Tag Archives: capitalism

In Targeting Venezuela, the Trump Regime has Ripped the Mask Off American Imperialism

Leave a reply

If there is one thing that the Trump regime has succeeded at, it is in ripping off the mask of American imperialism and smashing it into a million pieces on the ground. The era of lofty platitudes about the “rule of law” or “liberating” the people of (insert name of nation to be plundered) is over.

Trump’s racism allows no space for Venezuelans to have agency over their own lives. Indeed, as he talks about taking their oil, he demonizes those Venezuelans who seek a better life in the US. This is a regime that has murdered scores of civilians, many of them fishermen, in the Caribbean on the basis of a lie. Now it is using the term “terrorism” to justify any act of military violence. So, it is abundantly clear what this is all about to all but those still brainwashed by the cult of MAGA and American exceptionalism.

In this post and others, Trump is open about the American doctrine of ownership over all the resources in its “sphere of influence.” He uses the grammar of a mob boss, but none of it is a departure from official American foreign policy. There is no attempt to veil this. No flowery words about democracy or human rights. No bromides or vagaries to cloud intent. It is the naked theft of another sovereign country’s land and natural resources said in no uncertain terms.

Venezuela poses no threat to the United States. It does not produce fentanyl. It has not attacked the US or any of its strategic interests. Like Cuba, its crime is its rejection of US hegemony. Its sin is choosing a government which is at odds with the power and interests of the wealthy elite and American capital investment.

We cannot expect establishment Democrats to offer any meaningful opposition to the regime’s aggression. They have played handmaiden to American imperialism and more often champion its projects of expansion and aggression. And the corporate-owned US media will likely whitewash this as well.

This is an industry which has been complicit in every other war of conquest launched by every other administration throughout US history. Its role will be merely to sugarcoat the regime’s most belligerent talking points while stoking American nationalism. It relies on a public which has been conditioned to reject critical thinking. A public that is struggling to pay mounting debt, rent, food expenses, healthcare and costs of daily living under the worst predations of late capitalist exploitation.

The United States has been the primary engine of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The colonial-settler ethnostate being its most important colonial asset. One which the US has invested billions of dollars in, year after year. But it is also one that gives it constant grief, especially in the last 2+ years. And with little payout. Venezuela offers a new opportunity for capital investment and enormous gain. And, without a doubt, the Trump regime is aggressively steering the entire hemisphere toward an all out war to obtain it for its wealthy shareholders.

Kenn Orfanos, December 2025

Trump is a Liar, but he is the Embodiment of the Ruling Class

Leave a reply

While speaking before the brutal King of Saudi Arabia, US president Trump said:

“But we also wanna thank all the people living in Gaza, the residents of Gaza. They, as you know, have begun to move back to their homes. A lot more safety, they say, than they ever had before.”

Gaza has been reduced to rubble from 2+ years of Israeli carpet bombing and demolition. Most of it is uninhabitable. A mass grave with thousands of bodies still under the ruins of their homes. Most are living in tents now, and much of Gaza has faced flooding. And the genocide hasn’t stopped. Israel is still carrying out bombings and mass starvation, with assistance from the US and other Western allies, despite the so-called ceasefire.

But Trump’s lies are always grandiose and fatuous. Designed to overwhelm norms of decency in human interactions. And to undermine the importance of truth telling for social cohesion. This is classic narcissist behaviour, and it is eroding the bonds that keep a society together and functional.

The lies he has told about his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein are an example of this pathology. To the narcissist, it doesn’t matter if lies are exposed. All that matters is if he or she can weave another web of dishonesty and distraction in time to escape the consequences of the previous ones.

This kind of mendacity is staggering to most people because it flies in the face of everything we understand to be normal in human interactions. But the narcissist doesn’t live in this world. They live in a universe where manipulation, grift and deception are legitimate tools for increasing their social control, wealth accumulation and power. Attention, whether negative or positive, is paramount.

Modern American society was fueled by the lies of such narcissists and their sycophants. Primarily by white men who constructed and curated a Machiavellian playbook for obtaining and maintaining power and wealth. They successfully convinced a huge swath of the population that wealth accumulation, hoarding and ostentatious displays are virtuous. This is a class that enjoys extraordinary impunity for their crimes. Few of them ever see a jail cell for such things as theft of wages, labour abuses, sexual exploitation, discrimination or environmental destruction.

Trump is the most glaring example of this. He became president despite a litany of crimes, from fraud to rape. He has enriched himself by peddling valueless coins and pandering to anyone who will give him a lavish gift or shiny award. He is not an aberration. Although he is crass, unsophisticated and vulgar, he is also the grotesque embodiment of the ruling elite in America stripped of all of its pretension.

And he will likely avoid any meaningful consequences for this current scandal. Do not be surprised if names are redacted and swaths of documents are censored because of “national security.” Pam Bondi and her legal team are probably burning the midnight oil to come up with any excuse available to them.

It would be naive and foolish to think that US will do the right thing in regard to the Epstein scandal. The arrangement of power that exists today, and that includes both sides of the political aisle, is incapable of tackling the malfeasance within its own ranks. As I have said before, a nation that has funded and assisted a genocide for two years, the very worst crime against humanity, can easily ignore or whitewash crimes against the most vulnerable among us. Especially when those crimes were mostly committed by wealthy white men.

So, what do we do? Aside from feeling a natural sense of despair, there are some things we can do that are vitally important as human beings. We can and should bear witness. To speak boldly. Speak out against horrendous crimes like genocide. To not buy into the pervasive lie that wealth equates virtue or superiority. To reject any conspiracy theory or idea that demonize, scapegoat or punch down on the marginalized or most vulnerable in society, whether they be immigrants, the transgender community or the unhoused. To support political leaders who espouse our values, without being naive as to their limitations, flaws and the deep rot of the system. Be persuaded by good policies, not charismatic personalities. But, most importantly, to connect with one another in community and learn how to address our own needs by building mutual aid and networks of cooperation.

