By Barry Commoner – 7 minutes read time.
The present mass murders taking place in Israel and Ukraine are immediate problems for tens of millions but the profit seeking assault on all of nature puts all humans in terrible jeopardy. Cataclysmic capital’s reduction of the planet to domination by a pro-profit anti-community west under control of the USA since the end of world war two is coming to a close. This is a situation that can bring a rebirth of humanity, a multipolar world out from under the deadly weight of imperial rules enforced by a uni-polar minority claiming a form of master race status while reducing the majority to peonage for most while a relative handful live in luxury and a large group of its servants enjoy physical if not mental comfort. But it can lead to an immediate, complete and total destruction of the human race in a nuclear holocaust provoked by western leadership that even brain transplants might not help, or a longer range breakdown of humanity’s support system of origin: nature itself.
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The present crisis brought on by Israel’s long theft and domination of Palestine to supposedly atone for the dreadful German assault on European Jews by totally demolishing Palestinian society that had absolutely nothing to do with past euro-Jewish suffering which has seen – for the first time – a bloody retaliatory assault on Israeli citizenry such as has been performed on Palestinians since the birth of a stolen nation. This has led to the most blatant attack not only on the bodies of the people in the region but on the consciousness of those who have been kept blessedly ignorant of material conditions and are now having their minds raped by western propaganda which in the present labels everything and anything as fascist or communist or racist for simply demanding equality among all and ending the supremacy of some of the most morally degenerate leaders in all history.
While U.S. taxpayers are lulled into a belief that a bastardized form of market democracy in which those with the greatest buying power rule awards us some form of superiority over other humans, we are paying billions to kill Russians in alleged defense of the Ukraine and billions more to sustain Israeli apartheid rule in Palestine. Greater numbers of citizens than ever before, though still a minority in America, are protesting the bastardization of language, politics and economics that can call mass murder by anything but its name. Thus we have “genocide” and “war crime” label-synonyms attached to the reality of mass murder, long a profit-making endeavor for imperial capitalist America, which covers its crimes with occasional contributions to the well being of suffering children after having murdered their parents.
Authority and its subjects struggle to attempt balance between mass murder and mass mind control when both must be overcome to bring about any hope for the full flowering of humanity and the achievement of peace, social justice and better lives for all and not just favored-by- themselves minorities which trust in biblical fable and mass murderous military power to act as humans supposedly chosen by deities to reign over all of nature.
Race is only one of the lies leading to separation of humans who originated in primitive communistic tribes of hunter-gatherers who shared and cooperated in order to survive, which is what we must relearn in order to have a future. When the hunt was successful all shared in the meat and when not they shared what was gathered. After millennia we advanced (?) to a system which transformed earth into real estate while bringing about wonderful material reality for some but only while destroying lives and other aspects of nature for many more. Just as slavery was great for many but dreadful for most, present day capitalism has advanced the life styles of millions but only by reducing billions to poverty, bigotry, social injustice and worse.
The present explosion in Israel with Palestinians dying by margins of ten to one after they murdered Israelis in number for the first time has seen a reaction globally and especially in America of opposition carefully stated as being against all violence but especially reacting to the bigoted savagery Palestinians have been forced to endure since 1948 when they lost their homeland and lives due to European savagery which they had nothing to do with by any stretch of idiocy or bigotry.
The present butchering of Palestinians is only the latest outrage rationalized as necessary to stop lower human forms of allegedly weaker races from being allowed to act as equals and achieve freedom said to be the sole possession of those who bless themselves with holiness while cursing the world with mass murder. The racial basis for most of this brutality is among the biggest lies perpetuated by supposed superior beings to rationalize all forms of human degradation made excusable by supposed children of gods in all their forms.
