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When It All Falls Down
We all learn from the nursery rhyme "Humpty "Dumpty" that "all the King's horse and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again."
I believe we are living through the Great Collapse. The collapse of free market capitalism. The collapse of the doctrine of warfare between nations as an acceptable foreign policy tool. And the collapse of "every man for himself" / " having power over others is the way to live" political values. And nothing is going to put this world view - this mindset - back together again.
(Oh, I was tempted to write "Republican values" rather than "political values", but I know that some Democrats have enjoyed having power over others, too.)
So, as I watched John McCain fail to beat Barack Obama in the final debate and started to think about how Barack Obama just might win the election, my mind went to how all the people who still believe in the values inherent in free market capitalism, warfare, and domination over others are going to take losing it all.
Not well.
That's the answer I got.
I think I got that because the Republicans are laying the groundwork for being able to claim that the election was stolen. (Did you hear John McCain say in the debate that ACORN is "destroying the fabric of our democracy"?)
Or maybe it's because I saw Senator Orrin Hatch being interviewed on MSNBC on Wednesday, and he made the ludicrous claim that if Barack Obama wins the presidency the unions "will take over America." I kid you not. And he might as well have been saying "Communists" rather than "unions," for the fear you could hear in his voice.
Or maybe it's because I hear there are people who claim Barack Obama is the anti-Christ.
Of maybe it's the pastor who gave the invocation before a McCain event in which he prayed to God to show the other Gods that he is the bigger God by making sure McCain wins... because people who pray to those other Gods all want Obama to win. (Keith Olbermann showed this video the other day.)
You see, if Barack Obama ushers in a "new American Century" based on such great American principles as "All people are created equal" and that we are really the "United States" not the divided states... coupled with such religious beliefs as "Love thy neighbor," this will -- literally -- be the "end of days" for people who believe in hate, divisiveness, and domination.
And I just worry that they won't let their word view die without a fight.
I know it's a crazy thought. But America is filled with some pretty crazy people. (Hey, it's a big country!)
So.... what to do?
Well... I think I'll start by calling Senator Hatch's office and asking if I can talk to him about his fears that "the unions" are going to take over the country. (I actually met Senator Hatch through a mutual friend a number of years ago. So, maybe I'll be able to get through to him. We'll see.)
And I recommend that all of you start thinking about being compassionate to those you know who are about to suffer this great loss too. Maybe to strangers as well.
This is no joke. We really need to let these people know that it's going to be okay to live in a world where you empower people rather than having power over people. A world where you focus on what's best about people... on your common ground with other people... rather than what divides you. A world where we think in terms of everyone making it rather than just some. (You know... bye bye social Darwinism.)
This is how Barack Obama is planning to govern. In fact, he made a reference to this during the debate. And I expect he'll do all he can - probably through a number of great speeches - to lay out the principles of collaborative governance, so we'll understand what he wants to do.
But it's going to take the rest of us reaching out -- one person at a time -- to help all of those "fighters" out there learn how to live in a world where the "first response" will be to work with each other rather than to fight. (And this includes reaching out to "fighting Democrats.)
Given that we may be about to enter the Great Depression of the 21st Century, we're really going to need to all pull together... otherwise our nation (and the world) may really all fall down.
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Addendum:
I forgot to mention that John McCain himself said in the debate that ACORN's actions are "destroying the fabric of our democracy". To me, this sounds like the words of yet another person who sees his world being "destroyed." I sure hope someone is able to talk Senator McCain down from the depression it appears he's headed for if Senator Obama wins.
Follow Steven G. Brant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SteveBrant
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Attention please! This election isn't over yet!
Now is not the time for thoughtful reflection on the coming Pax Obamana, or whatever you think might happen after the Illinois senator wins. Now is the time to redouble our efforts -- and our donations -- to get him elected. There is nothing as unpredictable and dangerous as a power elite with its back to the wall. Things are looking good right now, for sure, but the next 19 days will be a sh*tstorm and it's going to take a lot of focus and hard work to bring this thing home.
Stay on it!
Anyone who takes ANYTHING seriously that the republicans say needs to 'pull their heads out' and wake up.
Rethugs are absolutely shamless people, many without a conscience, no doubt.
Terrific post!
I am with you on that. I see it as an articulate culmination and conclusion of everything I have tried to say since I started commenting in this environment. Great job Mr. Brant, your parents raised you right and/or you had fabulous experiences growing up that nurtured versus killed -- the precious -- which is love not a possessed ring from a movie.
We haven't won anything... yet.
Let's keep our eyes open for trouble and keep moving forward.
