The policies the U.S government is following are dangerous for its citizens. It's true that you can bomb or buy out anybody that you want to, but you can't control the rage that's building in the world. You just can't. And that rage will express itself in some way or the other. Condemning violence is not going to be enough. How can you condemn violence when a section of your economy is based on selling weapons and making bombs and piling up chemical and biological weapons? When the soul of your culture worships violence? On what grounds are you going to condemn terrorism, unless you change your attitude toward violence? - Arundhati Roy (from her interview with David Barsamian, in The Cheque Book and the Cruise Missile)If the Mother of Creation possessed a stomach and she got pregnant then rage would be her only child. Whether or not it is a rage that is dedicated to preservation or annihilation depends on who is present to cut the umbilical cord, and how it will spill out. Also, if this Rage has a Loving twin, which I believe she has, then human choice becomes a huge factor in how our world will proceed in this early phase of the 21st century.
This rage against unresponsive power that is in the command of the Anglo-American elite will finally burst out, as it has in all ages of history. But it will be a messy affair. Let's be frank, it is unlikely that the planet's goons will have a change of heart since they have continued their bloody agenda for many, many years, so our only choice is to resist peacefully but passionately; by way of boycotts of major financial firms, strikes, marches, and a whole cascade of civil disobedience. I do not advocate instigating violence to bring change for both moral and practical reasons. Violence is unable to establish the highest order, Truth, which can only be fulfilled through education and conversation. And second, the People of this world are outgunned by a significant degree. We should all take heed in Kierkegaard's words, that "the use of base means is immediate proof of mediocre aims."
Because we are political animals, as Aristotle said, avoiding the task of resistance is not a choice, not if we ever want to lead happy and fulfilling lives in this world. Some argue that resistance is too late, or futile, but for the sake of justice and dignity, is it not worth a shot? If not now, then when? As Francis Bacon said, "it were better to meet some danger half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep" For too long we have lived in a makeshift bubble; a bubble that has been built on violence against other peoples of the world, and propaganda against ourselves. The belief that we are too small to create any meaningful change must end. Are we afraid of the warlike exercises conducted by the American State on its own soil? Fear should never dictate our line of action when human dignity is on the line, and it has been on the line for many, many years. The least we can do is to cross the line, just as WWI infantry soldiers left their trenches and risked their lives to defend their fellow brothers. In the beginning we will believe this war is for civilization, as they did, but we're defending something much greater than that, it's about friendship and loyalty to our fellow brothers and sisters. Forget civilization, what matters is the community of people around us.
II
The Third Worldization of the American People is radicalizing them into a political force that is still unconscious to a degree, and we should not cry foul at this development because the American people must first suffer before they can be a force for good in the world. The destiny of the People of Africa, Latin America, India, and Asia must intertwine with the destiny of the American People, who are the largest revolutionary force in the making. And they are receiving their political education from Chomsky, Alternative Media, Ron Paul, Alex Jones, political activists and writers. One man, Chomsky, has stood against the Propaganda Machine all his adult life, he is a true hero of the ages. But sitting in a lecture room is not enough, we must convert our knowledge into direct action, and civil disobedience. True, many people are still caught up in the left-right media melodrama, but we must not be weary because that is the way of our world. American Rage is the last bubble to burst, and positive, informed forces will be there to greet the new awakenees, but only if we keep on the march and not let shadow propagandists get away with their corrupt agenda. Arundhati Roy understands this positive mechanism working inside American society. In an interview with David Barsamian in the months leading up to the Iraq War, she had this to say:
Ordinary people do have a conscience. Ordinary people don't necessarily always act in their own selfish interests. If the bubble were to burst, and people were to know all of the horrendous things that have been carried out in their name, I think it would go badly for the American establishment. And I think it has begun. I think all America's family secrets are spilling out backstage on the Green Room floor.The onslaught of propaganda cannot stop the resurgence of Truth and Liberty in public life. The totalitarian agenda that has been forced upon the North American and European Peoples since the 1970's is pitting us in a common destiny with the Peoples of the rest of the world. For too long, the People of the West have been separated from the colonization of the other regions of the world, not knowing just how brutal and anti-human their governments are because of their own psychic colonization. Genocide and slavery were both justified. Mass Murder? Class Chatter. However, we are slowly realizing that if the world is to be safe for democracy then we must first begin with our own Western governments. The message Wilson preached at the end of WWI still has resonance today, but for far different reasons. Today, Democracy is being brought to the United States, not the other way around. Philosopher and psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon, is a prophet in this sense. He saw the need for the People in the West to join the rest of mankind in the fight against tyranny and colonization. In his book, The Wretched of the Earth, he writes:
This huge task which consists of reintroducing mankind in the world, the whole of mankind, will be carried out with the indispensable help of the European peoples, who themselves must realize that in the past they have often joined the ranks of our common masters where colonial questions were concerned. To achieve this, the European peoples must first decide to wake up and shake themselves, use their brains, and stop playing the stupid game of the Sleeping Beauty.In America, the De-development of the manufacturing industry and the outsourcing of jobs have allowed a process of Re-enslavement of the American people, especially of the lower classes, to take place. But as I've said before, this should not be looked at in a purely negative way, because the American plebs constitute the greatest revolutionary force in human history. The question is, will they fully awake from their sleep and act with full knowledge of what is going on? Or will they decline the role they have been given. If they make the wrong choice then a complete global-fascist takeover of America, funded by banking and corporate titans, and one much more cruel than the current powerful arrangement already in place, could take hold and force the country down an even meaner direction. With that said, I have faith in the American people, and they will come to the obvious conclusion that the occupation of the Middle East means occupation of New York, Dallas, and Washington.
