in the United States and Europe is making no effort to solve the root problem. Perhaps they don’t see the problem. Perhaps they are beholden to corporate masters. Whatever the case, in his speech, President Obama made ridiculous references to “clean energy” while ignoring the cause of the BP oil spill disaster, the cause of the financial crisis, the cause of the spiraling health-care costs-the corporate anarchy that underlines them all.

This era of corporate anarchy is wrecking the world-literally, if you’ve been tuning in to images of the oil billowing out a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Corporate Anarchy

They kill an entire eco-system and the people who are supposed to defend us from these sociopaths lie down in the filth with them, beg them for there cash, and perks, and then  jobs after they leave office. The leader of this country gives a speech that has no substance, gives no specifics, rallies no one to the cause of breaking us free from the insidious addiction to an energy source that is literally killing us.

Meanwhile in Nigeria the corporate anarchists just laugh as they obliterate a country….

BODO, Nigeria – Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.

NYTimes

I can feel it now. This eruption in the deep is breaking through everything, piercing the layers of denial we have been in for years. Something is breaking apart in the psyche of mankind and we are not going back now. We need to understand and know, those in power now are trying to obliterate us. We must make it stop. This maddening, sickening culture of insanity cannot live on. I know I will never be the same. I am no longer in denial of anything. The real anarchists are those destroying our blue planet.

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    • icosa on June 17, 2010 at 19:29
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  3. In his most recent piece at Club Orlov, Dmitri uses this symbol from chess to show the end of our way of life.

    In all of the descriptions of perilous situations that I have studied, arising during adventures on the high seas or in the high mountains, or during armed conflict, a single mistake rarely proves fatal. More often than not, death comes as a result of a sequence of bad choices which reinforce each other. These choices may not appear bad at the time-but they certainly do in retrospect! The end result is a situation in which no further steps can be taken that would not be either harmful or futile. This is the essence of checkmate: no moves left.

    …snip…

    As one should expect from a natural phenomenon, failure is fractal-observable at every scale. The same pattern of maladaptive strategy leading to untimely demise constantly replays itself at the level of viruses and bacteria, and all the way to individual plants and animals, populations, societies, countries and civilizations. Nature moves forward by canceling its unsuccessful experiments, which far outnumber its successes. Most people have come to terms with the theory of natural selection, and can understand individual and group failure. But over the last few decades-quite recently, in fact-it has become unacceptable to speak of accepting the failure of very large corporations, societies and countries as a terminal state.

                            …emphasis mine…

    You can find the entire article here .

    He ends the article with a parable which is not up to the quality, imo, of the essay itself; nevertheless it is well worth the read.

  5. From Tea Partiers to Classic Conservatives, they all like to talk about bootstrapping, taking responsibility, and enjoying the rewards of overcoming risk.  In conversation with wingers, I’ve often used the privatized gains; socialized losses meme to point out how corporations are using and abusing the right.  The financial crisis and the oil catastrophe are perfect examples.  I can’t say I’ve seen a conversion take place before my eyes, but I have seen people quiet down and become thoughtful rather than simply toss out the next non sequitur talking point.

    • RUKind on June 19, 2010 at 02:30
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    The last thirty years have been a slow motion denouement. Get over it. The American Dream that never was is the permanent American Nightmare on Pennsylvania Ave.

    Resistance is futile. Change yourself. That’s the one and only thing you can do.

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