Taking Stock & Making Plans
Morning Comrades.
As with most emails you get from me on Monday mornings they get written on Sunday and aside from the usual care and house work that happens here I do tend to spend that day thinking about what is going on in my head and the rest of the world. I probably spent too much time this morning reading papers and western propaganda aka “the news” but my head was spinning most of the day.
I know it’s down to a number of stresses, not a singular one, but that, surely is the same for everyone reading this. With that, let’s take stock of what is going on and what can be done.
First, and probably for the last time on spotify, your new playlist. I am attempting to move all playlists to tidal for the time being this week but I’ll keep you updated on that through the telegram group. Weekly Jams 127 is another three hour trip through whatever tickled my fancy this past week and yeah, aside from one or two “what the fuck is this doing here” moments ( I caught myself dancing manically to Madonna sometime around Thursday last week and I don’t like Madonna but it’s in here ) it’s a deep dive into a lot of post-punk from the 70s onwards, film noir jazz, some trip hop and whatever sits in between those genres. It’s a good, if not a little dark at times playlist. Hit the banner below to get dancing.
Taking Stock
There is a bunch of crazy ass shit going on around the West if one pays attention to the mainstream media and I do- know your enemy and all that. You have the Olympics in China, the ongoing sable rattling between NATO and Russia, Covid, corruption, Silicon Valley coming up with more audacious ways and means of control and surveillance, data mining, the “West” giving up all pretence of “democracy” and warmly embracing the throes of modern day fascism, radical societal destroying corporate made climate change, economies close to another flatline that we will have to pay for and and and. Hell, this is just what’s popping into mind as I am sitting in my kitchen thinking about making dinner and trying not to get cigarette ash onto my laptop.
All of that isn’t so much what I wanted to write about but more so how all of this keeps being pushed into your face by the thousands of click-bait, data mining mouthpieces of capital that we call “The News”. This morning alone I counted 27 pieces from the US to European papers all selling the same anti-China rhetoric, funneled around the Olympics to Human Rights Issues - imagine the audacity of being a NATO member state politician yibba yabbering about Human Rights Violations - to judgement about how China is enforcing their Covid Strategy.
We are witnessing the West in certain and irreversible decline if not total destruction. It doesn’t really matter how I feel about that but it’s important to point out that those in power know this and are doing everything their billions can afford to manipulate you and Dave down the road into hating everyone that’s not them. Othering is a concept popularized here in Europe prior to WW1 when degenerate Monarchs couldn’t get over their tiny brains and egos and sent millions of people who had no reason to do so to slaughter each other in the fields of Northern Europe. This is happening now. Capitalism as we know it in the West is dying and with that will come more and more extremes in regards to propaganda, manipulation and culture, all preparations set into a mindset of 20th Century Capitalists fighting a 21st Century war. The only similarity to wars prior is that we, you, me and Dave down the road aka the plebs, the working classes will pick up the tab, both in debt and bloody.
Fuck that and you know what needs to be done about that. Another example is this NATO insanity in regards to Ukraine. After 30 years of aggressive eastward expansion by NATO, something that was never on the table during the peace talks of 1989-1999 concluding the Warsaw Pact, further cemented in the 1997 NATO-RUSSIA FOUNDING ACT and then positively shat on by NATO in 1999, well, here we are. I am no ways or means excusing or supporting Putin’s Russia, far from it, but without the actual historical context and just listening to Western Media, well shit, you’d think we’d be at the bring of WWW3. We are not, and it’s not going to happen and this whole show, that will sadly once again, cost lives of innocent working class comrades all over the region, is only about money. Energy money to specific or to be even more specific, the West’s wild audacious arrogance into not accepting a more powerful energy provider in Russia than they have been.
Again, if you view what we call “The News” here as nothing but mouthpieces for Capitalists whose influence and power is waning, this broad and massive manipulation campaign will become clearer. Whilst these moves, historically, speaking aren’t anything new it’s the first bloody time we are all stuck in the middle of it and if you think us having to pick up the tab after the Wall Street Crash in 2008 was bad, well, this will be much worse - the sacking of Rome was child play in comparison based on the interconnectivity of Empire alone and it is nigh on time to say: No More, or rather, Fuck The Man.
The same can be said about our reaction to Covid in the West. After 1,739,611 DEATHS in Europe and 2.3 million in North America within 2 years you’d think we are well and truly done with it. Travel, Entertainment, Work, Schools and whatever else serves as a viral hotspots REMAIN THE FUCK OPEN all to keep the mighty economy going- just replace the word “economy” with “billionaires third holiday home” and you know what the deal is. I have written about alternatives here aplenty but you know what I am getting at. We aren’t done with this deadly pandemic and we never intended to tackle this problem in case it upset Wall Street. Total dehumanizing insanity was rolled out over us in propaganda campaign after propaganda campaign to simply accept nearly 4 million dead people in 2 year for what? That a bunch of rich C**TS got richer - they did - and we didn’t, we suffered, are suffering and sure as fuck got a whole lot poorer.
Not wanting to get too crazy here but if ALL THAT isn’t indicative of how our governments in the West will deal with the guaranteed Climate Catastrophe well, spank my arse and call me Charlie I guess ( anything but Steve instead of Steven, I fucking hate that ). It is about retaining our individual and more important, collective HUMANITY throughout all this and “The News” and “The Man” is your enemy. Know this, accept this, and move forward accordingly.
Making Plans
This is part that I enjoy more rather than pointing out the fuck-hole this construct has turned into. All of the above touches you, has tangible affects on your day to day material life, not even mentioning the mental affects this has on all of us - and yet,, individually, there is truly fuck all we can do about this.
Also, this isn’t a piece to convince anyone about the collective alternatives. Not today.
I struggle with all of the above and more, materially and mentally on a daily, it has the potential to drag me the fuck down, get unmotivated and unprincipled. Apart from that being the plan and it just triggering my spiteful anti-authoritarian nature, there is an individual way to help you ( not solve ) get through this. I do this all the time and it is truly one solid way to stay sane and focused.
Make Plans.
Make More Plans.
Make More Back Up Plans.
Sounds silly, I know, but it works. The last thing “Capital” aka “The Man” wants is for anyone to think for themselves, let alone work towards autonomy - mad word from a person into collectivism over individuality I know - but autonomy and self-determination are at the heart of my borrowed and adapted ideology, without it, collective action becomes not only reactionary but authoritarian, as history has shown.
So make plans comrades! How to get through the day, the next week, the next month and for the future. The more outlandish the better I say! It’s not only sticking it to the man but it keeps you focused on your own material and emotional realities and that my dear friends will keep sane and focused. This determination, now more than ever is what it is that will keep us all together.
As to my own, well, I have friends coming over dinner shortly so I am unsure about tomorrow, but as for the long-term plan. Well, I see a small little place somewhere warm with a few guest rooms, a few tables outside to eat the food I can cook for everyone, books, music, laughter and comradeship.
I’ll see you there.
Until then, I remain yours, without compromise,
V.
P.S.: For more in-house and in-person rants, watch this: