Man is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell. –George Orwell
If you don’t like the news…go make some of your own. –Wes “scoop” Nisker
Ninety percent of any revolution is nonviolent, making ideas the nucleus of any true social movement and revision. There is much distress about the Obama administration’s persistent attempts to disarm Americans, despite that the right to protect oneself against a crooked government stands as the Second Amendment of the United States of America, while he simultaneously enriches further a new super class, thereby emmiserating the great mass of citizens. Furthermore, yielders of power understand perfectly well the importance of ideas to any form of ubiquitous popular reform; hence, recent federal pamphlets administered to many state police agencies accusing a majority of Americans of being terrorists. That’s right, if you support the Second Amendment—in fact, if you support the constitution at all—if you support Ron Paul, even the founders of this nation, you are in danger of being labeled a terrorist and being prosecuted. For those adept thinkers among us, FEMA camps await. Clearly, the US government and military have prepared for civil unrest.
What follows is an overview of just a couple popular counter-culture movements in this country’s history. Firstly, I present a caricature of the American Revolution, and the pamphlets which functioned as the crux of that essential moment in human history. Many estimates put the percentage of colonists active in—or supportive of—the Revolution at around four percent. A tiny amount when one puts the ripple effects of that revolution in perspective. Secondly, I present a little known topic among most Americans: The Anti-War GI movement during Vietnam. We will learn of the importance of the GI Press to that movement and the ending of the war.
The American Revolution (on paper)
As historian Bernard Bailyn notes, of all the shortcomings the foremost thinkers of the American Revolution may have had, reticence was not one of them. In a decade and a half—from 1750 to 1776—the leading colonists of the day compiled a rich literature of theory, argument, opinion, and polemic. The thirty-eight colonial newspapers were, by 1775, filled with columns of arguments and counter-arguments, official documents, extracts of speeches, and sermons.
Pamphlets, the medium by which much of most important writings of the revolution appeared, were of crucial importance to the revolutionary generation. The alternative news website of today, perhaps, can be viewed as their modern day equivalent. Pamphlets were a space in which the writer could experiment with ideas and presentations, for he or she enjoyed more freedom than within the pages of a colonial newspaper. George Orwell, a modern pamphleteer, wrote:
The pamphlet is a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and “high brow” than is ever possible in a newspaper or in most kinds of periodicals. At the same time, since the pamphlet is always short and unbound, it can be produced much more quickly than a book, and in principle, at any rate, can reach a bigger public. Above all, the pamphlet does not have to follow any prescribed pattern. It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of “reportage.” All that is required of it is that it shall be topical, polemical, and short.
The middle sized pamphlet was most ideal for the needs of the Revolutionary writers. It allowed for the full development of an argument (investigating premises, exploring logic, considering conclusions, etc.), and therefore was where “the best thought of the day expressed itself”; where “the solid framework of constitutional thought” came to fruition; and where “the basic elements of American political thought of Revolutionary period appeared first.” Despite an author’s freedom to explore a multitude of topics in this form, these pamphlets were always pointed, focusing on immediate challenges and the most pressing issues. Envisaged as resolving obstacles and predicaments by the most relevant and effective means available, the pamphlets, in so many ways, made up the revolution’s cognitive orientation: namely, which problems were viewed as most pressing, and which solutions were considered most sagacious. The baggage of such a hardening in approach—as certain solutions were brought to the forefront and normalized—is the ostracization of less ‘mainstream’ opinions. In other words, Revolutionary movements form salubriousness or hygiene of their own, as less tidy or traditional resolutions go unacknowledged.
Such a predicament is difficult to avoid, though one such way of sifting through a chorus of voices is to organize on the basis of our disparate notions. The American character is a diverse set of values, morals and ethics. All of our voices must be considered relevant and accommodating, until proven otherwise. Those with similar ideas and yearnings ought to hash out their differences (more similar than their differences with those from wholly other schools of thought) among themselves, presenting thereafter other committees and forums with a united agenda.
The first Soviet—or council—was established in Russia in the province of Ivanovna-Voznesensk during the 1905 Textile Strike. It was incipiently a strike committee, but developed into an elected body of the town’s workers. Over the next months, Soviets of Workers Deputies were established in and around 50 different towns. These Soviets were crucial to fomenting the popular ferment of the early 20th century in Russia.
