Morning Comrades.
The other day I re-watched “Killing Them Softly” and in it, one of the main characters said the below that prompted today’s musings.
My friend, Jefferson's an American saint because he wrote the words, "All men are created equal." Words he clearly didn't believe, since he allowed his own children to live in slavery. He was a rich wine snob who was sick of paying taxes to the Brits. So yeah, he wrote some lovely words and aroused the rabble, and they went out and died for those words, while he sat back and drank his wine and fucked his slave girl. This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community. Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now fucking pay me.
Jackie Cogan - Killing Them Softly
Again, for the nuanced disclaimers, this isn’t specifically about the US nor the US experience but goes for all of us in the imperial West. Focusing, however, on the US experience brings home a truism we all have to accept: our reality, here in the West is shaped by the above reality post WW2 as it relates to the prime driving force that shaped “everything” for the sole purpose of constructing a bulwark against Communism. Leave it to the Capitalists to create a binary existence, but we covered that on Wednesday.
This train of thought bears additional relevance these days since what we were sold as democracy has been in steady decline since the early 1990s to a point where the original idea that was, philosophically speaking, brought into the narrative after the US and French Revolutions respectively, no longer exists, even philosophically. Whatever we were taught Freedom and Democracy were simply does not exist. Of course, the question whether they ever existed has been answered clearly here and by far smarter people than myself and this leads us to today’s premise.
Let’s take a few steps back and ask why all this talk about Freedom? Why is talking about Freedom important? Is it because a bunch of rich white dudes from Europe from the 16th Century all of sudden started bitching the lack thereof - “feudalism bad, freedom good”. aka the birth of the bourgeoise or did they just have really good publicists that their understanding of Freedom has cemented itself into our psyche? Or was the oppression of everyone, unequally to be sure but violent nonetheless, at some point so unbearable that past and then current originator stories ( we call them religion today ) were shaped to offer an escapism from the miseries that was existence then, from which the above mentioned rich white dudes ( philosophers to be clear, in case anyone missed that below the waist shot at my own profession ) took that and created an idea to replace one oppression with another?
As an additional disclaimer, this isn’t some coded mambo jumbo for Authoritarianism, I am massive proponent of Freedom, just not the one that’s been on sale since those European Revolutions. Had to be said, mostly due to the fact that too many philosophers that aim to juggle this discussion are after book deals and lack the convictions to to do what we are supposed to do, seek truth, and thus so often head down the route of becoming insufferable fascists.
Coming back to the question at hand, it is hugely important to talk about Freedom because as we understand it, it is a concept and a brand that’s been used to send millions of people to die in wars for the enrichment of the bastard few. That is why it is important to dissect what we are being sold and what it is that we can work towards. Yes, they are two very distinct different realities.
One way to explain the ever increasing slide into full blown Fascism is that the US post WW2 was able to conjoin the idea of Freedom and Democracy with Capitalism. More importantly, this idea of Freedom and Democracy was married to consumption. I don’t have to repeat 80s of Propaganda, but essentially, the selling point of the West has always been: “Look at all things I can buy, I am free.”
Right. Who was free, at what cost, personally and for the rest of the world?
The fascinating part is that the rejection of Democracy as we know it is actually a rejection of Capitalism now that the only source of “happiness” under capitalistic Freedom now has dried up: consumption. Who here can actually afford anything other than survival despite working themselves to death, with the highest output of productivity (for the capitalists, not us) to boot? So, we’re back to Feudalism, with Wifi, even though that is quickly becoming a luxury too.
The questions then remain, what is Freedom outside of the shitty Mall brand the US government sold it as? Do we want it? How is Freedom related to Democracy, should it be and why do we equate Democracy as something inherently good - disregarding the active and passive brainwashing of multiple generations. Honestly, no one here has the time nor the capacity to really get into it, but I would propose one fact:
Whatever the fuck “this” is, it’s neither Free nor Democratic.
We have a brand called Freedom and Democracy that no one benefits from other than its muppets, capitalists and their politicians, and the time for following brands blindly is over. Even the euro-centric, philosophical idea of freedom, “independence of the arbitrary will of another” has truly become outdated in a highly technological, multipolar world, one, in which, nothing but communalism will be the way forward. Is the idea then, to ensure equity to all, not equality mind you, to employ a democratic process as a tool and not as a brand, a possibility for a better world? I believe so, but again, we have to deconstruct what we understand “democratic” process and organization to be, because no one here experiences it. Whatever the bastards capitalist sell as Democracy is nothing but TruthSpeak to veil and obscure the most brutally violent Dictatorship of Capital Accumulation.
For the sake of brevity and attention span, I will say this: The brand “Freedom and Democracy” is dead and we need to bury it. We need to move past ideology created by Slave Masters and DO what we needs to be done. Re-discover, re-invent and create Freedom, for all, and potentially, or until someone comes up with a better process, utilize the principles of the democratic process that no one suffers, has needs or wants and then maybe we can burn down the fucking malls they put on the ground after raising our forests.
Food for thoughts comrades.
Thank you for your time, attention and suppport.
Yours, in need of a drink and some time off-
Steven