This Might Be Useful -- Then Again... Gar Alperovitz Yaks With Laura Flanders About "The Next Revolution"

Gar Alperovitz and Laura Flanders 

It's almost as if the United States has gone into a state of suspended animation as the People digest the New Normalities of gross inequality, injustice, and permanent recession for the many, unprecedented and indecent wealth, power and privilege for the few.

Yes, well. We've been circling this pivot point for quite a while now. Efforts at reversing the course of events or even slowing down momentarily have proved futile. The Government of the United States of America has completely divorced itself from the interests of the American People. It serves only the right sort of international rich folk and that's it.

The People simply don't matter any more -- not that they ever much did in the vast eternal scheme.

What then must we (the People) do?

This is Alperovitz's central question. And, unlike so many in the field of intellectualized revolution, he provides some answers, some of which are similar to ones I've mentioned in posts here and in other fora.

As a side note, though, I would take his solutions with several barrels of salt. The clearest indication that his solutions may be no solution at all is his reliance on the decrepit institutions of the failed system, including labor unions. I can understand why he does it, but many Americans are on a different path altogether. There is much ferment and experimentation going on throughout the land, many Americans are consciously withdrawing from The System and setting up their own alternatives, intentional communities are flourishing, permaculture is more and more widely practiced, cooperatives and even communes have experienced new life. It's an acknowledgement that our institutions have failed. Something else again is required.

People are figuring out ways to survive and even prosper under the cruelties and rigidities of today's ruling class and its handmaidens, just as they always have. The more conditions worsen for the many, the more creative solutions are -- sometimes -- found.

This is a kind of internal revolution that the Occupy Movement attempted to prefigure, and I think they got it right. It amounts to a paradigm shift, in this case away from the standard model of institutional finance and economics and ultimately toward something else again, something simpler, more direct, closer to the land, more democratic, community enhancing, and sustainable.

Disengagement is a form of revolution.

But disengagement ultimately is not a solution, it's an alternative. Alternatives tend to be supplements rather than replacements for deteriorated institutions and the theft of the commons.

I'm reading some journals from the New Buffalo Commune up by Arroyo Hondo, arguably one of the most successful Hippie communes from back in the day. It's still there, though not what it once was as it now has a proprietor, an owner in fact not simply theory (for tax and other purposes, the original commune had to have some sort of declared ownership -- hilarity ensued.)  Many of its aspects were learning experiences for the communards -- most of whom had no background in back to the land efforts or farming or intentional community building or even independence beyond the typical adolescent need for revolt.

That's not enough for a sustainable community, as the New Buffalo communards found out.

The problem is not that there is something intrinsically wrong with the alternative being sought -- whether it's a cooperative, a commune, a diverse intentional community or what have you -- it is that the participants are almost always conditioned throughout their lives not to engage in such alternative behavior. Americans were and are conditioned to obey, to submit to authority, and to gravitate toward powerful personalities. And there always seem to be a surprising few intentional or unintentional predators who gravitate toward alternative communities who almost inevitably bring them to grief and/or ruin.

The openness of so many of alternative communities and the inability of their participants to protect themselves and their communities from those who would do them harm has meant the end of all too many communities and movements.

Yet many communes and intentional communities persist and more are forming all the time.  As the United States continues its rapid de-industrialization, the cooperatives and worker-owned factories that Alperovitz highlights and favors become both more and less relevant. The United States is becoming a nation that makes nothing; nothing but foodstuffs and financial figments for the world. In a sense and highly ironically, the overclass is driving the return to the American agrarian past -- for those who can do it.

Many can't and won't.

What to do about Bradley Manning....

As has been clear from what I've written about it in the past, I'm not much of a Bradley Manning devotee.

As abusive as his situation is, I don't find it to be particularly unique. I have a close relative who spent four years in solitary confinement in Marine Corps brigs (including his pre-court-martial confinement), and the only times he was out of solitary were when he was hospitalized recovering from the injuries he sustained when the guards beat the living shit out of him. Many other military detainees, at home and abroad, can easily verify the commonality of gross human rights violations in military custody up to and including severe torture. At least from reports, Manning is not being subjected to the worst he could be under the military detention scheme now and for many years in place.

Meanwhile, there are tens of thousands of domestic prisoners, by far the majority of them in civilian custody, who are subjected to far worse treatment on an ongoing basis than anything that has been reportedly done to Bradley Manning in Marine Corps custody. And many of them -- hundreds at least, and perhaps thousands -- are in pre-trial custody and have been convicted of nothing on any given day. Many of those are children.

Therefore I am not about to single out Bradley Manning for special attention. His situation is deplorable. Yet so is the detention situation for tens of thousands, perhaps over a hundred thousand Americans in custody among the millions of incarcerated Americans.

