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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 7/24/13

Fossil Fuels + Security State = Perfect Fascist Storm

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Now, Congressfolk would find the case I'm making far more compelling if it were not for one reality. Support industries for the war on terror, such as weapons manufacturers and developers of spying technology, are in many cases beneficiaries of the mother's milk from Washington by which the contributors to political campaigns have made their fortunes. The literally billions of tax dollars with which these industries are flooded give their players a substantial stake in keeping the war on terror permanent. And here we face a double whammy: not only are the industries in question--weapons and spying--innately subversive of democratic freedoms, but the permanent state of war they thrive on strangles democracy as well.

Nowhere, however, are the security and surveillance state's innate fascist tendencies more sinister than in enforcing corporate agendas that subvert both majority interests and the common good. And no policy better fits this description than the expansion of today's extreme methods for extracting fossil fuels--among them fracking, deep-sea drilling, and tar sands mining. Though we can simply believe the warnings of climate scientists that our insane persistence in these methods will mean "game over" for our climate, the pernicious character of these technologies was most poignantly brought home for me by the radically failed fracking experiment carried out in Pennsylvania. Despite the virtual brainwashing of the public by industry hype and bought-off politicians, the fracking experiment itself turned out to be SO rancid that a majority in Pennsylvania now rejects it on its own merits. To reference a terrifying action that illustrates my thesis that U.S. corporate agendas are today backed by fascist-style enforcement, it is little wonder that the Pennsylvania gas industry resorted to military psy-ops methods initially designed to pacify populations subject to unwanted U.S. invasions.

As Americans wake up, they will increasingly perceive the practices of the fossil fuel industry as an unwanted U.S. invasion. And the Frankensteinish American security state spawned by the permanent global war on terror is the ideal enforcement arm for subjecting Americans to it against their will. Unless we oppose this "perfect fascist storm," our democracy--like our environment--will become its debris. That's why I strongly urge putting the global fossil fuel industry and our U.S. security state--along with Big Money--in the crosshairs of a pro-democracy mass movement.

For those interested in launching a movement to save democracy, the Time to Restore Democracy Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/WhoseVoiceOurVoice?fref=ts .) offers a great strategy discussion site.

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Patrick Walker is co-founder of Revolt Against Plutocracy (RAP) and the Bernie or Bust movement it spawned. Before that, he cut his activist teeth with the anti-fracking and Occupy Scranton PA movements. No longer with RAP, he wields his pen (more...)
 

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