In the last essay, I said: “this period is the culmination of the bad choices Americans have been making for a very, very long time now.” I want to take a moment to explore that, so you can really understand what I mean by it.
Umair, I appreciate your essays, but browbeating us is not helpful for readers who have no recourse but to stay and try to change the trajectory. I expect that anyone who follows your columns understands our failings. Americans have been successfully captured by an oligarchy that owns and controls all of our media, financial institutions, means of communication, educational systems, judiciary, and government. Most Americans do not have access to accurate information; we have nothing but propaganda. It has accelerated in the last 10 years, but even before, it was not in the interest of the wealthy to feature positive coverage of universal healthcare, or free college tuition. Rather, media screamed headlines about the tax burden in other countries, businesses fleeing, and higher education turning your children trans, or atheist or liberal. Millions of Americans do not recognize the pattern that is unfolding. On the flip side, millions of us are feverishly working with pro democracy groups because we see what has already happened and what is coming. I am afraid it is too late, and am turning my attention to building locally based mutual aid networks, where we can live parallel to, but apart, from this evil predatory state. Could you speak to this at all?
I agree with you 100%. There are those of us who have worked for years to try and get caring politicians elected. At the same time, jobs were shipped oversees and corporations became persons. When these same corporations started contributing to political campaigns, I think many politicians lost all sense of direction. Insider trading and shady side-deals became all too common, to the point of an actual government for the people grinding to a halt. Sadly, the news networks have been overtaken by those benefiting from the public being misinformed. After years of truth-spinning there is a whole section of the population believing those lies. And yet, access to them for dialogue has been carefully destroyed through talking points that have labeled dissenters as non-patriots to be distrusted. This has been a long game played by cruel and selfish people. It speaks to the lack of knowledge about what is actually happening, and why, within a great swath of our population. Sadly, these are not people reading your newsletters. And even if they were, would they understand what you are attempting to say? To me, right now, the answer lies in forming circles of community for the hard times ahead. There is no one coming to our rescue. The power for change now lies in grass-root communities built on trust and collaboration. We are now entering a very different world from that we’ve known. (Notice I did not say country? That’s because the whole world will feel the impact of what’s coming.)
Notwithstanding Umair’s comments, which may be true, those words point to a larger topic, one which is imminently solvable. That is looking at democracy, not so much as an ideal or value, but instead, as a TOOL. The question becomes: how can we make it relevant to the people who live their every day lives? In the end it seems to me, we have a crisis of creativity in the US. We keep holding onto these old beliefs that only work for some, and of course, that is all related to this large international setting of oligarchy and kleptocracy. We the people have to embrace, and then share, the idea that voting and democracy is not about the ballot box, not about some vague ideal, but it’s about choosing our own futures, and how we make it work FOR ALL OF US. We begin by looking at this crisis of creativity and begin to ask questions — questions like “how?” This is the basis of creativity. Identifying where we are (thanks for the perspective, Umair,) because that will point to that creativity. Then, not nothing but how—how can we do that? That requires both ambition and also imagination, creativity , and it requires tools, some of which may exist, and also some which are new. I don’t see nothing, but I see how someone can see that nothing. I see ground which can be made fertile. If we can embrace that, if we can put our own beliefs and limitations aside and listen to other people’s fears, and hopes, we will begin to see a path forward. People need to feel that they have the ability to change and determine their own future. Predatory capitalism has led us to believe we have no agency. That’s the work that we have at hand. Our crisis is a lack of creativity, and a lack of agency. And a lack of hope. That’s what makes people want to look for an alternative form of government when, in fact it’s less an alternative form of government that would help, but rather, an understanding that the current government is not delivering on those needs. We have to make that government relevant to peoples’ lives, and that requires understanding and communication and creativity and the ability and willingness to talk with one another and ask the question “how.”
