Derek left a Comment on the posting Aware:
In My Opinion most people are “aware” that something is wrong with the way we live. The awareness is unfocused.
IMO again, I would say neoliberalism and the New World (aka American) Order- or unbridled capitalism
I think that covers the gamut, but others will see destruction of the habitat without knowing the real cause.
I think our problem is to focus the awareness. What do you think should be the focus?
Curious . . . Derek’s question actually gave me an adrenalin rush! What do you think should be the focus?
Derek – – if I understand correctly, you are offering the “something wrong” as being, at root, one of the first three items below (Neoliberalism, The New World (aka American) Order, Unbridled capitalism).
You use the term “unbridled capitalism”; I have used “late-stage capitalism”. I have portrayed us as being in a battle to assert democracy over the corporatocracy that engulfs us. A war, really. But one in which we use weapons more powerful than the killing kind. We use the weapons of non-violent resistance, much more effective, don’t destroy people and the environment, and don’t generate the inter-generational hatred that goes with conventional or “stupid” weapons.
I do not use the terms Neoliberalism or New World (aka American) Order, except as they appear in articles written by others.
The Home page is a reclamation plan for democracy, from corporate takeover – it’s a statement of what this blog is about. (A long time ago I circulated my understanding that corporate takeover is fascism, a word that would have been used in another day and place. It is not current vernacular in North America, to describe what we are teetering on, so I don’t use it.)
I believe that “corporatocracy” is self-explanatory, and people easily relate to it, they can see it in their daily experience, more so than the word “fascism”.
Corporatocracy must necessarily grow a military presence. It necessarily resorts to violence because it must appropriate resources that belong to others. Eventually, people cabbage on to what is happening. Power and control must then be exercised over them. Hence we have, for example, the growing presence of Lockheed Martin Corporation (American military) in Canada. With collaborators in place. Quislings, a word we should all re-learn.
Below, I went through options for “what to focus on”. My personal preference is to focus on Corporatocracy (or what I believe you would call “Unbridled capitalism”), and within that, the militarization aspect to receive special emphasis.
Your feedback, also from others, is valued! Thanks Derek. /Sandra
What do I think should be the focus?
1. Neoliberalism?
2. The New World (aka American) Order?
3. Unbridled capitalism? (corporatocracy, as I call it)
4. Militarization, as a subset under corporatocray?
The majority of blog traffic, without diminishment, is to the postings about Statistics Canada and Lockheed Martin. The single most-visited page is Are StatsCan “surveys” mandatory?
(Note to Newcomers: Lockheed Martin (American military and surveillance) has been involved at StatsCan. “Surveys” are on-going, in between censuses. StatsCan demands, under threat of prosecution, large amounts of personal information. But under the law, surveys are voluntary. You can get a sense of things (guerilla warfare!! non-violent resistance!!) at Are StatsCan “surveys” mandatory?)
Volume of traffic would recommend the militarization theme for focus. The blog pages are USED, which suggests we are meeting a need. (Overall, we are approaching 75,000 hits, a small number in the blogosphere. Lots of our information goes through email networks. I use facebook and ttwitter to a lesser extent.)
See my reply to Patricia at the bottom of Radical idea about Leaders. The next Census is upcoming in May 2016. Lockheed Martin desperately needs to sell F-35 stealth bombers to Canadian tax-payers, after bankrupting American tax-payers. If we demand that “leaders” sit down and find ways to resolve conflict, if we refuse to pay the bills submitted to us by the weapons manufacturers, the war machine would starve. We should be clear that we are the enablers. Without our money and big-time propaganda, they could not do the destruction – – which will inevitably infect us, if it is not stopped, if we don’t get onto a better path. People in other countries are doing what people here are doing – – it is not that we are the only ones who see through the stupidity of allowing “leaders” to bomb each others’ countries. We create the terrorists, both overseas and at home.
Our network has accumulated a lot of information on Lockheed Martin. We are in a good position to keep growing awareness of the intrusion of American foreign policy into Canada, our loss of sovereignty, and the need to take back control of our military and surveillance functions.
The only way I can see to accomplish that is through non-violent resistance. Standing firm behind our Constitutional Right to Privacy of Personal Information has been a tool in that effort.
We have an election in the offing (October). In a few months following that, a Census (NSA back-door entry to a comprehensive data base on Canadians – surveillance by the American military).
