Words. Penned six years ago, still true. It's Spring now, time for awakenings, new beginnings, doing what's been put off, planting and more planting.
People have pinned their hopes on the pandemic ending and things returning to normal – or to a better world that they can help fashion. But there can be no return to what was already gone or never really there in the first place. SARS-CoV-2 is a catalyst, an accelerant, an excuse, a Fall Guy, not a cause of destruction except to human bodies it infects. What it could destroy is the illusion in which we’ve lived.
Yes, this will crush the economy. It's meant to; it's been unavoidable and imminent for 11 years. Yes, it sucks. Yes, "our way of life" is drastically changing - had already changed in ways most people had not yet acknowledged. When we've all given each other a moment to scream in mourning, the question then becomes: How do each of us want to move forward?
We are no longer living in a democracy, if we ever truly did. News that counters the mainstream media is heavily censored. Websites and online accounts of journalists with integrity are slandered, blocked or taken down, daily. Constant blame, shame, and ad hominem attacks threaten anyone who dares to disagree with blatant nonsense, hypocrisy and lies. Good, intelligent, hardworking people have been brainwashed into blind obedience of directives from "their" national leaders and into reprehensible censorship of their peers’ opinions – even their own opinions, or ability to form opinions. The US is being shredded. Razed. Third-world-ized. This cannot end well because no cushion remains to soften our fall.
Mother Nature, though mostly absent from this article, is nevertheless omnipresent, omnipotent and unimpressed by our endgames. She has her own. Going by atmospheric and planetary conditions created by her current humanoid tenants, she began housecleaning some time ago though we didn’t notice until the 1960s. First, she ended our oil binge, giving us plenty of warning to wean off our addiction, warning we largely ignored. Now her rapidly accelerating pace escapes our notice only through a willful effort (or, that comfy small box under the stairs).
We’re rushing her a bit with “the most abrupt and widespread extinction” rate in 66 million years. But, she’ll handle it much better than we will. Our Anthropocene will indeed be Exceptional in its pitiful brevity, which appears set to end as soon as 2030, certainly well before 2100 or even 2050. Our species will not be the last standing (that’s insects and bacteria), having lost habitat (i.e. the ability to grow food) before the epoch itself ends.
Technology? The damaged worldview that’s created the vast majority of all technology makes it an adolescent’s toy. It’s not going to save us, nor does it have time to replace us. (And, all those “dog” and humanoid robots get their “life” from fossil-fueled electricity.) All “modern” technology runs overwhelmingly on electricity generated by fossil fuels. Regardless of “color”. “Green alternatives” are no different. Our ruling class’ scramble to drill more oil in every sea and ocean will simply speed the process.
Nor can we somehow stop using electricity to save ourselves. That would cause the meltdown of all 440 nuclear power plants due to lack of cooling – and any place to deposit the radioactive waste not requiring constant energy attention – and would destroy the global dimming which at present is protecting us from the worst of the heat we’ve already created. The timeframe is down to decades or years. There will be no negotiations, no mitigations, not even for homo sapiens exceptionalis moneybaggus psychopathicus.
We can take some comfort in the fact that, if the Western ruling class decides to threaten either China or Russia with force, it will all be over in a flash. Literally. Neither will surrender sovereignty to the West, nor permit a unipolar world, regardless of the sacrifices they must make. The suffering of both from Western policies for more than a century has been too vast and the memories remain fresh. Their people have now rebuilt and tasted freedom. They will not go back. Nor, I believe, would either allow the other to fall. It is in their own defense to prevent such an occurrence. For US-led Western nations to attempt force against them is omnicidal. Which doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, Nicaragua and a growing list of other nations, plus a good many people in the West will not submit, though they will – and they do – pay for their “insolence”. All, no doubt, suspect the origins of the virus. Articles on Middle Eastern and Eurasian websites have diplomatically asked for “more transparency” from the US. But, for reasons aptly explained by Larry Romanoff here, they have otherwise held their tongues. The Western ruling class has worked hard to weaken these countries into capitulation, but not succeeded.
There’s no going back. It’s so much bigger than all the malicious rubbish on any of the ruling class’ media. They’re not “trying to control us” – they already do. They’re not “taking away our civil rights” – they already did. Where were you? The virus is not a “hoax” – it’s a serious weapon. Wear a mask, for Pete’s sake, a good one, no valves, not a piece of cotton, and learn how to put it on and how not to wear it (funny - read it!). And, if it even crosses your mind to worry whether your mask was made in China, see this and remember they’ve recovered. Learn how to wash your hands and your groceries. (Then read this for fun, to lighten up a bit.)
No one wants a virus meant to never entirely go away. The Western ruling class has done everything possible to spread it. Don’t help them.
Stop helping them hurt you. Get out of the damned box. Get OFF social [sic] media. “The only winning move is not to play.” If giant platforms were controlled by the people who use them, if they were there solely for us to communicate with each other (“open source, creative commons”), they’d be great. They’re not. (And, people who try to fight for an open internet don’t always live that long.) They’re DOD/CIA funded from startup as the internet itself was, and controlled just as the hardware, worldwide undersea cables, the server farms and data centers (using terawatts of energy and contributing to worldwide emissions) are.
In other words, the Internet was hardwired to be a surveillance tool from the start. No matter what we use the network for today…it always had a dual-use nature rooted in intelligence gathering and war. ~ Yasha Levine, Surveillance Valley, p. 6
Get a dumb phone and an old computer – one that can’t see or hear you, one that works for you, not them. When news sites tell you “What you need to know”, immediately ask yourself what exactly is it that they think you don’t “need to know”? Get your news online from as many different non-Western countries as possible while they’re not yet censored. Pick independent nations and websites, not wholly owned subsidiaries of the CIA. Use alternative OS, browser, social media (if you must), video and here, movie, and email. Disengage, step back and take a breath. Go outside; hug a tree. A wise colleague advises, “Live a life of excellence,” as the best way of facing a world crashing in on all sides.
Put serious thought and effort into becoming as self-reliant as possible – taking back some of the power and independence they’ve stolen from you. “Control oil/control nations. Control food/control people.” So, grow some: in your own garden, containers, in the on city rooftops, in community gardens. Store food. Store emergency supplies. When the electricity fails and trucks aren’t delivering on schedule, what essentials can’t you supply for yourself somehow? How can you start to fill in the gaps and who could help you, or needs your help?
No amount of preparation can change what’s happening, but it can make us less immediately vulnerable, give us the breathing space in which to find our own way to face it all – on our own terms, not theirs. If you are independent-minded, that will make a difference to you. Resetting our lives outside of, independent from the system that “Doesn’t care about you at all-at all-at all” is both difficult and immensely freeing.
Once you’ve got your own oxygen mask on, go wherever your skills and passions lead. Our hearts are hurting; if we open them and let them lead us, it will help. Fight back in some way, if it’s your path; lose yourself in whatever and whomever you love. Get in touch with friends via cards, letters and phone calls. (Remember them?) Spend time outdoors and with plants and animals. Most of all, stay aware how precious each moment is and make it count.
If we cannot wrap our heads around the enormity of what’s happening and change our lives accordingly, it will be our failure of imagination.
“Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.”
~ President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Feb. 23, 1942
