Mobilizing to get the government to respond to the will of the people and do something about the corporate decimation of the world is based on the idea that the government and the corporations are separate entities, that corporations only influence those in government. Please consider for a moment how this strategy works (and if it works) if they are NOT two separate entities. If the government is filled with people from these industries then they are not in fact influenced, and likewise will not be swayed by demands from the people. They are acting in their own interest and that action includes first and foremost silencing the voices of those who would expose them. If there is any capitulation on their part, is it only to appease and pacify the people – to allow them a sense of victory specifically to lessen their resolve? For example, if the Keystone XL Pipeline is stopped will it be a victory? I imagine it will be celebrated as such, but will this victory serve to roll back the climate crisis or just keep from making it that much worse? No steps forward is three steps back... Manufactured crisis is seductive strategy – desperately chasing every new threat can distract from the larger issue. I have heard this issue roundly referred to as Capitalism – I’m just going to call it profit.
At the People’s Climate March on Sunday I heard a few chants directed at President Obama. The next time you hear/watch the President speak I invite you to imagine him as a used car salesman, attempting to sell you the same lemon that the last President/salesman tried to sell you. Now swap that car showroom with one overflowing with American Made high-tech weapons of war. There he is wheeling and dealing weapons to the Saudis (and practically every country in the Middle East and North Africa) that they buy with money we pay them for oil. So when you are at the pump are you buying American Made weapons for the Saudis? Do you think the Weapons Industry wants you to stop buying oil from the Saudis? When you consider the chaos that we see across the world today, please remember that the military solution we reflexively deploy in every crisis, from war on terror to hurricane relief to policing our streets, ALWAYS has an underlying profit/power motive. The more chaos and conflict, the more weapons sold. And this in turn provides the rationale for further militarization and security control. If this man in the White House is not the community organizer, anti-war progressive that many “hoped” he was; if he is in fact just a fantastically charismatic mouthpiece installed by the banks and industries he serves – what then?
You can stage this type of salesman scene substituting any politician you wish to see how well they can play the role. When I was at Flood Wall Street yesterday I found myself imagining the morning call our new Mayor may have received from his new police commissioner:
“What’s the word today Mr. Mayor? Oppression or Not Oppression? Thank you sir we understand.”
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While we were marching – BRAND NEW IN THE SHOWROOM
Dennis Trainor’s video coverage – Save the Climate or Save Capitalism?
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Related posts on The Missing Point:
THE END OF THE WORLD
Chemical weapons don’t kill people…
PAYING FOR WAR
Yet you were still in the streets, Thomas. We must believe that we can make some forward movement, but you are absolutely correct in exposing the war machine. The armament industry is the biggest one the US has. We must remind people of that and point out the expensive games of whack-a-mole the USA has been playing…. We cannot lose hope but we must open peoples' eyes.
ReplyDeleteYes Kate – still in the streets. But while Mayor de Blasio marched freely on Sunday, we witnessed a virtual lockdown of the entire area below Vesey Street on Monday. People were made to show ID to get through the barricades the NYPD had set up at each corner. We asked if we would be admitted back into the area if we left to which an officer flatly responded “no.” Liberty Square (empty) was also completely ringed with barricades with an officer every 10-15 feet. While City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was at Flood Wall Street marching with the lead banner, the mayor was nowhere to be found.
ReplyDeleteCorporate America is in control of our government. This is why we must amend the constitution in that corporations are not people, and money is not speech as protected by the first amendment. In the US, until we put the power back into the hands of our citizens, corporate constitutional rights will continue to abolish the peoples' rights to climate justice.
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