What now?

All that was hidden is laid bare, yet what was hidden is not all.

2 AM Tuesday morning, March 18, israel again began bombing Gaza. As of that moment, we are now in a post civilization world. Obviously, that needs some unpacking. Why is this week different from the previous week(s)? It isn’t, actually, but the veil has finally now been permanently rent exposing the full extent of human failure.

This is a long post which will be cut short by gmail. To read it in full, click on the title then it opens in your browser. If you don’t open with your browser, Substack doesn’t count it as read.

Here is part of a stream of comments on my post Strategic Voting Required:

[Sue - @suzannetaylor] - It’s humanity’s dark night of the soul where we now can clearly see humanity’s shadow side — Indians, slavery, etc. Revealing it lets us transcend it — or die.

[KM] Thank you, Suzanne! Humanity tried to pass Civilization 402 while failing the pre-req Morality 101 - civilization and war are incompatible, leaving no verifiable civilization on this planet. The pre-requisite was to d/l a new OS which has no coding for murder, theft or covetousness. We failed that so went on to create this horror show of chaos, genocide, etc. Wann wird man je verstehen?

[Sue] - It’s time for a new creation story where we understand ourselves to be sacred creatures in a sacred universe. I write about that. How bad things are call us to come up with what’s extraordinarily good as a counter.

[KM] Thank you! Yes, we can all think via our better brain and avoid brain-stem reaction and hate. But the other 7,999,999,000 people are still going to try to steal from you - it takes an online system upgrade to the entire human OS all at once, person-by-person achieves nothing. This human animal attempted a civilized structure that was beyond its capacity. As of the 2 AM attacks on Gaza, two nights ago, I am declaring this to be a post civilization world. This experiment has failed, everyone, everywhere, all at once.

[Sue] So now what?

(Reference: SUE Speaks - Suzanne Taylor’s Now What? - @suzannetaylor)

Yes, exactly. Now what?

In Physics there is a concept called “Unstable Fixed Point.” In two-dimensions, that unstable point can be represented by a dot upon the top of a sine-wave loop, assuming gravity affects this 2D line. The dot can easily roll down either slope since it is balancing at the top. In 3D, consider a ball-bearing perched atop a hemisphere, such as a beach ball sliced in half standing on your table, round-side up. That bearing can sit atop that hemisphere but it is unstable, the slightest force can send it rolling off in any direction. That is an unstable fixed point. It can sit there but is not secure. It must be under constant observation and requires immediate intervention in case it starts to roll off. That ball bearing represents Peace.

We had that bearing sitting upon that ball at the end of WWII with the creation of the United Nations. But the work to provide the required constant observation and necessary intervention was both too much of a burden for many and for others, was completely undesirable. The war-makers, the international bully, wanted to create peace another way, by conquering the world thereby eliminating any potential challengers to its hegemony. But all nations have this desire, latent or overt. World dominance would theoretically result in an imposed “peace,” such as the Pax Americana. Thereafter, the only work needed to maintain “peace” was keeping any resistance oppressed. This is the kind of “peace” you can enjoy in a jail cell.

Thus, the bearing was not just allowed to roll off, it was pushed off and the beach ball thrown in the trash with the creation of NATO in 1949, so that USA could do an end-run around the UN Security Council’s consensus system, and develop a cloud of symbiotic sycophants to give legitimacy to its hegemonic desires. The hegemonic desire to conquer the whole world was accompanied by developing hate for the nations that might resist, so that they could be vilified with the propaganda necessary for promulgation of forever-wars. To counter these activities, one of the nations on the receiving end of this hate, Russia, set up the Warsaw Pact in 1955, since it was being surrounded by preparations for war, under the guise of “defence.” There was never any intent by the Western Alliance (NATO) to keep that bearing of Peace on the top of the ball. It was always presumed that the bully nation could at any time, in any place, “Go in there and …” wherever it wished, and in fact, according to Kissinger’s doctrine, random attacks somewhere in the world were needed to demonstrate who is in charge. This demonstrates one aspect of American “Exceptionalism,” the ability via military power to be able to tell others how to live. The flip-side of Exceptionalism is America being able to justify its exemption from all international law which normally would apply to all nations.

