Every Gallon Kills

Militarized US energy policy begun under FDR is now acknowledged as a failure. With invasions now conducted by the Pentagon, proxy militaries and mercenaries in Africa, Asia and South America, the flow of oil is now decreasing as a result of this policy. Terrorism aside, energy security is higher and the cost lower where the militarized approach is not used.

The use of force to take oil supplies rather than simply purchase them from willing sellers is now an industry in itself, which explains why we will perhaps someday spend more on destroying oil-rich countries around the world than we spend on the product itself. The only way to abort this perverted mission is to dissuade our youth from becoming petroleum mercenaries and to persuade our neighbors to stop driving around like maniacs.

Every gallon kills.

Culture of Hate

In The Extreme Right and Its Media in Italy, Cinzia Padovani looks at the communication strategies of Italy’s fascist movement in promoting violent xenophobia among Italian youth. As hatred and political crimes have intensified in recent years, attacks perpetrated by fascist youth groups against immigrants, Roma and homosexuals point to a need to understand and monitor, “an ideology that vindicates the homeland assaulted by people of all races”.

Fascists now occupy positions of power inside the newsrooms and on the boards of directors of the Italian cultural industry. Using the Internet to mobilize street actions by violent youth at public events, the fascist ideology has become a powerful source for identity-building and social connection.

In the words of Padovani, “Its presence in the social fabric has become normalized.”

What is Wrong?

Why is it considered normal that Indian tribes have to sue the US government to not dump toxic waste on their lands? How can a people prosper when their sacred sites are regularly defaced or destroyed? What is wrong with Americans?

Westphalia Deux

UK announces it will join Nigeria in attack on Biafra to secure oil fields for European corporations.

Totalitarian State

PEN joins other major human rights organizations in lawsuit against US government for illegal spying on American citizens and attempting to retroactively legalize unconstitutional conduct under FISA.

Relationships of Governance

The root term of dominion defines the relationships of governance that the Continental Congress surmounted by threat of force. Voluntary confederation of equals went out the window. Nostalgia for dominion — above and below the 49th parallel — is a desire to subsume multiculturalism to inherited privilege.

Using contemporary Europe as an example, the bedrock nations (i.e. Catalonians, Sami, Flemish and Basques) are achieving cultural and political autonomy through the principle of subsidiarity — governance at the most appropriate level — which enables civic participation and national identity to flourish alongside modern state constructs.

The administrative overlay of states is less an identity than a fetish of centralized power, a power that requires dissemination in order for democratic principles to prevail.

Regional identities that recognize landscapes as integral to a sense of belonging are probably stronger in Canada than in the largely arbitrary state demarcations in the US, and indeed are recognized in our notions of regions that span these boundaries. Affiliation with place as well as pre-state heritage is an essential aspect of mental health, and ultimately might undo the unhealthy governance customs of dominion, empire, and superpower.

To achieve a more human state, we will first have to dispense with nostalgia for the dominant point of view.

Abandon the Metaphor

As a euphemism for compliant, “moderate” in its present political perversion is an achievement of the investment in ideas by American conservatism. Since there is no corresponding investment in ideas to lend continuity to the human rights movements that rose up against the excesses of corporate liberalism, it is no surprise that a lost generation has apparently emerged in academia.

The immoderate behavior of the current conservative–liberal alliance can be traced directly to this investment, which has overwhelmed all community safeguards worldwide since the Reagan years. The sole exception to this intellectual cleansing is the world indigenous movement, which, due to its location outside the conventional political spectrum metaphor, has the capacity and motivation to see things differently.

Since the perspectives of Native America and the Fourth World are the only authentic views left standing, perhaps we would do well to abandon the metaphor altogether.

Tofino Roundup

Attitude makes the difference.

Barack Attack

Obama praises Reagan for moving the country away from the excesses of the 60’s and 70’s — civil rights, free speech, anti-war — that kind of stuff. Does Obama know anything about history? Was he in a coma during the Iran-Contra scandal?

Hippie Renaissance

I have surprisingly encountered a hippie renaissance in both my age group (original hippies) and twenty somethings. Forty somethings are curious, but understandably came of age in the awful Reagan years. It would seem the task before us is to create social venues for this cultural revitalization.