Hey an anarchy is a good thing🤦♀️ All governments are HIERARCHIES. All hierarchies are AUTHORITARIAN. Anarchy means no authoritarian overlords. Society can be "organized" horizontally. And life lately, under "governments" has been bat shit insane. Our rulers are delusional. Please stop discrediting anarchy 🕊
Society should be organized horizontally. When I wrote this and the 3 following parts, my aim was to look at the problem of leadership and personal responsibility rationally and realistically. But I have a nagging feeling that we're heading for a great big blow-up. And I wish I could see the resulting anarchy and chaos bringing about a positive and lasting change. If so, it won't be in my lifetime, I'm afraid.
I read that. It was fantastic! Don't count us out just yet. The local, community support that happens after a distaster happens naturally. Humans are supposed to survive communaly. It's our natural state of existence. Capitalism has dehumanized and domesticated vast swaths of our species😞 But they didn't get all of us😊 Some of us are still feral🕊🐿 🌈
Horizontal organization is difficult to for me to imagine because I think we need to rid ourselves of the obsession that people have with money and power. Billionaires are people who have succeeded in acquiring a lot of of money and power but other people still want that and that ends up being what they work toward rather than working toward freedom and equality for everyone. So I think the inverted pyramid may be preferable to horizontal. If billionaires and their supporters were at the bottom of the pyramid, those who want a world that includes more than money and power such as an environment that is not heating up, such as everyone having enough food to eat and a good place to live, those kinds of things, those people would be at the top.
Kk. Money and power are imaginary. The psychopaths had to create currency and then force it on others. It was the first con and the original sin. They conned other people into thinking rocks were more valuable than food, water, and shelter. This is not our species natural state of being. We should be living like the bonobos or silver back gorillas.
Money and power are not only imaginary. They exist because people take those things and use them. It is not in my imagination that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and so many others have taken control of our world, are destroying our planet, imprison or kill those who do not agree with them. I wish it were my imagination.
See that's the problem. People still believe money is actually real. It's not. That's why it says FULL FAITH on the paper currency. It's also why the value of currencies rise and fall. If people stopped believing in the "value" of money it would become as worthless as it actually is. Life is valuable, money isn't.
I agree totally. I wish that what is presently happening with money and all the disgusting ways that people treat others in order to get more of the stuff was imaginary. Money is not real, but the abuses that people commit to get it are real and those abuses are the problem.
Ideally, people who need to acquire obscene wealth and power should be shunned and shamed but as you say there too many people who would be too willing to be in their place. Ideally, they would become extinct.
Yep and they used to be kicked out of the community to fend for themselves. Psychopaths are an evolutionary dead end because they have no empathy, sympathy, or compassion. They despise life and life itself despises them too. They know that on an instinctual level which makes them frightened and very angry.
I started by reading "Living my Life" by Emma Goldman. I also like Peter Gelderloos who has written "How Nonviolence Protects the State". I don't think you need to agree with everything written in those books or any other books written about anarchism to understand that anarchy and chaos are not synonyms.
Precisely. And we live in chaos all of the time. Chaos just means constant change. And so does EVOLUTION. Nature is ALWAYS EVOLVING. The capitalists want nature to adapt to them instead of them adapt to nature. That's impossible, as climate change is clearly showing, and it's also delusional.
I had not read Diane's post closely enough and missed her reference to "anarchy and chaos" I think that our political system and our society need to be re-organized and I think an anarchic model would be a good one to follow. People use the word, anarchy, loosely to indicate chaos, but that only shows that they have never read any actual books about anarchy.
In the past 50 years the disease of mediocrity has infected everything. There was a time when people valued quality even if some always cared only about money. Now it seems everyone cares only about money and it shows. Greed drives everything and destroys art, creativity, integrity and standards whether we are talking about architecture or politics. We have lost our soul and become automatons driven by mechanistic materialistic thinking and values.
