sustainability
‘The absurdity of endless economic growth’
David Suzuki on how economic growth is flawed and can’t continue:
Have you noticed that we describe the market and economy as if they were living entities? The market is showing signs of stress. The economy is healthy. The economy is on life support.
Sometimes, we act as if the economy is larger than life. In the past, people trembled in fear of dragons, demons, gods, and monsters, sacrificing anything— virgins, money, newborn babies—to appease them. We know now that those fears were superstitious imaginings, but we have replaced them with a new behemoth: the economy.
Even stranger, economists believe this behemoth can grow forever. Indeed, the measure of how well a government or corporation is doing is its record of economic growth. But our home—the biosphere, or zone of air, water, and land where all life exists—is finite and fixed. It can’t grow. And nothing within such a world can grow indefinitely. In focusing on constant growth, we fail to ask the important questions. What is an economy for? Am I happier with all this stuff? How much is enough?
A timely new book by York University environmental economist Peter Victor, Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster, addresses the absurdity of an economic system based on endless growth. Dr. Victor also shows that the concept of growth as an indispensable feature of economics is a recent phenomenon.
The economy is not a force of nature—some kind of immutable, infallible entity. We created it and, when cracks appear, it makes no sense to simply shovel on more money to keep it going. Because it’s a human invention, an economy is something we should be able to fix—but if we can’t, we should toss it out and replace it with something better.
This current economic crisis provides an opportunity to re-examine our priorities. For decades, scientists and environmentalists have been alarmed at global environmental degradation. Today, the oceans are depleted of fish while “dead zones”, immense islands of plastic, and acidification from dissolving carbon dioxide are having untold effects. We have altered the chemistry of the atmosphere with our emissions, causing the planet to heat up, and have cleared land of forests, along with hundreds of thousands of species. Using air, water, and soil as dumps for our industrial wastes, we have poisoned ourselves.
For the first time in four billion years of life on Earth, one species has become so powerful and plentiful that it is altering the physical, chemical, and biological features of the planet on a geological scale. And so we have to ask, “What is the collective impact of everyone in the world?” We’ve never had to do that before and it’s difficult. Even when we do contemplate our global effects, we have no mechanism to respond as one species to the crises.
Driving much of this destructive activity is the economy itself. Years ago, during a heated debate about clear-cutting, a forest-company CEO yelled at me, “Listen, Suzuki: Are tree huggers like you willing to pay to protect those trees? Because if you’re not, they don’t have any value until someone cuts them down!” I was dumbstruck with the realization that in our economic system, he was correct.
You see, as long as that forest is intact, the plants photosynthesize and remove carbon dioxide from the air while putting oxygen back—not a bad service for animals like us that depend on clean air. However, economists dismiss this as an “externality”. What they mean is that photosynthesis is not relevant to the economic system they’ve created!
Those tree roots cling to the soil, so when it rains the soil doesn’t erode into the river and clog the salmon-spawning gravels, another externality to economists. The trees pump hundreds of thousands of litres of water out of the soil, transpiring it into the air and modulating weather and climate—an externality. The forest provides habitat to countless species of bacteria, fungi, insects, mammals, amphibians, and birds—externality. So all the things an intact ecosystem does to keep the planet vibrant and healthy for animals like us are simply ignored in our economy. No wonder futurist Hazel Henderson describes conventional economics as “a form of brain damage”.
Nature’s services keep the planet habitable for animals like us and must become an integral component of a new economic structure. We must get off this suicidal focus on endless, mindless growth.
We agree – endless economic growth is illogical in a finite world and ultimately a suicidal act for our species. In order to cut our impact on the planet, it’s not enough just to conserve resources, make things more efficient and promise targets in emissions cuts. If economic growth continues, all these efforts will be in vain as the global economy grows and inevitably creates a greater impact than what was previously conserved. The cries for a Green New Deal tend to ignore this, instead hoping technological miracles will allow endless growth on less resources. But this is impossible, and instead of demanding the governments to use this Green New Deal Greenwash, we need to start creating the local, steady-state economies that will be the future. The governments and corporations won’t and can’t do that for us – it’s up to us to withdraw as much as possible from the growth system and instead put our energy into the sustainable, no-growth alternatives.
