Crisis Upon Crisis – How much can the system take?
Is this capitalism's last stand?
Remember 2019? What a boring year. Who knew we would be fighting for our lives in 2020? If you’re not fighting for your life yet, we have five more months for you to get into the swing of things. Who knows, 2021 might be even worse. Here are the major crises in no particular order:
The COVID-19 Pandemic – Who will win this mighty battle for supremacy on Planet Earth? The virus has been wrecking havoc on humans for six months and has killed 635,000 people around the world. Yet many humans seem unconcerned and ignore the few safety precautions they could use, such as masks, social distancing, no crowds, and frequent hand washing. Meanwhile, the capitalist health industry still cannot supply all the PPEs, including masks, other equipment and staff, and is facing tough times this coming Fall. By the way, extinction of species is at an all-time high. Are we practicing for that, or can we pull ourselves together and end it?
As many as 30 million people don’t have jobs – There are between 18 and 30 million unemployed depending on how you count them. During the Clinton regime, the way unemployment was calculated was changed, intentionally dropping millions from the rolls. In either case, there are now a huge number of people out of work, and many will not have a job to return to when COVID conditions improve.
Protests began in response to the murder of George Floyd, but they are also about the ongoing lack of justice for Blacks, Latinos, and poor people, in general. They are about the fascist system imposed on the poor, while the rich enjoy a form of democratic authoritarianism. The People are angry and the rulers only response is repression. But millions are woke now, and won’t go back to a world of racism and second-class status.
The Doomsday Clock is 100 seconds to midnight. This is a prediction of the threat of nuclear war, and it is the closest it has ever been set by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The main reason is the withdrawal of the U.S. from arms control treaties, such as, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the lack of serious arms control negotiations. In addition, nine countries have nuclear weapons today, including North Korea (15 weapons), Israel (80 weapons), India (135 weapons), Pakistan (145 weapons), the UK (215 weapons), China (280 weapons), and France (300 weapons), in addition to Russia (6,850 weapons) and the U.S. (6,185 weapons). A nuclear war or accident could happen at any time.
We are destroying our ability to live on this planet. If we go back to pre-Pandemic polluting, by 2025 CO2 will pass 427 parts per million. That much carbon hasn’t been in the atmosphere in 15 million years, which means it’s never been experienced by humans, who evolved millions of years later. There will be a decrease of about 11 percent of the carbon flung into the sky this year thanks to the lockdowns. The world must come together now to protect our environment.
The Income Gap is destroying us. In 2018, the top 20 percent of the U.S. population received 52 percent of all income. The bottom 20 percent earned only 3.1 percent of all income. The average income for the bottom 20 was $13,775. The majority of the growth of the economy, 1993-2015, has gone to the top 1 percent. They got 52 percent of the new wealth, while the rest of us, the bottom 99 percent got only 48 percent, even though we were the ones who created it. The rise of fabulously rich oligarchs has not only created a financial imbalance but it has destabilized democratic processes to the point that our elected representatives, including the President, are merely errand boys, doing the bidding of Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, the secret-police agencies, and individual oligarchs.
There are many crises of everyday living, such as health care, jobs and income, housing, education, the racist “criminal justice and prison-industrial complex,” and the pollution of the seas, industrial agriculture, and our treatment of other species on the planet, whose solution comes only with fundamental change.
So what can constitute fundamental change that allows us to solve these crises? Is it the defeat of Trump in November? Will that mean the end of Trumpism, crony-capitalism, bullying of weaker countries, lack of equal rights for people of color, a focus on the environment, a leveling of the income curve, or a unified approach against the COVID virus? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Dr. Robert Redfield, stated recently that he believes the pandemic could be brought under control over the next four to eight weeks if “we could get everybody to wear a mask right now.”
Is voting a waste of time? No, we should take advantage of every right we have remaining, and push them for a fair election. We need to understand that it will never be a truly fair and free election as long as the rich can buy the result, or free expression is stifled into a two-party box.
In other words, we need a revolution in this country in order to restore the dream of freedom and democracy. A revolution is not just a set of reforms that can be voted in by a progressive President and sympathetic Congress. It means removing the ruling class from their positions of power, thereby making them the former ruling class.
