It’s a Harsh World
It’s not that I want it to happen but the natural evolution of systems will lead us to it. Catastrophe and panarchy cannot be avoided while upholding today’s status quo. The system must fail and unfortunately, violence will highlight its collapse.
The past ignored and wars are still fought. Canadians have their own patriot act and our civil liberties are left to rot. Police forces nation-wide are militarized and expanded in scale, their enforcement scope widened while our human rights are paled. Canada Command is established, army units will be an accepted reality in our towns. ‘Civil Disobedience’ will be criminalized, our free speech stifled as conglomeration in media continues. Our journalists find themselves muzzled, and net neutrality is lost with the passing of bill C-61. The internet will be reduced to a series of accessible and restricted channels, depending on your subscription and your credit level – information control will once again be achieved. You will go to jail for asking cops to stop idling their cars.
I just took part in a cumulative effects conference where the main debate surrounded the synergy of the impacts of one project after another in the tar sands of northern Alberta. Could we maintain our current growth without upsetting ecological realities and breaching unavoidable environmental thresholds?
What a useless debate. Of course at some point limits will be exceeded and the existing socio-ecological system will collapse. Ducks will die, First Nations will be afflicted by a continuing cancer epidemic, and water will be rendered toxic, possibly never again to be used for current life existence.
The incremental erosion of our societal and personal freedoms will have the same end result as the exploitation of the prehistoric biology in Alberta. A threshold will be violated and the system will collapse. Point break and elastic reactions will help reform but not without conflict and violence.
Think Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mandela. Remember De Villa, Fawkes, and Riel. Sacrifices for changes, they knew the threats, the consequences of their actions. They knew what was at stake.
When you look at the issues you will see, when you push for change you will discover: those in power have installed a system of control that is unquestioning and loyal. The natural systemic collapse may be inevitable but it is not immediate.
A dedicated and knowledgeable resistance is growing – recognize Goodman and Gonzales, Palast Zinn, Chomsky, and Moore – they work beyond the limits of newspeak control. The courage of the few and their possible inspiration lead me to wonder what tomorrow will bring. I hope for creative destruction.