Monday, June 18, 2012

Population Control


Where does one begin?

Well, from the moment of first consciousness, at least, when we are assailed above all else here in the West, with the virtue of obedience - the command and control of the parent/adult/authority - no matter how irrational the command might be, even contrary to any honest measure of justice. That has long manifested in the West, in the ideal of the nuclear family, the command of the father, the subservience of the mother and child. From there, we are immersed in the institutional school, where we are taught to sit for long periods of time and pay attention, where we are taught value judgments about our gifts and how to react properly to directives. We are immersed in religious dogma, and political and economic ideologies denigrating the body, often diminishing us, making us small, inconsequential, weak. Subservience to the State, the goal in such training.

As adults, we are almost entirely dependent upon, and subject to institutions, to provide us with the basic necessities of life, including food, water and security; as I see it, many people simply parroting what institutions tell us to think about this world. The institutional directive, the most effective method of social control ever devised. Lucrative in a few cases, beyond conception.
That message, what to think and how to act, is most effectively reinforced by media. What is that message, simplified for clarity? Consume, fear and despise the Other, support the troops.

Who is the evil Other these days? Terrorists, of course. Conservatives to Liberals, Liberals to Conservatives. Romney, the dominator, is trying to to elicit fear and hostility toward the Chinese, as well as the Russians. It's going to be an all-out-war, globally, for the last of resources, no matter who the president is. So do your duty, and keep consuming, because God says you can't derail that train, no matter how you might like to.

Of course, it's all a losing game. Is there a more pernicious certainty, than the idea of control? Thinking we control nature, allowing us to inflate our numbers to seven billion. Ten billion people would have nothing left to consume, but each other probably. I wouldn't worry about that too much. There are all sorts of concerns about population, all sorts of ideas, about what should be done, what could be done. Nothing, is the only proper answer to that question, insofar as control is concerned. Nature, if I know anything about peak resources, climate change, systemic toxicity and species extinction, is going to deal with that, with prejudice, very likely. No need to meddle. The only thing keeping most people alive, are institutions, and hardly a one of those “persons” especially, gives a damn about people except as consumers. If there's a liquidity freeze world-wide, a collapse in supply chains of everything from food to fuel, it wouldn't take but the cycle of a year to reduce global population by a billion or more.

Speaking of hell on earth, that might cause a little unrest. Don't think that isn't being contemplated, at the highest levels of governance. I know at least one writer who is logically convinced, our government is preparing to exterminate us - not consciously, but the actions of the state are leading the nation inexorably in that direction, he believes. I didn't think there was anyone out there who had a lower opinion of Obama than I do, legitimately, but I was wrong. I hadn't let Obama's kill list fully penetrate my consciousness, until I read Arthur Silber's thought's on the subject.


“Although the NYT article did not disclose new information with regard to the essentials of the State's program of death, its length, detail and prominence constitute a significant ratcheting up of the State's claim of absolute power. Most crucial is the statement in the article that much of the content is derived from interviews with "three dozen of [Obama's] current and former advisers." As I pointed out in Part I, this in effect announces the identity of the article's true author: the author is the U.S. government, the State itself. Through these "advisers," the highest levels of the U.S. government have told the story they want to tell. And what is that story? It is simply this:
The State is become death. Our target can be anyone we choose. Yes, this means you. No, there is nowhere to run.
It is not every day that the State announces in the august pages of "the paper of record" that its primary program, the central mission to which it patiently and carefully devotes its vast resources, is the elimination of human life, wherever, whenever and to whatever extent it wishes....

These people are monsters. This is profoundly evil. All these people, all those who collaborate and assist in such a program, have placed themselves far beyond any limit of what can be designated as civilization.”



Yeah, that's about right. And Americans didn't utter a peep, least of all the Left, Republicans only complaining jealously, that they didn't look so good, testing their “principles and will” so. A morally corrupt nation incapable of even reacting to the news that their President is a cold blooded, methodical agent of death dealing. That he has lifted himself above all law. It is as if history has been wiped away completely, and we are condemning ourselves to repeat it, with here-to-fore unimaginable vengeance.

If death-dealing Austerity comes to America, and we have 25% official unemployment like Spain, more like 35-40% real unemployment, I see this President, or Romney, simply commissioning a legal memorandum justifying drone assassinations on American soil, of Americans, Moslem to Tea Party. Terrorist defined as anyone the state defines as a threat to the institution of the state. That, and full on military intervention, check points and internment camps, and even that logical end. Americans are free to prove me wrong, of course. That's not what I want for America. Nobody I know deserves that fate. I want to believe Americans are better than that.

