Revolution & Complacency

“The lust for comfort; that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest; then becomes a host, and then a master.” (Khalil Gibran, 1883-1931)

If I were blogging back in 2000, readers would have been bombarded with the usual, predictable incessant tirades concerning the ‘evils’ of capitalism, corporate abuses, the looting of our treasury, and the widening gap between wealth and everyone else. You would have perhaps dismissed my rambling discourses as the rantings of a disillusioned Trotskyite caught up in the idealistic Marxist fervor over class warfare, robber barons, and social inequity. You would have thought me a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and left-wing whack-job. You might have considered my words and those of others like me, and then, after a moment, returned to your Wall Street Journal editorial page, checked your stock portfolio, and went right back to life, unwilling to accept the possibility that anyone or any group of people could be so laden with Greed as to endanger the entire nation for the sake of profit.

Some of us believed that an administration with business experience would be good for the country. We imagine business-minded people to be the types who roll up their sleeves to tackle the big issues head-on while beads of sweat run off their foreheads. We dreamed about practical-minded and sound fiscal ideals, much the same sort we apply when balancing a checkbook, repairing a leaky faucet, or saving for that rainy day. We were fooled. Twice. The enemies that this administration portrays as enemies might very well be enemies, and while we are focused on those enemies, another enemy, more insidious and deceptive, plies his trade under waving flags, between the pages of Scripture, and from beneath the coffins of our dead brothers and sisters. This enemy has our tacit approval.

These same business-minded folk choose to subsidize already profitable industries and take food from the mouths of children to pay for it. They shift the public wealth into the hands of their cronies and hold private meetings with taxpayer dollars. They turn malfeasance and incompetence into an art form and pat themselves on the back. They sacrifice lives, torture captives, and waste money, and then claim success and victory! The desired results are profit margins and nothing else matters. They hide their personal wealth in offshore accounts to avoid taxation, do business with those they claim are our enemies, and engage in insider trading deals. Their conflicts of interest are not a problem to them. Their ‘conflict’ with our interests, our lives, doesn’t seem to bother them either. Every step of the way, every proposal, every policy, every mandate, every propaganda meeting, etc., has the stench of Greed all over it. Sure, politicians have always been self-serving and unworthy of trust, but this cabal of Greed stands as an icon of archetypical heartless and relentless avarice. They tell us it is all for our own good and we believe them.

It is long past the time for moral outrage. I am steaming mad at them. They, however, are not the focus of my primary concern, at least for the moment. I look at all that is going on and I want to cry because I realize that which we allow may ultimately be what we become. I fear of getting comfortable with things as they are and then making excuses for the status quo, enabling these pin-striped Vikings to continue their raiding and pillaging of the planet while sitting in my armchair and trying not to spill Starbuck’s coffee on the day’s Wall Street Journal.

Trotsky spoke of a ‘perpetual revolution’. Revolution is not always about political or social upheaval. It also relates to vigilance and perseverance on a personal level, an inner mechanism to shield us from the complacency that mutates a people into the very thing we rebelled against from the first. It is not only for balance of power in governance we advance, but a struggle for the conscience of humanity, collectively and individually.

I do not want my own conscience sullied by justifications for what the corporatists do. There may come a brief second when I contemplate some rationale for their crimes. Descartes said “I think; therefore I am.” Though I may disagree with his statement (I prefer Spinoza’s “I am, therefore I think.”), it does seem to apply in this context. If I begin to think as they do, there is a good chance I have already become like them. Hannah Arendt once said, “The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.” I fear she is correct and that, at least in me, is an unacceptable outcome.

Revolution!

“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution. Revolution is but thought carried into action.” (Emma Goldman, 1869-1940)