At some point the multi-multi-billion dollar contracts for the F-35 stealth bombers will be sprung upon us once again. Doubtless, work is proceeding behind closed doors. There is a report that the F-35’s are off the table until 2018. It’s unwise to let the dog lie until then – – we need to continue building awareness and resistance.
If ever I falter, I re-visit 2011-01-1 WATCH: President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell speech Plus Words of Wisdom from Eisenhower.
I think that, in general, Canadians are clueless about the threat of militarization. There are anti-war groups, pro-peace groups, there’s ceasefire.ca . . . Maybe I haven’t developed the right “connections” – – I don’t have a sense of momentum in this sphere like there is in climate change and the take-back of our food supply (March Against Monsanto). Occupy and Idle No More are very important mobilizations, along with AVAAZ, LeadNow, SumOfUs, Public Citizen, , and so on, . . . but the militarization theme is not well represented. There isn’t a mass movement, like there was to end the Viet Nam War, to demand that “leaders” come to the table to talk, to work out solutions in the Middle East, and with Russia. Media coverage very seldom makes the connection between the dropping of bombs in Iraq in 2003, the creation of refugees flowing out of Iraq into next-door Syria, the waves of refugees created by each successive wave of bombing in country-after-country. News casters report on the current situation in Yemen, but fail to point out that Yemen was either the first, or one of the first countries bombed by the U.S. through drone warfare. . . . War is still glorified. Anyhow – – there are good groups countering the propaganda fed to the citizenry.
The leaks by Edward Snowden inform us of what is happening in the military/surveillance arena. Every gain we make in thwarting corporate appropriation of water supplies, stopping pipelines, transitioning off fossil fuels, is a threat to the powers-that-be. They have tools and agreements in place (documented on this blog) to call the American troops into Canada, in the event of civil emergency . . . in the event we become too unruly in our protection of what is necessary for survival. Their reassurances that the Troop Exchange Agreement is just to assist us, hold little weight.
Both to strengthen any remaining sovereignty, and to remove ourselves from the clutches of the The New World (aka American) Order, as Derek would call it, I suggest we focus on awareness of militarization – – where are the seeds of violence?
5. Should we focus on Expanding our reach? Better use of technology? I am inefficient, I don’t use technology’s capacity to reach more people. I like small and personal. (I am also deluded. I know lots of you. But in truth, I don’t know lots of you, too.) If we are being taken to the cleaners (by Bill C-51, or corruption, the biotech corporations, Lockheed Martin, for example) and I want to turn anger into action, I add ten more people to my part of our email tree. In truth I am not growing the tree, because I add people infrequently, while others are dropping off from time-to-time. Some participants have spun off their own network from this one, and maybe they are better at “expansion”! Maybe we can all add a few more people to our individual list?
NUMBER 6 IS THE WRONG ANSWER FOR ME. IT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER FOR SOME OTHERS:
6. hmmm . . . Does OPPORTUNISM rule? I see an opportunity right now. Should that be our focus? . . . Life makes me laugh! I could equally say that it’s opportunism, OR that I am simply following where I perceive the path leads, because Serendipity has brought a CONVERGENCE. (I am a good rationalizer – – this might be serendipity but it’s not the right focus for me, right now. There are other very capable hands at work on it.)
An alternate interpretation: laziness! I like to push when there is less resistance. It means less work. And we gain more ground. . . . aaah! but wouldn’t it be nicer to say that I am a good strategist?! Sounds better than “lazy”.
THE CURRENT OPPORTUNITY is in electoral reform:
Please see
EXCERPT:
If we voted for what we want, we would vote for
- Trudeau’s idea for change in the voting system
- figure out what to do about the party system – it stinks, frankly speaking. We need ideas, . . .
- If we designed our system of governance around IDEAS, might we be able to remedy another long-acknowledged flaw in the current system: four-year election cycles lead to decisions by elected representatives that are VERY short-term in outlook.
We have already moved in the direction of IDEAS and away from the party system. Videos and postings, ideas transformed into action, petitions and pranks shared by millions of people around the Planet. Political Parties are becoming obsolete.
The work by Canadians to re-invent our system of governance is strong.
The Climate Change movement is making incredible advances.
I think our services can be most helpful if focused on an area of weakness: Canadians need to reclaim control of our military. They are operating under American control.