Now Hierarchy Goes Crash-Boom
I somehow and mistakenly believed that the positive logic of Capitalism would apply to politics: that the best, the smartest, the most hard working, the creative and inventive would not only survive but prosper, get rich, hit the top, provide jobs and wealth; and we were all on our way to that Ayn Rand Utopia of perfect selfishness that would serve us all the better. Even those formerly Communist Stalinistic Maoistic societies that turned themselves into Capitalist Putinistic Xiistic empires of billionaires by the bundle have aped the ignoramus filled political hierarchies of the West. In point of fact and political philosophy, the top of the political line has become the bottom of the world wide barrel.
Just to cite the United States as an example. Donald Trump was President. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a prominent member of the Republican Party and the United States Congress. Ron DeSantis is a governor of a large United States state, Florida. In Tennessee, they have outlawed drag shows. What???!!! And I thought Iran was backwards because they forced women to wear a particular head covering. It appears that the primary issue for Republican Conservatives is freedom for the billionaire elite class of Trumps and Bezoses and Muskers and a Nazi thrust against anyone gay or the like. It is to my human rights mind, simply staggering. They continually dump on anyone who professes to be "awoke" while they are nightmare-ishly asleep.
Of course, I could go on for pages just outlining the ignorance of the political class here, but it is not confined to here but really is a world wide phenomenon. Trump. His buddy, Putin. And Putin's buddy Xi and North Korea's nut case. And Netanyahu. The mullahs of Iran. And Turkey's earthquaker President. And. And. And. Who was Boris Johnson? Not my idea of high political I.Q.
And we just watch in horror and disbelief and ultimately, fear for any future. And we thought the medieval knights and emperors and kings and czars and Mongol hordes on transcontinental horses and in shining bloodied armor and priests burning witches or anyone who disagreed with their version of The Truth at all at the stake — endless Inquisition. We thought the former pre-Enlightenment elites and powerful rich were bad. The French strung up Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, but then were stuck with Napoleon and died by the hundreds of thousands in Russian blizzards.
When do we get a political elite anywhere besides Scandinavia, Nepal or New Zealand that can save the world from the disasters of environment, climate change and social divisions and wars that are already here and coming in the near future. Joe Biden? Nice guy. Not up to the job.
And then again, is anyone up to the job? It is not just Joe that is not quite what is needed. Congress people? The Supreme Court? How do you feel about politics when even your Supreme Court, supposedly the source of the ultimate wisdom of your political system, cannot tie their human rights shoe laces. How far are we from even reasonable competence? Far away! State legislators who want to hang doctors who prescribe abortion pills? How different are they from Taliban who will not allow women to go to school?
And the school shootings just go on and on. And the Colorado River keeps drying up. And Putin and his armies keep on keeping on killing children and themselves in Ukraine. And the ongoing debacle in Central America. As Israel falls apart at the seams. As .... as .... as .... and then what is the next big problem or big recession or big spreading disease or atomic war or ......
We clearly have technical and economic geniuses all over the place. Bill Gates. The late Steve Jobs. Musk and his Teslas. The Waltons of Walmart. The Bezos of Amazon. In the past there were the Carnegies and Rockefellers and Bells and Wright Bros. There are reasons to like and dislike them, each and every one. But even when they are altogether too greedy and self-centered, still and all, they produce.
Politicians? It is not even, for the most part much of a mixed bag like the Capitalists. Well, I take that back. Maybe a mixed bag, but the downside in the bag, hardly ever comes up to the upside. I have generally liked Democrats more than Republicans, but I have found them ineffective and simply a more benign cover for the Corporate Class. As Greta Thunberg has told us, they sound like they are going to act on climate change but it is all just a publicity front. It is "bullshit" and the ice in the Antarctic is about to shed and goodbye Outer Banks and Brooklyn.
Incompetence and ignorance. A worldwide elite class that is not only not up to solving the problems of the physical and social worlds but, in point of fact and Ukraine and Syria and the Southern border of the USA, makes things worse. Not only are human beings about to go down the tubes, but the politicians worldwide are greasing that very tube. Whether it is a pure dictatorship or even our weak form of what we call democracy it is not working or even very close to working. Think an increase in gas prices is a big deal? Think inflation is a big deal? Think a million dead in USA pandemic is a big deal? You have not seen anything yet, as we say.
The ideas of the elite political class are old and worn out. They were not all that good when they were put in, but after many years of wear and tear they are even worse. And the same old same old something called A Think Tank — Right or Left — keep up with the same old arguments for the same old proposals. The current think tankers are just followers of the older now dead think tankers. If their ideas were so competitively good, we would be using them all and everything would be OK. Is it OK?
My two favorites in the think places are Robert Reich and The Hoover Institute. One is Left; the other is Right. I like them both, quite a bit. But, frankly, they are over the hill and sliding down the same side they came up to begin with. Time for a New World Order, not the Old World Odeur.
WHAT TO DO? Do I want you to follow me and my new ideas? Well, that would be nice. I think my new ideas are good and useful. But, and here it is a big BUT. I do not want followers. I want equals. I want to do it with you, together. TOGETHER!!! And I want your ideas. The problem has been in the past, a limited number of people have come up with ideas and then convinced others of their same elite class of insiders to follow their ideas and then put those ideas in place and we are stuck with them. I do not want you to be stuck with my ideas either. I do not want an elite of us deciding for everyone what should be up. I do not want someone else deciding for me and my friends what is up. This really should be a group effort with ALL of us in on it. Think how many ideas, good ideas, excellent ideas then can come up. Just check out the ones I am proposing. Relative to what is there now, absolutely brilliant. But we can do even better, get beyond me. Get your asses in gear. Time we all talked this all out and create a new Utopian world order before human beings go up in flames. Literally.
The really big problem with this idea that THE PEOPLE need to take over, produce really good ideas and implement actual solutions to factual problems is that THE PEOPLE need some practice, as we/they have been allowing the nut case politicians and hysterical media to tell us what is up and what is down as we all tear out what hair we have left after tearing out our hairs during the last of a series of worldly debacles. E.g. pandemics and recessions and this war and that.
And then too these politicos play off on our deepest and most hysterical prejudices. So that Trumpsters and the anti-awake, a goodly percentage — though thankfully not a majority, except in some Red States where they are — who believe that vaccines come from Deep State Devils and that Dolly Parton is a transgender front woman/man, are these a part of THE PEOPLE that are going to take over.
To my mind, there needs to be political education not only of young children and college age adults allowed to take courses in slave history and learn about sexuality and an inclusive society in general, but, but, but: how do you get the socially-politically ignoramus class to become eligible in intelligence to be part of conducting a truly democratic society.
If you know ancient history at all, remember that the participatory democracy Athenian Greeks strung up Socrates with hemlock. Would a participatory democracy USA AR 15 gun me down in our first or last town hall meeting in rural Minnesota?
It is a problem for me. What do you think? Is it really impossible? Or is gloom and doom the proper emotional set? It simply has never been done before but needs to — really needs to — be done and done NOW. And really the only thing we have to lose besides a big bit of time and effort is the apocalypse.
Lose the apocalypse and gain a New World Order of democracy, human rights and dolphins, bees and replanted forests. Possible? Can we? Should we do it? Write in and tell me. NOW!!!