Household Dry Food Cooking
Craig Bergland shares his ‘hands-on experience in building and using cute little solar toys, and other semi-practical devices’, at the OilDrum Campfire. (A companion supplement to Household Dry Food Storage by J. Bradford).
A nice prime rib with horseradish is a wonderful thing as long as we can get it, but we know that it is more efficient to eat grains than beef. The EROEI on non-meat foods is far higher than farther up the foodchain. We also know they are healthier and clog our arteries less. Seeds can be stored long term with minimal preps. They can be ground and baked into flours (some say longer shelf-life when whole and living — tho’ old time bakers suggest aged flour is better). They can be soaked or cracked or flaked and cooked. They can be sprouted for greater bulk and superior nutritional content — as sprouting changes the chemical composition and increases vitamins and mass. Some can be malted to make simple sugars for consumption, and for brewing beer and alcohol. A seed diet frees up resources for more food for more (hungry) people. 30 pounds of seeds carried into the boonies is going to last me a lot longer than 30 pounds of meat. And, importantly, they can be planted in your garden to replicate themselves. Indefinitely. Because of minimal prep requirements, and long storage, they are my preferred stash. Especially since they eliminate the need for freezers and other hi-energy appliances which may lack long-term sustainability. If you don’t have the resources now for a solar powered freezer and batteries, etc., you can perhaps spend less current cash instead, and buy more food (seeds) for the buck. It all depends on how much money you have and how long you think we have before…it…happens. I’m unfortunately an Early Topper and think Mad Max is going to meet the Donner Party near-term, and for more reasons than just Peak Oil.
Cooking some kinds of seeds can take a long time. Soybeans especially, and overnight soaking is almost a necessity. BTW soybeans are not done until you can squish them between tongue and palate. A pressure cooker is a big ‘must have’ for your survival kit, and to even lower your current energy use. They use less water/fuel and some claim lose less nutrients. Simple cardboard tube/blankets can be built to further extend the cookers capabilities and mine will keep the pressure up for 20 minutes after removing from heat, and hold to 150 degrees for an hour. Pressure cookers can be used for distilling. My dad made ‘Grappa’ one time in our kitchen and the cooker exploded. While too young to remember that, I was told we moved out shortly afterwards.
PRESSURE COOKER IN HOME-MADE THERMAL BLANKET. (SANS COVERING TOP FOR CLARITY'S SAKE)
Many of us will be using wood and biomass to cook on. Open fires work well and are quick but fuel wasteful. Three stone fires are better but not much. Do a search for Rocket stoves, hobo stoves, and wood-gas stoves. I like the rocket stove, fairly easy to build with minimal tools, and hobo stoves are quick, too, but the best it seems is the tin can wood-gas stove which merely ‘sips’ fuel instead of a hungry roaring fire. (I posted a little about them on Jason’s article’s comments, and the flame is most impressive)
PICTURE OF MODIFIED PELLET/TWIG WOOD-GAS BURNER
Solar cooking is the champion when available. Solar box ovens can be bought or made from scrap materials. They work well, however sometimes they have a hard time getting to 350 to bake bread. When that’s the case, simply bake a little bit longer. A chunk of iron placed in the oven will help even out cloudy times and moderate the temperature.
