You nailed it Vera, this is exactly what Canada has to do! When Trump came on the scene Trudeau was so fearful he fired his foreign affairs minister Stephane Dion who wanted to pursue rapprochement with Russia. If Canada wants to survive it must develop new partnerships with more reliable partners. NATO is dead and Europe is in the same position we are --abandoned and threatened.
Trump is driving nails into America's coffin and we have to make damned sure we are not one of them.
The repair for the first-past-the-post is the French method, of run-off elections until someone has an actual majority. But that allows people to see how others have voted and adjust as needed. It that way, it mimics genuine town-hall democracy in which if you make a stupid proposal or voting decision, you have to explain it to the other people. This shows the error of the ballot box, in which you place your single vote, which you marked in your retribution box, since voting this was is mainly an emotional rather than rational decision. Especially when stupid people vote.
‘… “for Canadians democracy only occurs once every four years; election day”. No, democracy must happen every day and it’s our job to make sure it happens.’
Democracy prohibited in the interim scoffs and repudiated any alleged ‘democratic’ import on election days.
Canada’s so-called ‘elections’ ought to be repudiated as a basis for entering a massive struggle for democracy.
I recommend beginning with a national, General Strike. When the regime bans this [which it will] make the strike permanent until the regime either relents or collapses.
Develop a nation-wide network of politically independent committees with international ties to lead this work.
Hmmm... Like the over 600 neo-liberal think tanks? Or like Harper's IDU - International Democratic Union which links together the worst quasi-dictators? How about an internalized actual social structure, like a democratic pyramid scheme, linking all of society together? General strikes were abolished centuries ago with the likes of Shay's Rebellion, in which by force, people learned to accept that the only point of people-government communication was the ballot box. Democracy is not a byproduct of anarchy; it is a major challenge for anyone to coalesce enough power to actually govern. Try it some time.
Let me guess: you’re uncomfortable with ‘ought to be repudiated’ because of the unstated premise that the bourgeoisie state exists to serve, promote and otherwise manage that ruling class faction’s interests, and any challenge to its authority to do so is ‘verboten.’
Why register ongoing, partizan-independent, globally oriented organization and activism with anarchism? More ‘democracy’ than Canada’s bourgeoisie can stomach? Inability of the petit bourgeoisie to steer it into the political graveyard of Reformism?
Anarchism is the byproduct of contradictions integral to the systemic extortion/oppression/injustice Marx’ writings identify as ‘Capitalism.’ At issue — ‘how does the ruling class perpetuate these contradictions, and what is thereby implied about the possibility of genuine democracy within the bourgeois state?
Reforms in the bourgeois state won’t emancipate the working class; they are mere palliatives that reinforce the system’s contradictions. Given ruling class control of productive means AND the state apparatus, the 90% will be bureaucratically and/or ideologically co-opted.
I am very curious to see in the next few years if there is a resurgence of democracy in the West. Neoliberalism has done a very effective job of demolishing nation states. Corporatism and oligarchs control government and levers of power. It may be a revolutionary dog fight or a fait accompli.... who knows?
The longer the crisis prevails the more elusive solutions and progress become.
Unless I am much mistaken — and I’ll be the first to admit that possibility — we are entering a period of massive, social struggles the likes of which have not been seen since the first, Great War.
If we survive, posterity will wonder how the West so quickly slid from such heights into irrelevance.
Who’d have thought the pair of us would see such times …
I contend we are in the 80th year of another hundred year war as starting with WW l the West has been habitually addicted to the greatest wars ever fought with a psychotic disregard for consequences.
In WW l British politicians only realized the scale of the conflagration they had started after 30,000 British troops had been killed.
After the Treaty of Versailles was signed, Woodrow Wilson and many other diplomats were convinced it was only a matter of time before another world war would start.
Even before the end of WW ll there were elements in US government that were preparing for war against the USSR (The Dullard bros.)
When US President Truman was meeting with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta in 1945 he received word the first atomic bomb had been successfully tested. His off the record response was " Good now we can do whatever we want." Two years later the USSR had the bomb.
We are at an historic pivot point where the epitaph on the tombstone of the West will read "Death by endless wars and perpetual lunacy".
And I concur that Western imperialist powers engage in a recurring pattern of catastrophic wars in context of persistent cycles of militarism and escalation—basically as standing policy.
