The America You Thought You Knew Has Left The Building
This Was The Week That All Pretense of "Democracy" was Pushed Over A Cliff, As Monumental Historical Precedents Were Set In Motion
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
― Albert Camus
Wow.
It was a week that reminded me of both the absurdist existential philosophy of Albert Camus and the great satirical BBC television program of the early 60s. Facing the absurd and tragic in a positive way. Trying, with all our might, not to succumb to despair, in the face of war, the ravages of climate, the continued spread of COVID and new diseases, economic calamity, and the suppression of women’s rights.
There is little doubt that the past week surely set in motion irrevocable historical and societal precedents.
There was such an intense level of both absurdly comic and absurdly tragic things happening, that you could be forgiven for feeling psychologically fractured in your emotional and intellectual response to it all. Laughing and crying at once. Feeling rebellious, angry, and fearful simultaneously.
Climate Change, at least in my part of the country, reared its ugly head for the second time in as many days, as heat domes settled in to bake us into retreat and submission. High-temperature records were broken yet again. Air conditioners continuously cycled in futile attempts to keep up with heat environments that “felt like” 118 degrees. This is not an environment that humans can exist in, much less work in, without extreme risk to life and health. The absurd notion that, down the road, we can simply start converting to “clean energy” and electric vehicles at this late date is enraging. So are the vague promises of lowering carbon emissions at some point in the future. It’s like reacting after a highway accident where the car has crashed through the guardrail and stopped permanently by a concrete barricade by furiously pumping the brakes. Too late. We won't spend our way out of this. All the government task forces setting “goals” are reacting after the fact. We are suffering due to our failure to act decades ago.
Meanwhile, an absurdist stage play continues to ensue in Ukraine as Hollywood celebrities, Senators, and Congressmen, along with an endless procession of people who have no business whatsoever being there, fly into a war zone for nothing more than an empty photo opportunity.
The ludicrous hero-worship of Zelensky by both a fawning media and well-known actors smells of desperation. The media has never been able to keep its stories straight about Ukraine from day one. So instead of the truth, we get absurd mythology in the form of propaganda. International conflict and global war are reduced to reality TV and entertainment. Again, if Ukraine is winning, or at least holding its ground, how is it possible they need 5 billion dollars a month to run the government and 20 years or longer and billions more to fight the war?
You don’t have to be a soldier, military strategist, or historian to know that if this were truly a desperate situation, a real war zone, with an ever-increasing need for endless money and weapons, as Zelensky claims it is, Stiller, Pelosi, McConnell, Et.al would be wearing flak jackets and under extreme guard. Likely they wouldn’t risk their lives for empty publicity opportunities at all. In fact, even behind the lines in relative safety, there would be extremely tense life and death scenarios. Instead, we see both Zelensky and his guests smiling, laughing, back-slapping, and posing as if it were a walk on the red carpet at an awards show. Walking out in the open without a helmet or flak jacket. Dangerous, but fun and lighthearted, mutual admiration societies with high fives all around. It can drive a person mad thinking about the contradictions.
What is apparent, or at least should be to anyone with a modicum of common sense and awareness, is that some very shady grifting is going on. The perpetrators of war, from the President and bipartisan members of Congress on down, have obviously made a promise of absolute fealty to the campaign cash cows of the Military-Industrial Complex. Both very corrupt political parties bloviate about defending democracy at home and abroad, while the stark reality is that it simply is a lie. The “left” is now fully on board with funding war, while publicly wringing their hands and lamenting the rapidly deteriorating economic conditions in America. The response is, basically, a feckless “Sure, we’re in power, things shouldn’t be this bad, but what can WE do?” So they propose hearings, or deliberate, or tell us what we already know.
Again, for those paying attention, this moment in time was built strategically, it didn’t arrive by accident. The “Good Cop- Bad Cop” politicians are barely pretending they aren’t part of the problem. The poorly constructed facade is crumbling. Record amounts of money and destructive weapons continue to flow into Ukraine/NATO and the bloated US military budget. Desperate Americans have to make choices between eating or buying gas to get to work, as cheap, easy money dries up. The policies of a private banking system in the Fed push us over a cliff, and the response we get is diversion, division, and distraction. The performative political theater of the January 6th hearings won’t and was never meant to, hold anyone criminally negligent or liable. It’s pablum and distraction for the masses.
Something that also should be cause for alarm: Who is actually in charge of the government in the Executive Branch? The political puppet theater swerves deeply into the realm of absurdism when we see daily reminders that our Octagenarian leadership is decrepit and unfit to serve. I know, as an older person myself, that you can’t be either physically or mentally as acute as you were when you were younger and more vital. This isn’t a derogatory, random insult and isn’t trying to exploit incidents like the President falling over on a bike. Trained athletes can do that. What is of concern is a President that has to be given cue cards to literally tell him where he is, where to go, where to sit, what to say, and what to do. This is alarming at best, and dangerous for the world at the worst.