Thus, Peace has always been not only neglected, but actively pushed out of the way - the bearing was swatted off that ball anytime people tried to get it near the top. These days, it is like many bearings are sliding off in all directions, and it is a given that anyone can take up arms against whoever whenever with no consequences. Instead of strengthening the UN to better maintain peace, every effort was made shove to Peace out of war’s path.

Why am I going over all this history? Unfortunately, too many people still hold NATO in high regard. NATO is an evil in this world, should never have been initiated, and even from the Exceptionalist viewpoint, should have been abandoned at the demise of the USSR. Now, resulting from the insanity of the Trump regime, Canadians are boycotting American products and looking for access to other markets for their exports, since, in their eyes, the USA has unfriended them. If they hadn’t been self-blinded by US propaganda, they would have seen that the entire USA-bully hegemony and world-dominance project was inconsistent with world peace and then divested from cooperating with that regime, and set up their own defence programs. The same considerations for Europe - they need to develop a concept of “European” to be able to establish a sense of community, their own community, instead of being an adjunct to USA power and instead of further entrenching nationalistic separations between European states. Again, that comprises an unstable point which needs constant attention to maintenance.

With the resumption of the bombing of Gaza by israel (no longer deserving of a capital letter), the mask is totally pulled off the twin exceptional nations and the fullness of Evil revealed. Here, and in other situations, people clamor for a “ceasefire,” which informs you that “fire” is the actual default and to “cease” requires a special request, and there are no enforceable guarantees, so at any time, the situation can relapse to the default, which is “fire.” War is represented by any position of the bearing on the ball other than at the top. It rolls off the position of Peace into various varieties of war, representing human depravity at large scale, since it also represents the path to various degrees of “othering” on a progression leading to torture, since there are infinite methods of torture yet one way to love and respect. War becomes the default far too easily. As Dr. Thomas W. Dodman, a professor at Columbia University, says "We think of wars beginning and ending. But we should think that war is the default template, and there are beginnings and ends to peace. Wars live on because of their lingering effects. Often the reasons for the next conflict were not fully resolved in the last one."

But again, Now what?

How do you put the manure back in the horse after the horse has left the barn? In your next life, try to do better. (Yoda: Try? There is no “try”! Do, or do not! ) Minute by minute, real solutions slip farther away, as a result of the total incompetence of the Trump regime. Before the western alliance was totally trashed, its position of power could have been traded for an effective UN Security Council, as I have previously outlined. But any possibility of such a remedy is now in the rear-view mirror.

Can a propensity to war endure without an underlying theme of hate? Hate seems to be a pre-cursor to war, and the hegemon whips up hate for the next imagined adversary or competitor in order to convince the masses of the need to prepare for war. Thus an answer to “Now what?” is to stop “othering” other nations, stop setting them apart as “adversaries,” stop seeing geopolitics as a competition. Competing for what? World dominance? So that states captured by the latest hegemon can have peace in their new jail cells? Initiating hate of other nations must end, replaced with cooperation on matters such as security and cultural exchange. Such ideals require negotiation by diplomacy, and like Jeffrey Sachs says, you get nowhere in diplomacy by demeaning the other parties to the negotiations. This is the work required to keep that bearing on top the beach ball, on that unstable but essential point.

The whole point of the United Nations was to prevent wars of aggression (as most are) and to provide a forum for proper discussion of world affairs. But that project was sidelined (as noted above) and exists now as an historic relic. What “the people” can now do on their own, is reject any talk by your leaders of inciting hate of other nations or populations. Civilization, if it is possible, can only exist on that side of hate (the pre-hate condition), since war is the aftermath of hate. And what is aftermath? As I recall, it was the 10:30 Geography class. And geography should exist without manipulation, one must not be re-drawing another’s borders.

I am happy to have readers from half-way around the globe, but many are in USA, being home-base for Substack. And for those in USA, I should say that you have made many errors in your life and not just for staying in what’s becoming the new Gilead. The “Weetha Peeple” nonsense was already slipping away by the time of Shay’s Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion and Fries’s Rebellion, after which the government made it very clear that people’s voices were restricted to the ballot box only. While the populace was restricted to the ballot box, corporate power was solidifying its control over government.