No one is coming to save us, least of all the wealthy and powerful who run the show. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Kenn Orfanos, November 2025

The White-Washed Sepulchers of America

Leave a reply

Nikalie Monroe did a social test which she posted on TikTok. She called dozens of churches across the United States pretending to be a mother in desperate need of baby formula. Sometimes she would play a recording of a crying baby in the background. She would say she had no money and that the baby hadn’t eaten several meals.

Despite all this, most of the institutions, that incidentally boasted they were “prolife,” refused to help her, citing such reasons as “You don’t attend the church,” “We stopped doing that,” suggesting she contact “local government,” or simply saying “no.”

It was the smaller, predominantly Black churches, a Buddhist Temple, and several mosques and Islamic Centre’s that assured her that they would help. One pastor, an elderly grandfather, said he would go out and buy the formula himself. Others, including the late Charlie Kirk’s church or the toothy charlatan Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, turned her down. Osteen”s estimated net worth is anywhere from $40 million to $100 million.

And did these churches apologize for their stunning hypocrisy? Or for their glaring lack of compassion and care for a starving baby? Well, no. In fact, the pastor of the Living Faith Baton Rouge Baptist Church said he “doesn’t apologize to Satan.” He then called Monroe a “evil witch” and that his bible didn’t allow such people “to live.” The pastor of Germantown Baptist Church in Kentucky accused Monroe of being a woman of “folly, seductive and knowing nothing” who was trying to catch the church in some “woke liberal” trap.

American Christianity was poisoned a very long time ago by capitalism. The ones who gulped down most of that brew were white, evangelical churches. This is where the noxious “prosperity gospel” was born, which elevated wealth to a virtue and that celebrates slick televangelists who sport gold watches and climb aboard private jets. The one that blames the poor for their plight because they didn’t pray hard enough, they weren’t “trusting Jesus,” or because they didn’t tithe enough money to be blessed. The ones who delight in raining fire and brimstone down on the vulnerable and marginalized in society, yet seldom, if ever, preach about Jesus warnings to the wealthy.

That these churches are prolife is of little surprise. Their piety is policy, not compassion. And that policy is about social control and oppression, not enlightenment or liberation. This is how they have absolutely no problem with Israel’s starvation of babies and children in Gaza or even the suffering of Palestinian Christians.

These Christians delight in punishment and otherizing because, like the early American Puritans, their twisted sense of sanctified beatification is a source of sadistic pleasure. There is no mystery that they deify nakedly cruel despots like Donald Trump either. He echoes their hollowed out humanity. A narcissistic bully who revels in punching down on who Jesus referred to as “the least of these.”

Nikalie Monroe’s little social experiment held up a mirror, and these churches had to look at themselves for one, long, uncomfortable minute. But it isn’t really shocking that they lack any capacity for insight. The poison they drank years ago deadened whatever soul they once had. The tragic irony is that they could not see they were the very “white-washed sepulchers” that Jesus once warned about.

Kenn Orfanos, November 2025

An All American Genocide

Leave a reply

One of the most popular myths of our time is that Israel controls the United States. This can be seen among many circles, both on the right and the left. This erroneous notion is the result of several factors. I will address two of them here.

The first is the romanization of America itself. Most Americans do not see themselves as subjects of the most powerful empire on the planet. On the contrary, they like to see themselves citizens of a democracy. But this falls apart easily with a simple look at polling.

Most Americans do not want the US to give Israel billions of dollars in funds each year. Most oppose what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Most would like that money spent domestically on things like healthcare or education. Yet, the vast majority of American political representatives on both sides of the aisle widely ignore these desires. Both ruling parties have pledged their support to the Empire and its assets. This is because American Imperialism is a bipartisan affair.

Another byproduct of this delusion is that so many Americans have been conditioned to ignore or absolve the copious crimes committed by its soldiers and military sector abroad on behalf of American and international businesses. The delusion that the United States operates from a place of benevolent power has been largely internalized by most Americans.

That the US has 800+ military bases around the world and that this is rarely questioned or even discussed by most American politicians or the mainstream media is telling. Somehow, this is justified as “protecting American interests.” Of course, those interests also happen to align with that of American capital and the investments of the international billionaire class.

When troops are deployed it is almost always depicted as a “reluctant, yet necessary” action to guard the US from would be enemies. The fact that these supposed “enemies” live in impoverished nations that happen to be rich with natural resources is barely a footnote in the national mainstream discourse.

The second has more to do with antisemitism and its pernicious influence on the American mindset. An old bigoted trope is the belief that Jews control the planet. That they have near supernatural powers in manipulating government officials and policy. The idea that a tiny nation-state in the Middle East controls the wealthiest and most powerful imperial force in the world is demonstrably ludicrous upon close inspection. But this idea has its roots in a centuries old bigotry.

This is not to say that Zionist lobbies like AIPAC or the ADL do not have significant sway over politicians. They do. But both of those organizations are American. And there are far more Christian Zionists in the US than Jewish Zionists.

These American evangelicals, who view Israel as essential to the fulfilment of their apocalyptic eschatological prophecies, have enormous sway over US policy. To focus solely on the influence of these organizations is to ignore how American Empire uses ethnic and religious differences to its own advantage. This is how it has operated since its inception.

There were no Israelis in North America when the Indigenous population was ethnically cleansed and nearly wiped out by genocide. There were no Israelis in North America when Black Africans were enslaved for over 400 years. There were no Israelis involved in the US conquest of the Kingdom of Hawaii, or the brutal occupation of the Philippines, or the nuking of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Expansion, exploitation, racism, genocide, enslavement, destabilization of nations, toppling of democratically elected governments, assassinations, coups. All of them are as American as apple pie. They were encoded into the very DNA of the America project since day one. But an infantile sentimentalization of American history has managed to sponge this away from much of the American public’s consciousness.

