The End Isn’t Nigh

Today the world was supposed to end, again. But the evangelical Christian group counting on the end of days (an end in which they would naturally be spared) will just have to pick another date on the calendar. The world will go on, in its messy brilliance, and all the complex and terrifying problems that we don’t want to think about will still be there and waiting for the solutions that we, and only we, must come up with. And I almost feel for these souls, for I sense they are indeed lost and bewildered by the world. Some of these people, like all reactionaries, pine for a past that never actually existed. And others have been fed on a steady diet of hate and fear fed to them by a complicit media powered by corporations all too happy to cash in on that hate and fear. Do they have a choice? Sure, but coming to terms with the fact that the media and powers-that-be most certainly don’t have your best interests at heart is a painful passage.

It is so much easier to blame the other, and convenient to fixate on a group. When I was a kid it was welfare queens and Russians. Now it’s undocumented immigrants and Muslims. Women, poor people, gay people and communities of color also have had their turns as the outsider, leaving a ridiculously small population of privileged white males as “normal.” And that’s a distraction, and not fair to them either. Our man made problems are so formidable that an all-hands-on-deck approach is needed to fix them.

One made-made disaster I cannot get out of my head is the entrenched presence of guns in this country. A fresh and horrifying shooting always brings this out in me and I find myself not feeling so much numb, as the president said, but more radicalized. The death sticks gotta go.  I grew up in suburban Western New York where guns were around, but not part of the culture wars like they are now. I recall a friend with older brothers who hunted deer, but their shotguns were kept far away from every day family life. A kid from school’s dad may have shot himself after his business failed, shocking the community, but that kind of violence was rare. But if a neighborhood mother bought her troubled shut-in son guns (plural) as a form of therapy, condemnation from the local moms would be swift and harsh.

I think somewhere in the last couple of decades a meanness and paranoia crept into our collective consciousness, because why else would you even want to have weapons around? Fetishizing products made to deliver death is a terrible symbol for kids, who are just learning about conflict resolution. And the dangers requiring “protection” from are overstated. Even the cities have gotten inexplicably and dramatically safer, yet many of these 2nd amendment dead enders fantasize about protecting themselves and their property from intruders. And if that is your way of thinking, are you really comfortable with delivering a death penalty for someone who wants to steal your television? A women actually shot up a Home Depot this week trying to stop two shoplifters. Did she really think she could get past the guilt of  killing a man for stealing? I’ll take my chances with calling 911.

But as heated up about guns as I am right now, I also feel like it is a symptom. And even the kind of gun reform I wholeheartedly support wouldn’t fix the root, which is a kind of epidemic of alienation. We are alienated from our neighbors, communities and especially ourselves. And only by healing that wound do we even stand a chance.

How does that happen? I have no idea, but I am inspired by the words of the great Grace Lee Boggs, who recently died after 100 years on this earth. A committed activist, she did the work, but she also saw the big picture. She said, “The only way to survive is by taking care of one another.” And I am taking that to heart.

We Can, Still

Last week I found myself lucky enough to be in attendance at a public conversation between Pablo Iglesias, secretary-general of upstart Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos and Democracy Now‘s Amy Goodman. Barely a year old, Podemos (we can, en espanol) is a populist movement that exploded in reaction to EU-imposed austerity, and the slender Iglesias comes across as a blend of very cool professor and firebrand revolutionary. Feeling that his people have been taken advantage of by the big European banks, he doesn’t shy away from the occasional guillotine quip. But as a self-described leftist, he spoke about his movement as being less about a right vs left ideology, and more about the people vs. the powerful financial elites. He knows they’ve been had.

Iglesia’s party doesn’t even hold any seats in the current Spanish parliament, yet they dominate the Spanish media and were able to bring out tens of thousands in Madrid for a January rally. Early polling gives them a strong showing in their November elections, with many comparing the rise of Podemos to that of Greece’s SYRIZA. And that gets my attention.