OFF THE GRID SOLAR BREAD BAKING NICELY IN TYPICAL BOX OVEN
I have a one meter parabolic mirror which is great for frying and hot hot hot cooking. It is so hot, however, that it discolors cast iron pans, and takes that nice dark seasoning away and gets very grey. It even discolored the pressure cooker. I want to see if it will allow small batch smelting of soft metals. Wonder if it’ll melt a zinc penny for casting…? Probably illegal. When these were introduced into 3rd world countries, they were quickly shunned, because if improperly put away out of sunlight, they would often start folks houses and sheds on fire. Pretty dangerous devices, all told. There are several kinds of focussing cookers, and are not beyond the capability of many to make.
The solar winebox rice cooker I’ve built will do 20 oz of grains in an hour and a half. There is no need for tracking, just point it at the sun and soon it’s done. The only cost was for black paint, and the rest of it is from recycled materials. This type of double jar glass solar cooking is great, and as discovered will reach over boiling — enough to sterilize water.
A NEARLY COST-FREE SOLAR COOKER MADE FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS.
At one time I saw a parabolic trough used as the heat source for an oven. It was built in the early 1900′s I think, and was attached to a top oven which was surrounded with oil. The focus of the parabolic cylinder heated the oil-pipe to such a degree (bad pun) that 24-hour cooking was available — according to the article. Very impressive, and a possible neighborhood project for folks. Another project would be to design and build a self tracking solar oven for a convenient any-time-of-the-DAY quick cooking. And it could also be used to recharge batteries with a small PV attached and tracking. Now, how to make it return to sunrise position when the sun is gone for the day…?
And yet another project can be grain grinders as discussed well in a previous campfire article. While hand cranking is a grind (so sorry), electric or other mechanically powered grinders make life easier. In a pinch, of course we could probably make flour between 2 bricks or rocks, but not that desperate yet. This might be a good neighborhood project, the collective purchase and use of grinders and bulk grains and solar ovens. Kind of like, why does every house have a lawn mower, when one could be shared and thus less costly. We’re going to have to do many things collectively when it hits the F. Why not start now, to help cushion the blow?
Cooking with the sun just makes sense, and ovens can be really simple to construct:
http://www.portugalsmallholding.org/2009/04/diy-solar-oven/
its not easy being (truly) green
Earth Hour.
Worried about climate change? Recognise that your lifestyle is damaging the earth’s life support system? Need some way to show that you care, that doesn’t involve giving up anything, any hard work, or any challenge to the status quo and those who run things? Turning your lights off for one hour will not have any real effect, and can be done by anyone. No matter how disempowered you feel in your everyday life, or how enslaved you are to your mortgage payments, you can feel good and like you have made a difference, simply by turning your lights out for one hour (the earth hour website suggests making a blog post about it while the lights are out, completely negating any tiny possible CO2 reductions!)
Having lived on a smallholding, gradually reducing our shopping and increasing our self-sufficiency, for the past 5 years, I have been told time and again how ‘lucky’ I am. Many many people would love to live this life, but are fundamentally slaves within civilisation. The danger of earth hour and similar events, is that people are encouraged to do a token gesture, thereby feeling better about themselves and their lives, without taking a proper honest look at their lives, or doing anything that will make a difference.
Lets face it, most of us have grown up within the empire/civilisation with very little contact or experience of food growing. The transition to a more sustainable society, is not going to be easy for most of us. Growing food is hard work, and even the hands-off systems of permaculture and no-dig raised beds are hard work to set up and the personal changes we’d need to make to live with nature will not necessarily come easy.
Making this lifestyle harder is the fact that we are not able to remove ourselves completely from civilisation. Many of us have mortgages or rents to pay, which means we must generate cash – which the industrial food machine has made close to impossible from small farms. I have a few chickens, as an example, whose eggs end up costing me more than supermarket eggs. They are fantastic eggs, far superior to any industrial factory eggs, and I could reduce my costs if I had more time to put into growing food for my chickens – time that now goes to making a cash income to pay our few bills.