In St. Petersburg, approximately 500 hundred workers elected a single deputy, whereas in Moscow and Odessa 500 and 100 workers, respectively, elected a representative. The Soviets—in light of the failings of the Duma—were envisioned as the legitimate workers’ government; they challenged the authority of Nicholas II and sought to enforce promises made in the October Manifesto, such as freedom of the press, assembly and association.
In December, 1905, however, the Soviets were suppressed and leaders such as Leon Trotsky were arrested and imprisoned. Soviets were re-established during the overthrow of Nicholas II. Soldiers and industrial workers played a crucial role in the soviets established in 1917. The First Congress of Soviets that was held in June, 1917, had 1,090 delegates representing more than 400 Soviets, of which 285 were Socialist Revolutionaries, 248 Mensheviks and 105 Bolsheviks—Civil War awaited them in the offing, a fate we must avoid.
At the time of the November revolution, there were upwards of 1,000 soviets in Russia, the lion’s share of which controlled by the Bolsheviks in the major towns and cities. The Second Congress of Soviets was convened on 8th November; employing a variety of methods, the Bolsheviks gained control in on 14th June 1918, thereafter expelling Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. Such a breakdown in unity must be avoided by way of broad axioms from which a modern-day American Reform Movement can spring: compassion, altruism and unity?
Back to the American Revolution: In the crisis decades of the 1760’s and 1770’s pamphlets appeared year after year and month after month. More than 400 of them, all of which weighed in on the Anglo-American controversy, were published between 1750 and 1776. 1,500, furthermore, had appeared by 1783. The pamphlets featured explanations of current events, and were at once of a declarative nature; expressive of the beliefs, attitudes, and motivations as well as of professed goals of those who led and supported the Revolution. The definitive literature of the event itself can be found within the pages of the Revolutionary pamphlets.
The American pamphleteers were prescient individuals, who expressed themselves in a gathered, cohesive and cogent manner. Though they imparted scorn, anger, and indignation, they rarely spread blind hate, panic and fear. They sought to convince their opponents of their viewpoints, instead of attacking and belittling them.
This of the upmost importance, for, in a society where violence has been targeted at individuals--instead of, say, towards pray for reward-- argument is war. The metaphors we use for argument, as well as the milder forms of debate, point in a similar direction: He attacked my argument for all it's weak points; a shortcoming that could have been avoided, had the weak argument been stronger. Your claims are indefensible. Her criticisms were right on target. I've never won an argument with him.
The American Revolution, the kernel of the American character and a turning point in human history, was not an overthrow of existing social orders or a traditional bloody revolution (though blood there indeed was), but instead the preservation of political liberties threatened by the corruption of the constitution, and the indemnity, in principle, of the existing conditions of liberty.
Instead of the disruption of society—with all the fear, despair and hatred traditionally attributed therewith—the American Revolution was the realization, understanding and emergence of the liberty believed to be America’s destiny in the scheme of world history. There can be no stark historical categorization of this instance in history, for the intangibility of the convictions of that time, arisen from emotions and sentiments, escape definition. Bailyn suggests a poem called “Mind,” by Richard Wilbur, as the ultimate depiction of the spirit of those Revolutionary times:
Mind in its purest play is like some bat
That beats about in caverns all alone,
Contriving by a kind of senseless wit
Not to conclude against a wall of stone.
It has no need to falter or explore;
Darkly it knows what obstacles are there
And so may weave and flitter, dip and soar
In perfect courses through the blackest air.
And has this simile a like perfection?
The mind is like a bat. Precisely. Save
That in the very happiest intellection
A graceful error may correct the cave.
The Revolutionary process, whereby a pool of ideas was deliberated by a diverse group of talented philosophers (I assume it is human nature to philosophize, pegging each and every one of us as a philosopher in his or her own right), enlarged the dimensions of our cognitive cave, transforming, and perhaps, even modernizing it. We are all a testament to the more spacious world shaped during the American Revolution, and now it is time we carry forth the legacy of our forefathers on a hitherto unprecedented scale: a global revolution in thought, for learning is contagious, and the Truth can be made endemic during these precarious times.
The Vietnam GI Press
The GI Press appeared between 1967 and 1970 as a part of an expanding GI peace movement which opposed US imperialism and, more pointedly, the war in Vietnam. These papers were in every way countercultural and were interested in the plethora of political struggles of the day. The papers also discussed local events such as record releases or rock concerts as if they were inherently political movements. Whereas Sunday morning talk shows revered politicians and generals as philosophers and great thinkers, the GI Press recorded remarks from Bob Dylan and others as political theory. There are, by and large, two forms of resistance which take form in the pages of the underground newspapers. The first, antimilitary, signifies oppositions to all form of military activity and those involved. Antimilitarist, then, signifies a stance opposing the synthesis of military action with the goals and needs of corporate imperialism. The latter cohort found Vietnam intolerable and rejected misinformation that heralded it as vital to their nation. The latter, corporate imperialism, stands as the dominant motif of 21st century warfare.