I was one of those who thrilled per the news that Greece had decisively voted in a progressive left wing government.  One of the things that makes the SYRIZA victory so remarkable was how surprised the rest of the world was that they won. Who would have thunk that an optimistic party wanting to tax wealth and reinstate a strong welfare state for a people crushed by austerity cuts would be so attractive?  But why wouldn’t the Greek people want to be governed by a group that serves the (vast majority) of Greek people? It’s their country, and that is something that seems to be lost to so many very serious people within the very serious global ruling class. It’s the democracy, stupid, and the scales are starting to fall from everyone’s eyes.

Limited as my knowledge of Spanish (and Greek) politics is, I do have an inclination towards upstart social movements. And I feel like America is primed for its own awakening. Without austerity to unite us, we can still feel how the slow chipping away at our own social safety nets has become the new normal. At work we do more for less money, and for some reason let people like the Walmart heirs and the Koch brother’s shape our public policies. We let it happen, and we can unmake it. But it won’t be easy, and I have lots of empathy for so many of my fellow citizens who fear the future so much that they want to take the rest of us down rather than face the change.

But the future belongs to those movements that cast a wide and inclusive net. The reactionaries can (and will) continue to make a lot of noise, but the future will be browner, gayer and more female. Movements that recognize that we are all in this together have the edge, and that is what I am counting on.

It’s 2015, Time to Name Your Own Adventure

A new year inevitably inspires ambitious new plans and a chance to hit the reset button. I know that my heart quickened a bit after the clock struck 12 with thoughts of how this year would be better than the last, with opportunities for forward momentum, for the commencing of new business. But, along with frigid temperatures, the second week of 2015 brought a chilling reminder for those of us fortunate enough to live in the west that there are no safe places, and we make plans at our own peril. But didn’t we know that already?

The two gunman who planned and executed the Charlie Hebdo murders got the maximum amount of bang for their terrorist buck, gaining international attention for the Jihadi cause as well as a likely bolstering of support for the decade-plus War on Terror. Because, make no mistake, a splashy and violent event like this is made to stir shit up. And if recent history is any indication, what is stirred up will land heaviest on our brown brothers and sisters here and abroad. The European right wing and their American counterparts used the news to promote a nasty and racist strain of xenophobia with their chronically scared constituency, and in the the most craven WTF, some propagandists even laid responsibility for the killings at NYC’s own mayor Bill DeBlasio for, I dunno, acting upon some of the policies he was elected for?

But as someone who experienced 911 and its aftermath in New York, I can tell you that this time is different. Back then, the “you are with us or against us” drumbeat was so prevalent that the mere suggestion that there was some complex causes for the horrifying effect would be met with shrill accusations of treason, at least in most circles. But in the chaos surrounding the killings in Paris, diverse opinions popped up immediately. The cartoonists were called out for the racist-seeming depictions of Muslims, with supporters assuring under-informed readers that the artists were equal opportunity offenders and staunch antiracists. I’m still not sure what I make of the satire, but the debate was useful, and continues, and what struck me was how accessible it all was. There is no monoculture, at least not for those with access to the internet, and it is up to us to see patterns in shocking acts of violence–if we ever want to move beyond them. Charlie Hebdo was a symbol to the killers. And it is now a symbol to the rest of the world, in spite of the intentions of the victims. They would, one suspects, find events in their name like the staged photo opp with a Rogues Gallery of world leaders with dubious (at best) respect for the press to be worthy of their most pointed ridicule. And the speed with which the hypocrisy of those leaders was exposed makes me hopeful for how the rest of the year will play out.

The pattern that I see is that we have a chance to get our houses in order. In the US there is always a default desire to find heroes and villains, but the more I dig, the murkier it all gets. American and European policies led to where we are today, and no amount of droning, occupations or harassing of journalists will eliminate the threats that professional propagandists like FOX assure us are the biggest threats to our way of life. Imagination and honest soul searching should be the first and last resorts for anyone interested in a future with more peace, inclusion and opportunity. But it is up to us to make it happen.

