Manifesto 6.0 (Practice Draft)

     The spectre haunting Europe in Marx & Engels' day now overshadows the world. The collapse of empires, the blight of war, the mindless exploitation of Nature, the persistent devaluation of life --all life, not just human life-- these are the signs and symptoms of a pathological culture on its way to ecocide and extinction. Redemption, if it is possible, can only be achieved by global revolution overthrowing the present world order. The spectral forces of alienated labor, resistance to illegitimate authority, recognition of universal human rights, the struggle for social justice, these assume material form in solidarity and community.

     By now, the early years of the XXI century, it is clear that there is an elite class of humans --less than 1% of all humans-- whose decisions determine the use and distribution of human and natural resources necessary to sustain life on Earth. It is equally clear that their decisions have resulted in the present conditions of conflict, poverty, disease and environmental degradation. They continue to pursue social and economic policies that preserve and protect their positions of privilege, power and authority. 

     It is no secret that the immiseration of the majority of humans will increase, even as our numbers decline in the wake of endless wars and plagues that become more frequent and lethal. It is no secret that the oceans are dying, warming as they become more acidic, killing coral reefs, melting the polar ice caps. Drought and wildfire, followed by storms and flood, are reducing crop yields, devastating forests, turning grasslands into deserts. There is no relief or rescue on the horizon. There is perhaps, the possibility of transformation through revolutionary action, but the spectral forces of imagination, invention, organization and cooperation must coalesce and unite even as classes, castes, divisions and heirarchies dissolve and merge, giving rise to a new order, a global awareness, a planetary consciousness that holds fast to the truth that Earth, our homeworld, is alive, sacred and finite.

Note: On De-colonising the American Mind (Part 1)

    The earliest appearance in English, of the word colony, according to the OED, was 1548, in the context of distant territories under the political control of a parent state. The word has roots in Latin that appear to generate branches that twine together. One sense of coloni is a farmer, one who tills the land. Cultivate, culture are related. The word colonel is perhaps related: The one leading the column of soldiers; the one in charge of the invaders who will seize the land; the one who will be in charge of the plantation. There is also a somewhat mystical connection suggested by archaeology and the architecture of ancient Roman colonies. The center of the colony was laid out in a grid, with a column at its center. The pillar represented the colonists; the capital (head) was the symbol of the power of the remote ruler. The allegiance and subordination of the colonists to the homeland was a necessary condition, not always offered willingly, for the economic growth of the parent state.

          Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.^[6]  -- Jürgen Osterhammel's Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview

     The British, French and Russian settlements on the American continent during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries certainly fit the description for colonies. After the revolution and separation from England, the American government extended the practice of colonial occupation with regard to the indigenous people and the lands they inhabited. Despite increasing tension over slavery, the economies of the southern states continued to depend on the plantation system established under colonialism. Although slavery was later abolished by law and treaties were signed ending hostilities with the native peoples, the social and economic conditions for these populations did not improve and often became worse. The arbitrary cruelty of a hierarchy defined by skin color, gender and ancestry was and is the legacy of our Jewish and Christian forbears.

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       “Feminism means that we renounce our obedience to the fathers and recognize that the world they have described is not the whole world.”     -- Adrienne Rich

    This attitude of superiority and entitlement that men express in contemporary social settings is grounded in a patriarchal construction of the world. This is elegantly deconstructed by Susan Griffin (Woman & Nature: the Roaring Inside Her), diagnosed as pathology by Mary Daly (Gyn/Ecology), and further developed in work by Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Clarissa Pinkola Estés and others. Male privilege and white supremacy are the twin pillars supporting colonial oppression. As we are witnessing in America, and elsewhere in Europe, anti-establishment, xenophobic, nationalist sentiments are fuelling a resurgence of white male assertiveness that empowers and validates the authoritarian regime.

    In addition to a thorough feminist analysis, and certainly as important, is a comprehensive anti-racist, anti-colonialist analysis.  Beginning with Frantz Fanon (The Wretched of the Earth), Walter Rodney (How Europe Under-Developed Africa), Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B. DuBois, one begins to appreciate how deep are the roots of white supremacy. It is widely recognized that these hierarchies of status are learned in childhood and become lifelong factors in our behavior, so we know when to step up and when to defer. This internalized set of rules is the psychic glue that holds families, communities, nations, civilizations together. Since we tend not to recognize these inner processes, we don't connect the consequences that result from our unconscious participation and compliance with the social order.
    