The GI Press’ goal was to promote ideas, not profits. It sought to challenge the dominate institutions in military culture and society at large, instead of justifying them: It spoke to a community of soldiers, not a base of partners and consumers. GI Press writers were participants in the events about which they wrote. Because of the large network of GI newspapers and the longevity of some of the publications, the GI Press was meaningful in nurturing along apprehensive soldiers unsure if they were alone in their thoughts or not: “The GI newspapers were my only access to free thought,” Professor of History and veteran Peter Buckingham said regarding his time in the service.
The movement, to those who worked on the papers, was synonymous with publishing the papers; the two were one in the same, and all were encouraged to participate. The newspaper staffs were not “sticklers for accuracy.” LN’S Ray Mungo wrote at the time, “…All we say: tell the truth, brothers, and the let the facts fall where they may.” Tom Forcade of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS)—a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in 1967—spoke before a Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, bombasting “the walking antiques…trying to stomp out our…working model of tomorrow’s paleocybernetic culture, soul, life, manifesting love, force, anarchy, euphoria…flowing new-consciousnesses media on paper, from our lives to the streets…So fuck off and fuck censorship,” wrapping up by throwing a pie at the panel.
The response to these independent newspapers was characteristic of the non-democratic nature of the US government. These papers were envisaged as part of the communist conspiracy to corrupt America’s youth. The Chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Joe Polle, maintained that:
“The purpose of these newspapers…[is] to slander and libel everyone who opposes these traitors in their attempts to destroy the American government….These smut sheets are today’s Molotov cocktails thrown at respectability and decency in our nation. The plan of this underground press syndicate is to take advantage of that part of the First Amendment which protects newspapers and gives them freedom of the press… they will attract the irresponsible readers whom they want to enlist in their attempts to destroy the country.”
The editor of The Logistic envisaged his newspaper as filling an intellectual void in the military:
"What is lacking in the intellectual void of military service—what might be termed as an intellectual counterpart to military logistics...Our “mental” logistics will be characterized by facts and ideas. Instead of moving troops, we will move minds. Instead of supplying troops, we will supply the facts-about the army, about the country, about the world. Instead of quartering troops, we vow to make our paper a forum for your ideas and viewpoints. Then and only then will this post have a paper which brings the true issues into light. We aren’t interested in telling you what to think, but we do wish to inform you about what others are thinking so that you can make your own decisions and form your own opinions."
Instead of simply succumbing to daily racism, oppression, harassment and suppression, soldiers could be constructive with their time—namely by contributing their views to the Underground Press or by getting involved with a coffeehouse that stood “for GI’s dedicated to peace, equal rights and an end to the UCMJ,” or by demonstrating or donating.
"Most important of all do not be afraid to say what you think at every opportunity including while you’re at work—the Bill of Rights is not suspended during working hours although your 'superiors' may want you to think so."
The editors of the underground paper Connections, describes its relationship to the counterculture as such,
"The ‘Underground press’ is many things (Political freedom, human rights, protest, news, underground culture, revolutionary though, etc.) Most of all, it is the thousands of people who, like you believe in a better world free of war, hate, injustice, poverty and ignorance."
What is its relationship, then, to mass media?
"We exist as a counter-medium standing against other media which purport to have all the answers and solutions to problems; against all other media which would give the impression that systems of knowledge... We take issue in contrapunctual fashion, to those media which have a monopoly on right answers.”
Soldiers related to the personal nature of GI Press journalism, oft joining the resistance movement themselves after realizing there was such a thing to begin with. The context in which social movement journalism develops is key to understanding what it is in reaction to, and for what it stands. The US media has matured from a handful of newspapers scattered through a few major cities into our entire environment. It is to modern society what the natural environment is to agricultural societies. A cultural environment teeming in media, however, is by no means natural: It is a construction of people for the sole purpose of profit. Advertising has permeated every niche of sociality, including deep structures of social life: We now live in an age where “stealth marketing” turns movie plots, concerts, and even private conversations into marketing events.