Our political leaders are puppets of Big Money. Nobody gets into these positions unless they are approved by the financial interests. We're not living in a democracy; we're living in a corporatocrasy. The will of the common people is of no interest or relevance to the ones in power. In the old days, it was aristocracy and the Church. Now it's the billionaire oligarchs who have their dirty paws in all aspects of our lives. So what has changed? Just one class has replaced the other.
I agree with the point about campaign contributions swaying elections. Indeed Zionists contributed a whopping $6 billion in 2024 and you can see how that is used to support their ethnic cleansing in Gaza. So, I am in agreement to limit funding and would propose that the major candidates be allowed to use no more than say $200 million. This of course is broad stroke and numbers and enforcement would have to be worked out. But the idea is to limit funding from foreigners and billionaires.
Zionists contributed a whopping $6 billion in 2024 ?? really? I thought it was millions that yielded them billions for disgusting Israel. Unless, we are including those revolting billionaires like Musk.
I agree with you that money is one of the big problems. I do not quite agree that The Waltons was heartwarming. I only watched that show once and found it too syrupy. I want us to accept each other despite our differences. Money and how to get it has played way too big a role in our world. In order to register to run for the Liberal leadership, a person has to put up over 350,000 dollars. That eliminates most people. Our world leaders are all rich with rich friends and they want to keep their wealth. They will go to war, raise rents so that some people have to live outside, raise food prices so that some cannot eat, sell more oil to enrich themselves and degrade the planet. Children are taught from birth that they are better people if they have certain material belongings that money can buy. If their parents don't teach them that, they will learn it at school or from their friends. I think that we the people have been made powerless. I think we HAVE to keep speaking out, but those with power can get noise cancelling headphones. And they do.
People like Jeremy Corbyn are very, very few and very, very far between. I can't think of a single Canadian politician who comes close to him, or one that I remotely respect. Can you? I liked John Horgan, but he had his loyalties to the forestry industry.
I can think of someone up and coming who has recently entered the political fray and that's Avi Lewis. I've followed his and his wife, Naomi Klein's, work for a long time and I have a ton of respect for both of them.
Dawn is bringing a new lawsuit accusing the State Department of failing to sanction Israeli military units under the Leahy Law, which was passed in 1997 to prevent the United States from funding foreign military units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations.
There is a mountain of evidence of Israel carrying out torture, extrajudicial killings, rape, enforced disappearances and other abuses. "Despite all that, the State Department has never once held any Israeli unit ineligible for assistance under the Leahy Law,"
Dear Diane, Not only did you hit the bullseye dead center with this article, you split that arrow down the center with your narrative. Five stars? ***** I give it ten!
And I agree with many of the comments by your readers and to sum up what you've described: accurately, for sure, Dr. Jack Rasmus, (jackrasmus.com) in replying to a reader in one of his articles a year or two ago, that "If you want progressive change, you have to change the political system," words to that effect. According to DR. Richard D. Wolff Marxist Professor of Economics, More registered American voters did NOT vote last November than the people who did vote. What if the eligible voters who didn't want the monarch Trump or the Biden spinoff Harris sitting on the Capital Hill throne voted for Dr. JIll Stein, as I did, she could have become POTUS.
As long as people keep the Repulsive and DemoRAT political operatives in power, every election cycle, progressive change for the common good that was hard fought for in the 20th century will be removed by acts of Congress, SCOTUS, a return to a two-class system of existence our ancestors lived under. Rich and poor.
Thank you for your Wisdom and Understanding and Compassion, Ms Englehardt. Too bad you couldn't replace Justin the Pipsqueak.
Thanks, Frank, but I wouldn't want Justin's job for love or money! A long time ago, I entertained political ambitions but saw pretty quick what it would cost me and opted instead for a more meaningful personal life.
Waiting for one of those female hostages to come forward and tell her story. Especially after she sees the full extent of the slaughter and destruction in Gaza. She could change the narrative in favor of a peaceful coexistence between Jews and Muslims. Her captors were her friends for 470 days. She kept a journal, which if it wasn’t taken away, it would be a bestseller.
She would have to get out of Israel, for sure. But she has a chance to become famous and rich. Let's hope there is one hostage that does this. Jews aren't stupid about opportunities to earn a living.