One of the easiest ways to understand Israel is to see it as an American military base that protects its geopolitical and capital interests in the Middle-East. Almost all of its citizens must serve in the military, with some religious exemptions. What this has done is create a culture of militarism which thrives on paranoia, perpetual victimhood and the myth of supremacy.

It has also reinforced the impunity so many Israelis have enjoyed and think they are entitled to, even after proudly posting their crimes online. Israeli politicians and media have openly expressed their genocidal intentions and plans. For decades, Israelis have gotten away with their crimes thanks to the protection and support of the most powerful empire on the planet.

A big part of this has to do with the lie that the US cares about Jewish people or is fighting antisemitism. And Hollywood has played an enormous role in this storyline. It has consistently worked with US military and CIA operatives to push the myth of a “clash of civilizations.” Nakedly racist shows like Homeland and movies like Zero Dark Thirty use propaganda to normalize Islamophobia and American imperial violence in the Global South.

The nation that turned Jews away during the Holocaust has never cared about their welfare. They are a tool to advance its power on the world stage under the guise of a “noble, humanitarian cause.” But the lie is beginning to fall apart as more and more people see the Trump regime downplay real antisemitism, conflate Judaism with the political ideology of Zionism, and attack Jews who oppose Zionism and Israel’s murderous genocide.

Israel is the American Empire’s most important colonial asset. And this asset has maintained its relevance by supplying the Empire, as well as many other governments, its advanced security and surveillance technology. Technology that has been lab tested over many years on the Palestinians.

This is why Palestine is the most pressing moral question of our age. If the powerful get away with what they have done to Gaza, they will surely do it again anywhere and against anyone that stands in the way of their profit and control. A recent look at the bloodstained earth in Sudan is an example of this.

It should be abundantly clear that the horrendous genocide that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinians could not have happened were it not for American money, weapons and diplomatic cover. In fact, Israel, in its current form, would not exist were it not for American money, weapons and diplomatic cover.

This is the flex of American colonial power, upgraded for the age of late capitalism. But the monster that the US created is beginning to unravel under the weight of its own unhinged delusions, paranoia, racism and blatant brutality. The American led project that was meant to legitimize colonialism for the modern era is rapidly disintegrating. The public are simply not buying the lies as easily as they once did. And for that, we need to thank Israel itself. It has proven to be its own worst enemy.

So, while the apartheid state of Israel is indeed committing genocide, to look at this only through that narrow lens misses the big picture. American Empire, even though it is in steep decline, is the man behind the curtain. It, along with other Western aligned powers and the global wealthy elite class, are behind every bullet, every drone, every bomb.

Every destroyed hospital, bakery, school, apartment building, farm was destroyed by both Israel and its benefactor, the American Empire. Every family buried under the rubble of their home was torn apart by Israel and its colonial benefactor, the American Empire. Every child shot at, starved or blown up, was a victim of Israel and its colonial benefactor, the American Empire. In every sense, this is an all-American genocide.

Kenn Orfanos, November 2025

Mamdani Wins NYC!

Leave a reply

Last night, I sat in front of my computer with tears in my eyes. They were tears of joy. I was born in New York. I lived the first 20+ years of my life there. So, even though I no longer live there or in the United States anymore, to see this city that I love do the right thing in these very dark times was deeply moving to say the least.

NYC voted for a man who stands outside the Democratic Party elite. A man who espouses values that align with most ordinary people. That living on this planet should not bankrupt a person. That healthcare and housing and education are human rights. That the wealthy should pay their fair share. That genocide is wrong and the criminals who commit these crimes should be arrested and tried.

Despite endless and baseless smears and racist taunts, much of which came from notorious misogynist and senior citizen-killer, Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani prevailed. Despite the efforts of celebrities like Debra Messing who spread horrendous Islamophobic lies, Mamdani prevailed (one wonders if she is okay today, or if she has fled to Tel Aviv on the first El Al flight out of Kennedy). Despite millions of dollars being spent by parasitic billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, Mamdani prevailed. Despite threats from the fascist, wannabe king in the White House, Mamdani prevailed.

Will Mamdani be able to implement all of the policies he would like to? Probably not. NYC is still deeply capitalist. Its 1% are entrenched, have enormous influence and own much of the media. But despite their empty threats, they aren’t leaving New York after this historic victory. And this win sends a clear message to them that the people of this city are fed up with the soul crushing, life destroying status quo.

Mamdani quoted the late Eugene Debs in his victory speech. Debs, who was born in 1855 and died in 1926, was an American socialist, trade unionist and one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World. He ran five times for President under the Socialist Party of America. That Mamdani chose him is extraordinary for these times. His words go far beyond the sickening bromides and empty platitudes of most politicians.

Mamdani said:

”The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.”

For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands. Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns. These are not hands that have been allowed to hold power. And yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater.

Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it. The future is in our hands. My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty.

I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life, but let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.

Now I know that many have heard our message only through the prism of misinformation. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent to redefine reality and to convince our neighbors that this new age is something that should frighten them. As has so often occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour. They want the people to fight amongst ourselves so that we remain distracted from the work of remaking a long-broken system. We refuse to let them dictate the rules of the game anymore. They can play by the same rules as the rest of us.

In this new age we make for ourselves, we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another. In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall—your struggle is ours too.

Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.

And we must chart a new path as bold as the one we have already traveled. After all, the conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.

Mamdani’s victory will undoubtedly be met with more threats or even actions by the fascist Trump regime. And the corporate beholden, Democratic Party elite will likely try to thwart any meaningful gains of this moment. But Mamdani’s win should be celebrated by every ordinary person today. Because even though we are in dark times, some light has managed to find its way through the cracks.