To call corporate media control of culture “censorship” would be a gaff in ratiocination. On the behalf of, but certainly not the same as censorship, new techniques of cultural orientation, as Bob Ostertag observes, “frames news, entertainment, and advertising so as to limit the range of options for social change to those that are consistent with corporate interests.” Of all the lack in coverage of important cultural developments, none is so debilitating as the lack of counterculture treatment.
The GI Press was crucial as a space where GI’s could question the policies, laws and orders of those who controlled their lives. The Pentagon, White House and Military drafted vague guidelines for the “brass” to follow, which resulted in gross abuses of power such as assigning editors and writers to Vietnam or Ft. Leavenworth. Despite this coercion from the military, the GI press remained imperative to the anti-war movement within the military throughout the war in Vietnam.
They were able to refuse their group’s behavioral model and mold one of their own; a process which became easier as more and more soldiers began to refuse the orders of their superiors, thereby increasing the body of ideas and viewpoints from which the soldiers could cognize in such a creative—not only ingenuously, but also as inventers of digital data—manner. They rejected the view inculcated into them—inculcation being a certain array of actions and reactions liable to evolving a certain cognitive reorientation into the recruits —and began acting in a more moral and just way.
Towards a People’s Press and a Better Way
The 1960’s—that decade to which many of us look for hope—was, first and foremost, a black revolution. For that reason, obviously, any hope of social change in the United States of America rests in our ability to unite our multifarious communities, all too often separated by socio-economic status and subtly racist urban planning. Ideas vulnerable to change must be the platform of any social transformation, and a formidable underground network—both through the internet and in the analog world through local magazines—is our best prospect of uniting an unknowingly united population.
Bernard Bailyn, "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution"
For more on the GI Anti-War Movement visit www.sirnosir.com
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
The "Richest" Country in the World
From: www.intelligentbullshit.blogspot.com
The CIA recently published a list of the current account balances of 163 countries from highest to lowest. China, Japan and Germany respectively, are the countries with the highest account balances. Although this is not the surprising part of the list. The country that is listed at 163 is often regarded as the most powerful military and economic power the world. However, this country has a current account balance of $ -747,100,000,000, and no that is not a typo. I am of course referring to the United States of America. How can we hope to improve the state of domestic affairs and tackle issues such as education, healthcare, and poverty while being in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt? How are we even able to still fund our current military escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan with this kind of deficit? I think it is time we took a long hard look at the state of American politics, because something needs to be done. I don't feel that the current political candidates are effectively bringing to light the financial crisis our government is in, and if this problem is not dealt with soon the consequences will likely be uncontrollable.
CIA Ranking of Nations according to account balance:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
The CIA recently published a list of the current account balances of 163 countries from highest to lowest. China, Japan and Germany respectively, are the countries with the highest account balances. Although this is not the surprising part of the list. The country that is listed at 163 is often regarded as the most powerful military and economic power the world. However, this country has a current account balance of $ -747,100,000,000, and no that is not a typo. I am of course referring to the United States of America. How can we hope to improve the state of domestic affairs and tackle issues such as education, healthcare, and poverty while being in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt? How are we even able to still fund our current military escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan with this kind of deficit? I think it is time we took a long hard look at the state of American politics, because something needs to be done. I don't feel that the current political candidates are effectively bringing to light the financial crisis our government is in, and if this problem is not dealt with soon the consequences will likely be uncontrollable.
CIA Ranking of Nations according to account balance:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Fillin' in the blanks for the first time
The vessel of vernacular is entangled
In selves and bloody entrails of established mores:
History is your story, but you’ve left it to the others,
Filling in the blanks for the first time.
like kelp upon a foothold;
adrift, a prisoner of its own beginning.
The inroad of experience is tied and clotted.
The tango of the tonsil, nonetheless,
goes roundabout
like fluttering fish at the temporal end of lakes,
like granules in grains,
Like the absence in a window-pane.
In selves and bloody entrails of established mores:
History is your story, but you’ve left it to the others,
Filling in the blanks for the first time.
like kelp upon a foothold;
adrift, a prisoner of its own beginning.
The inroad of experience is tied and clotted.