III
In the Post 9/11 world we are all reliving Nietzsche's nightmare, leading lonely lives and weeping for the world, as the last of us are discharging from the herd. In that sense, Nietzsche was the greatest prophet after Zarathustra. But the time will come when rejoining the mass will mean something, because this time we won't be as mindless as before, and if we are centered in ourselves, then we can reach out and touch the center of the universe simply by shaking hands with the next person. Another influential philosopher in my thinking, Ortega Y Gasset, declared that "every form of overcoming is a way of preservation." Earlier in the piece, I asked if the child being born out of the Mother of Creation will dedicate herself to preserving the human species or annihilating it, which I will now admit is a false question, because it is up to us to decide. We are the judge of our destiny. Once we overcome this breaking point in history, we will achieve great things, which are yet unimaginable. The disquiet hero of our age, Noam Chomsky, remarked in a recent lecture what humanity is exactly facing:
Right at this point, crucial questions arise about the nature of Western democracies and their future, these are extremely important topics, they're obviously the most important ones for us, and they're important for everyone because it's quite literally true that the survival of the species is at stake.Our present historical crisis is the harbinger of unceasing human growth in the future, and it is happening at this juncture because something deep within us is telling us to slow down and start recollecting. Conservation of forests, green space, wild species, as well as conservation of our past knowledge is part of the same survival mechanism. The changes that are taking place, and about to take place are unfathomable, and indeed, out of this world. It is easy to get lost in the world, and I mean this in every which way - intellectually, personally, psychologically. All things spin, the cycle of the planets rival the seasons on Earth, and the passions in our souls. We are called to take the cycle as a whole, but to also pay close attention to the seasons. Professor James Schall, of Georgetown University, writes in his book, The Order of Things, that "in order for the whole to be the whole, the parts must be, and remain, the parts." We must realize the bigger picture and the grainy details at once, so that when we finally act, we are not led astray by political madmen or fight tooth and nail with tooth and nail. We must concentrate our efforts on our local communities, farmer markets, close family ties, and our passionate friendships. "The thinker," Ortega says in Psychological Investigations, "ought to be loyal to the small, just as the Creator is."
At the beginning of this fateful decade, a bunch of former cheerleaders in Washington D.C published a paper called "A Project for a New American Century," which has turned out to be the Mein Kampf of this group of war criminals. Partly influenced by that title, I suggest we all begin a Project for a New Individualist Century. "We are, in a sense," Father Schall says, "a project to ourselves." Self-rule begins with the soul, and if this is done correctly, then ordering our families and societies will not be a difficult task. To scream "Liberty" without first ordering our souls is child's play and will lead further to freedom's ruin. Before this Bubble of Rage bursts, we must educate ourselves, our friends, and our families, so that when the Baby of Rage finally arrives, she will have a home. Just as the Father and the Mother read all the baby knowledge they can get their hands on, we must also dedicate our lives to both practical and theoretical knowledge pertaining to a truly free society, so the the Baby of Rage will not be crying for long once she is out of the womb.
This truly free society will not be based on coercion and fraud, but on Truth and human dignity. We will not relive the tragedy of Spain in the 1930's, when so many brave men and women, dedicated fighters for liberty, lost their lives as the world looked on. Describing that pivotal event, George Seldes, the heroic American journalist, wrote:
Here in Spain, once in our lifetime, we saw the people, the illiterate peasants, the factory workers of Spain joined by workers from Detroit, British poets, American poets, all the Spanish intellectuals without one exception, some Jews who had escaped Dachau, men who had been small merchants, doctors, students. The entire civilian population of the Loyalist side had only a few rifles in their hands, but all had courage in their hearts-and with them fought foreigners who had given up everything they owned and were about to give up their lives.The time will come when the Last Bubble will burst, and we too will be forced out of our quiet desperations and into history's final battle, which will be fought for the heart and mind of every Man and Woman. Will you be there? Because CNN won't be covering it, by then they will be irrelevant, as well as every other oppressive media institution.
All these common men, the polloi of many lands, who might have lived out their lives in Thoreau's quiet desperation and gone to their graves without ever thinking deeply, without ever feeling deeply, were here and now in Spain, lifted out of the world's useless ruts, and into the spirit of a time of greatness.
Mass heroism! When was it ever experienced before? Or after? At the time of the Crusades-with their Hitler-like massacres? At the call of the United States politicians to save democracy in Vietnam? Let history say. (Even the Gods Can't Change History, p. 87)