Biden seems to be dragged around from one staged event to the next, and continues to perpetuate the false delusion that our economic woes, which are definitively based in part on his own sanctions against Russia, are solely the fault of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This is perpetuating a legacy based on false premises that the Democrats have squandered since the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016. All roads, all evil, all that is bad in the world, but particularly America, rest at the feet of Vladimir Putin. Honest politicians of either party are in short supply, but blaming Russia for what was clearly negligence and arrogance on the part of the Democrats and their candidate is a veneer that is cracked and thin. Even Biden’s own Chairman has unequivocally stated that Ukraine is NOT the cause of inflation. It should be an embarrassment to perpetuate mendacity, but on we go, with no apologies.
Economic realities of day-to-day living are consuming the American electorate and eating them alive. There are no longer any guarantees of stability. The way of life we are used to is mindless consumption without an afterthought. The truth of the matter is that we have exploited and exhausted valuable resources, and denigrated them as “commodities” (in financial speak) to the point of now seeing the real-time, real-life effects of shortages and high prices. Infinite growth in a finite world is an absurd premise that was never realistically possible.
How could anyone possibly believe that “supply chain glitches” just popped up out of thin air in the last few months? Exploitation and greed are certain parts of the problem, and Biden has been given a rotating cast of villains to blame in an unending stream of speeches. Instead of clarifying, these verbal barrages only serve to sow doubt and confusuon. The “solutions,” in the form of more proposed legislation, try to simplify a much more complex problem. It offers the appearance of action without solving or doing anything.
We will not be able to fully suspend our reliance on oil anytime in the near future, despite the government and corporate America spinning promises of an all-electric, clean energy, totally Utopian future. Flying cars are a more realistic possibility.
The airline industry, as one example, is already reeling from the effects of inflation-driven high fuel prices, and simply ignoring science. Veering into the territory of the absurd, yet again. Does anyone really believe that “high demand as a result of the lifting of COVID restrictions on international travel” is the REAL reason for pilot and staff shortages? At least, pilot “rustiness” is plausible. But so is COVID brain fog, a symptom of Long Covid.
Prior to 2020, there were delays due to weather and other anomalies, but not THOUSANDS of flight cancellations that airlines couldn’t adapt to. The difference between then, and now, is that COVID is taking workers out in ALL types of business. Neither the government nor industry will acknowledge the realities of Long Covid. The refusal of mainstream media, and the government, who NEVER apologize, and often skirt the truth in favor of actions that drive profit know this. They are lying for appearance's sake.
The increasing number of homeless across America, while not a new problem, is certainly now one with increased visibility. Take a walk into any major metropolitan area, including “glamorous” downtown Hollywood in L.A, and you will see people living under tarps on almost every block.
The response, so far, in cities from East To West Coast, is to decree people with no recourse, or resources, as a “problem” that has only one solution. Armed and militant police “sweeps”. If you don’t occupy property via leasing, renting, or owning a space, you have no rights. Anyone who feels the houseless still have rights hasn’t been on the receiving end of pepper spray and a baton. They are regarded as garbage to sweep out of sight.
Again, these are aggressive operations that are conducted with military equipment and military precision. The police have become an attacking Army. This is no accident. The corporate media, with their usual lack of empathy and compassion, see the people, not the systemic wealth inequality as a “problem” that has an “impact” on people fortunate enough to have a roof over their heads. The unfortunate are unequivocally labeled as threats to the safe havens of residential neighborhoods.
Friday, of course, was a shock to believers in freedom and individual autonomy as the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the collective uproar from women and human rights activists across the country was like a tidal wave. A Supreme Court of largely conservative men stated there was no longer a legal precedent to protect a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, and in one moment, there was a feeling that the floor fell out from under us all. All the people who were warning about the government being transformed into a religious theocracy, like the late Frank Zappa, and that the ultimate goal of Conservative Republicans was to turn America into a nightmare replica of Gilead, were suddenly vindicated.
Justice Clarence Thomas no doubt emboldened, wasted no time broadly hinting that this was just the beginning, insinuating that legal precedents protecting gay marriage and LGBTQ rights could soon see a similar fate.
If you expected a strong Democratic response, firmly rooted in doing anything possible to preserve 50 years of legal precedent, which were summarily destroyed in a relative instant, you would have been severely disappointed. In fact what happened was that women became equivalent to the homeless, in that their rights were destroyed, and a militant police presence was immediately sent to intimidate and discourage protests at the court building.
The Democrat’s feckless response came in a predictable burst, e-mails flooded inboxes, and opportunistic tweets encouraged us to vote harder while fundraising appeals proliferated the web. What they didn’t mention is that they had the opportunity for years to codify Roe, but never lifted a finger to do so. Urgency, it would seem, is only a priority for sending billions to Ukraine, not for preserving essential rights for Americans. Who needs a “committee” to explore the obvious?
What seems obvious, and not conspiratorial, at least from my perspective, is that the “powers that be” or the members of “The Big Club” are strategizing our demise. To what ends? I heard a billionaire in an economically themed YouTube video talk about having a “crib in Uruguay” as sound wisdom and economic advice.
The continuing assault on basic rights and the movement towards fascist, authoritarian solutions to problems created by that very system is frightening.
If you’re out on the street, protesting especially, Kudos, and stay safe.