Welcome to the Apocalypse I

    We are all going to die.
    That is a fact, not an opinion. You, me, our loved ones, family and friends, our pets, all of us will go under the hill or up in smoke. Yet most of us don't seem to understand or appreciate this obvious fact. If we did, I think we would be a whole lot kinder and forgiving to one another, ourselves and our homeworld. I think if we truly realized the fragility, brevity, and exquisite beauty of our existence-- being alive, being human --we'd behave better. People who have survived a near-death experience or feared for their life, often become kinder, more compassionate and generous. Their sense of being is transformed in remarkable ways, according to their own accounts. Although the genre is anecdotal, there is agreement that life itself, breath by breath, is a treasure beyond value.
    Considering that we share the same fate and have nowhere else to live but this tiny spinning rock --for the foreseeable future, another fact-- doesn't it make sense for us to cooperate to co-create and nurture environments and networks that sustain our homeworld and us, too?
    Considering we share the same fate and the same homeworld, how does it make sense to allow one species to destroy the environments and networks that sustain us all? I'm making an effort to be temperate, but the urgency of the moment tends to inflame my rhetoric. A growing number of us are convinced that human activity has tipped the balance of the biosphere in lethal ways. Those dangerous and destructive practices must stop and we must begin to remedy and restore what survives. Unfortunately, many of the "decision-makers" and "world leaders" remain firmly committed to the status quo, despite their treaties and agreements to mitigate greenhouse-gas damage.
    People around the world are organizing in opposition to the continuing pillage and pollution of global capitalism. In response, the state tends to protect the property and interests of the business class, at the expense of the people and the environment. The ascendancy of private property over the commonwealth has been underway for several centuries, culminating in various forms of state capitalism and capitalist control of the state. The corporatist state is one of the hallmarks of a proto-fascist regime.

     Fascism is a form of radical nationalism that first appeared in Europe in the aftermath of WW I. Each of its manifestations exhibited unique characteristics, but all shared certain features in common. Guided by historians and sociologists, one can easily tick off fascism's dominant traits:

    a strong leader, a father figure, a dictator, a savior, patriarchy
    a police state, a security state, a surveillance state, law & order
    scapegoating minorities for social problems, xenophobia
    criminalize opposition, eliminate unions, control mass media
    promise a return to better times, take back our country
    restoration of values, moral purity, protect the homeland
    oligarchic control of the economy, corporatist state apparatus

    The fascist regimes of Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, and Hitler in Germany, have spawned imitators in other parts of Europe and Latin America, as well as Asia and Africa. It's probably important to distinguish those regimes that come to power by military coup (e.g. Pinochet in Chile, the Shah of Iran) or by installation (e.g. Trujillo, Duvalier) from those that are elected democratically. Call them exo-fascism, "Fascism Imposed", and endo-fascism, "Fascism Invited," respectively.

    When I was an undergrad, at UCI in the late sixties, a rash of critical texts appeared almost overnight, like mushrooms. New names joined the contributors to venerable Marxist journals; older, almost forgotten authors were revived. While Charles Reich's The Greening of America was a best-seller, Wilhelm Reich's The Mass-Psychology of Fascism was reprinted. It sold poorly and was mostly ignored, but I found the book enlightening. W. Reich's clinical work with working-class men and women revealed a constellation of neuroses in which he recognized a pattern, as identified by the title of the text. His patients complained about their work, their private lives, their dissatisfaction with life in general. He observed their anger, their insecurity, their fear and their persistent use of force and violence. Reich described the alienated personality prepared to embrace fascist leadership. The people who felt most betrayed and disappointed in their aspirations were the most eager to blame others.

    Over the years myriad volumes have been published on every angle and aspect of the social psychology, social economy and social dynamics of our civilization. How are we to understand something as narrow and complex as "late XX Century fascism" within such a huge context? And, if our understanding is correct, can we learn anything useful to forestall, diffuse or defeat fascism when it appears? Although the tone of this essay may seem academic, the matter at hand is immediate and serious. A growing number of citizens fear for the fate of the republic as a democracy, but even more, we fear for the survival of our grandchildren in the decades to come. The rapid shifts occurring at every level of government in the United States indicate movement toward a surveillance state, corporate control of government services, limits on civil liberties & the press, restricted immigration, reduced access to health care, employment, housing, education and justice. It's clear to me where this is headed and I don't think we want to go there.