A revolution does not have to be violent. So far, it is the lackeys of the ruling class who are dispensing the violence against the protesters (and thereby turning them into revolutionaries).
When millions and millions of people take to the streets and demand a revolution, it will happen. The passage of time works differently during normal times versus revolutionary times. Changes that take years to be realized, can happen overnight when it’s Revolution Time. Some of the worst people already saw the writing on the wall, and resigned. We just have to crank up the heat to get the rest of them.
There should be a demand that the current Congress and Executive Branch resign. But first, they should issue a call for a Constitutional Convention that will sweep away the current Constitution, a slaver-document, that was designed to control those in bondage and to cater to the slave owners, the small Northern financial class and yeoman farmers that the country was based upon 200 years ago. A new Constitution would save the best parts, such as the First Amendment, and would establish a truly democratic and peaceful government. It would be written for the free people we are becoming. This may sound like a pipe dream, but only until it happens, which could be very soon once the people decide they’ve had enough.
The ruling class knows today how close they are to becoming the ashcan of history. It’s only our side that is in awe of their power. But that power is based on our agreement to be governed, and that can fade fast, especially when there are mass defections from their side to our side.
But where are our leaders? They’re out there right now. The past few years of Black Lives Matter has thrown up many brilliant leaders, even if they are not the ones on the mainstream media every night. It will still be a challenge for many whites, who mean well, to accept Black leadership, because the racism virus has already infected white people. Everyone needs to put aside their egos, which only divide people, and learn from each other.
In addition, there are many Latinx leaders who have been imbued since childhood with the history of revolutionary struggle in Latin America, and of generations of struggle in this country. Asian and Pacific Islanders can also draw on histories of struggle both in America and in their countries of origin. Native Americans carried on years of unequal struggle against the U.S. Army, and have learned what oppression is all about. New immigrants will bring with them their own heritage of struggle and courage if they are welcomed into this fight. The beautiful thing about the current George Floyd protests is the mixture of all races and nationalities, united behind Black Lives Matter. The answer is yes, we have leaders galore.
When will the Revolution happen? It could be soon, the revolutionary zeal is being rekindled by Trump’s overreaction to the events in Portland. Think back a few months. You wouldn’t be reading about an approaching revolution, and I wouldn’t be writing about it. That is the thing about Revolution Time. It doesn’t mess around. You are either ready for it or you’re not.
Today, talk about socialism and Karl Marx is no longer taboo. We can now change the subject from the daily drudgery of making money to survive, and examine the world we live in. We know now that there will be a profound revolution simply because capitalism cannot function in a way that ensures our survival. It is fumbling the Pandemic, it can’t keep people working, it can’t get along without racism to divide us, it can’t survive in a peaceful country, it can’t reverse the environmental damage it has caused, and it can’t provide the 99 percent of us with a better future. Not to mention, we can’t have free health care because the vultures make money off our illnesses, and we can’t continue to educate millions of young people – which we need desperately for the advancement of the human race – without taking a big profit.
Meanwhile, what we can do to get out of this mess? But hurry, Revolution Time works in mysterious ways:
Join every protest no matter what the topic. It all comes back to this rotten system. Talk to people.
Educate yourself about what’s really going on in the country, and the world. Read what radical thinkers have to say. Read Angela Davis’ autobiography and the writings of other people of color, watch Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States. Dip into Marx, The Communist Manifesto and The German Ideology. Pay attention to those on social media who have given up on reforming the Democratic Party, which is nothing but a capitalist trap to divert those who are politically minded and want fundamental change.
Get to know your neighbors and co-workers. There are natural leaders in every workplace and every community or neighborhood. All of them are needed if we are to change this society. Don’t lecture them, but listen. Find out what they think about our current situation. If they really are natural leaders, they know they are missing something important in their lives if they are not actively involved with their neighbors and co-workers.
These are the times when events rumble down the tracks, with or without us, to an uncertain future. We need to be ready for the train’s arrival, and capable of guiding it to the station called Freedom.
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