That said, wars are neither inevitable nor are they the result of Western ‘addiction.’ They are driven by the diktats of capitalist political economy, its unrelenting necessity for abundant, cheap raw materials, labour and markets, and the geopolitical dominance necessary to realize these ends.
Western ruling classes precipitate conflicts continually, often under the guise of national security, democracy, or ‘freedom’ [the last being their most deadly export].
The pursuit of greed, strategic interests, and a reckless disregard for human life, imperial interests sow the seeds of future wars, as your reference to the Versailles Treaty and subsequent rise of fascism attests.
In a nuclear age, imperial rivalry exemplifies the utter amoral response to an only too real likelihood that hostilities will be escalated ceaselessly until humanity itself ceases in an apocalyptic event of our own doing.
Your observation of the West dying by ‘endless wars and perpetual lunacy’ underscores a lesson of incalculable import: driven by their insatiable greed and desire for global dominance, imperialist powers have actively chosen the path of perpetual conflict. The question now becomes, ‘where do we go with this.’
My thinking is that moving forces which brought us here will only and inevitably take us further down that path to its logical conclusion. In this existential moment, I repudiate as deadly all degraded claims that amelioration or reform is possible for the ‘dying West.’
If this trajectory is avoided, it will be because humanity ended it, putting those responsible for the horrors that daily unfold around us on trial for their crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and for genocide.
The ruling classes made their choice; I turn to the global working class.
Actually, Truman mentioned the bomb to Stalin, who simply nodded, yes, we know...
And as shown in Pankaj Mishra's book "Age of Anger," and likewise as a result of deliberate destruction of world monetary order, we are headed to a world-wide civil war of all against all as I have mentioned on many posts. And re GS-z's large comment above, I have written pages on how a group of self-serving fools and charlatans stand in the social space which real government should occupy and that govt should be able to operate as a utility instead of a vehicle for wave after wave of ideologists to try their experiments, like Marx's links of sausage going in and out of parliament.
Who knows...perhaps this is a good chance to start weening away from America's bosom.
You nailed it Vera, this is exactly what Canada has to do! When Trump came on the scene Trudeau was so fearful he fired his foreign affairs minister Stephane Dion who wanted to pursue rapprochement with Russia. If Canada wants to survive it must develop new partnerships with more reliable partners. NATO is dead and Europe is in the same position we are --abandoned and threatened.
Trump is driving nails into America's coffin and we have to make damned sure we are not one of them.
I lived 30 years in the US and noticed one thing: stand up to the Yanks and they'll back off.
The repair for the first-past-the-post is the French method, of run-off elections until someone has an actual majority. But that allows people to see how others have voted and adjust as needed. It that way, it mimics genuine town-hall democracy in which if you make a stupid proposal or voting decision, you have to explain it to the other people. This shows the error of the ballot box, in which you place your single vote, which you marked in your retribution box, since voting this was is mainly an emotional rather than rational decision. Especially when stupid people vote.
‘… “for Canadians democracy only occurs once every four years; election day”. No, democracy must happen every day and it’s our job to make sure it happens.’
Democracy prohibited in the interim scoffs and repudiated any alleged ‘democratic’ import on election days.
Canada’s so-called ‘elections’ ought to be repudiated as a basis for entering a massive struggle for democracy.
I recommend beginning with a national, General Strike. When the regime bans this [which it will] make the strike permanent until the regime either relents or collapses.
Develop a nation-wide network of politically independent committees with international ties to lead this work.
Hmmm... Like the over 600 neo-liberal think tanks? Or like Harper's IDU - International Democratic Union which links together the worst quasi-dictators? How about an internalized actual social structure, like a democratic pyramid scheme, linking all of society together? General strikes were abolished centuries ago with the likes of Shay's Rebellion, in which by force, people learned to accept that the only point of people-government communication was the ballot box. Democracy is not a byproduct of anarchy; it is a major challenge for anyone to coalesce enough power to actually govern. Try it some time.
Let me guess: you’re uncomfortable with ‘ought to be repudiated’ because of the unstated premise that the bourgeoisie state exists to serve, promote and otherwise manage that ruling class faction’s interests, and any challenge to its authority to do so is ‘verboten.’