I guess what I am saying is that we are all slaves to some degree in this system. People who are still totally reliant on empire for their necessities are likely to find earth hour appealing as they can get a warm glow without any comfort zone infringement. What we need, though, is to take stock, look at the situation and start freeing ourselves from that slavery. This system is in the process of crashing, the earth needs it to crash, the human race needs it to crash. Dependent slaves will be going down with it – leave your lights on and use that hour to research heritage veg seeds, permaculture, rainwater harvesting or some other skills that will help in the local, organic, hand-powered reality.
Those of us further down the line also could do well to honestly look at where we stand. I look around my farm/home and see far too many external inputs. Breaking old habits is perhaps the hardest thing to do, especially when those habits have been with us all our lives, and are reinforced by everyone around us.
Things have to change, and the longer we resist that change, the harder it will be for us. If we wait until the decision is made for us, either through financial collapse due to peak oil, or food scarcity due to climate catastrophe (both hapening already) it will be no fun. If we avoid hard work and hardship now, it will accumulate for later.
On a positive note, permaculture systems do get easier with time, as perennial food plants get established, and life generally gets easier on the farm as we get used to the work, the different diets, different hours, and self-motivation. It should all get easier too, as the system collapses and perhaps demands for our time and cash disappear.
By growing stuff now, instead of buying it, we are also hastening the economic collapse, which in turn pushes others into a different culture, as jobs vanish and businesses disappear. Civilisation is a worldview, and is supported by our confidence in it. If enough of us find our way back to the land, refusing to waste our lives in factories and offices, those same factories and offices cease to be economically viable and disappear.
Ten thousand years or so of civilisation have gotten us here, we can’t expect quick fixes to work although you may well find that home grown food immediately improves your health.
The only way to change society is to start living what you want society to be like. Its up to you and me to stop buying things from far away or big companies, or that we can make or grow ourselves, and to reclaim our lives. It is unlikely to be easy for any of us, but it will be worth it.
A Convenient Lie – ‘Green Growth’ will save the Planet
If you ever needed proof of how far the majority of the environmental movement is from figuring out the core truths of the ecological and social catastrophe facing this planet, it can be found in this article written by former US Vice-President Al Gore and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Indeed, the very title of this article gives away its central flaw: “Green growth is essential to any stimulus”. The concept of ‘Green Growth’ is so far removed from what this planet needs right now, and ranks as one of the greatest oxymorons ever created, that anyone familiar with this and other rewilding sites would find it laughable. Yet this concept is gaining currency within the environmental movement, with many promoting a ‘Green New Deal’ which they promise will sort out the economy, environment, social and any other problems you care to mention. We, however, challenge this growing acceptance that growth and capitalism have a future on this planet – to survive, we must tear down and dismantle the old ways, not just apply an extra-thick coating of greenwash onto them. Let’s analyse this article and show it for what it really is.
Economic stimulus is the order of the day. This is as it must be, as governments around the world struggle to jump-start the global economy. But even as leaders address the immediate need to stimulate the economy, so too must they act jointly to ensure that the new de facto economic model being developed is sustainable for the planet and our future on it.
It immediately begins with a dichotomy – they say the new economic model must be sustainable, yet they also encourage the ‘immediate’ stimulation of the old unsustainable economy. No questions are asked as to what governments are attempting to stimulate or jump-start, just the suggestion that whatever it is it better be more sustainable. What if the very thing they’re jump-starting is the definition of unsustainable? Shouldn’t it be left to die in that case?
What we need is both stimulus and long-term investments that accomplish two objectives simultaneously with one global economic policy response – a policy that addresses our urgent and immediate economic and social needs and that launches a new green global economy. In short, we need to make “growing green” our mantra
So as long as the old way – growth – is made to be ‘green’, apparently we can solve all our economic, social and environmental woes. No questioning of that old concept, just the tacking on of an environmentally friendly adjective. “Growing green” may be their mantra, but the first word is by far the most important and unquestionable, joined only in a forced marriage with ‘green’ in order to let growth continue that little bit longer.