The solution to racism is to end the evil stupidity that socially creates it and face reality. There is only one human race. Rulers, especially capitalists, create divisions among people in order to create profits and prevent democracy, but it is long past time to wake up and smell the bullshit. There is no tall race or short race or yellow race or white race but only ruling powers that have forced those thoughts into captive minds to keep humanity unaware of our racial unity. All people are people of color and only a tiny group of us – albinos – have no mescaline and thus lack any color. Out of more than 8 billion humans there are some 200 thousand albinos and they are also human, suffering serious disabilities but still very much humans like all of us. Our sometimes broad differences are national, linguistic and ethnic but all of us share the need for food, clothing and shelter, no matter our skin tones, languages, cultures or reproductive organs. The class divisions that allow some to lavish in privilege while serving rulers are the serious divisions that must be overcome but racial differences are about as real as the Easter bunny, Santa Claus and all the other myths like poisoned vaccines and secret plots by one or another race that make as much sense as picking your nose to perform a self lobotomy.
If the hundreds of billions spent on mass murder rationalized as war and only seen as a degenerate social reality when performers do not murder in the proper form their rulers dictate so they, the rulers, can continue feeling superior while counting profits, were used for humanity’s sake, peace, social justice, equality and all the things most humans wish for could be reality. The present human nightmare as living reality will continue until and unless there is a mass awakening among a global and not just a national majority that cooperation for public good is absolutely necessary for there to be any future for all of us. That means the end of a so-called free market of private profiteers, which will help bring about a global community of truly free, and equal human beings, housed instead of being homeless, well fed instead of going hungry, and at peace in and among ourselves.
The continued pursuit of private profit at the market which demands that humans must produce market forces in order to find food, clothing, shelter and any and all other things that can create decent lives will mean the ultimate destruction of humanity and nature, no matter what minority led majorities may still believe. The ongoing slaughters in Europe and the middle east are business as usual and their attendant horror mean more profits for the billionaire minority at most dreadful expense of the eternally-so far- gulled majority.
Democracy means power of all the people to benefit all the people. Capitalism means continued destruction of humanity and our foundation, nature. It must end so that we can return to our roots as cooperating humans or we will end as a race, no matter what national or identity group we have been mentally tortured to believe in. All of us or none of us. Let’s put that too a global vote instead of accepting the national choice between political employees of the ruling minorities and their multi -billion dollar mass murder economy. Then we can truly speak of “our” democracy, and face a future of hope.
Comments
14 responses to “Humanity’s Most Critical Test:”
We are in the Human Race. Will We lose it?
Well said. We didn’t have electricity yet when, as a pre-schooler in the late 1940s, I asked my mother to explain the pictures I was seeing of Palestinian families being outcast from their homes. The travesties there have haunted me since. It is so wrong.
Couldn’t agree more with the main tenet: “The present mass murders taking place in Israel and Ukraine are immediate problems for tens of millions but the profit seeking assault on all of nature puts all humans in terrible jeopardy.” But as the Geneva and Nuremberg codifications after WW2 made clear, it is never acceptable to morally conflate the violence of the aggressor and the retaliatory violence of the oppressed. There is no moral equivalence whatsoever between Palestinian outright victims and Ukrainian victims who are victims ONLY AND EXCLUSIVELY because their proudly crypto-fascist and outright fascist leaders decided to join the decades old NATO-Amerikan project of encircling and destroying Russia.
pssst…that was by me, frank scott…i quoted barry commoner at the opening of the piece…you folks want to replace big time media or maybe belatedly give me crdit..or discredit?
fs
Good to know. I thought that Mr. Commoner had passed a while back. Looked him up and confirmed that he had. When I saw your comment, I was pretty doggone relieved. Was afraid that Rod Serling might make an appearance next. By the way, good essay, Mr. Scott.
Sometimes the truth is very harsh .Thank you for being so honest .
This is one of the finest pieces of writing detailing our situation that ICH has published. Thanks Tom!
I really never can understand the spiritual part of any human who is going to war for killing others and all of that is for a pay
Barry Commoner – I wrote his name in for Pres. in 1980.