The tango of the tonsil, nonetheless,
goes roundabout
like fluttering fish at the temporal end of lakes,
like granules in grains,
Like the absence in a window-pane.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hello, Is Anybody Out There? Famine, Neofeudalism and the New Dark Ages
The emotions are one of the most important ingredients in the evolution of consciousness and humanity. A wondrous technology, emotions make it possible for us to organize our goals according to importance. For instance, out there in the wild—you know among the lions and tigers and bears we fear as children—it’s not best for a parched and famished animal to stand betwixt by a berry bush and stream. Nor does it do the animal any good to nibble on a berry before mozying on over to the stream, and then onto the berry again, etc. ad infinitum til’ there’s nada of either. Rather, the best decision calls for the animal to prioritize, drinking water when it’s ideal to drink water and eating food when it’s ideal to eat food. Ecclesiastes says that to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to love, and a time to hate. Should he have also included, one wonders, a time to wake up? In the forest on a camping trip, we have different goals standing face to face with a lion than when nursing a wound or confronting strife among fellow campers. “It’s morning again in America,” said Ronald Regan, however ironically, in a 1984 campaign ad. Well, tis’ late in the ball game, and ones hard pressed to find those with the best cards—well, at least their money, stockpiled off shores and anonymously.
Many economists assure us the current recession will begin to subside by 2010, but the paradigm from which they conceptualize reality is incomplete, ignoring costs externalized by markets, such as the encroaching effects of habitat destruction. The fledgling and contagious social unrest at hand must be quickly organized, attitudinized and mobilized, for existing environmental, geopolitical and financial upheavals threaten the survival of many. Firstly, the outlook for food yields in 2009 is dismal: Many analysts have warned of a 20 to 40 percent drop in agricultural production, depending on the harshness and duration of the current global drought. (DeCarbonnel http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12252) Two years ago, however, Science published predictions of “permanent drought by 2050 throughout the Southwest” of the United States, and forecasted levels of aridity akin to the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s that would envelope swaths of land from Kansas to California. The Hadley Center in the UK reported in November 2006,
"Extreme drought is likely to increase from under 3% of the globe today to 30% by 2100—areas affected by severe drought could see a five-fold increase from 8% to 40%."
This, of course, is a recipe for widespread desertification. The NOAA foresees drought of considerable duress—“largely irreversible for 1,000 years”—and identifies the following key regions as facing, insofar as our contemporary purviews are considered, permanent Dust Bowls: (Romm http://www.alternet.org/water/124689/australia_faces_collapse_as_climate_change_kicks_in:_are_the_southwest_and_california_next/)
• U.S. Southwest
• Southeast Asia
• Eastern South America
• Southern Europe
• Southern Africa
• Northern Africa
• Western Australia
Countries yielding two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are on the precipice of serious climate discontinuities reminiscent of the Global Climate Optimum of the 900 to 1300 variety. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries where food is scarce, millions will starve. One thing we have to fall back on is our natural humanity—not just our braininess and knowhow, but also the fact that the collective wet dream that constitutes our social reality skews how many of us can actually exist now and in the future. Simply put, by downsizing and ditching the wet dream--exemplified by the belief in the anglo-saxon world that our homes and cars are our castles--we have much to gain. Unfortunately, there are plenty of atavistics (those who are like, so last dark ages) among us, like Dianne Feinstein, who said that it is Californians “god given right to water their lawns and gardens.” Southern Californian Scott Thill offers up, in an article published by AlterNet, a new definition of the front lawn: “Gorgeously tended middle fingers to reality, which, like death and taxes always, has a way of winning in the end.”(Thill http://www.alternet.org/story/101193/when_will_los_angeles_run_out_of_water_sooner_than_you_think/)
The California drought is anticipated to be the worst in modern times. Already thousands of acres of crops are fallow, with no sign of slowing. Furthermore, the Northern Sierra snowpack for this past winter turned out to be 51% lighter than usual. According to the Los Angeles Times, the state is nearly out of water, leaving it with prayers of rain and a dwindling Northern California supply. Los Angeles has already begun rationing of water, which, as Scott Thill points out, means water to the rich (north) and away from the poor (south). He then portends evacuations and realignments, “by 2100, you will not recognize it.” East of southern California, 18 percent of Texas is burdened by severe drought.
In some countries historical relief efforts have been undertaken. The Chinese government has allocated 86.7 billion yuan (roughly $12.69 billion) to affected regions, and, moreover, lent a helping hand not only to its western colleagues during the financial crisis, but also to nature itself. Officials in Beijing blasted silver iodide into clouds over northern China to create precipitation as a means of alleviating the most severe drought experienced by the region in half a century. Keep your fingers crossed (or maybe not, there’s no telling with these things!), as China produces 18% of the world’s grain each year. (Macartney http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5766595.ece)
Australia has been in the midst of an unremitting dry spell since 2004, as 41% of the country’s agriculture suffers the worst drought in the 117 years of record-keeping. Rivers have stopped flowing, lakes are being eradicated by toxicity, and farmers have left their land.
