Dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state

the first step is admitting that we have a problem...

tom engelhardt...

[T]he present Pentagon and military cast of characters can’t stop themselves. They really can’t. The thought that in Afghanistan or anywhere else they might have to go on a diet, as sooner or later they will, is deeply unnerving. Forever war is in their blood, so much so that they’re ready to face down the commander-in-chief, if necessary, to make it continue. This is really the definition of an addiction -- not to victory, but to the state of war itself. Don’t expect them to discipline themselves. They won’t.

personally, i think the pentagon, as guilty as our military leaders are of desiring - and fomenting - permanent war, is only a small part of the problem... behind those people is a quiet, nearly invisible group of super-rich elites who have hard-wired themselves into accruing as much power and latching on to as much money as possible and are quite clear that endless war is a great way of fulfilling both of those goals...

chris hedges, as usual, spells things out pretty well...

The forces assaulting the remnants of American democracy will not be cowed or discredited with rallies, such as the one in Washington on Saturday. We will blunt these rising anti-democratic forces only when we organize outside conventional systems of power. It means dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state. It means an end to foreclosures and bank repossessions. It means a functional health care system for all Americans. It means taking care of our poor and unemployed. And it means a system of government that is freed from corporate interests.

we - and when i say "we" i am not just referring to the people in the u.s. - are in shit up to our necks... speaking for myself, the more i understand of exactly how things are coming down in this latter half of the year 2010, the more i am convinced that our - and, again, when i say "our", i am not just referring to the u.s. - system is seriously off the rails... the reality is that it didn't start with the bush era and it's not going to be solved by obama or anyone else that we would like to anoint as our savior...
again, chris hedges...

This has left traditional political parties, which once represented differing class interests, with nothing to offer the public beyond fringe issues such as abortion or gay marriage. Those in the liberal class who cling to the corpse of the Democratic Party do so not because they believe in the policies of the party—it does not differ in any significant way from the Republican Party—but because they hope against hope that the party will somehow restore itself to its former position as a defender of liberal values and the working class interests.

[...]

No rally, no positive message, no effort to expose the idiocies of those arrayed against us will work until we restore to the political process mechanisms by which ordinary citizens can be heard.

i am writing this in the san francisco airport... i took a taxi to the reno airport very early this morning and had an interesting chat with the driver... he's about the same age as my oldest son - 40 - and grew up in the area... as i've found with so many taxi drivers around the world, he's reasonably savvy about current events... he exhibited a healthy curiosity about my work and my travels and was particularly interested in afghanistan... it was clear from listening to him talk, however, that he considers himself largely disenfranchised with little to no possibility of making an impact on his country or the world...

we're supposed to be living in a citizen democracy, government "by the people, for the people," blah, blah, blah... nobody really wants to admit that our system is a failure but, deep down inside, i think everybody knows it... it's definitely time for step one...

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