No resting, no relaxing our guard until 11/5
I agree.....I think that if we've learned nothing else from the past 8 years, we have to learn the lesson that the most damaging thing we can do with power is to over-reach.
Look at how the Republican controlled congress and White House operated. Look at the kinds of things they conjured up. The attacks on the very basis of our republic - chipping away at our constitutional rights.
Recall the nastiness of people on the Right in the early years of Bush... any who opposed their policies had their patriotism questioned, and were ridiculed publicly.
People on the left are still hurting - My fear is what happens when we win. Just read comments across the "progressive blogs." You can smell the anger and you have to be concerned about the attitude that will produce after 4-Nov. I think Sen. Obama and the Democratic Leadership need to walk a fine line up until the day of the election. After Victory is Secure - President-Elect Obama and Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid need to set a tone of conciliation.
We cannot be perceived as being poor winners, any more than we should over-reach in our policies.
The price of that would be too high.
I don't want to see blowback that results in a republican held congress during the last two years of the Obama administration. We need temperance and patience.
Good points. I hope Obama convenes a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like South Africa. Even though we don't have decades of murder and racial oppression to overcome like South Africa, this country is so deeply divided that the next President must focus on true reconciliation if we are to have any chance of progress. Obama is showing the way by how he has run his campaign and how he has comported himself in debates. Now we all need to rise to the challenge, choke back that bile rising in our throats, and extend the hand of friendship to our neighbors. If Obama does nothing else in his Presidency but bring about a reconciliation of the American people, he will have done well.
People love their hatreds and live for vengeance because it makes them feel alive. Having lived in the northeast of the United States and in Ireland where people faught for 800 years against the invader and the invaders occupiers from Scotland, the first lesson children learn even as they learn to speak in their particular accent is the nature of their identity, who are their friends and who are their enemies. Americans constantly need to project their collective hatred on the enemy, because it is the major distraction from hating each other, racially, culturally, and of course most importantly, socially on the basis of wealth. McCain has brought the term class warfare into the discussion because it is a considered a communist idea that is being infiltrated into the discussion. The facts of the elite owning everything and getting richer while everybody else is impoverished or imprisoned is notning other than class warfare, and the masses are the victims. Wake up and act now because these people will never stop unless hundreds of millions vote for change and gradually dominate the agenda and change the culture..
If you're in doubt, look at the 'politics' section of craigslist in any city, especially in the 'red' states. It's truly frightening.
The collapse seems only to have fed the ignorance. People are shocked, vulnerable and in denial. They are less willing than ever to listen to anything outside their world-view. They need someone to blame.
I listened to CNBC Europe late last night. The night before I listened to an Americans for Prosperity (I think that's what they called themselves) rally on C-SPAN. We are headed for a clash of civilizations alright, but it's not the one Bush talked about. The countries of the EU simply do not trust the unregulated American financial system anymore. They are going to demand changes. The Right, losing moderates everyday, has no frame of reference for this and perceive it as a turn toward socialism or communism. It may be laughable to those of us who frequent Huffington Post, but it's happening.
Still, I don't agree with the compassion tactic. They aren't going to listen to facts and they aren't going to sit quietly for 4-8 years of an Obama administration, either. I'm afraid the best we can do is drown them out with our passion and reason. These people won't listen to you UNLESS you can fight them!
So, get in the trenches my fellow Huffponians! Right now, in a city near you, there is a post in the 'politics' section of craigslist that needs to hear from you!
I have similar, but darker thoughts: Right wing mystical, economic, and social extremists are losing the iron grip they've held on this country (even the world!) for the last 50 years, and, like petulant children, they want to kick over the game peices and kill the opposition rather than accept defeat. If you think a few hugs and reassurances puts all this behind us, you are mistaken. I worry that as goes the Republican Party (i.e. 'disintegrating before our eyes'), so goes the Democratic party and the government they occupy. (I'll vote Obama, but I don't think he can change the course of history we blindly re-tread). Only Democrats accept defeat in a more or less graceful manner. (Too graceful if you ask me.) "The Ends justify the means" doesn't really cover it when it comes to Republicans. On their way out of Washington, they're not just turning off the lights. They are making sure the next president will be lucky to break even. As go Republicans, so go Democrats, so goes the country, so goes the planet. Everybody's talking like it's over 'cause the good guys are gonna win. This country is doing to the world the same thing the right wing has done to this country. It's going to get a lot worse.