The first American corporations emerged in the 1790s, starting with small banks. The first industrial corporation was The Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813, importing a business model from Great Britain, and by the 1820s the corporate model was replacing individuals and partnerships as the structure of major businesses. From Harvard Law, on the Corporate Capture of the United States:

“Capture has been further implemented through the extensive lobbying power of corporations. Abraham Lincoln’s warning about “corporations enthroned” and Dwight Eisenhower’s about the “unwarranted influence by the military/industrial complex” have been fully realized in our own time. Reported lobbying expenditures have risen annually, to $3.5 billion in 2010. Half of the Senators and 42 percent of House members who left Congress between 1998 and 2004 became lobbyists, as did 310 former appointees of George W. Bush and 283 of Bill Clinton.”

Beginning in those early years, control of governance by “people” was restricted and handed over to the bigger players in the economy: big business. As John Dewey said in 1905: “Politics is the shadow cast upon society by big business.” Add to that Eisenhower’s warning, and you see how the preparations for endless (well-paying) war came into being. All while “the people” were not minding that little bearing on top the beach ball. Thus the need for citizens to switch from apathy to awareness of what the people in control are doing, and resist their attempts to eliminate resistance! But apathy was the direct result of all popular resistance being channeled into the ballot box, which is an emotional rather than a logical selection process. As we learned in Manufacturing Consent - The Political Economy of the Mass Media, the electorate is bombarded with genuine propaganda in a deliberate attempt to take the value out of their last little input to governance, their vote. And like Emma Goldman said, “If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal” [Emma Goldman, a Russian-born US political activist, anarchist and writer (1869-1940)].

But you must stay vigilant and see though the parade of lies presented as news. This is different from “Fake News”; Fake News is items the regime doesn’t want to hear; the regular “news” fed to the populace is what the regime wants you to know, but you need to see through that haze. (More on the creation of this haze below)

Considering the unstable fixed point again, with the American Revolution (1776) centuries of history of evolved governance in the parliamentary tradition was tossed aside in a new experiment in governing with a written constitution was implemented, following post-Enlightenment themes. The trail of supposed progress in western philosophy tracks toward fascist-type thinking and/or “enlightened monarch” rule, as demonstrated in Pankaj Mishra’s book Age of Anger - A history of the Present. “Eastern” philosophies are of course rejected as being unenlightened, and are to be pushed out of the way of the expansion of the Crystal Palace. Thus we end up with this massively failed system of governance in control of history’s most lethal military regime. It’s supposed “checks and balances” were a mirage masking multiple unrelated unstable fixed points, all of which required constant vigilance in keeping them all top of the ball at the same time. This mess could be cleaned up by writing a new constitution or just tear it up and return to centuries of parliamentary tradition. That’s complicated. Lo que será, será.

The “enlightened monarch” theme is employed these days by certain business philanthropists who re-imagine the world through their vision which has been corrupted by years of complicity in capitalistic conquest.

Repairing political governance would modify a diminishing sector of actual societal controls. The political state is now in minority control and its operations restricted to a decreasing importance in regulation along with an increasing importance in being the enforcement arm of business. Some corporate offices are moving from Canada to USA and one of the benefits is that American corporations have access to “5-Eyes” intelligence, so they can easily monitor activities of people and organizations which protest against them. Thus another connection between big business and the enforcement powers of their captured governments. “Weetha Peeple”? Dream on.

We need to keep peeling back the layers of propaganda to expose these levers of control. Otherwise the sorrows of the people of Gaza will gradually envelope all peoples.

Turn your beach ball over, round side down and put the bearing in there. It rolls to the bottom, a stable fixed point. This position represents the thought regime created by these neo-liberal think tanks. They have incrementally re-worked the public mind as per the “Great Mindshift” method, so that all conversation rolls back to their central thought - that economic freedom trumps (that word again) all other freedoms and rights. This scheme prioritized individual over collective rights along with the supposed highest human goal of scraping as much wealth as possible toward yourself. To move the bearing away from the bottom of the bowl, to free your mind from this thought-trap, requires constant work to move it off this unfortunate default position.

