Will Globalization and the IT Revolution bring a fourth reaction?
After 5,000 years of living in communities, will homo sapiens manage to integrate local communities into a worldwide community in which the principle of fairness is inextricable from the principle of freedom? We have the technical means, but do we have the will and vision?
Can the anti-war movement in America join forces with anti-war movements in Europe, Asia and around the world? Can we organize planetary boycotts of industries that pollute our children’s air and water, and of corporations that poison our bodies and minds? Are Americans big enough, wise enough, to internationalize their problems or must we turn everything over to our overseers—our politicians and the lobbyists and media barons they serve and service? Can we remand war criminals like Bush and Cheney, Kissinger and the like to the International Court in the Hague and other international judiciary bodies, or must we resort once again to the tired formulations of impeachments, pardons and the same ugly crimes reappearing, somewhat reconstituted, somewhere down the road?
There are crises in the heart and infrastructure of this nation that go far beyond the soft and hard power of our body politic. After a quarter of a millenium, our sacrosanct Constitution is frayed badly at the edges: its electoral college that awarded Bush the presidency; its life-time appointment of Supreme Court justices that rigor-mortises Justice itself; the absurdity of a representational system that provides a senator from Wyoming some 70 times the proportionate power of a senator from California; the equal absurdity of a lame-duck presidential system that almost assures that a successful first term will be followed by a bad second; the lack of people’s referenda to easily remove indictable offenders like Bush, Cheney, et. al. Not to mention, the lack of anything like an Economic Bill of Rights!
“Ecraser l’infame!” Voltaire cried in his mid-60s. Crush the infamous thing! But first, like Voltaire, understand it, explain it. See the great currents of human history, controlled and out of control, buffeting our simian and god-reaching species. Expose the scoundrels and turn them out, and praise the honest man and woman and uphold their decency. Those we have trusted to lead us have deceived us long enough, let us wander too long in a wilderness of tears, thorns and betrayals. The task is formidable, gargantuan: to educate, to explicate, to elucidate. To keep mining history until we reach the golden veins of truth; to flush the murky waters till the clear wellsprings shine in the radiant sun. To re-connect ourselves to the great movements of world history: the peace and social reform movements in Europe and America in the 19th century; the anti-colonial revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries against European and American Empire. We must rise up now with knowledge and compassion and take the reins to ride the maelstrom; to save ourselves and our home planet, our tomorrows, and what and whom we love.
Gary Corseri, a senior contributing editor of Cyrano’s Journal Online, has had articles, poems, fiction and dramas at Thomas Paine’s Corner, DissidentVoice, Global Research, CounterPunch, The New York Times, Village Voice, CommonDreams, Atlanta-PBS, PalestineChronicle, TelesurTV, IslamOnline and over 200 other venues. His books include A Fine Excess and Manifestations (edited). He has taught in American and Japanese universities. He can be reached at gary_corseri@comcast.net.
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