Umair, I appreciate your essays, but browbeating us is not helpful for readers who have no recourse but to stay and try to change the trajectory. I expect that anyone who follows your columns understands our failings. Americans have been successfully captured by an oligarchy that owns and controls all of our media, financial institutions, means of communication, educational systems, judiciary, and government. Most Americans do not have access to accurate information; we have nothing but propaganda. It has accelerated in the last 10 years, but even before, it was not in the interest of the wealthy to feature positive coverage of universal healthcare, or free college tuition. Rather, media screamed headlines about the tax burden in other countries, businesses fleeing, and higher education turning your children trans, or atheist or liberal. Millions of Americans do not recognize the pattern that is unfolding. On the flip side, millions of us are feverishly working with pro democracy groups because we see what has already happened and what is coming. I am afraid it is too late, and am turning my attention to building locally based mutual aid networks, where we can live parallel to, but apart, from this evil predatory state. Could you speak to this at all?
I agree with you 100%. There are those of us who have worked for years to try and get caring politicians elected. At the same time, jobs were shipped oversees and corporations became persons. When these same corporations started contributing to political campaigns, I think many politicians lost all sense of direction. Insider trading and shady side-deals became all too common, to the point of an actual government for the people grinding to a halt. Sadly, the news networks have been overtaken by those benefiting from the public being misinformed. After years of truth-spinning there is a whole section of the population believing those lies. And yet, access to them for dialogue has been carefully destroyed through talking points that have labeled dissenters as non-patriots to be distrusted. This has been a long game played by cruel and selfish people. It speaks to the lack of knowledge about what is actually happening, and why, within a great swath of our population. Sadly, these are not people reading your newsletters. And even if they were, would they understand what you are attempting to say? To me, right now, the answer lies in forming circles of community for the hard times ahead. There is no one coming to our rescue. The power for change now lies in grass-root communities built on trust and collaboration. We are now entering a very different world from that we’ve known. (Notice I did not say country? That’s because the whole world will feel the impact of what’s coming.)
It’s all true. It’s all a mess. There’s no going back, only destruction and waiting for the Phoenix.
So how do ‘everyday citizens’ live?
Is it really possible to ‘protect’ our wealth from the repercussions of having trodden the wrong path?
Wealth worth preserving is not measured by monetary gain.
Yet we all must live and eat and grow, especially the children whose trauma will play out in the world to come.
Notwithstanding Umair’s comments, which may be true, those words point to a larger topic, one which is imminently solvable. That is looking at democracy, not so much as an ideal or value, but instead, as a TOOL. The question becomes: how can we make it relevant to the people who live their every day lives? In the end it seems to me, we have a crisis of creativity in the US. We keep holding onto these old beliefs that only work for some, and of course, that is all related to this large international setting of oligarchy and kleptocracy. We the people have to embrace, and then share, the idea that voting and democracy is not about the ballot box, not about some vague ideal, but it’s about choosing our own futures, and how we make it work FOR ALL OF US. We begin by looking at this crisis of creativity and begin to ask questions — questions like “how?” This is the basis of creativity. Identifying where we are (thanks for the perspective, Umair,) because that will point to that creativity. Then, not nothing but how—how can we do that? That requires both ambition and also imagination, creativity , and it requires tools, some of which may exist, and also some which are new. I don’t see nothing, but I see how someone can see that nothing. I see ground which can be made fertile. If we can embrace that, if we can put our own beliefs and limitations aside and listen to other people’s fears, and hopes, we will begin to see a path forward. People need to feel that they have the ability to change and determine their own future. Predatory capitalism has led us to believe we have no agency. That’s the work that we have at hand. Our crisis is a lack of creativity, and a lack of agency. And a lack of hope. That’s what makes people want to look for an alternative form of government when, in fact it’s less an alternative form of government that would help, but rather, an understanding that the current government is not delivering on those needs. We have to make that government relevant to peoples’ lives, and that requires understanding and communication and creativity and the ability and willingness to talk with one another and ask the question “how.”