The Dangers of Dreaming
Millions of Americans are acutely aware of the complete collapse of The Republic. Aware of the atrocities committed daily in parts of the world most will never see, or care to see. Aware that the our insatiable appetites are expediting an unpleasant collision with reality.
But there are no social movements. No anti-war movement. No human rights movement. No civil rights movement. No democracy movement. For now, there is only chatter among people of like mind.
When this changes, it will be out of fear, not hope. Which means The Beast of Deprivation will be in plain sight of even the most witless, intruding on our mundane reality like a hungry mob at dinner.
As a kid, I was always mystified by economists, politicians and other luminaries of the capitalist system. The sole measure of "prosperity" was, and continues to be, growth. Even being a lousy student in math, it struck me as completely illogical - and I wasn't the most logical kid on the block.
Thirty years later, living in a house larger than I need and using more resources than a conscientious person with a full stomach has any right to use, it is no less maddening.
Yet here I am.
Joe Bageant has written about the tension and conflict between he and his wife over his macro perspective and the personal guilt that comes with being cog in the wheel of Empire. Being all too able to sympathize, it was one of the many things we discussed in Belize last year while he was busy actualizing his dream of egress.
I would walk away from it all tomorrow. The woman with whom I have shared my entire adult life, despite her adventurous spirit, would not. Security is the concept which infuses her personal ethos, which, in typical karmic fashion, is what affords me the freedom to avoid a miserable 9-5 existence wedged and withering in the bunghole of Corporate America. It is her sensibilities, not mine, which have not only kept us from starving to death, but brought me a number of life-changing experiences that would not have otherwise occurred.
What I have only recently begun to understand is the extent to which most creatures are simply unwilling to let go of all that is familiar.
In material societies, the familiar is comprised of material things, whether it's our pursuit of them or the pleasure they bring us once possessed. Our collective imagination is severely stunted, locked in a pattern which rarely extends beyond the stiflng boundaries aquisition and loss. Of course, these are mere ponderances of our daily reality. The American Dream - whether in America, The U.K., China or where ever it takes root - is a non-dream.
From my obstructed view - which is all I have to go on - it appears that few citizens of Western industrialized and post-industrial cultures are interested in pursuing a paradigm which does not include a primary focus on things.
In North America, only the Mexicans appear to be engaged in any meaningful resistance to the status quo, risking life & limb in the process. Not surprisingly, few outside of Mexico are even aware of their rebellion.
I foresee a renaissance of intentional communities in the coming decades; small groups of people attempting liberation from the traditional concepts of "security" and "happiness." They will have their own internal and external challenges, as all communities do.
But the ugly truth is that those who have will not hesitate to kill in order to keep what they have and accumulate even more. This is the worst of human nature, and everything in American society is structured to reinforce the fraudulent nobility of this murderously competitive impulse. These days, the killing is done by proxy. As all that we know melts into an unfamiliar state some call Reality, so, too, will the tidiness of maintaining our non-dream. It will become more and more difficult to ignore our blood-stained hands as The Empire's proxies evolve into tomorrow's avengers. To wrap your mind around this, look no further than the diaries posted at Iraq Veterans Against the War.
By all means, dream.
And in the lucid moments feeding those dreams, be mindful that your dreams are considered a direct assault on the well-being of those who are best served by the status quo. May the dreamers prepare themselves for what awaits: brute force to kill those dreams.
It will not be pretty. Powershifts never are.
But there are no social movements. No anti-war movement. No human rights movement. No civil rights movement. No democracy movement. For now, there is only chatter among people of like mind.
When this changes, it will be out of fear, not hope. Which means The Beast of Deprivation will be in plain sight of even the most witless, intruding on our mundane reality like a hungry mob at dinner.
As a kid, I was always mystified by economists, politicians and other luminaries of the capitalist system. The sole measure of "prosperity" was, and continues to be, growth. Even being a lousy student in math, it struck me as completely illogical - and I wasn't the most logical kid on the block.
Thirty years later, living in a house larger than I need and using more resources than a conscientious person with a full stomach has any right to use, it is no less maddening.
Yet here I am.
Joe Bageant has written about the tension and conflict between he and his wife over his macro perspective and the personal guilt that comes with being cog in the wheel of Empire. Being all too able to sympathize, it was one of the many things we discussed in Belize last year while he was busy actualizing his dream of egress.
I would walk away from it all tomorrow. The woman with whom I have shared my entire adult life, despite her adventurous spirit, would not. Security is the concept which infuses her personal ethos, which, in typical karmic fashion, is what affords me the freedom to avoid a miserable 9-5 existence wedged and withering in the bunghole of Corporate America. It is her sensibilities, not mine, which have not only kept us from starving to death, but brought me a number of life-changing experiences that would not have otherwise occurred.
What I have only recently begun to understand is the extent to which most creatures are simply unwilling to let go of all that is familiar.
In material societies, the familiar is comprised of material things, whether it's our pursuit of them or the pleasure they bring us once possessed. Our collective imagination is severely stunted, locked in a pattern which rarely extends beyond the stiflng boundaries aquisition and loss. Of course, these are mere ponderances of our daily reality. The American Dream - whether in America, The U.K., China or where ever it takes root - is a non-dream.
From my obstructed view - which is all I have to go on - it appears that few citizens of Western industrialized and post-industrial cultures are interested in pursuing a paradigm which does not include a primary focus on things.
In North America, only the Mexicans appear to be engaged in any meaningful resistance to the status quo, risking life & limb in the process. Not surprisingly, few outside of Mexico are even aware of their rebellion.
I foresee a renaissance of intentional communities in the coming decades; small groups of people attempting liberation from the traditional concepts of "security" and "happiness." They will have their own internal and external challenges, as all communities do.
But the ugly truth is that those who have will not hesitate to kill in order to keep what they have and accumulate even more. This is the worst of human nature, and everything in American society is structured to reinforce the fraudulent nobility of this murderously competitive impulse. These days, the killing is done by proxy. As all that we know melts into an unfamiliar state some call Reality, so, too, will the tidiness of maintaining our non-dream. It will become more and more difficult to ignore our blood-stained hands as The Empire's proxies evolve into tomorrow's avengers. To wrap your mind around this, look no further than the diaries posted at Iraq Veterans Against the War.
By all means, dream.
And in the lucid moments feeding those dreams, be mindful that your dreams are considered a direct assault on the well-being of those who are best served by the status quo. May the dreamers prepare themselves for what awaits: brute force to kill those dreams.
It will not be pretty. Powershifts never are.
posted by Arvin Hill at 7/24/2007 11:30:00 AM
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