Build Back a little Better

With war and a new COVID strain dominating headlines the climate is put on the back burner, along with a bunch of other "progressive" initiatives the Dems sort of ran on. Sort of promised. To keep Bernie Bros engaged. But shocker, EVENTS happen and rearrange priorities. Who could have possibly guessed they would back it all down? Yes, global heating is an existential threat, yes the public wants to see action but these are perilous times and we need energy security and some economic growth and lower gas prices and you got it, no big changes in profits. Biden may be senile but he still knows all about triangulation. Remember the Green New Deal? How about the PRO Act? How about Medicare for All? All big electoral campaigns pushed by DSA, all buried in the ideological rubble of a world focused on Will Smith and Putin, critical race theory and wokeness. DSA leadership's endless faith in liberal capitalist "democracy" as a way to build power has led to infighting, paralysis and a growing malaise. It doesn't help that there is nothing out there that could be called a "climate movement." As predicted, Bernie's "political revolution" wrecked on the shoals of economic reality. AOC and Greta and COP 26 all got their moment in the sun, but the Green Capitalists have siezed the day and the agenda and private equity and venture capital are coming to the rescue. XR and Standing Rock and Line 3 and 350 can campaign or fundraise or protest or whatever. Alongside the "women's choice" groups. And the "De-fund the Police" groups. The only good news is I'm seeing lots of bumper stickers now decrying the evils of socialism. So at least we are being noticed.

Planetary Death Drive

Much commentary has been devoted to the comparison of the global vaccine roll-out and COP 26 process. It is certainly true that in both cases the wealthy North/West/Developed "Center" is taking care of its own and letting the "Periphery" suffer. Nothing new there. But I think another interesting comparison is the way citizen/workers in both spheres continue to both refuse to wear masks and refuse to take global heating seriously. This is the same disavowal wearing two different masks. In both cases the humans are so wedded to capitalist ideology that both of these threats, the pandemic and climate change, are seen as secondary to maintaining economic growth. This not just eletes protecting wealth,power and status by "manufacturing consent". The masses also prefer getting sick and roasting the planet to disrupting their "way of life" (not just comfort but the whole project of Modernity, to the degree they understand it as the forward march of progress). Of course this "preference", this misrecognition, is taking place at the level of action. It can be expressed in all sorts of superficial irrational "rationalizations" such as government conspiricy, love of liberty, cabal of evil scientists, etc..Anything but acknowleding capitalist democracy doesn't actually work and History doesn't necessarily progress. At the level of unconscious knowledge, they know perfectly well the virus and global warming are real and that their actions will lead to destruction. That knowledge has to be repressed because shattering the ideological structure would be too painful to bear, the guilt and shame and reality just too terrible. Better to disavow, to enjoy the fantasy. Part of that fantasy is The End Times as Punishment. Here, humans are fallen from grace in the gaze of the big Other and deserve annihilation. This form of justice would prove that life has some meaning, some teleological Reason. Most people will tell you humans are bad, greedy and selfish, that is their "Nature". And that outer Nature is mean and brutish. Therefor whether it is a pandemic or climate, it is just wiping the slate clean. This is the nightmare and we need only awaken to the dream. But we can only awaken through death.

Uncritical Race theory

Lots of us White People, especially us guys, the kind who lead pretty exemplary lives of hard work and church on Sunday, followed by the NFL and hot wings, maybe a few Budweisers, we don't need a big guilt trip put on us about our heritage. Did our ancestors make some mistakes? Sure. Did our country make some mistakes, sure, what country didn't? But that doesn't mean you have to drive anti-American, anti-White propaganda into our kids' brains at school. They hear enough depressing shit as it is. So maybe we could just "accentuate the positive", as the song says. Talk more about Morning in America.Think of all the awesome stuff they could be teaching; winning world wars, winning the space race, most gold medals in the Olympics for example. What would be so wrong about that? Just let bygones be bygones and move forward, without all the baggage you can't do anything about anyway. Let the kids have a fresh start. After all, we had a Black President! There are Black Superstars in sports and entertainment,think about how suceessful Oprah is! I mean we already have Black History Month, a whole month! So why be so critical? You want to take a knee, do it in your own home.You want to teach about the Civil War? Include both sides.

Revere The Law

Sure, you have a right to your life, but it is conditioned by The Law and what The Law giveth, The Law can also taketh. Liberals are upset over the Rittenhouse vedict because they are forced to confront their reverance for The Law as the glue holding not just civil society but civilization together. But as society slides further into barbarism and The Law is exposed as the enforcement mechanism of whiteness and wealth ( always obvious but the illusion gets harder to maintain) liberals cling ever more desperately to the established order. Fund the police to be kinder and gentler. Build some nicer tent camps with toilets somewhere on the edge of town. Try to focus on the bright spots of COP 26. Pass an infrastructure bill to "invest in the future". Act as if you don't know. So-called "conservatives" also revere The Law as the upholder of property and order but worry it is being undermined by wokeness police. If libs are woke that means they must be asleep, but they are every bit as conscious, they do their own research, they are paying attention and reading the signs. In fact they are hyper-vigilant, hyper-alert, hyper-awake to the machinations and conspiracies.