Be happy about that today, because we all deserve it.

Kenn Orfanos, November 2025

The New Testament of Maga Christianity

Leave a reply

When constituents of US Iowa Senator, Joni Ernst, shouted their anger that cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would cause people to die, an impish smile stretched across her face. “Well, we are all going to die,” the senator responded.

People were stunned. A senator laughing at the certain deaths of human beings due to lack of food and healthcare? Due to the deliberate cutting of the very thing that keeps them alive? Laughing at the deaths of the elderly, disabled and children?

But the senator didn’t feel one bit of remorse. In fact, she doubled down on her stance, posting a video of her standing in a cemetery. In it, she sarcastically took aim at those who were outraged. “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said. And proceeded to proselytize to them about how accepting her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, would ensure everyone eternal life. Ironically, she said this after mocking her constituents for believing in the tooth fairy.

But was this out of character for the senator? After all, this is what she believes. This is Maga Christianity. It is the firm belief that the only respite you are entitled to in this life is in some afterlife you are sent to if you believe in their narrow, heavily curated and extremely exclusive version of spiritual salvation.

Maga Christianity, like the one espoused by Ernst, is not a new phenomenon. It is the natural evolution of American Christianity. One that was born out of the rationalization of Indigenous genocide, justification for the enslavement of Africans, the normalization of perpetual war, and a fanatical adoration of the predations of capitalism.

It is what enables them to overlook the cesspit of Donald Trump’s morals, trash the environment (after all, God is going to destroy it anyway), and support genocide in Gaza. The latter comes down to an eschatological worldview that requires the state of Israel to exist so that the second coming of Christ will be ushered in. Never mind the fact that this worldview posits the forced conversion or eternal condemnation of Jewish people. Never mind that it ignores the very existence of Palestinian Christians. Never mind that hundreds of thousands of people, including thousands of children, are being bombed, burned alive, and starved to death.

Their worldview demeans and diminishes life here. It ridicules suffering or says it is inevitable or necessary. Well, at least for those they deem subhuman or “sinners” or heathen. But for Maga Christians, their eternal reward begins here with unfettered access to power and wealth.

Ernst and her ilk will likely never come to see her faith as a bludgeon. She will likely never develop a real sense of empathy. And since empathy is rapidly being classified as a sin in the Maga religion, why would she?

To the rest of us, her callous cruelty and sadism will not be forgotten, nor forgiven. Her little joke at the expense of the ill, the disabled, children, elderly, impoverished and dying will forever be likened to the phrase “let them eat cake.” And we all know what happened to the person that was attributed to.

Kenn Orphan, June 2025

Don’t Look Up: A Review

7 Replies

This week I posted on Facebook that people outside of the US are not obligated to watch a movie that is American even if that movie is on a topic of great importance. And that they should not be pressured or shamed for that decision. I, myself, was urged by a few people to watch the “must watch” film “Don’t Look Up” on Netflix.  I kind of knew my objection might generate misunderstanding, primarily from my American friends, but I still stand by what I wrote.

That said, <deep breath> I had some time and decided to watch the aforementioned movie since it has become the “#1 watched movie on Netflix” and there seems to be so many people discussing what is indeed one of the most important issues of our time. So, this is my take on it. No one is obliged to read it or agree with any of it.

Spoiler Alert: please be advised that I do talk about details of the movie. But please, if you do read this, take the critique lightly while taking the subject of catastrophic climate change deadly serious.

I will start with what I did like. Jennifer Lawrence was the best by far. Her character, Kate Dibiasky, was funny and relatable. And it confirmed to me that, yes, I would totally love to hang out with her. Meryl Streep was Meryl Streep. Good acting as always, if just bit overdone in the stereotypical “Republican” leader schtick as President Orlean. DiCaprio was decent as Dr. Randall Mindy. Looking handsome at 47. Sometimes funny. A bit annoying, but I always find him a bit annoying. Cate Blanchette’s character, Brie Evantee, played a perfect cold, elitist and heartless corporate news anchor. Mark Rylance portrayal of an amoral and bizarrely robot-like tech billionaire, Peter Isherwell, was eerily precise. One had no problem at all picturing Musk, Zuckerberg or Bezos’ emotionless face and soulless eyes when watching his performance. Jonah Hill was good at playing the President’s sycophantic son, Jason Orlean, a direct parody of Trump, Jr.. And I loved the cameos of Arianna Grande playing pop star Riley Bina, but that is just because I love Arianna Grande.

The parts about vapid American corporate media culture had their merit in being fairly accurate, especially in regard to the thoroughly mind-numbing cable talk shows replete with saccharine-drenched, meaningless banter. And there were genuinely humorous moments, like Jennifer Lawrences’ character sparring with Jonah Hill’s in the Oval Office, or the clip of the “General/mercenary,” chosen to head up the mission to destroy the comet, screaming expletives at children doing calisthenics on the White House lawn. And the memes generated after Lawrence’s meltdown on one of those inane cable “news” shows were funny, as well as being tragically spot on as an indictment of contemporary social media culture.

There were some clever moments, like Rylance’s creepy Ted Talk presentation on a new high tech, feel good, and totally invasive ap for his phone. Or the shot of Meryl Streep lighting up a cigarette in front of a sign that said “Flammable” in big red letters while declaring “We’re the grown ups here.” Or how corporate/high tech greed was portrayed in the cancelation of this “earth saving” mission at the last moment at the behest of tech billionaire (Mark Rylance) in order to attempt mining the comet for rare earth minerals. And one line from Lawrence’s character toward a group of young people comparing conspiracy theories about political leaders, the media and corporations stood out in particular: “Guys, the truth is way more depressing, they’re not even smart enough to be as evil as you’re giving them credit for.” Indeed.

