Thank you for calling this out, Peter. “Democratic” or “Liberal” reforms are among the most manipulative forms of counterinsurgency. It placates radical movements with hopes of piecemeal change. This is not just coincidental. It’s an intentional act of counterinsurgency.
You know, here in the colony called Australia it was the social democratic Labor party that introduced neoliberal privatisation and did the union busting back in the '80's. Despite being total class traitors they still manage to attract enough rusted on working class voters to govern in their own right. Eugene Debs expressed it well when he said anyone who tells you they are going to change the system from the inside is a traitor. PS best president the US never had.
Lol. I love this kind of post. hope it didn't give you a heart attack.
In like the family context etc I usually cope with it by meditating on the idea that 'opinions' profoundly don't matter. 'opinions' are like, what TV shows do you watch? we constantly run into people who really feel that 'politics' exists in the same fabric of trivia. so it's like a rally for one TV show over another, there's a similar investment of feeling and yet detachment and passivity.
A family friend who was babysitting took my daughter to the local Hands Off. Scathing kid review: 'it was really really REALLY boring, and kind of embarassing. but there were snacks!'
I say this with a lot of love (honestly I tend to like old geezers more than a lot of these screen-addled cyborg zoomers) but also with a lot of rage: if you cannot own up to your profound wrongness and dedicate the rest of your life to fighting for the possibility of a future, just die already if it’s the only way you can keep from painting these Institutions of Death with a thin layer of naïve legitimacy.
Please for the love of all that is holy, friends don’t let friends become Marxists. Family can be difficult terrain, but if you’re in touch with your family, let them know they would be treating you with greater consideration if they strangled you with piano wire instead of supporting the Democrats (or Labour, or the Socialist Party, for my readers across one pond or the other).
I’m curious about the name of your column: by any chance do you believe we are headed for the leviathan referred to in Climate Leviathan, by Joel Wainwright? Is the die already cast?
And thanks for writing for donations. Subvert the dominant paradigm.
Self-defense (taking physical action to defend yourself and your family when a violent attacker seeks to do them harm, whether they are a statist goon or a lone cereal killer) is not war.
Enlisting into an army willingly (or being conscripted and choosing to capitulate to orders given to kill others) is not self-defense.
The tricky part and the slippery slope down the soul corroding pit to “pre-emptive strikes”, mass murdering children and wholesale genocide begins when we start blending the meanings of words such as “self-defense” with “resistance against evil” or “war”.
When you know there are humans out there that would kill you if they were given the chance and you seek to acquire weapons to stop them before they can act on that intent, Where does self defense end and premeditated murder begin?
I do cultivate and hone self-defense skills and if another being seeks to harm me, my wife, or some other sentient being that is in my immediate presence and unable to defend itself I will use them. Under some conditions that could result in my killing those beings. But that is as far as I will go in this life.
You're definitely right about the Democrats and the Republicans (and their equivalents here in the UK). Do you consider your writing a howl against the inevitable?
Since collapse is already well underway we know there will be mass violence. Do you have interest in teaching guerilla tactics to those individuals you hope to survive or do you focus on survivalist prepping yourself or do you feel like by that point you'll wish to die anyway?
Thank you for this very thought-proving perspective on change. Here are my thoughts on your topic. I was born in the middle of the 20th century, so my observations reflect opinions shaped by at least three of the major phases of our county’s most recent Fourth Turning saeculum.
The problem we face by having only two political machines to choose from in a society of highly diverse and complex features became evident to me nearly 50 years ago. Neither party has to be committed to bringing about societal transformation. All that either has to do is to appear to be marginally more attractive than the other on one or two quality of life issues that cut across our country’s diverse and complex cultural, social, gender, and racial makeup.
That’s all. Marginally more attractive, not radically transformative. And worse yet, all the winning party has to do is to appear to be making a sincere effort to deliver on its campaign promises to the masses while not alienating the big money interests that have lined up behind it to get a strategic position at the trough of public funding. If I sound negative about all this, I am. And my negativity has grown from many of the observations you make in this blog installment.