The end of history and the American century endured an eye-blink. You would be advised to review your Marx for appropriate analysis applicable to current collapse from contradictions of historical forces. We can't create social stability when we toss millions of people into unsustainable environments and regard them as peasants who must conform to system demands or go to prison, to the street, or to despair and insanity. Americans do not as a society live in the best of all possible worlds and the cost of their way of life to the rest of the world is outrageously excessive. Furthermore, its model of success is completely unsustainable for the planet as a living, balanced system of inter-dependency. All of this was predicted 40 years ago, and is now becoming totally obvious to everyone in their daily life, except those who refuse to admit their world-view is not only completely inadequate, it is dangerous. The creationists who proceed from divine revelation are going to be taught that they must adapt or perish. Their dogma, ideology, prejudice, ignorance, intolerance, arrogance will only become more insistent until sooner, rather than later, history will bring a more integrated dynamic and consign them to pockets of cultural curiousity rather than global dominance..
Surely you can see the difference between "loving thy neighbor" and "being forced to pay for thy neighbor at gunpoint".
Not sure what your point is.
but you could also add the distinction of "being forced to pay for thy neighbor's banker who recklessly squandered trillions of dollars at gunpoint."
or...
"being forced to pay for the rebuilding of thy neighborhood and infrastructure in Iraq that was destroyed because of a reckless war of choice that was waged based on lies told to the American people....at gunpoint"
Or... "being forced to pay for public works and infrastructure projects in Alaska while the state government panders to its' citizens by issuing tax refunds from the billions of dollars in excess they have from Oil money that belongs to the people of the United States of America....at gunpoint."
You seem worried about socialism.... guess what - this ain't your fathers' socialism... It's socialism for the wealthy or people who have oil beneath their feet.
The rest of us seem to have gotten laissez-faire'd aside....
When you reach out to a right wing fanatic, he bites your arm off.
The old order of blatant disregard for social cohesion in favor of rampant egotism of individual wealth and power peculiarly American and derived from British fortune-seekers roaming the world from Sir Walter Raleigh to the latest hedge fund managers of the City of London, identified as Anglo-Saxons by the Europeans, of old Europe, has now exploded the financial system of the planet. This will be the end of American dominance since Bretton Woods, and its revision to the dollar as reserve currency. The governments will take control of money and sweep away the betting system denominated in credit default swaps and other contractual bets with liabilities extending beyond the total value of all goods and services produced on the planet for years. Clearly this is the reductio ad absurdam, or the total insanity of a system out of control with benefit only to a handful of players of the biggest scam devised in the history of the universe. Only people completely unhinged from any sense of social responsibility, sociopaths could be capable of this behaviour, yet because in the Anglo-Saxon system, it was not specifically prohibited by law, they pursued their demonic ends.Mad dogs and Englishmen out in the mid-day sun are soon dispatched.
I grew up in the 50's in mid Massachusetts, a lot of Democrats, then at age 10 moved to Long Island, a lot of Republicans, and then after college in Connecticut, went back to Ireland where my grandmother was born. I learned early on that Republicans are the party of the prosperous, and when people have property, investments, wealth, they become conservative. How ironic now, after sucking people into the financial services to invest their live savings into the market and property, that they have been played for complete fools. The great plan for neocons has completely vaporized their political ambitions, as trillions beyond comprehension are due in payment for bets of Credit Default Swaps. The revolution of politics has begun with Sarkozy, out of necessity, calling for a banking system directed to the real economy, for real people with jobs and homes and families. The neocons are about to be annihilated. At this prospect, I am well pleased to be disagreeable to those with whom I disagree.
We've got our work cut out for us but I totally agree - with an Obama presidency we usher in a new progressive movement that is long overdue. We had one in the late 1800's where some fresh new ideas began to take shape of the mainstream. That is what we need today - the Republicans wil always hold on to their stale ideals but luckily for us there's a whole new generation of young people paying attention and realizing that we need to move this thing in a new direction - Republicans have managed to take us to this dead end and it's up to us to stand up and demand PROGRESS!
Unfortunately, it will be away from liberty. Not saying that McCain would be any better.
I don't feel sorry for these nasty, scheming, cheaters who have stolen countless elections, trashed the government, destroyed the economies and gotten us involved in wars that seemingly have no end.
Excellent article!
I am ready to be compassionate. I am ready to help my fellow Americans.
I am also ready for the potential civil unrest that this shift could cause.
I hope it does not. But be prepared. You know Blackwater is.
It will be hard for Blackwater to operate without funding....
Remember that $700 Billion just handed over to the Bush administration...?
A friend and I were having a similar discussion when all of the 'anger' appeared at the Mc Cain/ P alin rallies. People are angry that EVERYTHING they belive in... is coming apart at the seams. For some of these people... their identities are wrapped up in their ideologies that are now being exposed as fradulent. They can't help but get defensive and go on the attack.
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