EARTHKEEPING
NEWS
A NEWSLETTER
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY
Volume Twelve, Number One
Spring 2003
The Third U.S. Revolution
This nation has had two periods of intense struggle that were more determinative than all the others: (1) the independence movement culminating in the Revolutionary War and in giving birth to this nation, and (2) the abolition movement and the movement to preserve the unity of the nation which culminated in the Civil War, the emancipation of slaves, and the broader realization of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
We have now entered a third period of intense struggle — a period in which the beachhead of democratic governance established in these earlier periods is being threatened. This is also a period which offers the promise of a further realization of democratic practice. The core issues of this current period are: (1) ending the control of this democratic nation by the transnational corporations, and (2) the expansion of the democratic concept to include communal bonding with the entire natural planet, with all its geological, biological, and human regions.
So what is this current struggle and how is it comparable with these earlier two? The dream of government of the people, by the people, and for the people will soon be lost, if it has not already been lost, to the control of corporate money. Achieving ecological viability turns out to have the same enemy. There cannot be a viable ecological future without government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations is making the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the Earth devastated. This insidious rulership is the enemy that must be defeated.
This enemy cannot be defeated with military warfare or with violent terrorist actions. Nor can this enemy defend itself with military means from the defeat which can be brought about. Our tool of victory is the full expression of Truth applied in all sorts of educational gatherings, in public media, and within the remains of our democratic processes. This conflict has to do with the defeat of the basic viewpoint and mode of action being perfectly modeled by the George W. Bush administration. Almost everything this administration says and does is an example of what the enemy looks like in this historic conflict. That certain positive values can be found in the Bush perspective does not change the overall picture. The Confederacy also had certain positive values. No enemy worth fighting is all bad. The U.S. Republican Party is not all bad. But these colorful words of Jim Hightower are nevertheless true:
"The Bushites are beyond dangerous — they are kooky laissez faire empire builders, zealots seeking to compel a rowdy and rebellious world to accept their will by military force. This is not about Iraq — it is about perverting 227 years of our people's democratic aspirations into a far-fetched reach for global corporate domination. It is a wrenching perversion of who we are." (from the October 2002 Hightower Lowdown)
In the same way that we have marginalized the Ku Klux Klan, the following conservative Republican themes need to be marginalized:
- The practice of unilateral nationalism needs to be marginalized.
- The practice of preemptive warfare needs to be marginalized.
- The control of government by multinational corporations needs to be marginalized.
- The contempt for and demolition of full democratic processes needs to be marginalized.
- The current form of free-trade globalization needs to be marginalized.
- The favoring of profit-making at the expense of ecological viability needs to be marginalized.
- The privatization of resources and functions belonging to all citizens needs to be marginalized.
- The culture of quasi-Christian moralism needs to be marginalized.
- The enduring deference to Caucasian heterosexual males needs to be marginalized.
- The dishonest duplicity toward immigrants and migrant workers needs to be marginalized.
The main battlefield on which this all-out conflict must be fought is in the hearts and minds of ordinary salt-of-the-earth citizens of this nation. This means moving the discussion beyond select classrooms, alternative magazines, and maverick meetings. It means taking passionate statements of this clarity into the lives of every rural village, suburban community, and inner-city slum. It will take imagination and skill to do this. It will take daring and persistence and patience. And it will take conviction that this course of action is necessary to achieve a viable future for this nation and this planet.
This task can be done. The best of the American character knows how to replace the phrase "We can't" with the phrase "We are experiencing a lack of imagination." If this task were not overwhelming, it would not be central to our times. If we felt fully able and prepared to do this task, it would not be the task that is needed.
A new thrust in nation building is the next step in world history. We cannot leapfrog over this step toward some long-range ideal of nation-less social order. Similarly, we cannot simply walk away from our troubled industrialized nations and start over in the woods with some form of tribal society. There are no woods left for billions of people to walk into. Furthermore, we would carry into the woods all the problems we would be trying to leave behind. So, we must simply face head-on all the traumas of the modern world and see them as opportunities to build full democratic processing within our existing nations.
Many confusions will arise as we move along this path, but for now we have this guiding light: end corporate rule of our national democracies. Everything else is subordinate. Any other primary social focus is a distraction.
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