Good thought, Judith! We can only hope that the hostages will tell their true stories and resist the pressure from the Israeli government and media to fabricate lurid tales of sexual, physical and psychological pressure and Palestinian savagery when we all know who the real savages are.
Disgusting article in the NYTimes describing the poor conditions those poor hostages were held in and that they had lost weight and had wounds form shrapnel and were held mostly underground. Oh , cry me a river! What about the citizens of Gaza?? They weren't exactly living the good life. How about lining up the young children who no long have legs?? How many are there; the ones who aren't dead.
But, they believe it because they are; because they cause it. I said years ago: Jews cause anti-semitism. that was a pretty politically incorrect statement but now, it's ...not so crazy.
I just heard a man on youtube say that. I'm sure if it was Tony Greenstein on Electronic Intifada....but, he's worth listening to....a few times...he speaks so fast on brilliant original material there's no time to ponder concepts as he races along....
You must check this fellow out....what he says is really radically true. No one could research anti-semitism in the past. that would be NOT Nice.
Hope against hope. I am sure they are being managed by the best psychologists whose goals are to embed Israeli patriotism in them. Even if they say that they were treated with respect, they are told that that type of talk is VERY bad for the country and the people who prayed (do Jews Pray?) for their safety and release.
It would be the rare independent spirit who could break away from that and tell the truth. Most people are sheep.
Me, a very very independent person has gone sheephood; a horrible 30 day silent meditation retreat;It was very painful sitting for hours...I even got sick.like a mild flu; coughing was NOT allowed...the sound of unwrapping cough drops: dirty looks my way. .....The leader kept telling me to stick with it.
I should have just started yelling! They would have stuck me on a the first bus back to NYC. I am still amazed at what a sheep I was.
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
Levi's quote reflects Hannah Arendt's banality of evil, but I'd say there are more than a few monsters in existence, and they are not only extremely dangerous but criminally insane.
Yes, I agree and understand the quote's context; especially as Levi was in Auschwitz.
He - like many others in history - will have noted all the ordinary people obeying orders along with the vast bureaucracies of ordinary people, press and such who take pay cheques from monsters, or the monster that is the state.
Recently, journalists Max Blumenthal and Sam Husseini were thrown out of the monster Blinken's press conference; a monster standing up and lying about the depraved murder of innocents. I didn't concentrate on Blumenthal and Husseini, but looked at the full room of people; goons in uniform throwing them out and getting paid for it; journalists and others getting paid and just looking away or on the floor or at their laptops. For me, that is huge. That is our reality.
I think that's what Levi meant and until there is some tipping point or balance in humans facilitating monsters, this stuff will continue as it has for millennia.
Again, I agree with your excellent piece and that Western governments are run by psychopaths and the worst of humankind but they rely on ordinary people to function. Only when enough humans evolve and turn their backs on these people will they stop.
At the moment that is not the case and I find the usual excuses and ignorance is not an excuse but an evasion of their responsibility as to what these monsters do.
A suggestion to show "leadership" who's really in charge:
Join the (US) Taxpayers Against Genocide--they're starting class action lawsuits to sue their Congress things for illegally using our tax dollars to fund a genocide in Gaza. There's a webinar tomorrow afternoon and probably will be more to come because the idea is spreading quickly. bit.ly/TAGjan25
It's very gratifying to see what I post generate so many insightful comments! ✊
Hey an anarchy is a good thing🤦♀️ All governments are HIERARCHIES. All hierarchies are AUTHORITARIAN. Anarchy means no authoritarian overlords. Society can be "organized" horizontally. And life lately, under "governments" has been bat shit insane. Our rulers are delusional. Please stop discrediting anarchy 🕊
Society should be organized horizontally. When I wrote this and the 3 following parts, my aim was to look at the problem of leadership and personal responsibility rationally and realistically. But I have a nagging feeling that we're heading for a great big blow-up. And I wish I could see the resulting anarchy and chaos bringing about a positive and lasting change. If so, it won't be in my lifetime, I'm afraid.
