So are ya scared yet? Well, you should be. If the Ebola does not get you, the ISIL most certainly will. These latest DEFCON 1 threats to western civilization sure have managed to suck all the oxygen out of the room in spite of their limited scope. Never mind that malaria kills over half a million people annually and doesn’t get its own czar. Or that the Saudi Arabian government has publicly beheaded 59 people so far this year under their interpretation of sharia law for offenses such “apostasy, adultery and sorcery.” That is not to say that the tactics of the Islamic State are not scary as hell. Of course they are! That is why it is called terrorism. And the faulty response to the first US case of Ebola certainly should give pause and make you wonder what other corners get cut in our unwieldy, profit-based healthcare system. But the biggest threats to our health and sanity are much closer to home.
Sometimes its too depressing to contemplate, when money is considered free speech, and you realize that the tear gas used on the streets of Ferguson was likely first tested on the people of Gaza. And the fact that you discover this while reading from a miraculous device that was most likely assembled by teenagers working in near slave labor conditions at the behest of one of the richest corporations on earth is enough to make you want to check out of the reality-based world, even if for a little while. But please don’t.
Because those in power already do think they can create their own reality. Want to change some environmental regulations so that your family company can make more profits? Then invest big money in politicians and think tanks to ensure that your environmental-destroying practices will be simply regarded as free enterprise and job creation. Want to convince an entire country that overthrowing a government and occupy a country posing no threat to the US just had to be done? Then concoct a gripping story for the rubes (all of us), and chide those who dare to call them on their bullshit as unpatriotic–even when it becomes clear that your plan was, all along, to secure record profits for the oil and defense industries.
But what can we do?
To start with, let’s ask ourselves what kind of world we would like to see and go backwards from there. Want intelligent citizens engaged in the political process? Invest in education and make pre-school through college free. How about less violence? End the failed war on drugs and address the abuse of legal and illegal drugs as a public health issue. It won’t be easy, but maybe those millions spent on prisons can be repurposed for treatment, counseling and public education. And stop letting the gun lobby call the shots. Regulate firearms stringently and put sensible plans into place to have fewer, not more, guns in the country. Because stockpiling weapons is not a symbol of “freedom,” it is a reaction to fear.
Let’s make stewardship of the planet a national project. It is still where we all have to live, and conserving and maintaining it shouldn’t be a left vs. right political game. We have to invest heavily in renewable energy, and encourage universities and businesses to seek sustainability.
Gross economic inequality? Tax wealth, not labor, and put policies into place that help everyone, not just the 1%. That can range from a liveable minimum wage to strengthening labor movements to building a single payer health system so that no one goes bankrupt when their kid gets sick. And think about what a basic income could really mean for the nation.
The others, the ones currently calling the shots are creating their own reality and they have been for a long time. They can, and will, push back against any sensible reform that will in any way empower regular people, the 99%, to have greater power over their own lives. This power threatens them and their wildly out-of-balance gilded lives. And they are scared, too. But the ruthless, bordering-on-sociopathic self-interest that has flourished in the boardrooms and backrooms where rich white men congregate is reaching its sell-by date. And something will need to take its place.
So start small. Become engaged in local politics. Find that one cool issue that resonates with you, and learn everything you can about it. Talk to your neighbors. Listen. And participate in something, anything. Just don’t do nothing. That’s what the powers that be are already counting on.