Solitary Watch has established itself as the go-to resource for information and heartbreaking stories of what goes on in the dark recesses of our prison-industrial complex -- and what is being done about it.

The other day, Solitary Watch linked to a guest column in the New Jersey Star Ledger by George Hunsinger, a founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. In it, he recognizes the plight of Bradley Manning as emblematic of the plight of so many Americans, many of them awaiting trial just as Manning is but none of them "deserving" the treatment they are experiencing. For there is no justification for tolerating torture.

I will excerpt the excerpt that appears in Solitary Watch:

The conditions under which Manning is being held are deplorable. No individual, whatever crime he may have committed, should be held in prolonged isolation or be routinely shamed through the use of unnecessary forced nakedness. And that’s the key point — no prisoners should suffer cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment — no matter who they are or what crime they may have committed.

I’m not qualified to speak for Bradley Manning. What I do know, however, is that there are thousands of prisoners throughout the country who face conditions that are similar to, or worse than, those Manning may be enduring. Unfortunately, however, those poor souls are almost completely ignored.

Many prisons contain units in which prisoners are held in isolation for prolonged periods of time (months or even years). The lack of human interaction is profoundly damaging to many of these prisoners — some suffer sufficiently to cause actual physical changes in the makeup of their brains.

Long-term solitary confinement is torture. It has been known to cause prisoners to go insane. And it is unnecessary. In many cases, prisoners are held in solitary confinement to punish them for minor infractions, because of the severe overcrowding of our prisons or other administrative reasons, or because they are mentally ill.

We need to think about what sort of people we want to be. Do we want to be a people who ignore torture that occurs here? Do we want to sit comfortably at home, knowing that somewhere not far away someone is being broken, his mind shattered, by a severe loneliness that has lasted for years?

It is one thing to punish a criminal. It is another to abuse him or her — to strip away his very humanity by denying him contact with all other humans. Solitary confinement can cause permanent damage. And let us remember that under the law, Manning, an American citizen, is still innocent until proved guilty.

It is our urgent responsibility to create a prison system where there is no place for such enforced suffering and where the rights of all citizens are upheld.

And that really is the point. It needs to be made over and over and over again. I'm glad to see that some of those who have been keening and rending their garments over the treatment of Bradley Manning have begun to recognize that what has been happening to him is symptomatic of widespread abuses of authority endemic to our prison system, and that the military is by no means an exception.

When the advocates for Bradley Manning educate themselves to the real horrors that are so deeply ingrained in our civilian and military prison system and clearly understand that as bad as things are for Bradley Manning, they are not unique but are pervasive, endemic, and brightline violations of human rights and dignity, affecting at a minimum tens of thousands and quite likely hundreds of thousands of people including children held in our extraordinarily bloated prison system, then maybe they'll be able to actively participate in changing this disgusting and inhumane system instead of just fretting themselves into paralysis over Bradley Manning.

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” -- Matthew 25:40

Here's a column by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella of Solitary Watch that appeared on Al Jazeera's website. It explains most of what Americans need to know about the topic.

Cruel and usual: US solitary confinement

As incarceration rates explode in the US, thousands are placed in solitary confinement, often without cause.

Give it a read. Then go forth armed and educated.

To Review:

Who knew?

I started this year with a vow not to be so negative about events and the future, despite the fact that I was sick as a dog when the new year dawned.

This has been one of the ironies of the New Year. As I think has been clear, I have been quite ill with pneumonia since December. I thought the first course of antibiotics had cleared it up and that I was simply recovering slowly. When I went to the ER, however, I came to understand that it was not cleared up at all, that it had come back with a vengeance, and that despite all the hooey about TB and cancer that they were giving me, I was damned sick just the same. I've been on a multi-pronged course of treatment ever since. Saw the doctor today; he's concerned that my chest x-ray still shows a significant -- though dimininshed -- infection in my upper lung, and he's inclined to recommend bioscopy to see what's going on, especially to see if there's any blockage in the trachea that had not been noted previously. That's as may be. Oh, and he ordered up another TB skin test just to confirm for all and sundry that I am not walking around spreading tuberculosis far and wide. Bless his heart.

Meanwhile, events have moved very quickly and surprisingly in the wider world, so much so that what seemed to be such important matters only a couple of months ago hardly even register any more.

The Uprisings have become the focus of attention for nearly everyone.

As they should be. Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, all have been subject to widespread political and social unrest that is almost all based on principles of Dignity and Justice -- principles that have been utterly lacking in the course of these mostly young people's lives to date.

But before there were Uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, there were widespread anti-austerity protests throughout Europe, many of which are still going on. It started in Greece, but it spread swiftly from there to France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the UK, Albania, Hungary, Poland, and on and on.