On how transformative change MIGHT happen in the near term, here’s my theory of change. People initially need to find each other, come together, share information, and build action networks. This set of activities creates awareness and interest in the POSSIBILITY of change. This awareness and interest fuels commitment to change and builds the momentum for change. This is democracy in action.
If people sense that momentum for change is building, they will be more likely to “try on” some of the early change activities. If they feel comfortable after doing that, they may very well become comfortable seeing themselves as an agent of change. Few of us want to be the tallest blade of grass in the field because it is the first one cut. However, if we see that there are thousands of tall blades of grass in that field, we feel much safer. Safety and comfort open the door to courage. Courage is required of agents of change. Courage is the essence of democracy in action.
All this momentum building can be done through civil disobedience and nonviolent demonstrations of dissatisfaction. However, as you suggest, history informs us this all is necessary, but not sufficient for transformation to occur. Transformative change needs more than “commitment” energy. It needs more than hand-wringing concern. It needs more than courage.
It needs the energy that feeds creative disruption and redesign. That is the energy that powered the birth of our nation two and one-half centuries ago. Creative disruption and redesign are the tools of American civilization, and the principles of American democracy provide the guardrails for our cyclical disruption and redesign. This time around, this current Fourth Turning Crisis period, the biggest threat appears to be that those guardrails are being torn asunder...
Please don’t discourage people from speaking up and resisting peacefully. It is an essential first step in a multi-stage process of transformative change. It is an essential first step in a multi-stage process of stopping the destruction of our society’s guardrails. These are our challenges “in the moment.”
Thank you for calling this out, Peter. “Democratic” or “Liberal” reforms are among the most manipulative forms of counterinsurgency. It placates radical movements with hopes of piecemeal change. This is not just coincidental. It’s an intentional act of counterinsurgency.
Hands Off was a ruling class approved protest for liberals desperate to get the status quo back. Absolutely nothing "revolutionary" about it.
You know, here in the colony called Australia it was the social democratic Labor party that introduced neoliberal privatisation and did the union busting back in the '80's. Despite being total class traitors they still manage to attract enough rusted on working class voters to govern in their own right. Eugene Debs expressed it well when he said anyone who tells you they are going to change the system from the inside is a traitor. PS best president the US never had.
I love you too, Peter. Thank you for this one. You and yours are always welcome in my home.
Lol. I love this kind of post. hope it didn't give you a heart attack.
In like the family context etc I usually cope with it by meditating on the idea that 'opinions' profoundly don't matter. 'opinions' are like, what TV shows do you watch? we constantly run into people who really feel that 'politics' exists in the same fabric of trivia. so it's like a rally for one TV show over another, there's a similar investment of feeling and yet detachment and passivity.
A family friend who was babysitting took my daughter to the local Hands Off. Scathing kid review: 'it was really really REALLY boring, and kind of embarassing. but there were snacks!'
These two quotes forever and ever on repeat:
I say this with a lot of love (honestly I tend to like old geezers more than a lot of these screen-addled cyborg zoomers) but also with a lot of rage: if you cannot own up to your profound wrongness and dedicate the rest of your life to fighting for the possibility of a future, just die already if it’s the only way you can keep from painting these Institutions of Death with a thin layer of naïve legitimacy.
Please for the love of all that is holy, friends don’t let friends become Marxists. Family can be difficult terrain, but if you’re in touch with your family, let them know they would be treating you with greater consideration if they strangled you with piano wire instead of supporting the Democrats (or Labour, or the Socialist Party, for my readers across one pond or the other).
How an infant feels trust: "You are here for me."
How an infant learns dis-trust: "You were not here for me."
I’m curious about the name of your column: by any chance do you believe we are headed for the leviathan referred to in Climate Leviathan, by Joel Wainwright? Is the die already cast?
And thanks for writing for donations. Subvert the dominant paradigm.