Dystopic Portlandia

Unless you have been there recently, it is difficult to imagine the extent of houselessness that exists now in Portland. Missoula has its camps but in the Portland metro area, tents and tarps are literally everywhere. Any public space- freeway right-of-ways, parks, downtown sidewalks, underpasses, empty lots- is occupied by those living rough. And after three days of hard, cold rain I mean unbelievably rough. At the practical, policy, municipal level, this population is a "problem". Garbage piles up, police and ambulances are called, neighborhoods adjoining the camps get robbed,services must be provided, etc etc.. On this level, as the camps grow, the "problem" grows. But if you stop for one second to realize these are human lives, that in a country of unimaginable wealth and gross over-consumption we have normalized a totally disposable population, the whole soggy, muddy landscape becomes insanely obscene. White people used to whine about "ghettos" and "the projects" and urban blight. But those people at least had a roof over their heads. We now accept that people live in tents and shit in the bushes. They are exiled to the outside of the margins, banished from the community. The Other Portland goes to day spas and eats organic yogurt at seven dollars a pop. They drive past the camps on the way to the stores and restaurants and donate to United Way, all the while blocking from their tolerant minds the increasingly unavoidable fact that the system, their precious liberal capitalist "democracy", is crumbling before their eyes. The facade is being ripped off and all they can do is wonder how to fix "the problem".

Legitimization

In a debate taking place between Patrick Bond and Tom Athanasiou on SCNCC list, Bond made this statement: ... The big question from this COP is whether to legitimize or delegitimize the elites. With his request to OPEC buddies to increase the oil pumping, and his failure to get his own party behind his weak climate plan, Joe Biden is helping us move rapidly to the latter. Tom, whom I have debated in the past, finds this point about pulling back the curtain to be nonsensical. I have long argued it is in fact the real task and think it is worth revisiting the work of Jurgen Habermas on legitimization theory to understand the degree to which a hegemonic discourse can be undermined through contradiction. Habermas explains how power that does not depend on coercion must appear legitimate. It is this buy-in by ordinary citizens that upholds the entire ediface of capitalist "democracy" and I think Bond is correct that Biden, following Trump, is whittleing away at the system's legitimacy in the eyes of many. Of course the system (and its dominant narrative) has long been riddled with contradiction: we all hate rich people but we all want to be one. We all know two party "politics" is a farce but we still vote. We all know endless growth is impossible but we still work and shop and invest.The real question is which contradiction breaks the camel's back. When a tool like Biden has to publicly admit "the irony" of pumping more oil while calling for emission reduction you know legitimacy is in play. Of course it is not ironic, it is madness. Lift the curtain high enough and you just see a sad old man who achieved his dream and finds it's a nightmare. Just like a boycot on voting is a radical rupture, not showing up for the COP show would send a message to elites that the Kubuki is no longer entertaining.

Here We Go Again

I don't like being cynical but c'mon, it is the only rational response to this upcoming COP 26. For months my comrades have all been treating it like the elaborate farce it is, based on past experience. Lowered expectations is a rational psychological ploy, to prevent dissapointment or even depression. I often use the example of the Charlie Brown football gag as an expression of pathological optimism in the face of harsh reality. He is running up to the ball as I write these words. Just like Charlie Brown, we now see the Climate Justice Movement mobilizing for actions in Glasgow. By "actions" I mean the usual fare; marches, counter-summits, civil disobedience, your basic protest playbook. Just like the past dozen or so COPs. Knowing full well that Lucy will pull the ball away at the last second, the attendees show up, acting AS IF they don't know. Puppets and banners, sign making workshops, counter-demonstrations and probably some tear gas, all covered by Amy Goodman, all live-streamed on UTube. The world burns because Joe Manchin. But seriously, he is the perfect symbol of why we are in such danger. A religious man, he believes in God and His Invisible Hand Guiding The Market. Charity to help the poor. Hard Work and, as Greta Thunberg eloquently puts it, blah blah blah. Sentimental Andy of Mayberry pablum structures the thought of this banal puppet for Capital, all condensed to this imperative; The American Way of Life Is Not Negotiable. In this sense he is just the unfortunate spokesperson for The System of political economy known as Capitalist Democracy. Within the strictures of this system, the only mitigation possible is that which doesn't affect the economy. So: more "bridge fuels", more innovative technology, more pledges, more lectures from John Kerry and Al Gore and Bill Mc Kibben. And yet we know the revolution will not be televised, the pipeline will not be stopped, the Land won't be given Back, the Police will not be Abolished. We know America will continue to worship its God and Mythology and dark, convoluted Fantasies till the moment the water rushes in, or the fire sweeps our streets, or the shelves just remain empty. I believe the best thing we could do is ignore the COP, just as we should ignore elections. Why promote and thereby legitimize the Spectacle? Don't make the sign, don't sign the petition, don't report on it (Amy), do something useful instead, like your laundry.