Calls for "Dignity and Justice" in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East combined with severe economic pressures brought on by an out of control financier class -- and oligarchs and plutocrats in general -- did not go unheard in this country.

Uprisings broke out here, too, with Wisconsin's continuing battle against the preening overreach of Scott Walker in the vanguard.

The struggle is just engaged. It's only just begun. But it seems to be the beginning of the end for a variety of oppressors far and wide, and the beginning of a New Community of, by and for the People, a spirit that is overdue for revival.

In this regard, the fascinations and problems of only a few months ago seem almost a self-indulgent fantasy now.

Power to the People. Power to the People, right on.

Well... yes.

Thanks to Meteor Blades over at dKos, I glommed on to this this little posting from the "Economic Perspectives from Kansas City" blog:

The Time Has Come for Direct Job Creation
By L. Randall Wray

There. Exactly. It's said. By an economist, no less.

American policy makers have been dithering for years over The Problem of Jobs; they actually eagerly embrace the Bubbles, because during them employment has reached near-universality, at least temporarily, and so The Problem of Jobs doesn't have to be addressed for another interlude, and nothing is done.

But we have been in recession for over a year, and The Problem of Jobs is catastrophic, and nothing has been done about it.

Food stamps? Unemployment benefit extensions? Who am I to say "nothing is being done?" But the fact is, nothing is being done to get people back to work in any kind of job let alone one of those vaunted "good jobs" already shipped to China.

There was no net jobs creation at all between the end of the Clinton presidency and the end of the Bush Regime, and now we're down another 6-15 million jobs (depending on who's counting and what they're counting) besides. Policy makers should be running around with their hair on fire. Instead, they continue in languid indifference.

The overall jobs picture is really bleak for years to come, perhaps permanently. Europe adapted to this situation a generation ago; Japan is adapting to it. Perhaps Americans should do likewise? Well, yes, perhaps, but Americans aren't even doing that.

They are oblivious.

They're oblivious to the job losses, oblivious to the foreclosures, oblivious to the bankruptcies, to the store closures, to the bank failures, to the exodus of manufacturing abroad.

Nothing seems to move them.

Policy makers are just as happy it is so; you'd almost think they want it this way, a growingly unemployed proletariat, a shrinking bourgeoisie, continuing massive accumulations of wealth and power at the top, declining wages and benefits for workers who still have jobs, increasing debt loads on those who can still pay their debts, and strangely inappropriate price increases for basic supplies.

Others have pointed out that we will never get out of this recession until and unless middle and working class debt is relieved and jobs return paying decent wages.

This should be axiomatic, but for some reason, many so-called Progressives simply don't get it. The only form of "debt relief" they can fathom for the working and middle classes is bankruptcy and foreclosure. (Which, thanks to Joe Biden et al, does not necessarily relieve debts at all). Any number of trillions to the banksters to pay off their gambling debts, all of it loaded on to the working and middle classes -- on top of the debt they already carry -- is fine with most so-called Progressives. But even hint at debt relief for workers and the bourgeoisie, and the Scolds come out in force: "Well, I never got over my head in debt, and I don't want to have to pay your debt if you did. That shows your moral failing, and it's your problem, not mine." When it is pointed out to these cretins that they are paying gazillions of dollars for the "moral failings" of banksters, and it would be of far more benefit to the economy to use that money to pay down the debt of the working and middle classes instead, all they have in response is a blank stare.

It's beyond their ability to comprehend.

Of course many of those who don't get it are not actually "Progressives" at all; they're Propertarians who have put on a mask of Progressivism so as to foster their cause by subversion if you will. The primacy of Property and Contracts is all they really care about. Oh, and Power. Yes. Because Property and Contracts only work one way in their warped world view. Those who have Power have the right and duty to hold Property to whatever extent they can accumulate it; they also have the right and the duty to enforce contracts to the letter. Those without Power, on the other hand, are shit out of luck. Their Property -- if they have any -- can and should be taken at the will and desire of those with Power; their Contracts (ha ha, suckers!) can and should be modified and/or voided at the will and demand of those with Power.

The Puritanical aspects of Propertarianism are pretty obvious. But actual Progressives (if there really are any) have their own blind spots and Puritanical rigidity as well.

The upshot in the real world is that jobs are not being created and wages and benefits for those who still have jobs are decreasing, which means that for most people, the Recession is enduring, not ending at all.

And, of course, them that already has is getting more.

You don't address the problem by letting it fester. But that's what our policy makers have decided to do, and due to the astonishing apathy of American People, they believe they'll get away with it, too.

In my next post, I'll try to deal with the Kansas City Solution in more detail.

But I had to rant, again, about the negligence and greed that still motivates those at the top of America's economic pyramid.