Solid, incisive, acute analysis. The hope for sanity and change is admirable. And unachievable. The rigidly propagandized American people no longer have the capacity, if they ever had it, to honestly assess the fact that their government is an irrational tyranny based on vicious deceit, owned and driven by a neo-Capitalist murder cult intent on absolute world rule.
Pathetically, this people is fully committed to its own destruction, and so richly deserves it. It is coming; they will have it.
Clinging to the notion we can resurrect an accountability that perhaps never was built in. Not according the true, yet hidden history of our systems.
Please see Alex Krainer's terrific piece on this as trend-watch as well. From near April 21st, I think. Same message, different (Finance-focused true history) source material. No less profoundly holding us-all in the fog of cognition/truth vs. denial.
Witness vs. acting?
Bless you all! We need this. If change is to be possible.
Especially because we have become increasingly visually oriented perhaps.
We require the very visual shock of juxtaposition to jump-start through non-verbal means, our failing hearts, minds, souls.
Your point about the contradiction of capitalism and democracy is well taken, though I think that the flaws of democracy run much deeper. The fundamental idea of democracy is that average citizens are capable of deciding who should represent them and what policies their government should inact. This, as American history shows time and again, is simply a fantasy dreamt up by intellectuals who are divorced from the reality and lived experience of the general populace.
The reality is that people are easy to control through marketing, propaganda, and cleverly designed messaging. This is evident in the overwhelming size of the advertising industry, which bombards the average citizen's mind with enough messaging to change their behaviors. It is evident also in the success the US has had in weaponizing information to cause revolutions and overthrow democracies around the world. It is extremely rare for a human to have both the capability of critical thought, and the time necessary to think deeply about issues, so as to sort misinformation from truth and guard the mind against cleverly told lies.
What we are witnessing before us, the devastation of Gaza, the trampling of human rights and destruction of professed liberal values while our politicians remain silent or actively cheer on the destruction is simply a manifestation of this reality. Many decades ago, people with money realized that the only thing you need to control a democracy, is lots of money and influence to buy messaging. If you control the messaging, you control the democracy; and here we are, helpless to behold its end result.
Democracy is dead, and we must look to other forms of government that are not so susceptible to manipulation if we want to restore some sense of justice and peace in the world.
Yes. The rejection of democracy for the sake of global hegemony, economic dominance, and American primacy continue to determine the decision-making and worldview of the political and political elite. And they didn't give a damn about the whole world. Power and money. Everything else is just idle chatter.
Peter, you forcefully make it clear we have to act now or suffer extinction of our humanity. I agree with your analysis of Liberalism, although I’m much cruder in thinking of the American version as simply a way that we perversely use to feel better about ourselves.
Instead of ideology or politics, what if we replace both of them with a more demanding proposition—Justice, and the painful consequences of seeking it, rather than consoling ourselves with deluded self-image?
Observing from Australia, US society seems to be continually festering below the surface. If only this internal conflict could be resolved and the best of America prevail, -then America and the world will be much safer, fairer place. But how can this internal American conflict be resolved; it is as if the war of Independence is still smoldering. No one would wish another civil war on America. But is there an alternative?
At Bretton Woods in 1944 the US promised the world that if the world's nations could agree that the US Dollar would be accepted as the unit of exchange for world trade, then every dollar created would be backed by gold at 35USD to the ounce.
It took only until August 1971 for the US to break that promise to the world.
The US is about to experience the cost of breaking its promise, resulting in the collapse of the US Dollar; it's happening now.
If this becomes a humbling experience shared by all Americans (we and all fiat currencies will have to suffer too) then there is a real opportunity for all humanity to live better safer lives, even though we in the west will be far less affluent than before. But that is the price we must pay for America's broken promise.
Solid, incisive, acute analysis. The hope for sanity and change is admirable. And unachievable. The rigidly propagandized American people no longer have the capacity, if they ever had it, to honestly assess the fact that their government is an irrational tyranny based on vicious deceit, owned and driven by a neo-Capitalist murder cult intent on absolute world rule.
Pathetically, this people is fully committed to its own destruction, and so richly deserves it. It is coming; they will have it.
Fabulous, stunningly apt right this moment.
Clinging to the notion we can resurrect an accountability that perhaps never was built in. Not according the true, yet hidden history of our systems.
Please see Alex Krainer's terrific piece on this as trend-watch as well. From near April 21st, I think. Same message, different (Finance-focused true history) source material. No less profoundly holding us-all in the fog of cognition/truth vs. denial.
Witness vs. acting?
Bless you all! We need this. If change is to be possible.
Especially because we have become increasingly visually oriented perhaps.
We require the very visual shock of juxtaposition to jump-start through non-verbal means, our failing hearts, minds, souls.
In communion. To respond in kind.
Toward Peace. -T.
Your point about the contradiction of capitalism and democracy is well taken, though I think that the flaws of democracy run much deeper. The fundamental idea of democracy is that average citizens are capable of deciding who should represent them and what policies their government should inact. This, as American history shows time and again, is simply a fantasy dreamt up by intellectuals who are divorced from the reality and lived experience of the general populace.
The reality is that people are easy to control through marketing, propaganda, and cleverly designed messaging. This is evident in the overwhelming size of the advertising industry, which bombards the average citizen's mind with enough messaging to change their behaviors. It is evident also in the success the US has had in weaponizing information to cause revolutions and overthrow democracies around the world. It is extremely rare for a human to have both the capability of critical thought, and the time necessary to think deeply about issues, so as to sort misinformation from truth and guard the mind against cleverly told lies.
What we are witnessing before us, the devastation of Gaza, the trampling of human rights and destruction of professed liberal values while our politicians remain silent or actively cheer on the destruction is simply a manifestation of this reality. Many decades ago, people with money realized that the only thing you need to control a democracy, is lots of money and influence to buy messaging. If you control the messaging, you control the democracy; and here we are, helpless to behold its end result.
Democracy is dead, and we must look to other forms of government that are not so susceptible to manipulation if we want to restore some sense of justice and peace in the world.
Yes. The rejection of democracy for the sake of global hegemony, economic dominance, and American primacy continue to determine the decision-making and worldview of the political and political elite. And they didn't give a damn about the whole world. Power and money. Everything else is just idle chatter.
An exceptionally well written and reasoned text. Thanks.
Peter, you forcefully make it clear we have to act now or suffer extinction of our humanity. I agree with your analysis of Liberalism, although I’m much cruder in thinking of the American version as simply a way that we perversely use to feel better about ourselves.
Instead of ideology or politics, what if we replace both of them with a more demanding proposition—Justice, and the painful consequences of seeking it, rather than consoling ourselves with deluded self-image?
Observing from Australia, US society seems to be continually festering below the surface. If only this internal conflict could be resolved and the best of America prevail, -then America and the world will be much safer, fairer place. But how can this internal American conflict be resolved; it is as if the war of Independence is still smoldering. No one would wish another civil war on America. But is there an alternative?
At Bretton Woods in 1944 the US promised the world that if the world's nations could agree that the US Dollar would be accepted as the unit of exchange for world trade, then every dollar created would be backed by gold at 35USD to the ounce.
It took only until August 1971 for the US to break that promise to the world.
The US is about to experience the cost of breaking its promise, resulting in the collapse of the US Dollar; it's happening now.
If this becomes a humbling experience shared by all Americans (we and all fiat currencies will have to suffer too) then there is a real opportunity for all humanity to live better safer lives, even though we in the west will be far less affluent than before. But that is the price we must pay for America's broken promise.
Huh?