But then, it could be argued by some in this world that Americans are the most passively banal, efficient death dealers the world has ever known. Almost everything about our lives in America, is dependent upon American empire, the funneling of wealth and resources from poor dictatorial countries to America, channels of commerce monitored and controlled by our military, the most splendid killing machine ever devised. There has never been a dictator so vile that we would not deal with, if we deemed it in our vested interest. Do we Americans truly deserve a better fate than what we have meted out, through our government, in the name of commerce, a better fate meted out to us by that state, that government of our imperial dominion? Are we capable of better?

My takeaway from that New York Times article is, I feel bad for those two girls, because their father is a monster. And Americans, both the Left and the Right ideologically, are complicit, indifferently, obliviously. And I seriously wonder if we would deny the existence of domestic internment death camps and drone assassinations, as easily as we deny that America is an empire, let alone one on the downslope side of collapse, seriously vulnerable to global economic meltdown.

7 comments:

  1. If you think that's bad, a former friend is now working to develop drones that do their own targeting (a.k.a. "hunter-killers"), no human needed to pull the trigger.

    Oh yes, and they have the technology that they can find you if you carry a cell phone, even if it is turned off.

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  2. John,

    Is there a greater terror than that? Perpetrated by the State, by weapons contractors. We should dismantle every single one. And the banks, most corporations, and off shore oil wells and nuclear facilities, while we're at it.

    I guess there is no limit, to what we will do to control the world, and people. Nor any limit, apparently, to the people's faith in their government to protect them.

    Funny you should say that, just when I'm about to have my phone cut off, because I don't have the money to pay. Of course, I'd have to stop blogging too. Safety's an illusion anyway, right?

    Goddess bless.

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  3. Silber is such a treasure. I tried to meet him when I lived in LA, but I am too socially awkward to facilitate such a meeting, as you can probably guess from our private correspondence.

    I remain optimistic about our predicament in the USA. We are drowning in wealth if only we could recognize it. Europe, by my guess, is set to fall into the century pattern of violence, the world wars, Napolean, 30 years war, etc. I think that the first wave of suburbanites who dig into a garden are going to game change everything. An hour tilling earth in the sun, digging rocks out of soil, and planting stuff will be a major game changer - in the parlance of our times. The thing is that gardening, doing things for oneself, are enjoyable. Most people have a fear about these things rooted in an irrational conception about what it means to split firewood and plant 'maters.

    JMG, I hope that whatever happens with the house, you realize that you truly are a pioneer for the post petroleum tribe. You remain an inspiration even for someone like myself, a late comer to this game.

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  4. Justin,

    A garden revolution would be a fine thing for America. Fuck you and your god damn debt, let's feed everybody and figure it out from there. Or I guess we can blow up the earth or toxify or consume it into oblivion, wars unending. Hum...

    Yeah, as to the tribe and the treasures,cheers.

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  5. Indeed, it's all about control. Interestingly, not five minutes after reading this entry, I ran across the two following articles.

    "In recent years there have been huge numbers of Americans that have sought to go 'off the grid' and live a more independent lifestyle. It has been estimated that there are now approximately 3 million "preppers" in the United States, and many of them just want to be left alone so that they can take care of themselves and their families on their own land. But that is not the way America works anymore."

    Full article and source here.

    And this YouTube clip, taped in 2008, Obama called for dismantling the Constitution.

    http://youtu.be/X0D_nkOI4gU

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  6. inishglora,

    In the interest of honesty, I'd say of that clip, he does not advocate for dismantling the Constitution - but that is exactly what he has done. As to the article, I found it a little over-wrought, extrapolating a massive trend from a few instances, but there is no question, all governments at every level are insolvent, and looking for ways to fleece the populace, usually the people who can afford it least, to satisfy their creditors and fulfill their obligations. According to Stoneleigh over at The Automatic Earth, we can expect capital controls soon, namely, limits on withdrawals, the raiding of safety deposit boxes, the confiscating of gold, precious metals and cash, etc. That could prove lively.

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  7. well there should be no doubt that the government has the ability to do whatever they want to whomever they want wherever they want. Imagine if they turned your cell phone and debit/credit cards off.

    As to the subject of this blog entry...I agree with you that nature will take care of our overpopulation problem for us. I think climate change and a new super disease is all that is necessary...and probably very likely in the near future.

    I just hold onto the irrational belief that I and mine will survive.

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