I read that. It was fantastic! Don't count us out just yet. The local, community support that happens after a distaster happens naturally. Humans are supposed to survive communaly. It's our natural state of existence. Capitalism has dehumanized and domesticated vast swaths of our species😞 But they didn't get all of us😊 Some of us are still feral🕊🐿 🌈
Horizontal organization is difficult to for me to imagine because I think we need to rid ourselves of the obsession that people have with money and power. Billionaires are people who have succeeded in acquiring a lot of of money and power but other people still want that and that ends up being what they work toward rather than working toward freedom and equality for everyone. So I think the inverted pyramid may be preferable to horizontal. If billionaires and their supporters were at the bottom of the pyramid, those who want a world that includes more than money and power such as an environment that is not heating up, such as everyone having enough food to eat and a good place to live, those kinds of things, those people would be at the top.
Kk. Money and power are imaginary. The psychopaths had to create currency and then force it on others. It was the first con and the original sin. They conned other people into thinking rocks were more valuable than food, water, and shelter. This is not our species natural state of being. We should be living like the bonobos or silver back gorillas.
Money and power are not only imaginary. They exist because people take those things and use them. It is not in my imagination that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and so many others have taken control of our world, are destroying our planet, imprison or kill those who do not agree with them. I wish it were my imagination.
See that's the problem. People still believe money is actually real. It's not. That's why it says FULL FAITH on the paper currency. It's also why the value of currencies rise and fall. If people stopped believing in the "value" of money it would become as worthless as it actually is. Life is valuable, money isn't.
Money is a fiction that can be created and destroyed.
I agree totally. I wish that what is presently happening with money and all the disgusting ways that people treat others in order to get more of the stuff was imaginary. Money is not real, but the abuses that people commit to get it are real and those abuses are the problem.
Ideally, people who need to acquire obscene wealth and power should be shunned and shamed but as you say there too many people who would be too willing to be in their place. Ideally, they would become extinct.
Yep and they used to be kicked out of the community to fend for themselves. Psychopaths are an evolutionary dead end because they have no empathy, sympathy, or compassion. They despise life and life itself despises them too. They know that on an instinctual level which makes them frightened and very angry.
Tarred and feathered!
👍
I started by reading "Living my Life" by Emma Goldman. I also like Peter Gelderloos who has written "How Nonviolence Protects the State". I don't think you need to agree with everything written in those books or any other books written about anarchism to understand that anarchy and chaos are not synonyms.
Precisely. And we live in chaos all of the time. Chaos just means constant change. And so does EVOLUTION. Nature is ALWAYS EVOLVING. The capitalists want nature to adapt to them instead of them adapt to nature. That's impossible, as climate change is clearly showing, and it's also delusional.
*Adapting.
I had not read Diane's post closely enough and missed her reference to "anarchy and chaos" I think that our political system and our society need to be re-organized and I think an anarchic model would be a good one to follow. People use the word, anarchy, loosely to indicate chaos, but that only shows that they have never read any actual books about anarchy.
Exactly.
In the past 50 years the disease of mediocrity has infected everything. There was a time when people valued quality even if some always cared only about money. Now it seems everyone cares only about money and it shows. Greed drives everything and destroys art, creativity, integrity and standards whether we are talking about architecture or politics. We have lost our soul and become automatons driven by mechanistic materialistic thinking and values.
Our political leaders are puppets of Big Money. Nobody gets into these positions unless they are approved by the financial interests. We're not living in a democracy; we're living in a corporatocrasy. The will of the common people is of no interest or relevance to the ones in power. In the old days, it was aristocracy and the Church. Now it's the billionaire oligarchs who have their dirty paws in all aspects of our lives. So what has changed? Just one class has replaced the other.
I agree with the point about campaign contributions swaying elections. Indeed Zionists contributed a whopping $6 billion in 2024 and you can see how that is used to support their ethnic cleansing in Gaza. So, I am in agreement to limit funding and would propose that the major candidates be allowed to use no more than say $200 million. This of course is broad stroke and numbers and enforcement would have to be worked out. But the idea is to limit funding from foreigners and billionaires.
