Parallel
Perspectives
DEAR COMRADES #1
April 2008
Dear
Comrades,
This is
my spot to politically vent a little—ok, a lot—as well as
a
section to post letters from other socialist individuals & organizations.
The opinions I express here do not represent the views of other people
associated with Parallel Perspectives.
Regards,
JEFarrow
Index:
Dear Comrades #1 [April 2008] California budget woes; Red
Army in Afghanistan; Humans unwilling to modify their behavior.
Dear Comrades #2 [May 2008] Treacherous Arab Oligarchy;
Capitalists & the Environment.
Dear Comrades #3 [August – December 2008] Stimulus package;
Animal Rights Terrorists; Castro praises Russian Orthodox Church.
Dear Comrades #4 [March -
April 2009] More bailout (for the Capitalists); The Disarming Myth of the
Liberal Bourgeoisie.
Dear Comrades #5 [July -
August 2009] California draconian budget cuts—and more on the way;
Anti-religious views; Michelle Obama vs. Laura Bush.
Dear Comrades #6 [November
– December 2009] Karma or Complicity? Mission to Mars: Fasten your seat belts?
Dear Comrades #7 [March –
April 2010] Reactionaries in The Occult; School children join demonstrations
over education cuts; Tech industry warns that Obama administration seeks to
kill free websites.
Dear Comrades #8 [May –
August 2010] Civil War in America? Whose NWO (New World Order)?
Dear Comrades #9
[September – December 2010] More paranoia from Jesse Ventura; We've met the
right-wing target—and it's us; Homosexuals in the military…Hell, no,
don't go!; US leaders destroying the dollar; FBI intimidation. Riots in Europe.
Dear Comrades #10
[February – March 2011] People revolt in Middle East
Dear Comrades #11 [More on
the budding Global Social Revolution; Marxism a religion? On sectarianism &
Charlie Sheen]
Dear
Comrades,
The
eternal bi-partisan budget crisis in California demonstrates just how selective
& flawed is the memory of capitalist society. This year the simple-minded
solution is to cut education & social services (always a favorite) AND
prison funding. The State solution to budget woes in the past has been to cut
intervention & diversion programs, and to pass more laws & build more
prisons. This year they don’t even want to shell out to keep people locked-up.
This will be an interesting scenario to watch play out.
Perhaps
the real plan is to re-locate the Financial Elite to some pristine &
“restricted” Outer Space destination .
The
other budgetary solution—and not only in California but across the nation—is
State sponsored gambling. With the exception of the Lotto, in California
gambling is (for the time being) restricted to Native American reservation
land. How ironic—white America brought “fire water” (and death & disease)
to the Indian, now the Indian facilitates American society’s gambling fever.
[Historic footnote: The Mob got real cozy with the CIA when Castro shut down
the casinos in Havana. The only people who can really afford gambling are the
wealthy. Legalization & taxation of marijuana would solve the budget
problem, cut out violent dealers & gangs & would make society a whole
lot happier & more peaceful—AND more creative too.]
Meanwhile
the American social disorder is being directed to the acceptance of an endless
“War on Terror.”
The
media, actors—and yes, perhaps especially, writers—are less than subtly supporting
the full
steam ahead drive to an uncritical support for the grossest militarism &
insipid nationalism.
A promo for an “Animal Planet”
TV special on beavers (beavers, for Christ sake!)
featured a comic inanely
grinning & saying, “Since we’re in the process of rebuilding
Iraq we should send beavers over
there” in order to save money. Yes, it’s ridiculous
on the face of it, and could be
laughed off—for the exception of the fact that America
is primarily responsible for the
destruction & social barbarism that has become Iraq.
It’s like a Twilight Zone
episode, one that features a smugly complacent society cradling
it own demise like the
proverbial serpent to its breast—either that or a lunatic Texan.
During a
session of the UN then Premier Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) banged his shoe on
the table and (paraphrasing Lenin) shouted, “Capitalists will sell the rope
that hangs them.”
This is
true metaphorically speaking.
Trouble
is, that noose is tightly pinching all our throats.
