The free ride is over. Civilization has to put up or shut up.
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Social process has "cusps". A cusp is when status quo patterns must either be transcended (in order to survive and keep growing) or surrendered to (which is called beating a dead horse). Surrendering to status quo patterns is the Heart of Darkness of fascism. In this sense institutionalized religion is the very paradigm of fascism.
Notice our obsession with fossil fuels. And please notice that (fossil fuels) = (the status quo). God forbid we turn to alternative energy technologies, such as wind, solar energy, and a multitude of others. All of these alternatives are already totally cost effective, but (1.) they aren't owned by Texas energy corporations, and (2.) they are profoundly new and different forms of energy. It's that "new and different" business that terrifies the fascist mind set.
It's critical to see that what's now happening on the planet isn't just greed; it's also a "psychological/spiritual" block (to say it in an odd way). It's terror of change and abject worship of the status quo. Look at the last 2 Catholic Popes (religious fascists to the max). And look at the supreme importance of oil. But why this obsession with the dirtiest form of energy on the planet and an energy source which in five years or less is going to be extinct? Our preemptive invasion of Iraq was and is all about oil. The "Bush Oil War's" are how history is going to remember these obscene Bush/Republican years and everyone on the planet knows it.
The point is, the issue isn't "alternative energy". The issue is an "alternative reality". The paradigm of Dictatorships of the Rich (i.e., basically every country on the planet) with one party systems (in our case the Democratic/Republican Party), is blatant social suicide. In short, WE ARE STUCK.
This social/political/financial/religious structure called the human condition is at a life and death cusp. Our only hope is to find the well organized and financed sanity, conscience, and intelligence to quantum jump into a radically different mind set. It's time for an altered state (and the Internet may just get us there!).
Bottom line, very rich people have GOT TO GO. However we do it, THEY HAVE TO GO. And this includes the Gore's and Kennedy's every bit as much as the Bush's, Murdoch's, and Paris Hilton's. We are talking about a tiny, tiny international country club of astronomically rich people (many of whom are multi billionaires) who are killing America and the entire planet. This isn't hyperbole. This is objective fact. No civilization every survived with health and longevity that wasn't MOSTLY democratic. Call this socialism if you wish. Call it common senseism. Call it a humanity-grounded social structure, but it does NOT include the Paris Hilton's and this tiny pantheon of defective, socially/biologically inbred Greek Gods like elites.
The have and have not cusp is the ultimate cusp, but we must remember this cusp is chiefly a spiritual/psychological cusp. Human beings who are not terrified of cultural/scientific change never kill their neighbors in the name of god (lower case). Only hard core civilization-terrorists do that. Only people who have their heads so far up the you know what of "holy books" (gag!), succumb to infinitely self righteous genocide and 21st century "Crusades". Even barnyard animals see through the toilet of mutual hypocrisies called the Middle East.
The religious fanatic is the archetypal example of a status quo terrorist. This person if afraid of EVERYTHING. The vistas of science for these betrayers of intelligence are swept under the collective rug of denial. How pitiful to imagine people so totally in the grip of fear of science. But they fear science because science, perhaps more than anything else in our social dynamic is always plunging headlong into CHANGE.
Of course, many other rivers feed into the rising ocean of change. Our sheer numbers are bankrupting Mother Nature, e.g., climate changes that formerly took ten thousand years are now taking ten. Ozone holes are widening at a frightening rate and dreaded "global warming" is going ballistic. Ironically, the ONLY thing that can save us from this catastrophic unraveling of what's left of our ecosystem is science, but since brain dead religious fundamentalists and corporate fascists are running America's show, our salvation card (i.e., science) is no longer in the deck.
Notice that science is both a source and medicine for social/biological change.
Looked at one way, this piece is very "philosophical" and some will see it as intellectualizing when practical politics is the only game in town. It's hard to find a gentle way of saying that such a view is criminally foolish, since practical politics is exactly what got us into this pit of despair in the first place. Politics is MEANINGLESS in the context of present Earth events and if we don't find the courage and brains to transcend it once and for all, we are dead meat.
So what is this piece about? Very simple. It's suggesting that only a quantum jump into a radically different human mind set can save the Earth (because the Earth is going down the toilet right along with America).
But quantum jump into what? That's easy. More than anything else it's an altered state in which the have and have not horror no longer exists. If we can't find the strength, wisdom, and rage to rid the planet once and for all (HOWEVER WE DO IT!) of astronomically rich parasites, everything else is nauseating moot.
To say it in ordinary language, "rich people" are the cancer of this planet. Jesus saw this to perfection and preached about it much more than anything else -- even though institutionalized Christianity consistently refused to acknowledge this truth by encouraging geezers in dresses to "theologize" away the heartbreak and social passion of Jesus.
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