**CIVIL DEMOCRACY; STRONGMAN; BONAPARTISM; FASCISM; FINANCIAL CAPITAL**
One of the characteristics of capitalist imperialism that emerged around 1900 was the takeover of power from industrial capital by financial capital. This is still the case today, with financial capital increasingly ruling over the governments of nation-states. Depending on the needs and the socio-economic conditions of the moment, it directs different methods of governance. Its preference is for civil democracy, which best serves the status quo, as workers have the impression that they can participate in decision-making, thus maintaining calm. In times of heightened class struggle, when a stalemate occurs where neither side can gain dominance, a strongman suddenly appears, claiming to be above the classes. He rules with an iron fist, paralyzes courts and parliaments, and alternates concessions to one side and then the other. This system is called “Bonapartism,” characterized by its significant instability. Financial capital opts for this to avoid a fascist bloodbath.
When class struggle continues and the working class has suffered a series of severe defeats, financial capital mobilizes its fascist reserve army, recruited from the petty bourgeoisie: small traders, shopkeepers, small farmers, liberal professions, and the lumpenproletariat—those among the working class who have nothing to expect from the existing system. The aim is the complete destruction of the instruments of the working class, its militants and members, its money and infrastructure, and its press. The petty bourgeoisie does not form a class of its own but leans towards the working class when it is strong, and then sides with the bourgeoisie when it is losing. It becomes the mortal enemy of the workers, being the greatest victim of the crisis in revolutionary circumstances. Compared to the 1930s, the petty bourgeoisie is much smaller, and many of its characteristic professions have disappeared. The second difference is that the working class has never been as numerous and developed as it is today. This fascism cannot suppress the working class with pure brute force for very long; after a while, it is forced to make concessions, causing the fascist bands to lose power and become discouraged, opening new opportunities for the class struggle for workers. This results in a “Bonapartist” system that is somewhat more stable than the previous one, as both camps are exhausted.
**WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO KNOW NOW?**
The far left expresses its fear of the loss of democracy and claims that fascism is at our doorstep. The great danger here is that workers get frightened before the struggle has even begun. It is indeed true that the far right and the right are gaining more support, even among workers; here and there, a strongman emerges with dictatorial traits, attacking, for example, the judiciary and the press. This is simply because the left does not offer answers to today’s problems, which it cannot do as there is no room to distribute crumbs within the structural crisis of capitalism. But from what has been said before, it is clear this is neither “Bonapartism” nor “fascism,” simply because the class struggle has not yet broken out, and there are no stalemates or heavy defeats suffered. But rest assured, the class struggle and pre-revolutionary and revolutionary situations are coming. The proletariat, as mentioned, has never been so strong and developed, but the problem is that its political and trade union organizations are led by people fully encapsulated in the capitalist system and dreaming of the status quo. Worse still, when capitalism is really in danger, they will defend it to the last man, as their survival depends on it. It is therefore urgent to fight for revolutionary leaders within our organizations who are capable of bringing the coming battles to a successful conclusion. There is thus a need for a revolutionary workers’ party on a global scale. Open your eyes to the right and far right before they are closing them.
vanderbeke roland
There are several problem with the class war narrative and its projected “solutions”:
(1) In times of change and turmoil people want a central, controlling government. There is no “mechanism of the masses” that can provide governance certainty. There is always an elite running things, elected or self-appointed.
(2) Many of the social issues pressing on society have no real solution. Look at the refugee problem in the US and Europe where governments are being forced by sheer weight of numbers to trash the right to asylum as being unworkable. That situation is only going to get massively worse with climate change.
(3) There is no agreement on the socialist agenda. A greater economic share for workers will find support, as will a refusal by the masses to take part in capitalist wars. But popular discontent will not translate into any acceptance of unfettered migration with refugees competing with locals for scarce housing. Not going to happen. Nor should it.
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