Zionists contributed a whopping $6 billion in 2024 ?? really? I thought it was millions that yielded them billions for disgusting Israel. Unless, we are including those revolting billionaires like Musk.
Zionists= Nazists.
I agree with you that money is one of the big problems. I do not quite agree that The Waltons was heartwarming. I only watched that show once and found it too syrupy. I want us to accept each other despite our differences. Money and how to get it has played way too big a role in our world. In order to register to run for the Liberal leadership, a person has to put up over 350,000 dollars. That eliminates most people. Our world leaders are all rich with rich friends and they want to keep their wealth. They will go to war, raise rents so that some people have to live outside, raise food prices so that some cannot eat, sell more oil to enrich themselves and degrade the planet. Children are taught from birth that they are better people if they have certain material belongings that money can buy. If their parents don't teach them that, they will learn it at school or from their friends. I think that we the people have been made powerless. I think we HAVE to keep speaking out, but those with power can get noise cancelling headphones. And they do.
There are a few good politicians, but they have hell to pay. Jeremy Corbyn comes to mind.
But I agree, Diane, we need to change the fabric of our societies.
People like Jeremy Corbyn are very, very few and very, very far between. I can't think of a single Canadian politician who comes close to him, or one that I remotely respect. Can you? I liked John Horgan, but he had his loyalties to the forestry industry.
I can think of someone up and coming who has recently entered the political fray and that's Avi Lewis. I've followed his and his wife, Naomi Klein's, work for a long time and I have a ton of respect for both of them.
We don't have to witness all this and sit still wishing something can be done to stop it.
Some things can be done. The US government should be held to account for using our tax money to help Israel commit war crimes every second.
Just saw Charles Blaha (https://www.justsecurity.org/author/blahacharles/). on Democracy Now.
He is a member of DAWN, (https://dawnmena.org)
Dawn is bringing a new lawsuit accusing the State Department of failing to sanction Israeli military units under the Leahy Law, which was passed in 1997 to prevent the United States from funding foreign military units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leahy_Law
There is a mountain of evidence of Israel carrying out torture, extrajudicial killings, rape, enforced disappearances and other abuses. "Despite all that, the State Department has never once held any Israeli unit ineligible for assistance under the Leahy Law,"
I am donating to DAWN....it is tax deductible.
Dear Diane, Not only did you hit the bullseye dead center with this article, you split that arrow down the center with your narrative. Five stars? ***** I give it ten!
And I agree with many of the comments by your readers and to sum up what you've described: accurately, for sure, Dr. Jack Rasmus, (jackrasmus.com) in replying to a reader in one of his articles a year or two ago, that "If you want progressive change, you have to change the political system," words to that effect. According to DR. Richard D. Wolff Marxist Professor of Economics, More registered American voters did NOT vote last November than the people who did vote. What if the eligible voters who didn't want the monarch Trump or the Biden spinoff Harris sitting on the Capital Hill throne voted for Dr. JIll Stein, as I did, she could have become POTUS.
As long as people keep the Repulsive and DemoRAT political operatives in power, every election cycle, progressive change for the common good that was hard fought for in the 20th century will be removed by acts of Congress, SCOTUS, a return to a two-class system of existence our ancestors lived under. Rich and poor.
Thank you for your Wisdom and Understanding and Compassion, Ms Englehardt. Too bad you couldn't replace Justin the Pipsqueak.
Thanks, Frank, but I wouldn't want Justin's job for love or money! A long time ago, I entertained political ambitions but saw pretty quick what it would cost me and opted instead for a more meaningful personal life.
I wish we had pro rep. And let's not forget Trudeau's promise to implement it, which he reneged upon as soon as he was elected.
Where are the Jeremy Corbyns among our political leaders?
Some of us hold onto our integrity, and there are some communities that actually value it. But it doesn't seem to be the dominant impulse.
How do we change all of it? I wish I knew, Diane.
Good question, Diana! Which I tackle in the rest of this essay.