Okay, now the stuff I found problematic. The film is almost entirely American centric. Yes, I know it IS an American film, but this would not be such a big deal if the US media didn’t have such a stranglehold on so much of the world in terms of broadcasting. But it does. Its hegemonic influence is hard to escape. And the movie places the United States not only at the forefront of a response to a global catastrophe, but totally eclipses the rest of the world. And this is not by accident. All Hollywood or corporate generated American movies do this.

And, whether we like to acknowledge this or not, this is a cast of multi-millionaires. A-list celebrities acting with multi-million-dollar production sets, expensive props and high tech special effects. This fact does not exist independent of the content of the movie, or any movie for that matter. It is important to note this because I think it contributes to its general lack of class consciousness. For example, some of the political speech scenes that parody Trump’s rallies appear to also lampoon working people. The term “the working class” is used in such a manner that disparages them, but not in the way the film intends. It comes across as elitist and misanthropic. The reality is that Trump’s biggest supporters were not the working class, but rather upper middle class to wealthy, predominantly white, men.

And this brings me to the partisanship of the film. While parodying the prior administration for its obvious populist fascism and anti-science stance, it ignores the other side of the political aisle in the country. It was elites within the Democratic Party like Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi who mocked the idea of a “Green New Deal.” It is Joe Biden’s administration that held the largest-ever auction of off-shore oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico. What this film, and so many like it, fail at is holding the ruling class itself responsible for ecocide and climate change. Both ruling parties are capitalist to the core. It is profit before planet every time. And, as in unbridled support for the military and militarism, this is a bipartisan affair.

Speaking of militarism, there is also the obligatory nod to the US military sector that only comes from productions like this. The American military is the biggest polluter and contributor to greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. And yet the primary “solution” to this comet problem is to use the military to address an existential crisis. And the scientists have no objection to any of this. This is how normalized American militarism is. And that should be shocking but, sadly, it isn’t.

In addition to this, I found the use of an arbitrary celestial event like a comet as a metaphor for climate change catastrophe to be deeply problematic. Climate change is human caused. There is nothing “arbitrary” or sudden about it. And the people responsible for its acceleration have names and addresses. They also have enormous political power to go along with their enormous bank accounts. And most of them live comfortably in the Global North, while the poor of the Global South suffer the consequences of their avarice and apathy. I understand this is only a simple allegory. And I understand the desire to reach out to people who are disaffected or unaware, but this makes the plotline somewhat flawed from the start.

There are more refugees today than during World War II thanks to the impacts of catastrophic climate change. Hundreds of millions of people have been forced to flee their homes thanks to climate related catastrophes like drought, famine and war. Countless species succumb to habitat loss and ocean acidification. In the Global North, millions of people are experiencing real depression and anxiety related to our collective ecological predicament. But in the Global South, hundreds of millions of people are facing disaster and extinction now. The hypothetical comet isn’t coming, it has already arrived. Billions of them, in fact, and in ways we have yet to comprehend. And there are powerful people who profit nicely from maintaining this planet killing scheme.

I could talk about some of the things I thought were banal or contrived, but instead I will mention the best parts of “Don’t Look Up.” And to me those are the mic-drop moments. In Lawrence’s and DiCaprio’s meltdowns on air about the impending extinction level event about to occur. How many climate scientists, ecologists, activists, poets, writers and truthtellers can relate to the rage, the frustration, and the despair of living in a time of collective madness at quite possibly the end of human history, or at least organized human life on this planet? If “Don’t Look Up” has any lasting impact (pardon the pun) I hope it will serve as a conversation starter. But the tragedy is that the time for talking about climate catastrophe passed us by several years ago. Sadly, so has much of the time for effective action to stem its worst affects.

We need a mass movement that upends the structures of power and jettisons corporate capitalism, extractive and ecologically destructive industries, consumerist culture, the military sector and the police/surveillance state decisively, immediately and completely for there to be any chance of a livable planet for humanity and countless other species. And we need art, and writing, and reporting, and songs, and films that are bold enough to talk about this in a radical and revolutionary way. Unfortunately, it is in this way that movies like “Don’t Look Up” fall short.

Kenn Orphan 2021

*Photo source: Netflix.

As an independent writer and artist Kenn Orphan depends on donations and commissions. If you would like to support his work and this blog you can do so via PayPal. Simply click here:  DONATE

And thank you for your support and appreciation!

Hard Truths and the ‘Indispensable Nation’

4 Replies

“Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five

“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” – Eugene Debs

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.” – Gore Vidal

It was about a year ago that United Nation’s special rapporteur, Philip Alston, issued a report on the dire state of the American republic. It revealed that upwards of 40 million Americans live in poverty. Among its findings:

  • By most indicators, the US is one of the world’s wealthiest countries.  It spends more on national defense than China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan combined.
  • US health care expenditures per capita are double the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average and much higher than in all other countries. But there are many fewer doctors and hospital beds per person than the OECD average.
  • US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world.
  • Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the “health gap” between the U.S. and its peer countries continues to grow.
  • U.S. inequality levels are far higher than those in most European countries
  • Neglected tropical diseases, including Zika, are increasingly common in the USA.  It has been estimated that 12 million Americans live with a neglected parasitic infection. A 2017 report documents the prevalence of hookworm in Lowndes County, Alabama.
  • The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world.
  • In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world.
  • America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand and the Russian Federation. Its rate is nearly 5 times the OECD average.
  • The youth poverty rate in the United States is the highest across the OECD with one quarter of youth living in poverty compared to less than 14% across the OECD.
  • The Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks the most well-off countries in terms of labor markets, poverty, safety net, wealth inequality, and economic mobility. The US comes in last of the top 10 most well-off countries, and 18th amongst the top 21.
  • In the OECD the US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality.
  • According to the World Income Inequality Database, the US has the highest Gini rate (measuring inequality) of all Western Countries
  • The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality characterizes the US as “a clear and constant outlier in the child poverty league.” US child poverty rates are the highest amongst the six richest countries – Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Norway.
  • About 55.7% of the U.S. voting-age population cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. In the OECD, the U.S. placed 28th in voter turnout, compared with an OECD average of 75%.  Registered voters represent a much smaller share of potential voters in the U.S. than just about any other OECD country. Only about 64% of the U.S. voting-age population (and 70% of voting-age citizens) was registered in 2016, compared with 91% in Canada (2015) and the UK (2016), 96% in Sweden (2014), and nearly 99% in Japan (2014).