In Washington last November, G20 leaders expressed their determination “to enhance co-operation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world’s financial systems”. This needs to happen urgently.
Within a paragraph the principal focus on growth is clearly illustrated. As I have explained in the article ‘The Fallacy of Growth’, and is repeatedly plugged at this and other similar sites, the concept of growth is NOT compatible with anything remotely ‘green’. As the economy/civilisation grows, it must consume more resources and ultimately more energy. The power of Compound Interest ensures that this increases exponentially over time, putting an ever increasing pressure on the planet at an ever increasing rate. Making efficiency cuts and conserving energy does produce a lesser burden, but as long as we maintain a system of growth this saving will be overtaken and lost within a matter of years at this point in history. They can promote efficiency and conservation as much as they like, but as long as they maintain growth it will all be in vain – the only way to conclusively reduce our impact on the earth’s ecosystem is to remove growth. The old economic system of civilisation needs to be dismantled and replaced with stable, local and sustainable economies pioneered by the people they are meant to benefit.
This stimulus, along with new initiatives by other countries, must help catapult the world economy into the 21st century, not perpetuate the dying industries and bad habits of yesteryear. Indeed, continuing to pour trillions of dollars into carbon-based infrastructure and fossil-fuel subsidies would be like investing in subprime real estate all over again.
We agree, the dying industries and bad habits of yesteryear should not be perpetuated! It’s a shame that despite this logical statement, they undermine it by their support for the vast majority of those bad habits.
Therefore, governments in industrialised countries must reach beyond their borders and invest immediately in those cost-effective programmes that boost the productivity of the poorest. Last year, food riots and unrest swept more than 30 countries. Ominously, this was even before September’s financial implosion, which sparked the global recession that has driven a further 100m people deeper into poverty. We must act now to prevent further suffering and potential widespread political instability.
Note how they propose helping the poor by boosting their productivity, rather than questioning and dismantling the system that ensures their continued poverty and enslaves them to scour the earth’s remaining wealth to end up in the pockets of the few. These people won’t benefit from growth, their extra productivity will be funnelled up the pyramid scheme of our economy. To prevent further suffering their economic cage needs to be broken, not remade. Instead, a minute increase in living standards in the cage is proposed to stave off political instability – which one might translate as uprisings against this enslavement. Ban Ki-moon and Al Gore are not as concerned by the welfare of the poor – although I’m sure they do feel concern – as they would be by a revolution against the system.
It means investing in agriculture in developing countries by getting seeds, tools, sustainable agricultural practices and credit to smallholder farmers so they can produce more food and get it to local and regional markets.
A token of sustainability and a nod to smallholders is somewhat undermined by their support for the economic order which has seen agriculture ever further industrialised, made unsustainable to dangerous levels and destroyed the small farmer in favour of the large agribusinesses.
Third, we need a robust climate deal in Copenhagen in December. Not next year. This year. The climate negotiations must be dramatically accelerated and given attention at the highest levels, starting today. A successful deal in Copenhagen offers the most potent global stimulus package possible. With a new climate framework in hand, business and governments will finally have the carbon price signal businesses have been clamouring for, one that can unleash a wave of innovation and investment in clean energy. Copenhagen will provide the green light for green growth. This is the basis for a truly sustainable economic recovery that will benefit us and our children’s children for decades to come.
A truly sustainable economic recovery via the medium of growth is ultimately impossible. Copenhagen has become a poster-boy for green capitalism and its neat solutions like carbon trading (a growth market!), and will hardly be a robust climate deal. More a deal between members of the elite to create new exploitative markets but with the words ‘climate’ and ‘carbon’ tacked on and some conservation measures to let the party continue that little bit longer. Copenhagen will be a farce, the little advances that may be made with deforestation cuts for example will be overshadowed by the unquestioned commitment to growth. Copenhagen will be a landmark moment not for the climate or saving the earth, but for human stupidity. And Al Gore and Ban Ki-moon will be there to lead the cheerleading squad.
the promise of change, the rules of the system… and the real revolution we need
The hopes for Barack Obama’s presidency are sky-high.