Shall we proceed? Argentina’s worst drought in half a century has turned that country’s verdant landscapes to dust. The country has declared emergency. Soy plants are scorched by the sun and Argentina’s food production is set to go down a minimum of 50 percent. 2008’s wheat yield was 16.3 million metric tons, whereas 2009’s is projected to be merely 8.7 metric tons.
Africa faces food shortages due to lack of rainfall. Half the agricultural soil has lost nutrients necessary to grow plant. The Middle East and Central Asia, to boot, are suffering from contemporary nadir droughts and food grain production is at the lowest levels in decades. A major shortage of planting seed for the 2010 crop is expected.
Stocks of foodstuff are dangerously low worldwide. Agricultural commodities must rise in price so as to obviate even larger food shortages and famine. Wheat, corn, soybeans, etc. must become expensive enough so that every available acre is harvested with the best possible fertilizers. With food prices steady, production will continue to fall and millions would starve.
A spike in food price is likely to spark competitive currency appreciation in 2009. Foreign exchange reserves exist for this. Central banks the globe over would lower domestic food prices by either directly selling off their reserves to appreciate their currency or buying grain from the market. Appreciating a currency is the fastest way to control food inflation. The more valuable a currency the more monopolistic a nation over global resources—so, for example, an overvalued dollar enables the US to consume 25% of the world’s oil, despite only having 4% of the world’s population. Were China to sell off its US reserves, its population of over one billion would then suck up the world’s food supply. Prices soar around the world.
This process, however, would most likely not end up in the impoverishment of nation states per se, though almost certainly the disintegration of the modern middle class, already long past its youthful heyday. The American Dream has been repeatedly resuscitated over the last thirty years through portfolio insurance, Long-Term Capital Management, the internet, the housing market, and now the looters have taken to the streets—oh, excuse me; I mean to their theoretical electronic world—and pillaged the landscape.
Social unrest and soaring food prices go hand in hand, from sea to shining sea. Countries, so as to avoid revolutionary reform from the bottom up, would have no choice but to appreciate their currencies in order to cheapen food imports. China holds the best deck, and so then would sell off more of its reserves. The world’s reserve currency, the dollar, floats into precarious waters. As a fiat currency, the US dollar is, by its very nature, worthless. Trillions of US holdings could be liquidated in favor of food.
“We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger" (President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 24 Feb 2009)
In Washington, talk of bailouts and relief are framed in the realm of economics and economics only, with no considerable deliberation of our species ecological outlook. The budget proposal is sold as a demand oriented New Deal-esque expansionary program, with health, education, renewable energy, investment infrastructure and transportation at its forefront. The hope is to stimulate employment, boost social programs and to revive the real economy. Michel Chossudovsky reports in a recent article published by Global Research, that —surprise,surprise— the “stimulus package” is the most substantial diverging of public spending ever, and serves the interests of Wall Street, in particular, the finance, oil and defense cartel. This in and of itself should cause social unrest, and certainly seems to increase the likelihood of the evaporation of the middle class. (Chossudovsky http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12517)
The 2010 fiscal year, which begins on October 1st, will represent an increase in spending of 32%. The nucleus of the proposal inflates defense and the Middle East War funds, the Wall Street bank “bailouts that never end,” as the New York Times observed, and interest on a debt that exceeds tenfold the world’s GDP. The bailout—financed, in part, by the recipients themselves, the creditors, which, as understood by the Treasury and the banks in the first place, meant the FED enjoyed sweeping authority over how the money was to be spent from the onset of this collapse—continues under the new proposed budget. Unlike Keynesian style deficits, this piling on of debt through the proposed budget would not stimulate investment and consumer demand; there will be no expansion of production and employment, for the giveaway of tax dollars to the financial oligarchs is no more than a monumental concentration of wealth and centralization of world banking power.
