I've been a closet economic anthropologist since my days at University. I assert that we humans are our own worst enemy, because we blithely and greedily engage in economic behaviors without examining the import or the impact of such behaviors. Our economic behaviors have become more important and more influential than ALL of our other behaviors, comprising the framework within which we do all things political or spiritual. Please note that I mean WE as in our entire species.

Humans are now a systems-stressing economic resource, yet we seem incapable of seeing the forest for the trees. All other economic resources are being taxed beyond the system's capacity, yet we sustain a rhetoric that smacks of the blame and shame game (warring with one another, blaming others without examining our own roles, etc...), when we should be seeking ways to fix the problem.

A great philosopher once predicted that capitalism would eventually collapse, and that economic behavior would evolve into a more egalitarian, cooperative means of production. Capitalists, politicians, and others with a vested interest in maintaining an oppressive status quo promoted a pejorative meme that taints this great man's scholarship to this very day. We should take note of the enormous energy expended to denigrate this man's collected works.

We too can attack Karl Marx on the strength of his detractors' red herring meme, or we can emulate his courageous endeavor to examine human economic behavior as it exists today and envision the changes that MUST occur if we are to progress as a species. Do we have to throw out the baby (capitalism) with the bath water (Corporate Megalomaniacs)? Is communism the inevitable alternative to capitalism, and would that really be a bad thing? Can we continue to subsume our spiritual selves in servitude to the almighty dollar?

Change is often a big scary barrier to personal growth, isn't it?...

Still, as another great philosopher said, "We MUST be the change we wish to see in the world."

So, this starts with me. My awareness of the core issues described herein above shapes and informs my activism every day. I refuse to buy into the divisiveness that the Corporate Megalomaniacs promote to keep us from examining these real issues, and that includes divisiveness predicated by education, status, or any other hierarchical measure. We The People are on the verge of a major change--perhaps cataclysmic--and we have the intellectual capacity and the spiritual framework within which to propel ourselves into an amazing future.

Despite all that has happened in the last seven years, I anticipate success. I remember how We The People responded after 9/11 and after Katrina and after the BIG Tsunami (etc...). We rolled up our shirt sleeves and got to work (well, sans the Corporatists, who seem to view such events as handy ways to thin the masses...) I believe that The Human Spirit evident in our times of crisis will prevail. I've only just realized that I always have.

Sowing the Seeds of Hatred and Fear

And, who is Robert Fisk, anyway?

An activist friend sent me an article by Robert Fisk entitled "The Crushing Fear that Stalks America" and I read this article with grim satisfaction. I then plowed through every other article by Mr. Fisk referenced on the website at which I found the first one. I have not looked for information on the identity and biography of Mr. Fisk; suffice it to say that he is published in an internationally recognized venue.

Whence comes my grim satisfaction? I have been asserting for the duration of Bush's tenure as our Usurper President that he and his cronies are using fear and bipartisan divisiveness both as red herrings (to distract us from our most pressing issues) and as a highly effective means of control (how do we address Bushco's crimes and misdemeanors when we're too busy hating each other because of some ephemeral, loosely-defined categories?).

Hmmmm... I am not the only one, either. Most of my activist friends have grappled with these realizations. We have--almost to a person--articulated deep frustration about the effectiveness of this Bushco ploy (not necessarily Bush's brainchild, as he lacks such intellect--perhaps, Rove's?). How do the vast majority of Americans assert that they are deeply spiritual (read "Christian") while clinging voraciously to their hatred of all things antithetical to their beliefs?

And, help me understand this deep, irrational fear. If all these people truly believe in God--in Whom we place our trust and our faith--why is this fear such a powerful, definitive force in our politics? Trust in God with all your heart, we learn in our earliest inculcation into the Christian ideology. Does anyone truly believe the Creator of this Universe would mock us with His Grace?

Furthermore, why fear death? How irrational is this fear? Death is our transition. Again, the Christian ideology trains us to perceive death as our imminent reunion with God. How is this an event to be feared?

Hmmm... Just thinking out loud here. Any responses? Anyone out there?