Stop the Dying (was re: violence)

Noam A noamish at home.com
Fri Sep 28 19:01:45 PDT 2001


Stop the dying.

That's our goal.

Logically, the first question is, what's causing the dying.

The next question is, knowing what you do about what causes the dying, how do you stop the dying.

To find this out, you need to think about allies and enemies. You ask, who's interests are served by stopping the dying, and who's are served by it continuing, and *under what circumstances*.

Right now, whether they realize that or not, Microsoft and McDonalds' interests are served by stopping the dying, but Exxon's and yes, Osama Bin Ladin's, are served by the dying continuing.

Think about that long and hard.

As far as oil and the American way of Life (or for that matter, Beef and the American way of life, for this may be more difficult a problem in my estimation), this is where the "under what circumstances" part of the equation comes in. Change the circumstances - environment-oriented taxation/tax rebates, massive subsidies of hydrogen-fuel cells, dismantling of the MIC and PIC and compensation for those workers displaced by said dismantling - and suddenly, American Way of Life isn't quite the same.

The examples of Cuba and Angola are completely innappropriate to the Middle east. On so many levels, the circumstances could not be more different. The Monroe doctrine. The history of Cuba as America's Whore-house and Castro's slapping the U.S. in the face for it. The unique history of African colonialism and post-colonialism. The unique circumstances of the economics of precious metals. The fact that in both these countries, the rhetoric of anti-imperialism that you follow was prescribed, and overtly and relentlessly opposed all capitalists at once - OF COURSE bringing about the unity and enmity of all capitalism at once! Think about what is cause, and what is effect.

My position is simple. Divide and conquer. Side with the devil who will enslave over the devil who will kill. But don't contribute to their current unity. Divide them.

It's important to note that I'm not advocating absolute pacifism. I'm advocating a mobilized assault on the REAL forces of death, in alliance with those who's interests, both material and moral, are served through life and hurt through death. That means that I for this campaign, I would side with any who understand how desperation creates violence, and how that is bad for business.

Once we stop the dying, the next problem to deal with will be exploitation. We'll deal with that then. We will have the global capacity to do so in a unified way, unlike anything we have ever been capable of before. The world will be then be polarized just the way you like it.

And to pre-emptively deal with one line of counter-argument: capitalism has always been marked by an individualistic concern for short-term gain. Therefore, I don't believe that the exploiters, given a real choice between larger profits and the safety involved with allying with the militarists, would choose long-term investment. That's just not the way they are capable of thinking.



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