Why register ongoing, partizan-independent, globally oriented organization and activism with anarchism? More ‘democracy’ than Canada’s bourgeoisie can stomach? Inability of the petit bourgeoisie to steer it into the political graveyard of Reformism?
Anarchism is the byproduct of contradictions integral to the systemic extortion/oppression/injustice Marx’ writings identify as ‘Capitalism.’ At issue — ‘how does the ruling class perpetuate these contradictions, and what is thereby implied about the possibility of genuine democracy within the bourgeois state?
Reforms in the bourgeois state won’t emancipate the working class; they are mere palliatives that reinforce the system’s contradictions. Given ruling class control of productive means AND the state apparatus, the 90% will be bureaucratically and/or ideologically co-opted.
I am very curious to see in the next few years if there is a resurgence of democracy in the West. Neoliberalism has done a very effective job of demolishing nation states. Corporatism and oligarchs control government and levers of power. It may be a revolutionary dog fight or a fait accompli.... who knows?
The longer the crisis prevails the more elusive solutions and progress become.
Unless I am much mistaken — and I’ll be the first to admit that possibility — we are entering a period of massive, social struggles the likes of which have not been seen since the first, Great War.
If we survive, posterity will wonder how the West so quickly slid from such heights into irrelevance.
Who’d have thought the pair of us would see such times …
As you say … who knows?! 🤷♂️
I contend we are in the 80th year of another hundred year war as starting with WW l the West has been habitually addicted to the greatest wars ever fought with a psychotic disregard for consequences.
In WW l British politicians only realized the scale of the conflagration they had started after 30,000 British troops had been killed.
After the Treaty of Versailles was signed, Woodrow Wilson and many other diplomats were convinced it was only a matter of time before another world war would start.
Even before the end of WW ll there were elements in US government that were preparing for war against the USSR (The Dullard bros.)
When US President Truman was meeting with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta in 1945 he received word the first atomic bomb had been successfully tested. His off the record response was " Good now we can do whatever we want." Two years later the USSR had the bomb.
We are at an historic pivot point where the epitaph on the tombstone of the West will read "Death by endless wars and perpetual lunacy".
And I concur that Western imperialist powers engage in a recurring pattern of catastrophic wars in context of persistent cycles of militarism and escalation—basically as standing policy.
That said, wars are neither inevitable nor are they the result of Western ‘addiction.’ They are driven by the diktats of capitalist political economy, its unrelenting necessity for abundant, cheap raw materials, labour and markets, and the geopolitical dominance necessary to realize these ends.
Western ruling classes precipitate conflicts continually, often under the guise of national security, democracy, or ‘freedom’ [the last being their most deadly export].
The pursuit of greed, strategic interests, and a reckless disregard for human life, imperial interests sow the seeds of future wars, as your reference to the Versailles Treaty and subsequent rise of fascism attests.
In a nuclear age, imperial rivalry exemplifies the utter amoral response to an only too real likelihood that hostilities will be escalated ceaselessly until humanity itself ceases in an apocalyptic event of our own doing.
Your observation of the West dying by ‘endless wars and perpetual lunacy’ underscores a lesson of incalculable import: driven by their insatiable greed and desire for global dominance, imperialist powers have actively chosen the path of perpetual conflict. The question now becomes, ‘where do we go with this.’
My thinking is that moving forces which brought us here will only and inevitably take us further down that path to its logical conclusion. In this existential moment, I repudiate as deadly all degraded claims that amelioration or reform is possible for the ‘dying West.’
If this trajectory is avoided, it will be because humanity ended it, putting those responsible for the horrors that daily unfold around us on trial for their crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and for genocide.
The ruling classes made their choice; I turn to the global working class.
Be well, Robert!
Actually, Truman mentioned the bomb to Stalin, who simply nodded, yes, we know...
And as shown in Pankaj Mishra's book "Age of Anger," and likewise as a result of deliberate destruction of world monetary order, we are headed to a world-wide civil war of all against all as I have mentioned on many posts. And re GS-z's large comment above, I have written pages on how a group of self-serving fools and charlatans stand in the social space which real government should occupy and that govt should be able to operate as a utility instead of a vehicle for wave after wave of ideologists to try their experiments, like Marx's links of sausage going in and out of parliament.