Sunday Sermon: To Distract and Fool

The subversion of discourse from reaching the root of the problem

Today’s Week in Review thread at the Moon of Alabama blog became a prime example of how reasoned discourse on what remains a controversial topic, Human Induced Climate Change, can swiftly get derailed from getting to the roots of the problem tree by forcing the conversation to search through all the branches, twigs, leaves, bird’s nests, and anything else that can be added. It’s a well-known troll tactic that’s been around since debating arose several thousand years ago. Magicians and con artists also employ variations of the ruse, as well as politicians. What follows is my participation that was asked for by Northern Eve at | Jul 16 2023 20:08 utc | 83 for those curious to read—or for those who participated—in the entire thread, which is linked above. Eve asked:

"What is to be done" about the environment?

An excellent testimony by Susan @50. I too live next to the Pacific Ocean and have observed changes during those 20 years. I also lived in Hawaii for about 8 years and witnessed changes there too. I was born in California and witnessed many changes there while I grew up, the most important being the many water projects, the biggest being the massive California Aqueduct system and the many dams that fed/feed the system. If a person could view what California looked like in 1750 before European settlers began arriving, that person would hopefully be shocked at what was done. The pioneer explorer of the Southwest John Powell told Congress that water resources were so sparce that major development of the entire Southwest ought to be extremely limited, but he was outvoted by money, which is the historical curse of the Outlaw US Empire and continues its ruinous behavior today. The problem is simple which also provides us with the answer: What was and remains free within the Outlaw US Empire is the freedom to plunder and exploit at will because of the freedom from regulation, except in very rare and extremely limited instances. And historically, that's been THE KEY for 4,000+ years, excepting those rare moments when "tyrants" allied with commoners to regulate the actions of the rich and powerful--The Money Power. Those who are reading it will agree that the best subtitle for Hudson's trilogy on Debt might be "A History of Creditor Rule and Ruin."

So, "what is to be done"? The Money Power must be stripped of its power, governments purged of its influence, very strong anti-corruption and regulatory enforcement laws must be enacted AND strictly enforced with punishment being extreme--forfeiture of all wealth and life imprisonment in most cases. Furthermore, all money related institutions are to be made public utilities--markets will remain markets and perform their economic function, but their purpose is to serve humanity first. And that leads us to the need to rewrite the verbiage of corporate charters so that they are made to first serve the public and second protect the environment prior to providing any remuneration to owners. And given that the vast majority of markets are those that can be considered natural monopolies, all such institutions within those markets must be public utilities. Material development must serve humanity and the environment, for the reality is Nature is the real boss as we exist thanks to Nature.

Extreme? Not at all when we examine the damage wrought by the Money Power, particularly the wars it creates to make A Fistful of a Few Dollars More, Ukraine being a prime example as well as the continuing Plunder of Syria. Why is genuine democracy so feared by the Money Power over the past 4,000+ years? Because that power knows it would never be allowed to exist in such a polity where the Four Freedoms truly reigned. And so we are littered with trolls and fleas of all sorts as we've seen in this thread whose agenda is to keep the sort of thinking I just elaborated out of discussion threads as readers might get ideas. Always the fingers are pointed this way or that way at some other thing that isn't anywhere near the root of the problem. The problem is the existence of the Money Power and its disease, Pleonexia, and its control over government that emasculates it from even attempting to enforce what laws are already in place--and within the Outlaw US Empire we actually do have some laws that haven't been nullified: yet.

One last point: We all know national elections in the current environment are useless. State and local elections haven't reached that nadir yet, so some hope exists at those political levels. The #1 issue, however, is the fundamental lack of solidarity thanks to the Money Power's use of Culture Wars--which includes the environment--to divide and rule. History proves that without solidarity very little can be done against the Money Power, particularly once it has complete control of the national government and its means of coercion. So, from the local to the state levels, people need to examine how the Money Power has/is ruining society, and it is in numerous ways some of which aren't obvious at first glance; so, people must dig deep and then share finding with your communities. And IMO, this is true within every Neoliberal controlled nation, not just within the Outlaw US Empire.

And so Northern Eve, you asked what my answer is. It's a huge amount of political work, self and group education because absolutely nobody's going to do any of that for us, which is precisely what the Money Power counts on. And I didn't even mention the number one set of distractions meant to keep us from even starting on that work--all professional and collegiate sports being those major distractions. And now it becomes even clearer just how much work's involved as tens of millions will need to be pried from their TVs and stadiums just for starters.

Like what you’ve been reading at Karlof1’s Substack? Then please consider subscribing to a monthly/yearly pledge to enable my efforts in this challenging realm. Thank You!