These are staggering figures; but the report resonated with me on a visceral level. I’ve lived all over the United States for most of my life, but it was my crisscrossed traverse across the continent two years ago that opened my eyes to the scale of destitution of which so many have become desperately ensnared.

I drove across the north, south and middle of the United States with my sister several times because we had to care for my mother who resided in Florida. We finally decided to move her back to Canada with us after my father died because we knew she would not receive the care she needed in the States. In those many long days on the interstate I saw what America had transformed into.

The blight of corporate neglect and economic depression was nothing less than breathtaking. The main streets of town after town were boarded up, with only a smattering of dollar stores, payday loan shops, liquor vendors and storefront churches open. Hideously oversized franchise signs scraped the sky in an all too familiar impertinence. Big box stores and fast food restaurants were clustered around predictable junctions along the highways in an uninspired, formulaic pattern. It became apparent to me that these islands of banality offered some of the only employment for the people who lived in these regions. And the police patrolled every street constantly, making life feel rather like a prison camp.

These are the hard truths about America, a nation drowning in delusions, feckless nationalism and layers of supercilious bravado, where corporations, which siphon hundreds of billions of dollars from public coffers via tax evasion and subsidies are rarely held to account. Industry poisons the water, eviscerates ancient mountains, and devastates urban and rural communities with impunity. This is the “indispensable nation” where more of its citizens are locked behind bars than elsewhere in the world and usually for non-violent offenses. Where police murder unarmed people in stairwells, or hotel hallways, or for routine traffic stops and almost always get away with it. Where domestic violence often spills over to mass shootings which have become an almost daily occurrence. Where life expectancy is rapidly declining in a trend not seen since World War I. Where investment in military weaponry that terrorize the poor in other nations is exponential, but investment in veterans assistance is nil.

And yet despite this landscape of misery where inequity is exploding and infrastructure is failing at breakneck speed, the supremacist concept of “American exceptionalism” has managed to bamboozle millions into believing they live in the greatest nation on the planet. Social media has become a strange place to see this mythology in living colour. One comment on a Facebook post about the refugee crisis underscored this disconnect:

“These people need to clean up their own sorry countries. People all over the world just want to get into America because of its free stuff. It is the greatest nation on the planet!”

The sentiment echoed many others I read that exhibited an extraordinary lack of curiosity and willful ignorance about their nation’s enormous role in creating the miserable conditions these people were fleeing from in the first place. That the CIA supported and aided rightwing coups in these nations (and scores of others) was simply not in their orbit. Another comment parroted Donald Trump’s dehumanization of asylum seekers as “invaders.” Never mind the fact that it has been the US which has invaded dozens of nations, including several in Central and South America over its rather short history. And the reference to “free stuff” is shocking too, considering social services have been drastically cut in most places.

But it was this comment I read recently on a rightwing social media page that I found the most dumbfounding because it referred to one of its nearest neighbours:

“Canada compared to the United States is a third world nation. Roads full of potholes, slums, and terrible healthcare and short lifespan. They should let Trump work to save their sad nation.”

I’ll admit I had to stop and read that one twice. Of course Canada has many problems, its Tar Sands, arms dealing, and abysmal treatment of the First Nations communities among them, but the one thing that stood out was the ignorance about so-called “socialized medicine.”  This is a recurring theme and is the tragic result of decades of indoctrination by the capitalist class of the country. Both ruling parties have long been in bed with the insurance industry and Big Pharma which has derailed every effort for universal, single payer healthcare. The result has been ridiculously high infant mortality compared with other developed countries, skyrocketing levels of bankruptcy and foreclosures due to medical expenses, and the resurgence of disease associated with poverty.

That some still think of Trump as a saviour may be risible, but there is a deeper wound that has been ignored by most establishment liberals too ensconced in their privilege to notice. Magical thinking is like a drug. It can easily become a balm to those who face a daily litany of miseries, humiliations and trials. As a medical social worker I attempted to assist scores of families and individuals navigate these miseries. My battles were with insurance companies refusing coverage, not doctors.

But I personally know what it is like to not have any kind of insurance and be fearful of getting sick or injured with no money to pay for exorbitant bills, and then to be handed an $11,000 bill for a few days stay in a hospital. I’ve felt the stigma myself of accepting county healthcare assistance which didn’t even cover a fraction of the costs and being treated like a social pariah because of it. I also know what it is like to watch loved ones who had no money and, although they were deathly ill, try to leave the hospital because they had incurred $80,000 in medical bills which they knew they would never be able to pay. It alters every aspect of a person’s life and leaves one in a state of perpetual anxiety where the only escape is often found in either addiction, magical thinking or some combination of the two.

In contrast I’ve taken a relative to the hospital in Canada for severe abdominal pain and saw her met with immediate care. She was rushed into emergency surgery without ever once having to worry about the cost. This not to say the Canadian healthcare system does not have its problems. It does. And we can discuss them at some other point. But there is no comparison to a nation where ordinary citizens put off vital treatment or medicine for fear of a staggering bill or where GoFundMe has fast become the go to source for assistance with exorbitant medical expenses.

