Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Pathologization of Dissent

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The Pathologization of Dissent

Click here to access article by C. J. Hopkins from CounterPunch.

With this post I am departing from my practice of posting (and commenting on) only current articles (less than one month). While perusing the web this morning, I found this piece (which I missed back in October) by one of America's most erudite and politically perceptive writers. It struck me as most illuminating, and not at all out of date. It's as relevant today as it was last October 27th when it was published.

The corporate media is sending a message … a message aimed at a much broader audience than undecided American voters (assuming such creatures really exist). The message is, “get with the fucking program, or get stigmatized as an anti-Semite, or a racist, or a Russian spy, or whatever.” The message is, “drop the populist rhetoric, shut the hell up about the Wall Street banks, and the corporations, and the ‘one percent,’ and … actually … forget about politics completely, except for identity politics, of course. Go ahead and knock yourself out with that.” The message is, “you’re either with us or against us … and it doesn’t matter why you’re against us, or what it is you think you’re for. Right, Left … who gives a shit? It’s one big Basket of Deplorables to us.”

This piece is about the accelerated war on truth which I see has having started after 9/11, the most politically pivotable event since WWII. I also see this accelerated, desperate war on truth as an early sign of the disintegration of the US-led Empire, a transnational capitalist empire that is ruled by a network of major capitalists from countries aligned with the US and Britain and formed after WWII.

However I don't take any consolation in my view that it is a sign of its disintegration. I see that this ruling network is so addicted to wealth and power that they, like many ordinary addicts, will seek self destruction (and ours) in a nuclear conflagration in a final effort to maintain their addiction. I also look around and see the vast majority of us as either too powerless, ignorant, confused, isolated, or too co-opted codependents to stop this final genocidal conflagration.