(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
The onslaught of information is like a tidal wave that just keeps rolling in; seemingly endless. It’s hard to balance between having a “starfish” moment and being misdirected by false “cause du jours.”
“The Left will implode,” cry those who have to feel like they are doing some actual good, “if we attack those trying to make a difference!” They seem to feel that expanding our “consciousness” about the plight of children in areas like War-torn Uganda is worth repeating lies told by agencies like Kony 2012. Kony is no longer even IN that country. He was certainly the lesser of the two evils in that country when he was there, by a thousand-fold to the killings and child soldiers of its President.
The right-wing think tanks know the Left’s Achilles heel. Its human rights and the abatement of suffering. With tears in our eyes, a lump in our throats, and heart beating wildly, we will champion a cause; give our 5 or 10 dollars. We will text, retweet, facebook share and viralize instantly whatever comes our way. We will unquestioningly support it, even under evidence that it is a disinformation campaign, funded by those right-wing think tanks in order to get US boots on the ground. We will say, “Well, it might be about the oil there, but still? Think of the babies!”
I understand the starfish moments. I try and live that way. But in the REAL way. I do fundraisers for ACTUAL people. I’ve had dozens live with me short-term until they get on their feet. I take dinner to people in a bad way, or have them over for some. I let kids with troubled parents practically live here.
So, what of the larger causes, both real and imagined?
To tell the truth, they exhaust me.
While I will sign nearly every petition that comes my way; there are few I find worth bearing repeating. I no longer give money to any of them… I have none to give, for one. Mostly, I think that we have spent the better part of 40 years since the last attempt at liberalizing this country throwing our energies at treating the symptoms, and ignoring the causes.
“Vote for better Democrats!” Yeah, NAFTA and NDAA that shit, mmmk?
“Save the wolves!” No one loves wolves more than I do; yet until we get serious about real Governmental controls on keeping balanced ecosystems at large, throwing money at the EDF will do little for the wolves.
“Free Mumia! Free Peltier!” I have long advocated freedom for these Political Prisoners, yet after all these years, we have made no headway into the world-wide systemic incarceration and assassination of people who stand up to the Elite Classes running the World.
“Apple uses slave labor in China! Nike is worse!” Well, I manage to live life with neither product; and I never set foot in Walmart. They all still not only survive, but thrive on their exploitation. Not a goddamned thing we have done has made the smallest dent in the Predatory Capitalist system that encourages these atrocities.
“Rush called a college girl a SLUT!” Well, yeah, he’s a douche, and I’ve been called worse. Sticks and stones may break my bones, and hey, fuck you Rush. If Rush made a sound in the forest and none of us repeated it, he’s just one bear shitting in the woods. I’m a real woman, and I don’t need protection, nor to wring my hands over a word spoken by an irrelevant old man. This is divide and conquer stuff. I’m really more worried about being able to live indoors and eat and mundania like that. Dig?
None of these causes, nor any of the others will get a dime from me, and very little in the way of support. I have not the energy to waste on strapping bandaids on the fingertips of a body humana with a gaping chest wound.
So, here I am at a crossroads.
I am becoming less involved in the tabloid liberaloid and have only one focus.
The SOURCE of the infection upon humanity and the root of all evil. The reason for strife and poverty in African Nations. The cause of exploitative labor in Asian Nations. The source of the insane wars of aggression against indigenous peoples by Israel. The factors that created the economic collapse of the Western Nations. The base-line of the widespread global warming and massive pollution’s devastation upon this globe we occupy.
Each and every one of these ills can be traced back to the GREED that is CAPITALISM.
There can be no “kinder, gentler” Capitalism. Someone always does without for someone to have more. It’s a zero sum game. You cannot regulate away the very nature of the beast. Profit itself is exploitation.
Capitalism is based on inequality; capitalism relegates our very worth to increments of our TIME, our LABOR, and makes our worth based on the least of the human traits… GREED.
Without COOPERATION as the basis of humanity, rather than COMPETITION, this society is done, if not this entire PLANET.
Capitalism is killing our nest to the point everything on this planet may die.
There is only one war to me, and that is the Class War.
Even “Occupy” with its non-sectarian, non-political voice rising against the 1% will be an abject failure if it does not move towards a Socialist Workers-Rights movement.
This is becoming a manifesto, though not my intent in sitting at the keyboard this morning.
I’m sorry – EVERYTHING ELSE HAS BEEN TRIED AND HAS FAILED.
Incrementalism doesn’t empty our prisons, fill bellies, stop wars, and make seeds again fertile.
Regulation does not stop abuses, nor allow people free migration across this green and blue marble, that is quickly turning brown and grey with our poison.
Politicians of the system will never oppose the hand that feeds them.
Until EVERY life is valued as our own? Until you address the ROOT of the problem, you are playing a dangerous game of whack-a-mole while the stopwatch runs to zero on the World.
You are fighting the wrong battles.
This is why I fight.
This is the only fight worth fighting.
I will save you. You save the next one. We all save us all, or its over.
Viva la revolucion!
1 comments
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without love, man?
It matters to me.