At the gates of ’human hell’

An analysis of the problems facing our world reveals that these problems have very easy solutions: why they are not tried is because of monopoly of power and wealth at the command of vested interests. This does not mean the alternatives both as solution and voice, do not exist. Rather, it means that the alternatives are choked to death before being tried, because the few that dominate the existing system have too much to lose, even as the very existence of humanity is at stake, about which they do not care.

Suppose you see someone raping your family, holding you at bay upon gunpoint, and you see a pattern of such rape going on in the community you live in. Even if you do not have power to stop it at the current time, will you not raise awareness and try your best to stop it? The first step is recognizing it for what it is, if you give up on the first step, throw your arms up in the air and say, "I have a fork and a knife, they have ak47s, what the hell can I do?"; then chances are that the 1001 forks and knives in the neighborhood will never become aware that collectively their power is greater than the ak47s wielded by these criminals. Now more than ever, the stakes are too high: can you put a price on all the lives that have been lost due to want, the millions that have been denied the opportunity to grow up due to high infant mortality, the billions that go without an education, the hundreds of millions whose life expectancy is almost half that of the wealthy among the Americans, in other words the Americans get to live two whole lifetimes compared to their one? These "costs" are much higher than any benefit of default we get in the capitalist marketplace. Are they not?

The Soviets tried to implement socialist principles onto a rural/agrarian society, whereas Marx’s analysis brought forth the revolution in an advanced capitalist stage. They preempted the revolution, thereby converting their system into state capitalism, whereas the Americans incorporated socialist principles to abort the revolution. Nationalism serves the same purpose as religion did in the past; it is a distraction from the real issues and a convenient tool of the elite in the current epoch.

Why should the vast majority of humankind on earth fight over the crumbs within a system set by the rich countries, which consolidate the surplus for themselves (and not even for their populations as a whole)? Why should we accept the status-quo? If you look at the least developed countries today, the percentage of their populations that are in poverty, extreme deprivation has remained more or less the same but the numbers of people affected are almost double that of those that were affected 30 years back, given population increase, which is related to their under-developed condition. Fitting into the niche in the current world system, dominated and defined by the US elite, spells total disaster. Being "realistic" is not accepting the default to total environmental degradation of the earth and eventual destruction, it is to work to fix these problems and take away from the thieves what belongs to humanity as a whole. Existing realities dictate that our world has gone terribly wrong and we need to stop this direction it has taken and re-chart the course using radical measures because time is running out.

The nation state system was not a ‘natural evolution’ of anything. They were artificial entities that went against natural boundaries in most cases, part of the neo-colonial setup to control what was previously colonized in a cost effective manner. The power elite, the neo-colonial masters have never recognized any bureaucratic control or national boundary where it concerns them, the whole world is their playing field, and they do not respect national sovereignty or laws. These controls that form political entities, the nation-states only work to keep in check the populations living inside them or to play one against the other for exploitation purposes. The needs of the developing nations are more or less the same and have to do with basic human needs that are going unmet. ‘Self reliance’, under these circumstances would mean that they take care of these needs first before squandering their resources in export processing and useless military hardware purchase from the West. They should reject the issues that the West tells them are important and define their needs for themselves.

People who study social movements know the importance of resource mobilization in effective movements. The elite have all movements out resourced and so movements are co-opted unless they seek changing structure and nothing short of it as the platform. These elite would physically and militarily attack such movements. Given an advanced bureaucratic/capitalist society, most people have their lives and aspirations conditioned from on high. Independent thought is nearly completely circumscribed. In this atmosphere, the intellectuals have the ability to transcend that structure and look at the invisible strings held by the puppet masters (the elite) that guide the movements of the masses. The solution lies in the intelligentsia fixing their moral default by withdrawing from the structures of power, in which they are hired hands, and linking with the masses.

In the next 50 years, according to UN estimates, we will add another 4 billion people to the already over 6 billion on earth. Most of this increase will be in the poor countries- I do not see this neo-colonial nation-state system existing or surviving this increase, merely due to the inability of the poor countries to provide for their populations- the status quo of US hegemony and domination of trade will eventually collapse, after this "human hell". People are suffering immensely today, more than half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day with many on less than $1 a day, unless we work to change things now, change will eventually come but it will be more painful. Let us begin our emancipation today. Reflect upon the "prophetic" words of C. W. Mills, as you consider your situation and the situation of the world:

"If you do not specify and confront real issues, what you say will surely obscure them. If you do not embody controversy, what you say will be an acceptance of the drift to the coming human hell." (C. Wright Mills - The Causes of World War III)

We have arrived at the gates of "human hell". Will you still let these elite distract you even as they are breaking up your families and killing your children.