Preparing for an uncertain future

I see a few posts on Facebook that indicate people see our future as being decided by the Harper government. I use that term because the Conservative party and Canada's democracy have been destroyed by this PM who proudly bragged we would not recognize Canada when he finished with it.

We were warned by so many quotes that he would turn us into a Republican branch plant - a petro state that Chris Hedges describes as intentionally destructive:

Extraction industries, like wars, empower a predominantly male, predatory population that is engaged in horrific destruction and violence. Wars and extraction industries are designed to extinguish all systems that give life—familial, social, cultural, economic, political and environmental. And they require the obliteration of community and the common good.

Jennifer Hinton describes the Greek Crisis as being the result of a parasite which "… comes from the surplus of the system (profit) being taken out of the real economy (the economy of physical goods and services) and put into the financial sector to generate more wealth for people who are already wealthy. This requires the economy to continually grow to compensate for the extraction of profit, which is essentially the extraction of the economy’s surplus."

So the economy in this case no longer serves the society that creates it. If Capitalism destroys societies how will it sustain itself? And is it really fascism in sheep's clothing?

A quote attributed to  Tommy Douglas, says "Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.” 

Democracy and the kind of social responsibility which enables our freedom is clearly under threat in Europe, the US, Canada and other nations. But a percentage of the population will not see it that way.

Perhaps I am over simplifying - but it seems to me that Harper's base are those who have lived under the canopy of several absolutes:

1. that the white man is inherently superior, 
2. that men are more reasonable than women 
3. that religion is necessary to maintain morality
4. that punishment is required to keep people on the right path
5. that capitalism is the natural vehicle for our economy
6. that Canada is a Christian country. 

For these beliefs to sustain themselves a mind must avoid straying beyond these tenets - to explore is dangerous, to think is heresy. 

Christianity has been usurped and corrupted as a kind of manufactured spiritually-gated community to support the power and privilege of a ruling elite. In these cases it is no longer about Jesus and his teachings, or the insights of Biblical prophets.  This is not Christianity at all. It is not about good orderly direction in the Universe. It is not about virtue or humanity. It is a means to control minds and to keep the masses living in fear. It was the instrument that Hitler used, and that South Africa used to sustain apartheid. It is the way that war and violence has been glorified for the ambitions of colonial and imperial states.

As Chris Hedges, who is also a minister of a Christian church, reminds us: "There is nothing inevitable about human existence except birth and death. There are no forces, whether divine or technical, that will guarantee us a better future. When we give up false hopes, when we see human nature and history for what they are, when we accept that progress is not preordained, then we can act with an urgency and passion that comprehends the grim possibilities ahead." 

It is time to act, not simply accept the status quo. There is a responsibility we have to find a way to contribute to the future with the particular skills we have. To use our knowledge and art to present a different way of being. To pool our resources so that these skills are offered as an extension of our selves within our society. This is the way we contribute to our survival. We do what we can and if we are not sure we can we try it.

Judging, shaming and blaming is a waste of energy unless it leads to our action to fix that which we see is wrong. There is no righteousness in texting or twittering if we can't ask ourselves what can be done about it.
We are not required to change the world tomorrow, but let's not dismiss our capacity to meet and talk sincerely with one another about what and how we can apply our knowledge to the problem.

Voting, protesting, marching, carrying banners all have their place in revolution, but there is another step beyond that. Becoming the piece in the puzzle to support and sustain what is life revering. It means offering alternative views without name-calling, insulting and de-humanizing others.

It means researching the right information, questioning our own prejudices, interrogating our own privileges.
It means compassion.