The Whole Ball of Wax
Evading the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!
Author James R Smith, a former union activist/organizer for 25 years, brings his studies in geopolitics, political economy, sociology, and journalism, to bear in his wily assessment of our current global quagmire. The book’s subtitle, The Wild and Scary 2020s, acknowledges the unpredictable crash course we are on - as we face the two most vital issues for our species, the Environment and War.
The Future Starts Here opens with a rousing foreword by the late Conn (Ringo) Hallinan, a fellow writer and academician from the well-known, activist, Bay-area, Hallinan family. Hallinan values Smith’s solid, in-depth research and experience as a writer and union organizer. He compares Smith’s savvy as a political analyst to the intelligent reportage/gonzo-style prose of the late Hunter S. Thompson. High praise, indeed!
After a summarizing introduction, Smith begins the book’s 10 sections with the 2024 presidential election, before jumping back to the early 2020’s, with chapters on the Covid Pandemic, followed by the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, the largest demonstrations in American history. He includes the killings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the rise of fascist groups, such as the Proud Boys, and others, affiliated with police departments. Smith rues the police state - its overfunding and military weapons upgrades, and its racist behavior which continues to unfairly and indiscriminately target, kill, and imprison, Black and Latino people in the U.S.
He then settles into the longest piece in the book, the root of all evil, the perpetual wars and genocides which the U.S. has fostered at home and abroad for centuries. Chapters include adept analyses on the machinations of the hawkish Neocon mindset, and the devastating consequences their wars have produced, in Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and, most timely, the Middle East, as Gazan civilians are ethnically cleansed before our eyes.
I guarantee you’ll learn the wars backstories you’ve never dreamed of, as Smith exposes the media-fueled, propaganda-fed, narratives First World countries like the U.S. utilize to justify their profit-driven assaults on the people of victimized countries, and, ultimately, upon the Earth.
After disseminating foreign policy, Smith break downs domestic affairs, in past presidencies, and especially, in both the Biden and Trump administrations. He explains why the formation and rise of BRICS (if you don’t know BRICS, read the book!) is a harbinger of the end of U.S. hegemony, from the uni-polar world the U.S. has attempted to dominate since WWII (in its frenzy for power and greed for oil and land, not democracy!) to a hopefully fairer, multi-polar-led world.
In the section entitled, The Quest for a Universal Basic Income, Smith questions whether our prophesied New Age of AI and tech-based innovations will bring about Freedom or Tyranny (Smith opts for the former.) To avoid economic fall-outs for the working class and middle class, and a potential Class War, he strongly argues for the immediate implementation of the Universal Basic Income (UBI), which he sees as a realistic and reasonable solution to guide future economies, ensure stability, and free humans from wage slavery.
Section 7, Ecotopia Rising, offers wondrous examples of a visionary Utopia. Smith has lived on The Left Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) for most of his life (as have I!) and he’s certain “we are on to something” - in terms of progressive thought and the creation of beneficial, long-lasting, social and environmental programs. He acknowledges it will take establishing a concerted halt to incessant, rapacious, overdevelopment, and the necessity to take a moment to listen to the Earth, as well as to unite with and implement the wisdom of indigenous communities….
Smith reminds us we face a crux of No Return - as fires, floods, and droughts rage throughout The Left Coast, the rest of the country and the world. He offers practical solutions in response to our changing environment and the climate crisis, brought upon by fossil-fuel dependence and short-sighted, vulture capitalism.
Next follows a scathing but humorous, in-house account of a 2022 scandal in Los Angeles’ political landscape, to dramatize the inherent corruption and racism built-in local and national governing councils. It’s a veritable call to informed citizens to become involved in politics at their local level, in effect, reestablishing democracy in their own backyards. (Smith ran for a U.S. House of Representatives seat as the candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party in 2006.)
Section 9 is a “read it and weep” litany of “Broken Promises” - reminding us that, above all, the oligarchy’s gotta go. Smith’s list of personal recollections of the JFK assassination, broken treaties with Native Americans, the Supreme Court’s refusal to ban assault rifles, and the recent proliferation of billionaires hoarding all profits for the top one percent, paints a bleak future indeed.
Yet, there’s still hope, as Smith contends - he wrote this book to allay peoples’ fears of the future, to give folks a greater understanding of how we got here and how the world works, and to assure us that better days are ahead: “Don’t panic, even though we’re 89 seconds away from worldwide thermonuclear war on the Doomsday Clock!”
“We are on the edge of abundance (and Healthcare for All!), yet people who won’t give up ideas of nationalism, individualism, and becoming super-rich, are preventing access to the wealth generated by and for the People to be shared by All.”
For Smith, it’s the hard work of unsung, everyday people who have contributed the most to social change. “The media has done their best to belittle this fact. The true heroes are the people standing up to champion civil rights in factories, school boards, and city councils, alongside those who have taken on the role of engaged citizens in protests and marches, the Peacemakers decrying this country’s disastrous war policies, whom our government ironically labels “domestic terrorists.”
The Future Starts Here concludes with perhaps its most powerful section, The Future, gifting us with an inkling of what we might expect after Trump, if millions of us come together to bring it about. What’s “it” you ask? - a healthy form of sharing, often called socialism - a brainstorming of new ideas and visionary ways of living in which capitalism is no longer the predominant force driving our economy and political Will.
This educational, vital, and revelatory tome of 327 pages includes eight original poems by Smith and plenty of black n’ white illustrations. The last poem, The Edge of Destiny, ends with this stanza:
We will beg forgiveness of all the species we have abused.
We will share our bounty equally and the billionaires be damned.
This book, which I consider an excellent guide for people of all ages, has the potential to expand our worldview and to inspire us to participate in the creation of a harmonious and sustainable future for all beings on Earth! Won’t that be a hoot of a game-changer?!!!
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The Future Starts Here
Review by Erica Snowlake
President, Venice West Publishing
The Future Starts Here is available for a bargain price from Amazon.com or at your local bookstore.
You can also subscribe to James R Smith’s, The Left Coast, posts on Substack.
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(from The Future Starts Here)
What Have We Done?
We live in a time of plenty
We live in a time of scarcity
We sit on the edge
of a singularity
Afraid to cross over
Into the future
We are paralyzed
Looking backward, Looking forward
But change never ends
It moves like Heraclitus’ river
every turning point, every inflection
happens on its own.
The latest assaults
were Covid, storms and fires,
the invaders of our
World kingdom
We are being slayed
in the thousands
In our own domain
The Earth has turned against us,
As we turned against her
We wreaked havoc on her beauty
And drove our fellow creatures
To extinction
An invisible demon
Neither alive, nor dead,
A true zombie,
created by our greed,
Lurks among us