Poverty is an imposed oppression, the byproduct of rampant greed and the bastard child of an ever decadent capitalist class. And the way it is imposed is through food, housing and healthcare insecurity. But Americans who are poor are ladled with both the torment of financial worry and the noxious guilt of feeling like they are defective human beings because of their predicament. The “Oprah Effect” has convinced many that their failure to succeed in this inherently unjust system is a personal flaw. It is all about the self and its deceptively cruel mantra of positive thinking. One can see this quite clearly in media and entertainment. Anyone who is wealthy is cast in an almost deified light while the poor become punchlines, demonized, pitted against one another or ignored completely. But both ruling political parties espouse these values too. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is on record chiding a young constituent for daring to question this inherently unjust economic order by stating with pride “We’re capitalists.” As if making a religious declaration of faith.

This arrangement as the late Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. alluded to has been a boon for the ruling classes who, year after year, strip away the last vestiges of a beleaguered social safety net while making it easier for them to amass even more wealth. They have managed to deflect analysis and criticism of the current order by constantly referring to “personal responsibility” as the source of the problem, and this has created what Sheldon Wolin called “inverted totalitarianism.”  A kind of partially self-imposed oppression of the corporate mind, where citizens are transformed into “consumers.” Civics and politics are reduced to spectacle. Every political leader is a millionaire or billionaire. Celebrity scandals dominate the media cycle. The wealthy are endlessly lauded for their “accomplishments” while societal infrastructure and works for the public good are neglected or demolished. Ecosystems are denuded and degraded for corporate profit. Each person becomes an island unto themselves without agency. And all of it is normalized by mass media.

 

 

History is replete with examples of how this framework often leads to fascism. Neglect of civic education and economic justice create the conditions that enable its rise. Trump, then, shouldn’t be regarded as an anomaly. He is the logical result of decades of neoliberal capitalist corruption in both ruling political parties. And he is pulling the levers that he knows will work in this machine: nativism, xenophobia, misogyny, conspiratorial thinking, racism, authoritarianism, demonization of the press, scapegoating, nationalism, confusion.

Distracting the populace (and the press for that matter) from the real threats to their existence and their day to day economic degradation has become Trump’s raison d’etre. Of course he is downplaying recent dire climate change reports despite the scorched earth in California or the flattened towns on the Florida panhandle because his focus must be on the other, the foreigner, the migrant. He can dehumanize, deport or easily exterminate them if politically necessary. In other words, deal with the “problem.” Climate change? Not so much.

Thankfully there has been push back, but the fundamental narrative must still be challenged. The US is textbook example of neoliberal, corporate capitalism run amok. Most taxes go for a bloated military that slaughters the poor in other countries and protects the interests of the wealthy. But there is entrenched illiteracy in the culture when it comes to this rather odious reality. The military is still adored in most precincts of society, from sports to education to religion. To criticize its’ size or the money ($716 bn) it receives is considered heresy in both ruling political parties. This might explain the impunity an increasingly militarized police force has when they crackdown on dissent or terrorize communities of colour. And there is little to no mainstream public discourse that addresses any of it.

It is the American mind that needs to be deprogrammed of this narrative for there to be any meaningful change. A mind rife with fallacies and delusions about its greatness. An attitude that ignores the reality of its dire condition and instead embraces national myths and fantasies. As long as the issue of class continues to be ignored or talked about in terms that obscure its role in political agency desperate people will look to authoritarian answers and despots that soothe their base fears and prejudices. The gap between the extremely wealthy and the rest will grow ever wider as the ecology and living standards degrade. Neglect in an age of biospheric crisis will become even more normalized. Civil rights and liberties will continue to be weakened and chipped away. As long as capitalism remains sacrosanct and considered irreproachable, the descent toward full blown fascism will eventually turn into a free fall.

Kenn Orphan  November 2018

The Power That Must Be Resisted

2 Replies

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” – Ursula Le Guin

 

When the outright fascist Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian presidency in October, it wasn’t just the poor, people of colour, LGBTQ, or indigenous peoples that lost. Indeed, the earth’s weakened biosphere and imperiled climate lost even bigger. The president elect of the world’s 4th largest democracy has vowed to open up vast swaths of the iconic rainforest to multinational logging, cattle, mining and agricultural industries. With this one political victory the world’s ruling capitalist elite saw more dollar signs than in their wildest dreams, and the earth’s “lungs” were given a terminal prognosis.

Bolsonaro’s rise to power bears a strong resemblance to that of Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Rodrigo Duterte and Viktor Orban. All of them have employed the techniques of classic fascism: demonizing political opponents and the media, rhetoric endorsing violence, stoking chauvinistic nationalism, scapegoating marginalized people. All them possess a disgruntled, demoralized, yet loyal base of supporters, and regularly connect with them through rallies that ridicule or bully those who dissent or disagree from their position. All of them manipulate information to spread confusion, false information or to obfuscate facts. But the most important thing these men share in common is their eagerness to wed corporate and state power, the hallmark of fascist governance. All of them sit atop treasure troves of “exploitable resources” and it is for this reason alone that they are lauded among the global capitalist elite.

Case in point, Bolsonaro received a lavish endorsement from the Wall Street Journal, the essential mouthpiece for the 1%. This should come as no surprise since their primary readership is the moneyed elite whose coffers only stand to burst with more spoils of the earth from this latest political disaster. But there are similar sentiments elsewhere. The financial newspaper Handelsblatt reported that German business leaders are “unfazed” by Bolsonaro’s election and are even “hopeful.”

Even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a media outlet that is supposed to be public, had the gall to suggest that this victory might be just what the Canadian economy needs. Of course, this “Canadian economy” is comprised of the wealthy mining and logging sectors alone which have already devastated vast swaths of Central and South America. Indeed, there are scores of multinational companies that must be salivating over the prospect of legalized looting they will be allowed to do under a Bolsonaro government. And they understand that they will likely get a pass for inevitable disasters. Companies like BHP, the Anglo-Australian mining company that is responsible for a massive dam break on the Doce River in 2015 that killed at least 17 people, displaced thousands, and polluted the river and beaches along the Atlantic coast. It was one of biggest environmental disasters in Brazil’s history.