Original article at revcom.us
That’s hardly surprising. In a country where not so long ago mobs of angry whites gathered in the North to burn out any Black family that tried to move into their neighborhood, or joined in packs in the South to carry out horrific lynching murders of Black people—and then bragged about it…a Black candidate has won the highest office. In a society where discrimination in education and hiring still keeps the Black unemployment rate more than double that of whites…where on any given day 1 in 9 young Black men are in prison and where a young man with black or brown skin risks being blown away for nothing every time he encounters the police…Barack Obama will soon be sworn in as the chief executive—and commander-in-chief—of that same society.
So today you hear some people say, “It’s a new America.” Others go so far as to call it a “revolution.” And even the more sober say, “Well, it won’t change everything and it might not even change that much…but you gotta admit, something big has happened here.” Even if the long dark night may not be over, some say, the election of Obama gives them hope that the dawn may be breaking.
Well, yes, something big has happened. But what?
Redeeming the Dream of America?
The widespread feeling that this election signals both a turning point in, and even a reaffirmation of, American history and society is being pumped out first and foremost by Obama himself, who stated in his election-night victory speech, that: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
Now many things certainly are possible in America. It is possible in America for European settlers to commit genocide against the Native American Indians who lived here and to then declare themselves to be builders of a “shining city on a hill” and “the last best hope of mankind.” It is possible in America to kidnap over ten million Africans and hold them and their descendants in slavery for 250 years, exploiting them as the foundation of the great wealth of this country, and then maintaining their descendants in new forms of oppression and super-exploitation, and to simultaneously brag that “the dream of our founders” is based on the principle that “all men are created equal.” It is possible in America to wage and sponsor wars and military coups over the past 150 years that have taken a toll on humanity unmatched by any of the fabled monstrous empires of the past, and to then routinely declare, as Barack Obama did in his speech, that this same country is the world’s great guarantor of “peace and security”— even as he preceded that by assuring anybody who opposed what he called the “new dawn of American leadership” that “we will defeat you.” It is possible in America to subordinate the economies of entire nations to the demands and dictates of U.S. capital; and it is possible to then both super-exploit impoverished people from those countries who then desperately seek work in the U.S. and at the same time to demonize them and scapegoat them as the cause of everyone else’s hard times. It is possible to torture in the name of “safety,” even as you assure the world you don’t.
But apparently, other things are NOT so possible in America. It has NOT been possible in America to actually do away with the structures of white supremacy and the oppression of entire peoples. It has NOT proven possible to cease the wanton and repeated murders of Black, Latino and other people of color by the police—with the most recent instance in Oakland, California, this very month, as police shot a 22-year-old butcher’s apprentice, Oscar Grant III, as he lay face down. It has NOT been possible in America to desist from sending troops, CIA spies, and commandos all over the world—nor has it been possible to avoid things like killing 40 civilians at a wedding party in Afghanistan on the day before the election which installed a man who has promised to send 20,000 to 30,000 more troops to invade that tortured, beleaguered country. It has NOT been possible in America to actually overcome the subjugation of women in every sphere of life, or to end the demonization and systematic discrimination against gay people. It has NOT been possible for America to refrain from the heedless plunder and spoliation of the very planet on which we live. It has NOT been possible in America to overcome the deadening alienation of everyday life for most people, or the despair of seeing your best efforts come to naught for many of those who want to dedicate themselves to making things better.
Clearly, Barack Obama to the contrary, all things are not possible in America—and some very bad and ugly things not only are possible, but seem to be “standard operating procedure” in the USA. So, yes, “change is coming”—but perhaps we’d better ask a little harder what kind of change.
