Does LBO collectively understand that the riots, revolts, deaths, destruction and social, political and economic chaos we are witness to is, provided the dots are connected, the direct result of neoliberal financialization of everything human on the planet?
Is that clear? It is clear to me that the motherfuckers to who need killing are Wall Street bankers as a class. These are the same people who hissed, when told they needed to start making things. Virtually every moment from Wisconsin to Libya, Egypt, Tunsia, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, not to mention Haiti, Mexico and on and on are people whose deaths, depredations, disease, struggle and bare survival are the consequence of policies and projects carried out in New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Rome and beyond.
Is it clear that the entire neoliberal project is a death grip that is strangling the people of the earth? Is it clear that what happens to Libyans tonight will be at my door the day after tomorrow, and at your door the day after that? Is that clear?
Do you understand? The great courage I watch in Egypt last week and Libya this week will be demanded of me in a month or two, maybe six months at most? Do you understand that I buy rice, beans, tortillas, cooking oil, and the occasional chicken leg and eat like the peasants of Mexico, were I first saw this way of life? Do you understand this? My stove dates from the 1930s, first as an interesting antique, but now a necessity, and my refrigerator comes from the 1950s? I listened to John Ross, not as a poet, but as a survivor. Almost toothless, writing and speaking to the very end, surrounded by books and stacks of papers he was a message of hope. Do you understand what this means?
It means that sooner or later, you will be faced by this incredable dilemma. How? It is very simple. You will get old and not be able to work as you do now. Then the death grip of this struggle will be upon you. You can not escape it. It is not escapable.
You are gambling. You are gambling that it will not be visited on you. You are very probably wrong. There will come a day, as the saying goes, when the wolf will be at your door. It is a palpable feeling you get, sleepless weeks will go by and you will know always the wolf is waiting for you. Trust me, he has been waiting for me, just beyond the corner, around the building on the corner.
I have known this wolf before. He is mercilous and devouring. He will cripple you first, as he did me, as he did millions before me. I had not thought that death had undone so many. Yes, words of propitious memory. Auspicious you wonder? Yes, because the promise is death, to join the vast minions who have gone before. This is how they were taken. The road opened before them, and they saw it for the first time in their lives. They saw it.
Eventually, it will come down to this simple proposition. Revolt or die. You must understand the nature of this proposition. It is not a question. It is not a demand. It is a fact.
I don't know how to explain this. I listened to Shlomo Sand again today. He lives exactly within this absolute. Since we all must die, we have a choice.
Die in oblivion or die in solidarity. The hands of your comrades hold you close, keep your eyes in theirs as the light fades, knowing love, or gaze into the empty and cold fog of nothing.
CG