Regarding Sue’s comment (see above), “It’s time for a new creation story where we understand ourselves to be sacred creatures in a sacred universe,” This thought is answered miraculously this very day by Rev. Jessica Hetherington’s latest post on The Wisdom of the Fig Tree, in which she illustrates why -

“The Earth Has Never Needed Our ‘Stewardship’; It’s Time to Drop That Language For Good,”

and

“embedded in the idea of stewardship is an image of humans as separate from the rest of the natural world, and that the natural world exists for human use.”

“The Christian call to climate action today isn’t about stewardship; it is about a radical realignment of the human within the wider natural world in which we belong and actions that mirror that realignment. It requires nothing less than transformation.”

Yet we experience a world controlled by business interests via the propaganda disseminated by the think tanks now veering into total financialization of Nature and forcing people into conformity with their thought control as witnessed by the crackdown on university student demonstrations, and outright criminalization of any kind of protest in many countries. And people ask: “how can we create a narrative that can counter the neo-liberal takeover of all thought?”

The problem is these neo-liberals started seriously organizing in 1947 (Mont Pelerin Society) as a unified group and smaller bunches before that. They have powerful stink tanks around the globe providing opinion pieces for every one of their retail propaganda outlets (TV, "news", newspapers - they are all in on it). They've been baking this cake for a long time, while the lefties just sat back and watched, or not even bothering to pay much attention. But organizing the lefties is like herding cats. They segregated themselves apart from formal organization since such groupings were mostly associated with business or institutions. If they weren’t such a bunch of narrow-minded fools, they could have saw the emerging threat, got their sorry asses organized and developed a single theme of response as well as a definitive plan for a better society. But again, herding cats, as well as being engrossed in situation ethics and not really standing for anything and unwilling/unable to formulate a mission statement.
This all developed in lock-step with the corporatization of government, leaving "weetha peeple" on the sidelines. So fine, get in the time-machine, go back at least 50 years, and get your asses (and minds) in gear to deal with this menace. Meanwhile, by default, you are in this corporate jail with only the freedoms that your jailer allows you, and it's your own fault and like the people in Gaza, nobody's coming to rescue you.

And don’t expect "Liberals" to save you. Find any that don't drink from the business-funded stink tanks. You left all your eggs with the Democrats and they didn't brood them - none hatched. Going through all the motions of traditional politics while you have no content is like opening a can of soup to find it empty. But you knew it was empty already, populated by vacuous schmucks. If the business agenda is the problem, you must figure out another system to direct people's productivity into socially meaningful activities. But on the other side, these business stink tanks are funded by business because they serve their needs and the funds are written off as "charitable" donations. That tax “charitable” loophole must be closed and another way found to fund the promotion, propaganda if you will, of your new replacement system. People have had the neo-liberal talking points drummed into them for so long that it is difficult to think outside that frame, which is the exact purpose of the stink tanks.
And don't worry about the damage by the Trump regime being "permanent," you missed that bus. It's too late, the damage has been done. And even if America wasn't totally flat broke and indebted to $1T per year just in interest payments, it might take a decade or more to recover from this amount of damage, and maybe never with so many research projects deep-sixed. You blew it, betting all your chips on the Demos and their BS candidates like Bill Clinton, Obama and Biden - decades wasted. Unrecoverable error. So try to think of some alternative social structures to the business model and work that up into a scaleable scheme. One candidate might be Steiner's Three Fold Social Order in which education is 1/3 of the social structure and directly funds young people's education and life productivity goals. There may be other partly developed systems which could be further developed. As it is, you are on ground zero in your empty corporate prison. But even in trying to dream up a new social order, the Origin problem stands in the way - humans are not a domesticated species! They have not evolved to the point of being able to accommodate a sustainable social structure. Again, Lo que será, será.

Poet Robert Browning put it this way:

“I walked a mile with Pleasure, 
She chatted all the way, 
But left me none the wiser 
For all she had to say. 
I walked a mile with Sorrow, 
And ne’er word said she 
But, oh, the things I learned from her 
When Sorrow walked with me!”

Can you feel the sorrow of the Palestinians yet?