Washington places defense spending at $739.5 billion, though some estimates assert aggregate defense and military related spending at more than $1 trillion. The total of both bailouts—Obama’s $750 billion, piled on top of Bush’s $700 billion dollar bailout—is 1.45 trillion dollars paid for by the Treasury. Virtually all federal government revenues would be expended to finance the bank handouts of 1.45 trillion, defense of $739 billion, and interest payments on public debt, $164 billion. And then the well is dry. There are no funds available for the social programs encapsulated in the stimulus package. Therefore, programs for healthcare and education will most likely be sold to private enterprise to fund the bankrupt state. Education is not the only state asset that is at risk of being privatized: Public infrastructure, urban services, highways, national parks, etc. are all at risk. The worsening fiscal collapse coalesces in the privatization of the state, tilling the land for a much more lucrative market in governance.
Many economists assure us the current recession will begin to subside by 2010, but the paradigm from which they conceptualize reality is incomplete, ignoring costs externalized by markets, such as the encroaching effects of habitat destruction. The fledgling and contagious social unrest at hand must be quickly organized, attitudinized and mobilized, for existing environmental, geopolitical and financial upheavals threaten the survival of many. Firstly, the outlook for food yields in 2009 is dismal: Many analysts have warned of a 20 to 40 percent drop in agricultural production, depending on the harshness and duration of the current global drought. (DeCarbonnel http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12252) Two years ago, however, Science published predictions of “permanent drought by 2050 throughout the Southwest” of the United States, and forecasted levels of aridity akin to the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s that would envelope swaths of land from Kansas to California. The Hadley Center in the UK reported in November 2006,
"Extreme drought is likely to increase from under 3% of the globe today to 30% by 2100—areas affected by severe drought could see a five-fold increase from 8% to 40%."
This, of course, is a recipe for widespread desertification. The NOAA foresees drought of considerable duress—“largely irreversible for 1,000 years”—and identifies the following key regions as facing, insofar as our contemporary purviews are considered, permanent Dust Bowls: (Romm http://www.alternet.org/water/124689/australia_faces_collapse_as_climate_change_kicks_in:_are_the_southwest_and_california_next/)
• U.S. Southwest
• Southeast Asia
• Eastern South America
• Southern Europe
• Southern Africa
• Northern Africa
• Western Australia
Countries yielding two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are on the precipice of serious climate discontinuities reminiscent of the Global Climate Optimum of the 900 to 1300 variety. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries where food is scarce, millions will starve. One thing we have to fall back on is our natural humanity—not just our braininess and knowhow, but also the fact that the collective wet dream that constitutes our social reality skews how many of us can actually exist now and in the future. Simply put, by downsizing and ditching the wet dream--exemplified by the belief in the anglo-saxon world that our homes and cars are our castles--we have much to gain. Unfortunately, there are plenty of atavistics (those who are like, so last dark ages) among us, like Dianne Feinstein, who said that it is Californians “god given right to water their lawns and gardens.” Southern Californian Scott Thill offers up, in an article published by AlterNet, a new definition of the front lawn: “Gorgeously tended middle fingers to reality, which, like death and taxes always, has a way of winning in the end.”(Thill http://www.alternet.org/story/101193/when_will_los_angeles_run_out_of_water_sooner_than_you_think/)
The California drought is anticipated to be the worst in modern times. Already thousands of acres of crops are fallow, with no sign of slowing. Furthermore, the Northern Sierra snowpack for this past winter turned out to be 51% lighter than usual. According to the Los Angeles Times, the state is nearly out of water, leaving it with prayers of rain and a dwindling Northern California supply. Los Angeles has already begun rationing of water, which, as Scott Thill points out, means water to the rich (north) and away from the poor (south). He then portends evacuations and realignments, “by 2100, you will not recognize it.” East of southern California, 18 percent of Texas is burdened by severe drought.
In some countries historical relief efforts have been undertaken. The Chinese government has allocated 86.7 billion yuan (roughly $12.69 billion) to affected regions, and, moreover, lent a helping hand not only to its western colleagues during the financial crisis, but also to nature itself. Officials in Beijing blasted silver iodide into clouds over northern China to create precipitation as a means of alleviating the most severe drought experienced by the region in half a century. Keep your fingers crossed (or maybe not, there’s no telling with these things!), as China produces 18% of the world’s grain each year. (Macartney http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5766595.ece)
Australia has been in the midst of an unremitting dry spell since 2004, as 41% of the country’s agriculture suffers the worst drought in the 117 years of record-keeping. Rivers have stopped flowing, lakes are being eradicated by toxicity, and farmers have left their land.
Shall we proceed? Argentina’s worst drought in half a century has turned that country’s verdant landscapes to dust. The country has declared emergency. Soy plants are scorched by the sun and Argentina’s food production is set to go down a minimum of 50 percent. 2008’s wheat yield was 16.3 million metric tons, whereas 2009’s is projected to be merely 8.7 metric tons.
