Last Words

If you were born with a special gift

a talent, a unique intelligence, a stunning beauty

or if you possess amazing courage

sparkle with optimism

express great wisdom

full of compassion and deep curiosity

yet remain the most humble servant

if you are the dancing queen

if you win awards, publish books, sell  songs

create movies, run the marathon

you will be hated by some and adored by many.

It’s the troll factor, the bully playground

for those who were taught they are worthless

useless, ugly, clumsy and stupid

when what they needed most

was to to rise above contempt, to be loved

and the more you shine

the more they shrink

and every happiness you earn

inflicts another cut to their flesh.

But we are wrong when we say they are useless

they are very useful to the puppeteers

who lay steel across nature’s blossoming fields 

for the sale of war, slaves and the eternal triumph

of fear.

Us and Them

There are some billionaire hedge fund owners and multinational CEOs who donate to divide civil society by investing in sites like Breitbart and hate media outlets like Fox News.  CommonDreams.org 

"Investigative journalist Jane Mayer wrote a book about their efforts titled Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

“In April of 2016, the SPLC documented Breitbart’s embrace of extremist ideas and racist tropes such as black-on-white crime and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. Further analyses showed how under executive chair Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s comment section became a safe space for anti-Semitic language.”

Anti-Union groups like Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research have been funded in the millions.

What makes social justice and equality such a threat towards these elites that they  fund parties who are willing to take babies away from their mothers, incarcerate African Americans, support anti-semitism, Islamaphobia, denigrate indigenous people and support pornographic misogynist rape culture?

Since Canada follows US trends we can expect that right wing political parties are also supported by Corporate capitalist elites. Even CBC news has been tainted by right wing apathetic tones.

The spike in "public" support or acceptance of right wing attitudes came suddenly after Donald Trump got elected.  Our Prime Minister changed his tone from holding up indigenous rights to cheering for pipelines.

In a nutshell, the white supremacists have revealed to my imagination this Orwellian animal farm scenario:

People who are brown, Islamic, Jewish, female, intellectually curious, LGBTQ and poor - are the enemy.  Who else is left?  The ruling elite along with those who can be manipulated by propaganda.

So what is next if this hierarchy remains and rules?  A planetary playground for billionaires and their servants. One way or another - all life that cannot be exploited will be removed. Which takes us back to the Nazis who imprisoned and killed anyone who didn't subscribe to their goal of world domination.

In some states Christianity has been hijacked and changed to an evangelical cult to not only accept the brutality of Trump's campaign but to make him a God. Forget the centuries of Christian teachings of Jesus. The second coming is Money. It can change everything that invests in its supremacy as long as humanity has been emptied of conscience and compassion.  It is built on contempt for all natural life.  It is power without flesh. The worship of the monster revealed as greed, which will bring suffering to everything that is beautiful and worth living for.

Addiction, drugs and pollution will be the weapons of those who cannot tolerate any other kind of power beyond their own. If the land is flooded and the forests on fire, they will purchase land where it is not.

It won't be capitalism or communism or fascism - it will simply be the dark hole of power, the mindless, heartless machine. There will be no conscience to reveal the suffering of ourselves or others. Language will dissolve into clicks.  Knowledge will be erased. Whatever beauty can be found in nature will be a desert.

So if we do not voice our shared or diverse views, if we are irritated by people who have different experiences, people who have different faiths and wear different clothes, and you look forward to a time where everyone is just like you, and everything is what you like - you are helping the silencing of humanity.

When Will We Replace Outdated Left and Right Thinking?

David Bollier argues "that the commons paradigm offers a refreshing and practical lens for re-imagining politics, governance and law. The commons, briefly put, is about self-organized social systems for managing shared wealth."

Bollier writes "the commons as a system for mutualizing responsibilities and benefits is highly generative. It can be seen in the successful self-management of forests, farmland, and water, and in open source software communities, open-access scholarly journals, and “cosmo-local” design and manufacturing systems."

What Will Replace Outdated Left and Right Economic Thinking? The Commons Paradigm

It's a long article and much to chew on and takes me back to the question "what can I do?". Protests and letters are essential but I am looking for a concrete way to resist the violence and injustice so prevalent in this age.