Just a thought:
Waiting for one of those female hostages to come forward and tell her story. Especially after she sees the full extent of the slaughter and destruction in Gaza. She could change the narrative in favor of a peaceful coexistence between Jews and Muslims. Her captors were her friends for 470 days. She kept a journal, which if it wasn’t taken away, it would be a bestseller.
She would have to get out of Israel, for sure. But she has a chance to become famous and rich. Let's hope there is one hostage that does this. Jews aren't stupid about opportunities to earn a living.
Good thought, Judith! We can only hope that the hostages will tell their true stories and resist the pressure from the Israeli government and media to fabricate lurid tales of sexual, physical and psychological pressure and Palestinian savagery when we all know who the real savages are.
Disgusting article in the NYTimes describing the poor conditions those poor hostages were held in and that they had lost weight and had wounds form shrapnel and were held mostly underground. Oh , cry me a river! What about the citizens of Gaza?? They weren't exactly living the good life. How about lining up the young children who no long have legs?? How many are there; the ones who aren't dead.
There's no more pitiable victim than a Jewish victim, or so Hollywood would make us believe.
But, they believe it because they are; because they cause it. I said years ago: Jews cause anti-semitism. that was a pretty politically incorrect statement but now, it's ...not so crazy.
I just heard a man on youtube say that. I'm sure if it was Tony Greenstein on Electronic Intifada....but, he's worth listening to....a few times...he speaks so fast on brilliant original material there's no time to ponder concepts as he races along....
You must check this fellow out....what he says is really radically true. No one could research anti-semitism in the past. that would be NOT Nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9evhLCuA_k&t=1748s
Hope against hope. I am sure they are being managed by the best psychologists whose goals are to embed Israeli patriotism in them. Even if they say that they were treated with respect, they are told that that type of talk is VERY bad for the country and the people who prayed (do Jews Pray?) for their safety and release.
It would be the rare independent spirit who could break away from that and tell the truth. Most people are sheep.
Me, a very very independent person has gone sheephood; a horrible 30 day silent meditation retreat;It was very painful sitting for hours...I even got sick.like a mild flu; coughing was NOT allowed...the sound of unwrapping cough drops: dirty looks my way. .....The leader kept telling me to stick with it.
I should have just started yelling! They would have stuck me on a the first bus back to NYC. I am still amazed at what a sheep I was.
Spot on piece, Diane. Thanks.
Part of it made me think of the Primo Levi quote:
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
― Primo Levi
Levi's quote reflects Hannah Arendt's banality of evil, but I'd say there are more than a few monsters in existence, and they are not only extremely dangerous but criminally insane.
Yes, I agree and understand the quote's context; especially as Levi was in Auschwitz.
He - like many others in history - will have noted all the ordinary people obeying orders along with the vast bureaucracies of ordinary people, press and such who take pay cheques from monsters, or the monster that is the state.
Recently, journalists Max Blumenthal and Sam Husseini were thrown out of the monster Blinken's press conference; a monster standing up and lying about the depraved murder of innocents. I didn't concentrate on Blumenthal and Husseini, but looked at the full room of people; goons in uniform throwing them out and getting paid for it; journalists and others getting paid and just looking away or on the floor or at their laptops. For me, that is huge. That is our reality.
I think that's what Levi meant and until there is some tipping point or balance in humans facilitating monsters, this stuff will continue as it has for millennia.
Again, I agree with your excellent piece and that Western governments are run by psychopaths and the worst of humankind but they rely on ordinary people to function. Only when enough humans evolve and turn their backs on these people will they stop.
At the moment that is not the case and I find the usual excuses and ignorance is not an excuse but an evasion of their responsibility as to what these monsters do.
A suggestion to show "leadership" who's really in charge:
Join the (US) Taxpayers Against Genocide--they're starting class action lawsuits to sue their Congress things for illegally using our tax dollars to fund a genocide in Gaza. There's a webinar tomorrow afternoon and probably will be more to come because the idea is spreading quickly. bit.ly/TAGjan25
Well said!