It is also worth considering that initiating violence against government institutions in the age of deadly autonomous machines and drone warfare is not a very practical nor strategically viable approach. https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/the-drone-wars-you-are-not-prepared
Self-defense (taking physical action to defend yourself and your family when a violent attacker seeks to do them harm, whether they are a statist goon or a lone cereal killer) is not war.
Enlisting into an army willingly (or being conscripted and choosing to capitulate to orders given to kill others) is not self-defense.
The tricky part and the slippery slope down the soul corroding pit to “pre-emptive strikes”, mass murdering children and wholesale genocide begins when we start blending the meanings of words such as “self-defense” with “resistance against evil” or “war”.
When you know there are humans out there that would kill you if they were given the chance and you seek to acquire weapons to stop them before they can act on that intent, Where does self defense end and premeditated murder begin?
I do cultivate and hone self-defense skills and if another being seeks to harm me, my wife, or some other sentient being that is in my immediate presence and unable to defend itself I will use them. Under some conditions that could result in my killing those beings. But that is as far as I will go in this life.
You're definitely right about the Democrats and the Republicans (and their equivalents here in the UK). Do you consider your writing a howl against the inevitable?
Since collapse is already well underway we know there will be mass violence. Do you have interest in teaching guerilla tactics to those individuals you hope to survive or do you focus on survivalist prepping yourself or do you feel like by that point you'll wish to die anyway?
This is my approach to resist and boycott (all governments)
https://substack.com/@gavinmounsey/note/c-106629968?
Thank you for this very thought-proving perspective on change. Here are my thoughts on your topic. I was born in the middle of the 20th century, so my observations reflect opinions shaped by at least three of the major phases of our county’s most recent Fourth Turning saeculum.
The problem we face by having only two political machines to choose from in a society of highly diverse and complex features became evident to me nearly 50 years ago. Neither party has to be committed to bringing about societal transformation. All that either has to do is to appear to be marginally more attractive than the other on one or two quality of life issues that cut across our country’s diverse and complex cultural, social, gender, and racial makeup.
That’s all. Marginally more attractive, not radically transformative. And worse yet, all the winning party has to do is to appear to be making a sincere effort to deliver on its campaign promises to the masses while not alienating the big money interests that have lined up behind it to get a strategic position at the trough of public funding. If I sound negative about all this, I am. And my negativity has grown from many of the observations you make in this blog installment.
On how transformative change MIGHT happen in the near term, here’s my theory of change. People initially need to find each other, come together, share information, and build action networks. This set of activities creates awareness and interest in the POSSIBILITY of change. This awareness and interest fuels commitment to change and builds the momentum for change. This is democracy in action.
If people sense that momentum for change is building, they will be more likely to “try on” some of the early change activities. If they feel comfortable after doing that, they may very well become comfortable seeing themselves as an agent of change. Few of us want to be the tallest blade of grass in the field because it is the first one cut. However, if we see that there are thousands of tall blades of grass in that field, we feel much safer. Safety and comfort open the door to courage. Courage is required of agents of change. Courage is the essence of democracy in action.
All this momentum building can be done through civil disobedience and nonviolent demonstrations of dissatisfaction. However, as you suggest, history informs us this all is necessary, but not sufficient for transformation to occur. Transformative change needs more than “commitment” energy. It needs more than hand-wringing concern. It needs more than courage.
It needs the energy that feeds creative disruption and redesign. That is the energy that powered the birth of our nation two and one-half centuries ago. Creative disruption and redesign are the tools of American civilization, and the principles of American democracy provide the guardrails for our cyclical disruption and redesign. This time around, this current Fourth Turning Crisis period, the biggest threat appears to be that those guardrails are being torn asunder...
Please don’t discourage people from speaking up and resisting peacefully. It is an essential first step in a multi-stage process of transformative change. It is an essential first step in a multi-stage process of stopping the destruction of our society’s guardrails. These are our challenges “in the moment.”
Fuck “your country” though.