Morning Comrades.
I trust you all had a pleasureful weekend. I did, however, a series of thoughts prompted by another case of greed masquerading as, actually, I am not even sure what to call it, had or rather has me thinking at the time of writing: When will we have enough? Or rather, when will we finally accept the fact that we are being taken for a ride, with all encompassing wars, destruction of our planet and utter suppression of our freedoms and say: “yeah, no more of this thanks, you bastards are leaving and we’ll take it back from here?”
What follows will mostly be a free flowing ramble rather than a well-researched paper, one for the lack of working brain cells after my weekend and secondly, and rather more poignantly, does anyone still need more facts?
Let’s kick it off with some fighting tunes though. Weekly Jams 151 is live now!
If you thought that last week was a gem, and it was, this week is even better. Aside from metal, you’ll find something in here for every thing you like and then more tunes that you didn’t think you would like. Heaps of new tunes, plenty of deep cuts and then some more. I listened to most of this playlist on a train journey Sunday morning and yeah, not a single track on here disappoints, on the contrary. Enjoy!
Ok, So We Had Enough Now?
Obviously, what triggered this rant is that fact that Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. politician serving as speaker of the United States House of Representatives decided to go on a trip to South East Asia over the weekend. In on itself, highly unremarkable yet there was heaps of talk about said person potentially going to Taiwan - if you would like to know what the problems around this are, please click here. I have no mind to get into the details here but would rather offer a little more perspective on the potential act and the realities leading up to this and ask a few questions.
In short, our ruling classes, our politicians here in the “free” west and their capitalist masters truly have zero, probably less than zero, interest in “us”. I’ll go one step further and say that their interests are in direct opposition to our needs and are using all tools available to them, violence, propaganda and more to not only keeps us divided and thus fighting one another but furthermore, and whilst doing, are actively on track to end whatever “life” we have in order to make more money that they could ever hope to spend. Not in the sense of “yeah, can’t go on holiday twice a year” but “the end of our species” kind of talk.
You know, if you take a few steps away from the constant onslaught of propaganda here in the west, the realizations are staggering - and so brutally in your face that the first question that comes to mind is: why are we letting this happen again?
The point I am making is this: we are brought up to believe that we live in a fair and democratic society. Our politicians work for us to act on our short, mid and long term behalf to ensure our safety and prosperity. Over the last few centuries we have been made to believe that we have grown aware enough that wars, strife, conflict, inequality and authoritarianism are behind us and that though a democratic legislative concept can reign in capitalism in order create a just and fair society.
What a load of bollocks.
Even if I were to ignore my last 25 years of studying, struggling, activism, learning and so on, and was allowed to take a few days off, take a breath and look at the last twenty years here in England and Germany alone…Christ on a Crutch! None of the above even holds up remotely. The people we have been led to believe - none of us actually choose these puppets - who we pay, who we work for, who we give up power for to represent us against forces that are aligned against us, to work for us to, at the very least, will use the collective power we give them to help us, well, they are literally and figuratively showing their wrinkly asses in our faces. It’s wild, again, once you take a step back from all the brain rot they have given us, once you get past the “yeah, of course I know all politicians are liars and not to be trusted” and go “wait, this isn’t how it should be and we should change this shit” because it is our lives at stake here.
I don’t think the democratic realities, constructs and structures are broken or were broken on purpose as so many of the assholes in charge will tell you ( for more power to fix the problems in exchange of course ) no, I do think they were designed exactly for this to always be the reality and depending on how you read history any 4th grader would agree with this, but obviously, this is discounting the hold on the cultural hegemony the ruling classes have always had. I know that. However, once again, imagine just for one second that you could escape said brain washing and look at what is happening, how you are blatantly being lied to, oppressed and fucking fleeced, wouldn’t the logical, emphatic reaction be: “Fuck no! This isn’t right and we should change this for something better, because we can.”
I do think outside of the brain washing constructs ( media, social media etc ) anyone you’ll ask would be extremely happy if they were offered free or at the very least subsidized housing free, progressive health care, collectively working towards making this planet a better place for all of the children, collectively working towards the betterment of all. As a matter of fact I know this, as every person I speak to and have spoken to, no matter where in the world, will absolutely agree on these premises. There is nothing spiritual about it either, it’s just common sense essentially and the only people you’ll find arguing against “peace”, as a larger construct, are those who are or believe they will benefit from the subjugation of others. Of course, this is never said out loud or potentially even believed, but that’s that, the mental disease and cost of capitalism, rooted in ownership. My gripe ( putting it extremely mildly here for all of the legal reasons ) with this construct is just that - I am not jealous of anyones wealth, possessions etc - I am just utterly enraged at the cost of all of this nonsense for everyone else. The injustice of it all, because fuck believing in this antiquated, kindergarten understanding of history that “there will always been kings and peasants” - I mean, just read “The Dawn of Everything” , an entry level scientific rebuttal of this capitalist brain rot that offers millennia of proven historical and anthropological alternatives.
I digress, however, the question remains, when is enough, enough? Is it a politician, old, greedy, inhumane and corrupt to the core, willing to start a conflict between the two major nuclear world powers, for what exactly? I am still not sure what the fucking game plan here is other than the obvious greed - is that enough? Is that when humanity collectively goes, “yo, we’re done here, you’ve done enough damage and we’re gonna take over from now? Or do we need actually let all Black Mirror episodes play out and just lie down and take it? Seriously, asking just for myself and my kid here, because I am being asked those questions, by people with a lot less authority and power than this old, broke and angry writer.
I know, doom talk, doom scrolling - shit gets us all down. Same here. I do have to take to this tiny ass soap box occasionally to at very least get everyone to hold an internal vibe check for the ten minutes it takes to read this. Comrades, I know the world is scary when you do this but be assured:
The future is unknowable and will be determined by how hard we fight now, for a loving, peaceful tomorrow.
Food for thought.
Thanks for listening, spreading the word, your attention and support.
Yours, warmly and without compromise,
V.