Concomitant with the above the US has rapidly become ever-more unequal. The top one percent of Americans own at least 40 % of the nation's
wealth. The bottom EIGHTY percent, own just seven percent. America is more
unequal than most Third World nations! (3). Worse, this trend towards ever-growing inequality is actually accelerating! Political democracy cannot survive the ever-growing concentration of power and wealth. Though like in the late Roman
Republic, the trappings of democracy can endure under elite manipulation for
some time. Politically, this is present-day America (also to varying degrees, Canada
under Harper, Great Britain under Cameron etc) (4).
It is not a particularly new or bold observation to note that
the nature of the economy determines the economy and politics of the resultant
society. Our future is now predicated upon:
1)
Ever-diminishing net energy (EROEI).
2)
Ever-growing inequalities of wealth between the
few and the many.
3)
Ever-growing cooption of government, by the
bankster and corporate elite, specifically the police power of the state, to enforce
the financial interests of the controlling few over all the rest of us.
Things just get progressively worse due to net EROEI decline.
They do NOT ever get fundamentally better. They can't because our political
institutions are prevented from adapting rationally as that would not be in the
self-interest of their bankster owners. Sequentially, everything, and everyone,
is sacrificed to preserve and expand the wealth of the very few. The corporate-owned mass media cannot report on the true problem as they are mouthpieces for
those who ARE the problem. The Congress is bought and paid for, as is the
President. Judges are selected by the President and subject to confirmation by
the Senate. As these branches are bankster-owned, so too are the members of the
judiciary. As former US President Jimmy Carter recently told a German audience: "The U.S. has no functioning
democracy at this moment." (5) There exists no hope whatsoever that politics as usual will have any
effect on our ever-more-rapid slide towards a dystopian future, the likes of
which would sicken even Orwell and Huxley. This is due to the rapidly declining
EROEI of our energy base.
If fundamental change is to occur, and it MUST, it must be revolutionary
in nature. The entire structure of the US political economy must be uprooted.
All bankster and corporatist wealth, being stolen, must be confiscated, all
banksters and corporatists must be swiftly arrested and rendered permanently
harmless. All of the corrupt politicians and government agents who would
inevitably seek to preserve the status quo, under cover of "national security", must be summarily relieved of duty, fired, and arrested.
Article V of the US Constitution should be invoked by mass gatherings of
citizens in all fifty states. These mass gatherings would vote to call for a
a national Constitution Convention. On a state-by-state basis, they would then vote to
convene a Constitutional Convention. Once the required thirty-four states have
done so, the Second Constitutional Convention would be convened. It would,
necessarily, rule by decree, the previous governments at both the national and
state levels dissolved. If we get this far, a new birth of freedom may lie
ahead. If not, only ever-growing misery awaits us.
The key is a rapid national, hopefully global, mass popular insurrection,
which is non-violent, at least until/unless deadly force is brought to bear against
it, while following the existing Constitution about as closely in replacing it,
as was the case for replacing the Articles of Confederation back in 1787. The
key to THAT occurring is mass awareness that our decline is inevitable in that
it is caused by immutable physical laws in conjunction with the corresponding
actions of a wholly despicable, infinitely avaricious, utterly amoral, elite who
will never voluntarily give up their deceitfully obtained, illegitimate grasp
on power. As the laws of physics are not going to change, the political economy
must.
The high-energy past will never return; post WWII America will not
either. This is not, however, to say that a decent, ecologically sustainable, democratic,
future can't be ours. We CAN change history! A new birth of freedom is
possible. It is up to you and me!
References:
2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested
1)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/inequality-us-_n_3421381.html
4) http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/03/oligarchy-exists-inside-our-democracy.html
5) http://www.salon.com/2013/07/18/jimmy_carter_us_has_no_functioning_democracy_partner/
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