The System Has Rules
The truth is this: even if Barack Obama had the best intentions in the world…even if he was in fact a secret radical, determined to use the system to benefit the people…even if all the reactionaries he has already brought into his administration are merely a clever device he is using to lull the enemy to sleep so he can stealthily revolutionize America…he couldn’t do it.
What has proven to be possible—and what has proven NOT to be possible—has nothing to do with “human nature” or “personal responsibility”…and everything to do with the system that was put in place to ensure “the dreams of our founders.” Now, to say that this is a system is not a curse-word; it just means that there are rules to the game, and if you don’t play by those rules the game stops working. What we need to do is examine those rules, and what they give rise to.
Rule Number One of this system is that nothing happens unless someone can make a profit off it. Where does that profit come from? The capitalist class—the relative handful which owns or controls the means of production (the land, resources, factories, etc.)—extracts that profit from the proletariat—the worldwide class of people which owns nothing but its ability to work, and therefore must work for others to survive. From small children in Pakistan, sewing together soccer balls with their tiny fingers for 20 hours a day….to Mexican peasants driven from their land and risking their lives in the sweltering Arizona desert in a desperate search for work…to the miners who can barely breathe from the coal dust in their lungs…to the people, young and old, haunting the street corners in every city of the world, hoping for work…capitalism can only live, like Dracula, by grinding the blood and flesh and dreams of billions into profit for a handful. This process, repeated billions of times daily, piles up wealth and power at one end, and misery and despair at the other. This is exploitation—and it is the beating heart of the system we live under. And when its own built-in barriers begin to make it more difficult to successfully carry out that exploitation—as is happening today in very sharp forms—those billions who produced that wealth are the ones who are cast aside as garbage, and suffer the worst.
Rule Number Two is that the individual capitalists (or “blocs of capital”) must battle each other for survival. Those capitalists who do not constantly expand run the risk of being driven under by others. Sometimes it takes expression in the kind of drama we see today, where big corporations are collapsing or being bought out. Sometimes it takes the form of horrible wars of slaughter, either between empires, or to further subjugate the oppressed. But the underlying rule is the same: expand or die.
And, oh yes, Rule Number Three: anything that gets in the way of America being the number one empire in the world must be brought to heel, or crushed.
Those basic rules determine what is or is not possible in America. Those are the rules that drive forward and determine the shape of American society. Those are the rules that are either very directly, or ultimately, behind every oppressive institution, and every outrage, in American society.
And those are the rules which Barack Obama must and will play by—and enforce. Every thing that Barack Obama does—how he uses the vast army at his command; who gets put into the nightmarish network of prisons he controls; what kinds of economic programs are put into place, with what kinds of consequences for which classes and groups of people—all this will be decided on those terms.
And what would happen if Obama did try to change the “rules of the game?” Before very long at all, the game could not continue. And if you should be so foolish as to not immediately return to the rules, those who really control things will have you removed from the game.
Obama’s Real Program
But in point of actual fact, Barack Obama does NOT intend to make any radical change—at least any radical change for the better. He doesn’t even promise it. He talks about “rescuing” the capitalist economic structure. He talks about, and plans on, sending thousands more troops around the world to enforce American domination over other peoples. The carnage in Gaza elicits no criticism from Obama, and there is no doubt whatsoever that he will “honor his commitment to stand by Israel”—in plain talk, to back up and utilize it as the American attack dog in the Middle East, in which every crime it carries out is justified and defended. Obama’s role will be to put a new face on the essential policies that billions of people around the world, and in this country too, came to despise George W. Bush for: the wars for empire based on lies, and the cruel and widespread repression not only within this country but around the world. And to the extent that Obama does change some of Bush’s policies—as he very likely will—this will be either a matter of casting aside things which “haven’t worked” (for imperialism, that is) or maintaining some credibility and support among different sections of the people (here and worldwide) for policies that pertain to more overall needs of empire.