In the
late 50’s & early 60’s the USA displayed a keen interest in destroying
Vietnam & the Vietnamese people. At least during that particular sacrilege
there was strong & organized anti-war movement in the US—but that was
primarily because a compulsory draft was in effect. I am convinced that there
will be no meaningful mass anti-war movement in the US again until the draft is
reinstated.
The
tragedy of 9/11 has been used to justify the near obliteration of an entire
nation, the
death &
mutilation of tens of thousands of children & making physical torture an
accepted
norm in the new century.
America
is the Poster Nation for the Double Standard Syndrome (DSS). Perhaps a
pharmaceutical company will come up with a pill for it. However, America is not
alone. The world governments have not only condoned US aggression, many have
actively engaged in it.
About
3,000 died during 9/11—and the United States has demanded 100’s of thousands of
innocent Iraqi lives in return.
Let’s
look at this from another perspective:
During
World War II, Nazi Germany slaughtered over 20 MILLION Soviet citizens. The
damage in
terms of
property destruction & suffering
cannot be calculated. Can you imagine how the USA would have retaliated
for THAT? Hiroshima was bad enough. Yet every US President right 
on down
the line screamed about the injustice of the Berlin Wall (at the same time the
USA was rescuing Nazi war criminals & giving them fake IDs.) The US govt.
can’t even tolerate the presence or even acknowledge the existence of Cuba. The
US been trying unsuccessfully to starve out the socialist administration (and
the entire population) for 50 years. The fact that people have been jumping
overboard is no surprise—that was the capitalist intention all along. They
thought Havana would fall and all the undesirable Cuban refugees would go home
and the casinos would reopen. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, has it?
When the
Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan the action was supported by the all
progressive elements (particularly women) & Kabul govt. in that country.
The Soviet Union knew full well the danger an armed & radical Islam posed
to their secular régime. Naturally the reactionaries in the USA set up an
unrelenting wail & cry about ‘the poor, victimized people of Afghanistan
under the heel of the Red Army.’ More hypocrisy. The failure of the Soviet
venture in Afghanistan was instrumental (among a host of other negatives) in
bringing about its own collapse. We’ll see now if the US fares any better.
I’m not
a feminist, but it really does seem to me that the driving force of reaction in
the world—and has been from the beginning of human history—is the basic
aggression of the human male animal. What else explains the self-destructive
perpetuation of war? I know that as a Marxist I’m supposed to put all the blame
on the class system—but it does not explain the eagerness that men of all
classes exhibit in their willingness to engage in human genocide. Just watch TV
programs dedicated to war & militarism. I think that there will always be a
dominating presence of males who will delight in blowing things & people
up—as well as a preponderance of women ready & willing to support them. They will continue to push aggression
because the rest of the population lets them get away with it.
Ah, if
only the boneheads would just bump off each other
&
leave the rest of us & Nature
alone.
Nature
can go on quite well without humanity, but humanity
can’t
exist without Nature.
So what’s a weary, peace-loving, social
revolutionary to do?
In the
past the tactic of “Deep Entry” has
been advised by some organizations. This meant keeping one’s revolutionary
orientation a “secret” until objective conditions became such as to radicalize
a significant sector of the working class population. Sort of like a “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for Communists. The problem is that society will endure
a lot of extreme hardship before it finally gets galvanized to do something
about it. Deep Entry became so prolonged that the people who participated in it
were often swallowed up whole into the society they once so fervently sought to
change.
In the 60’s
the new strategy was “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Obviously this didn’t
work either—the rebellious 60’s generation & their offspring became the
neo-cons of the 80’s & 90’s. (Well, not everybody, of course.)
Personally
I no longer believe the enlightened people of the world will ever have the
numbers and/or commitment needed to implement the revolutionary social &
political change needed to prevent the approaching human & environmental
catastrophe. Involvement in reformism only supplies a cover to hide the (not so
hidden) agenda of decaying capitalism & the above mentioned boneheads who
groove on war, cruelty & destruction..
Humans
are unwilling to significantly modify their behavior until conditions become
literally unbearable. For people with even a modicum of insight those
conditions have existed for some time, but
most of the population appears to remain in generalized denial.
Maybe
that’s their way of coping…maybe they just don’t care.
That’s
probably closer to the reality.
One thing I know for sure, they’ve got
thicker skin than I do.
Regards,
Updated
01/2009