Rachael Carson had spun a silken trap when she exposed the danger of pesticides, the trap of the Ten Commandments, the trap of thou shalt not. Rachael Carson died before she could envision a positive way to stop pesticide use. For the context and actual wording of that judgement read Adam Werbach’s 2004 speech titled Is Environmentalism Dead?. In this he chronicles the birth (by Carson) and death (by Commandment) of the environmental movement. Inherently negative, the trap also narrowed the environmentalist view in the way that a medical specialist begins a diagnosis narrowed to that specialty. And narrowness was double trouble for it not only took problems out of context but invited corporations to label environmentalism a special interest. The result has been ever-expanding aggrandizement by the establishment and ever-blind scooping of establishment poop by the movement. The initial victories of the Clean Air and Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, and the EPA, are being reversed. Praise Carson and pray for vision.
Two corners have been turned since WW II, one is globalism and the other is global climate change. Globalism is the polite word for capitalism feasting on the impoverished. Put the date, oh, around when Clinton was making haste with Lewinsky. Things might then simply have continued to slide downward but for oil and global climate. Maybe it went like this: the Establishment farmed out goods production to China, quick money there. China grew, you might say on the runoff of fertilizer, and sought more oil. Nudged, the Establishment accelerated its plan for Asian oil, preparing Afghanistan for a pipeline route and Iraq for a secure supply. Most unfortunately these moves have coincided with receipt of a priority letter from M. Nature that made two points: “One, you’ve screwed up the carbon balance it took five billion years to arrange, and two, I’m not making any more oil.” There was a postscript. “You recall that 1935 book Oil for the Lamps of China? Remember who the baddie was? Think about it.”
I have thought about it. At the first corner, the environmental movement bogged down but kept scooping. Then at that second corner, with Chicken Little squawking her head off, the movement again kept scooping. Acting as one, the movement instead should have been howling for impeachment. The movement should have joined the Opposition.
Good idea, which idea brings this silken thread to the Opposition itself, to its failure to stop the march of Genghis George Kahn to the East, stop Michael Chertoff’s thugs, stop the Israeli Crusade to Palestine, or give the Ninth Ward families their homes back.
The Opposition has failed in spite of heroic effort by some very brave people. There’s a consensus that whereas the Establishment is ruled by the iron hand of a Rovian God, the Opposition is of several minds divided til death do them part by the US role in Palestine and 911 truth. I agree, and will suggest a cure. First, to complete the autopsy, mark that members of the Opposition are mostly strangers, have no unifying positive vision, and have been infiltrated by Democrats. Quod erat Democracy. Second, take measure of the size of America’s ailment: Like English ivy, the Establishment has taken over all branches of the tree of government leaving a decaying core. Now then, what vision will strip the ivy and grow new roots for a tree that big?
Put that in clean English, will you! Okay, what is stronger than hitting various streets at various times with various messages? “What is” is mass secession of neighborhoods, then towns, then counties and then states from the system. Consider the present plight of a ‘hood. It is vulnerable to managed health care, Wall Street connivance, illegal conscription, you list the hazards. Now consider what that ‘hood could do. It could call a meeting to take stock of resources and to pick a head manwoman. Bingo, some helpless souls have a single voice and shared resources. Just think what this simple change can do, for example, to counteract the daily rain of falsehood and deception coming from its television sets. Neighborhood by neighborhood, newly independent people can declare themselves free. An analogy to that “freedom” comes to mind from the civil disobedience teachings of Erica Kay; she tells how a person accosted by police can actually maintain a degree of control. And this: the lexicon of mass secession does not include the conventional terms that stuff people into pigeonholes, terms like swing voter, liberal, black, disaffected, religious right and so forth. Different words will come as we continue to think outside the silken trap.
That’s it, menwomen, and that’s what the Green Party should be doing, holding teach-ins on “secession”.
PS: I failed Latin in high school.