Holiday leave from Ghetto North America(GNA)
Holiday leave from Ghetto North America(GNA)
Notes on a seaward journey by a the tourist refugee
Cruising is a fine way of escaping Ghetto North America (GNA). As the cruise business booms and life ashore becomes more and more stressful roaming the high seas on palatial lily pads has great appeal. As some prophets are predicting the world is rapidly becoming a series of lily pads in too many ways as delusional ideologues and the depraved souls of GNA are left to do the the Devil’s work.
GNA is not a ghetto of barb wire and concrete walls. It is though a ghetto of the mind and soul, populated with lying politicians waging too many wars, a plague of false prophets, declining democracies—increasingly regarded as pariahs on the world stage. As the rest of the world moves aggressively and progressively further into the 21st Century GNA wages hybrid war on a world it no longer controls.
The DNA of GNA has too many links and strands badly knotted and they are not self-sorting, and no amount of AI is going to sort them. Getting things right again is going to take a lot of human intelligence, dedicated statecraft and a rapid return common sense.
The GNA likes to think it can sanction its alleged enemies out of existence when in fact it is sanctioning itself out of existence— its called Blowback.
Claiming to be “exceptional” does not make any one or any empire exceptional. Claiming to be God on Earth does not make one exceptional, only delusional, where the rules of nature, morality and history still prevail. The claim of exceptionalism is the desperate cry of infantilized revanchist ideologues, willing to destroy all to have their way. They are are not welcome on the voyage.
As our micro-society of 6000 (passengers and crew) set out to sea the ship is so big you can choose your neighborhood where you want to hang out, be very solitary or very social, do everything or nothing. The crew and passengers combined represent most countries of the world, the atmosphere is very cordial, many different languages can be heard. As the vast Pacific enveloped us we were removed from the grasp of racist bigoted politicians, heartless ideologues and covert agents of chaos so willing to kill and tear whole societies asunder.
As so many travelers have learned through eons of time the more you travel the more you learn people the world over have so much in common. These days, more than ever, we are all in Noah’s Ark. I wondered how many others saw themselves as refugees/tourists as I saw myself getting away from the ghetto for some repose and reflection. How many were even aware of the virtual ghetto the GNA continent has become? How many sensed and saw the change I have, living on the cusp of the empire watching its mutations and how those mutations affected colonized Canada next door along with so many others? To acknowledge our colonization is a national taboo decreed by our elites as they are feckless cockatoos to the empire’s criminality.
On a cruise ship the “Us vs.Them” disappears. There are no politicians lying to us, waging endless wars, trying to divide and conquer the world while lining their pockets with gold bricks. There is peace and civility not known to the land world of corrupted continents and the incontinence of political greed and stupidity. Thought, honesty and empathy have been criminalized on our continental ship of fools.
The Ship of Fools, by Karl Wallinger, rock song 1986
We're setting sail for the place on the map from which no one has ever returned
Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool
By the light of the crosses that burn
Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace
And the gold and the cotton and pearls
It's the place where they keep all the darkness you need
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip baby
Pay, you will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You will pay tomorrow
Oh, oh, oh
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no
I want to run and hide right now
Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Or drowning in the oceans of history
Traveling the world, you're in search of no good
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like you knew you would
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
As you're little boat struggles through the warning waves, but you don't pay
You will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow, yeah
You're gonna pay tomorrow
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no, no
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools
Where's it comin' from?
Oh, where's it goin' to?
It's just a, it's just a ship of fools
I was apprehended reading a book on the ship. I could feel the eyes of the couple at the table next to me. They wondered why I was pouring over my book, highlighting so many passages. Finally the woman inquired, “Are you working?” I replied I was doing research for my blog. It turned out they were Canadians and fellow residents of the Fraser Valley. We chatted briefly.
What I didn’t tell them was I had just discovered a book that was pure gold, a benchmark book I would be referring back to and quoting often.
It is a collection of essays on the theories of international relations (IR) written by scholars from around the world from different cultures and vantage points.
It confirms IR is a relatively new scholarly discipline.
Interest in IR is rapidly expanding on college campuses around the world.
It is a complex and demanding field of study including many different cultures from around the world, where no single solution is going to suit all.
It is going to require a great deal of statecraft and diplomacy to built a better world. War, fascism, endemic racism, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism are not welcome on the voyage.
It recognizes the world is at a critical juncture where our actions and policies are going to determine planetary survival.
It recognizes fundamental realities Western despots obstinately refuse to recognize as they wage their hideous wars and criminality:
“Asia is as much a social construct as the West and one that could potentially become as monolithic and hegemonic. As such we need to be wary of creating simplistic categories that give rise to the ‘self-other’ {Us vs Them} binary. For the sake of initiating meaningful dialogue, it is vital that scholars continue to work toward an inclusive outlook that reconciles East and West, capturing both the diversity and unity of insights to be gained from mainstream as well as IR perspectives.”
The above quote goes to the very heart of the matter and the global crisis we are now experiencing. Just as the British empire that preceded it , the American empire lays claim to a world not theirs to have. They have been practicing a racist imperialist extortion racket for too long, crushing the right of self-determination to countries around the world.
Washington has always seen the Asian world with a condescending arrogance as its backyard to play in just as it does South America and Africa. As the quote above suggests “Asia is as much a social construct as the West”… and must be regarded as such especially when it speaks for the vast majority of the world’s population. Asia also embodies most of the world’s oldest and mature cultures with philosophical and cultural values not to be erased by a barbarian empire that rules by force of arms and economic exploitation.
The flailing empire has yet to learn that reckless militarism, extortion, and squalid imperialism do not earn it the right to run the world. Where it likes to see itself as the the “rational actor,” it epitomizes hysterical megalomania.
It makes very clear when empire’s wage perpetual war there is perpetual denigration of others and the world suffers accordingly.
It makes it very clear Western war mongering and despotism are the greatest impediments to world peace and progress on so many issues that must be addressed.
It makes very clear the United Nations must be democratized, and further empowered as an impartial arbiter of world affairs and international rationality.
It makes very clear NATO must be disbanded. As international polls have shown it is regarded as the greatest threat to world peace and security, as well as being instrumental in the colonization of Europe.
The world community must wake up to the fact the barbarians are at the gates threatening all of our futures. This barbarian threat must be counter-sanctioned just as it has been willing to impose sanctions willy nilly on others. Ostricization is a powerful weapon under utilized in these trying times by skilled diplomats.
It makes very clear the reconciliation of East and West must be undertaken with a whole new mindset; in a spirit of rapprochement, reciprocity, diplomatic statecraft and mutual respect. These are values the West, and its dominating empire are so far incapable of, and must be adopted.
The collective West must come to realize its present despotism is self-immolating driving itself to the margins. It must, gird its loins,“man up” and join the rest of the world in a progressive 21st Century lifting all boats.
Where the despotic West led by Washington wants to move the world toward global fascism the momentum for global emancipation and the ensuing multipolar word is both inevitable and essential to planetary survival.
The looming questions remaining to be answered are how much collateral damage will the flailing empire inflict on the world community, and the 400 million people of the collective West it has subjugated ( including its own homeland the USA.)
Where the failed West is focused on war and despotism; it should be focused on remediation and building better futures for its populations.
Planet Earth is littered with the remains of former empires, born to their own destruction by human folly. History is the great whistleblower and has blown the whistle on yet another empire, and the ship of fools running it.
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