What makes it even more dangerous is precisely Obama’s ability to manipulate the hopes and ideals of those who have hated and opposed the crimes and outrages that have gone on for generations—as well as those who have come, righteously, to hate Bush in particular. All these people yearn to live in a better, a more just and meaningful society. Yes, Obama calls on them to serve something higher than their own narrow self-interest—but they will soon find out that the service to which they are summoned is the reinforcement of the empire, not the liberation of those oppressed by it. Some compare Obama to John F. Kennedy, who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” But all too many forget how JFK then sent those who were inspired by those words to kill and die in a genocidal war for empire in Vietnam, or to otherwise serve the empire. This is NOT a future that you should want—indeed, THIS IS A FUTURE THAT YOU SHOULD RESIST, BEGINNING NOW.
There is a further cruel irony in Obama’s ascendancy. The word has been put out by the powers-that-be that Obama’s victory shows that racism is basically gone in American society. Obama himself refused in his campaign to discuss the ongoing and bitter discrimination and oppression facing Black people in every arena of American life. Instead, he made speeches that excoriated Black youth for a lack of “personal responsibility.” He shrugs off—and in fact covers over—the real structures of white supremacy in this country—again, brought home so sharply just recently in the case of Oscar Grant III. In doing so he sets the victims of white supremacy up to be demonized, imprisoned and even worse when they run up against those still all-too-real facts of American life. This system has no future for the masses of Black youth—what is different now is that the powers-that-be have established someone who did make it out in the highest office of the land to blame and, yes, oppress those youth.
And to those who once knew better but now say that Obama makes them “feel good” about being an American—there is no end of things that are very bad for you in the long run but make you feel good right now. Cocaine, for instance. Coke feels real good, and it makes you think you can do great things. You tell the ones who warn you “don’t worry I know how to handle it” and then you get angry at them for not letting you enjoy the high…and then one day you’re doing shit you never would have believed you could, and you wonder how it happened.
The System in Crisis
So, yes, it is significant—it is very significant—that Obama has become president. But not for the reasons you may think. Those who actually do decide things feel that these are dangerous times for the empire. Their “war on terror” has run into reverses and has lost the support of many people. Yet at the very time this is so, their “need” for empire compels them to carry out even more aggression—from Afghanistan to Iran, from Palestine to Pakistan to who knows where else. They are neck-deep in the worst financial crisis in at least 80 years, with people facing tremendous hardship and capital itself facing real barriers to expansion. And on top of all this, there is widespread loss of faith in and alienation from the government, and a “crisis of meaning” in people’s lives, and in the society broadly. In these desperate times the rulers of this country have played a “trump card”—they have installed a Black president in a country which has been known for its racism since before Day One. They put a new face on a rotting, if still powerful and vicious and extremely oppressive, system. They intend through this to channel people’s aspirations into a dead-end—a dead-end of serving the very system that grinds up millions and billions, just like them. That is the change Barack Obama represents.
Whether this will work—whether people will be not just fooled but enlisted in an enterprise opposed to the interests of humanity and, in the final analysis, to their own fundamental interests and best aspirations—is far from certain. But all it takes is for you, and millions like you, to keep following along, telling yourself, and others, to “give Obama a chance.” Keep doing that, and the people who run this system will, once again, bludgeon their way through the crisis they face.
But there IS another possible future, a far better one—one we can achieve through making revolution, and continuing to make revolution, until all relations of exploitation, and all the social institutions and ideas that reflect and reinforce those relations, are abolished.
On that note, we’ll close with a point made by our Chairman, Bob Avakian:
To those who say we should “give Obama a chance”—the question is: a chance to do what?
Obama has no problem with this system that causes so much misery and oppression, death and destruction, for so many people throughout the world—he is anxious to take over as head of this system. His problem is that this system is in serious crisis and faces all kinds of heavy challenges.
For those who really want an end to oppression, injustice and unjust war, our problem is this system. Our challenge is to make revolution to get rid of this system and emancipate all of humanity from its horrors.