We live in a time when biopics of innovators Martin Luther King Jr., Alan Turing and Steven Hawking share marquee space with the neocon fantasy of American Sniper. And if you think of everything you read, see or hear (much of it unintentional) as input, then know that your output is something you have in your control.  So what are you putting out there, and who is it serving?

In images like the one above, I see a sane response from clear headed people who will see these tricky days an opportunity for more love and inclusiveness, rather than some dystopian shutdown where all the tribes of the west close ranks. Will it happen? We’ll see, I suppose.

Photo: Danielle Voirin

 

Fear is a Feature, Not a Bug

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.

Waking Up is Hard to Do

So I got into it with Facebook acquaintance, in spite of my better judgment. I ignored that little “do you really want to go there?” voice telling me to not engage in what would most likely be a fruitless battle. But I did it anyway.

He had posted an already widely-debunked article about how this rifle-packing granny turned the tables and shot a young miscreant who dared to attack her as part of some sick knockout game. He said it was the “greatest story” he ever read.  The knockout game, an urban myth perpetrated by the right-wing media to spread racial panic, claims that roving bands of black teenage thugs are on the hunt for vulnerable white people to knock out with one punch. It sounds insane because it is insane, and it is not any kind of widespread criminal epidemic. Has it happened ever? Probably, but so have countless other aberrant crimes, and they weren’t featured for weeks on the most popular cable news station in the country.

So I posted the link that debunks his story, with the word “hoax” over it. I should have known better. No one likes a know-it-all, and sure enough, my former classmate wasted no time in responding that, true or not, it was exactly what “those animals” deserved. And that astonished me. The truth of the story was immaterial because it enforced a conviction in his head that those subhuman “animals” deserved death. The narrative he was clinging to was clearly racist, but it could just as easily been sexist, homophobic, classist – you get the picture. That revenge story made him feel good, and it comforted him that the world was indeed just as hostile a place as he thought it was. Bad things happened because of them, not us.

I think we all like to think we are rational, but that is not true. Many of us have our moments when we are able to make lucid calculations leading to better decisions, but most of the time our minds and hearts are made up already. I know it is in my case. And being hit with facts refuting our story makes us feel uncomfortable, and attacked, making us that much more likely to retreat back to our own little bubbles. And that is the problem.

So I say know your own bubbles and have compassion for other people’s. That does not mean you have to avoid conflict or let harmful information stand uncontested. But also know that winning an argument should never be a goal in and of itself.  I think it is far more useful to try and live by example and be consistently mindful of where our biases lie. We are never “done” and people evolve at different levels. So while you cannot force someone to wake up to their own rational self interest, you can ask yourself if your own dealings with others are motivated by love or fear.

How I Occupy

Occupy Wall Street turned two today with a smattering of direct actions in New York  and a bigger-than-expected media output. The laziest writers focused on “What has Occupy actually done?” (plenty, actually) while the more nuanced scribes listed the individual projects that various members of the original Zuccotti Park crew have devoted their talents to. Then there were the usual suspects, er, malcontents, claiming Occupy is dead, because they think it is. And that is fine with me.

From my first spine-tingling realization, in the fall of 2011, that NYC might finally have it’s own Tahrir Square, to my subsequent visits to the park, I knew they were onto something.  I knew that the fight for the interests of the 99% was the right fight, for the right time. So I volunteered. I put in the hours trying to build an organized web space for the movement to learn and share, and had my heart broken over the concerted efforts by the powers-that-be to discredit and destroy something so potentially good. And then there was the chronic (if understandable) dysfunction of a leaderless movement that grew so much bigger than the sum of its parts. We are still working on that.

But I have stayed focused on the movement’s potential and I am not walking away now. And while there are plenty of real-world Occupy-based projects  that I will gladly work to make happen, they are not the reasons I stay.

I occupy because Occupy showed me that I could make a difference and that I could become an active participant in my city, country and world. The people I met and the things I saw convinced me that I had just as much a right as anyone to be here. And we are still just beginning.

 

 

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