Africa faces food shortages due to lack of rainfall. Half the agricultural soil has lost nutrients necessary to grow plant. The Middle East and Central Asia, to boot, are suffering from contemporary nadir droughts and food grain production is at the lowest levels in decades. A major shortage of planting seed for the 2010 crop is expected.
Stocks of foodstuff are dangerously low worldwide. Agricultural commodities must rise in price so as to obviate even larger food shortages and famine. Wheat, corn, soybeans, etc. must become expensive enough so that every available acre is harvested with the best possible fertilizers. With food prices steady, production will continue to fall and millions would starve.
A spike in food price is likely to spark competitive currency appreciation in 2009. Foreign exchange reserves exist for this. Central banks the globe over would lower domestic food prices by either directly selling off their reserves to appreciate their currency or buying grain from the market. Appreciating a currency is the fastest way to control food inflation. The more valuable a currency the more monopolistic a nation over global resources—so, for example, an overvalued dollar enables the US to consume 25% of the world’s oil, despite only having 4% of the world’s population. Were China to sell off its US reserves, its population of over one billion would then suck up the world’s food supply. Prices soar around the world.
This process, however, would most likely not end up in the impoverishment of nation states per se, though almost certainly the disintegration of the modern middle class, already long past its youthful heyday. The American Dream has been repeatedly resuscitated over the last thirty years through portfolio insurance, Long-Term Capital Management, the internet, the housing market, and now the looters have taken to the streets—oh, excuse me; I mean to their theoretical electronic world—and pillaged the landscape.
Social unrest and soaring food prices go hand in hand, from sea to shining sea. Countries, so as to avoid revolutionary reform from the bottom up, would have no choice but to appreciate their currencies in order to cheapen food imports. China holds the best deck, and so then would sell off more of its reserves. The world’s reserve currency, the dollar, floats into precarious waters. As a fiat currency, the US dollar is, by its very nature, worthless. Trillions of US holdings could be liquidated in favor of food.
“We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger" (President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 24 Feb 2009)
In Washington, talk of bailouts and relief are framed in the realm of economics and economics only, with no considerable deliberation of our species ecological outlook. The budget proposal is sold as a demand oriented New Deal-esque expansionary program, with health, education, renewable energy, investment infrastructure and transportation at its forefront. The hope is to stimulate employment, boost social programs and to revive the real economy. Michel Chossudovsky reports in a recent article published by Global Research, that —surprise,surprise— the “stimulus package” is the most substantial diverging of public spending ever, and serves the interests of Wall Street, in particular, the finance, oil and defense cartel. This in and of itself should cause social unrest, and certainly seems to increase the likelihood of the evaporation of the middle class. (Chossudovsky http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12517)
The 2010 fiscal year, which begins on October 1st, will represent an increase in spending of 32%. The nucleus of the proposal inflates defense and the Middle East War funds, the Wall Street bank “bailouts that never end,” as the New York Times observed, and interest on a debt that exceeds tenfold the world’s GDP. The bailout—financed, in part, by the recipients themselves, the creditors, which, as understood by the Treasury and the banks in the first place, meant the FED enjoyed sweeping authority over how the money was to be spent from the onset of this collapse—continues under the new proposed budget. Unlike Keynesian style deficits, this piling on of debt through the proposed budget would not stimulate investment and consumer demand; there will be no expansion of production and employment, for the giveaway of tax dollars to the financial oligarchs is no more than a monumental concentration of wealth and centralization of world banking power.
Washington places defense spending at $739.5 billion, though some estimates assert aggregate defense and military related spending at more than $1 trillion. The total of both bailouts—Obama’s $750 billion, piled on top of Bush’s $700 billion dollar bailout—is 1.45 trillion dollars paid for by the Treasury. Virtually all federal government revenues would be expended to finance the bank handouts of 1.45 trillion, defense of $739 billion, and interest payments on public debt, $164 billion. And then the well is dry. There are no funds available for the social programs encapsulated in the stimulus package. Therefore, programs for healthcare and education will most likely be sold to private enterprise to fund the bankrupt state. Education is not the only state asset that is at risk of being privatized: Public infrastructure, urban services, highways, national parks, etc. are all at risk. The worsening fiscal collapse coalesces in the privatization of the state, tilling the land for a much more lucrative market in governance.
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