To the 1% Bolsonaro’s sexism, racism and homophobia are a non-issue. His pining for the days of military dictatorship, endorsement of torture, or the slaughter of political opponents aren’t of concern either. On the contrary, these are minor footnotes on their blood soaked ledgers. While they might prefer a more polished figurehead to give inclusive sounding speeches that preserve the status quo of global capitalism with a pleasing face, they are completely fine with an outright fascist at the helm too. Look at the corporate leaders who have met with and gushed over India’s Modi to get an idea how this works. Given this, why would the complete destruction of the Amazon rainforest give them pause? To them this region of astounding biodiversity is a treasure trove of capital investment and extraction.

The Amazon rainforest loses an area the size of Costa Rica every year due to deforestation from the palm oil, soy, logging and beef industries. Illegal extraction activities, too, have defiled river ways and assaulted indigenous peoples on their ancestral lands. Indeed, the neoliberal economic policies of prior governments and championed by the liberal status quo had not prevented the ongoing destruction of the region or protected indigenous peoples. In fact they aided corporations who sought profits over the planet or people. But Bolsonaro stands to step up the carnage and open indigenous lands and areas that are now protected from the incursions of big industry. This will amount to genocide against those who live there and ecocide against the living biosphere itself.

From the Athabasca to Standing Rock to the Niger Delta to the Amazon and beyond, the earth and its peoples are under attack. Those who are leading this assault are without conscience or rationality. They are apathetic to the existential crisis we face as a species because they sincerely believe they can buy their way to higher ground; and they are virtually untouchable by the rule of law which in most cases has been constructed to protect their interests. They are a supranational capitalist class whose power lies in the dictatorship of money. But while they wield great power, they are not all powerful.

As the late Ursula LeGuin reminded us, “any power can be resisted,” and this truth is no more urgent to understand and take hold of than at this moment in history. But resistance cannot come from the status quo establishment. After all, this is the same machine that produced fascists like Trump and Bolsonaro in the first place. Resistance must be radical and it must be global because, given the circumstances and our collective predicament, only a radical paradigm shift offers a chance of creating a different world than the dystopic one we are seeing unfold before us.

 

Kenn Orphan   November, 2018

The Power of Language in the Anthropocene

6 Replies

“So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate. But we need to be very clear: because of our decades of collective denial, no gradual, incremental options are now available to us.” – Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

 

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Noam Chomsky

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

 

“Let us wake up, humankind! We’re out of time. We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction.”  – Berta Cáceres, Indigenous and environmental activist, murdered by a rightwing Honduran death squad.

 

At a certain point reality crashes headlong into toxic naivety. It is inevitable. One can only go on so long in denial before it intrudes. This is also true of societies. As I write, several “unprecedented” deadly hurricanes, typhoons and tropical storms are literally swirling around the world’s oceans. One of them has churned through the Carolinas. But this is a place where analysis of the threat of sea level rise was forbidden by a state determined to erase any public discourse on climate change in deference to its moneyed industries. Another one, the strongest on the planet, has devastated swaths of the Philippines and Hong Kong. On the opposite end of the spectrum wildfires have scorched huge swaths of North America, Greece and Spain and floods have inundated villages from Italy to India. Year after year the broken records and damages pile up, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for even the most irrational or dimwitted to ignore the unfolding climate chaos. Yet still the language of the Anthropocene remains a convoluted mess of obscurantism and outright denial.

For those living on the margins of empire no statement can be too exaggerated when it comes to the existential threats they are facing. Along with climate change they are on the frontlines of a war waged against them by the forces of capital. Along sacred rivers in the American Dakotas, in the life drenched rain forests of Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, the poisoned wetlands of the Athabasca, the unforgiving, mineral rich deserts of Western Sahara and Afghanistan, the melting tundra of the Arctic circle, the carcinogenic corridors of the American Midwest, the sun baked Niger Delta, the sullied waters of the Flint River, and in the misery laden, blockaded and besieged shanty’s of Kolkata, Manilla and beyond, battles are raging against the poor and time is running out.

 

These are the forgotten of the earth. The ones whose lives or struggles don’t register in a corporate press beholden to profits and enamored by spectacle. Their tragedies, though measured in the hundreds of thousands if not more, don’t spur hashtag movements, or generate round the clock coverage on network and cable news, or even cause the Eiffel Tower to dim. Facebook doesn’t have an option for safety check ins on these kinds of catastrophes either. Their poisoned fields, flooded villages and dried out crops pass away to more scintillating news about salacious celebrities or idiotic tweets from the bloated narcissist in the Oval Office. But they are the first victims of climate change and the merciless cupidity of the global capitalist class. The 1% whose corporations ransack and pillage the world leaving countless bodies and shattered communities in their wake.

 

In their quest to maintain and indefinitely grow their coffers, they see all of these unfolding and looming catastrophes as economic opportunities. And if they do not employ think tanks to muddy the waters of public discourse with outright denialism, they use obscurantist language designed to rationalize the unfettered exploitation of capital. Dissolving ice caps are a strategic option for geopolitical and business advancement. Atmospheric warming gases are the chance to advance a scheme of carbon trading. Hunger and famine are economic and technological opportunities to litter the world with more profitable pesticides, chemically/genetically altered food, or factory farms. Flattened woodlands and fouled rivers become excuses for moving indigenous peoples into overcrowded, cordoned off corporate colonies for easier exploitation, social control, neglect and abandonment. They see the resulting unrest and political dissatisfaction as opportunities for technological advances in surveillance and security, selling arms and weapons to any faction or regime that is interested and can pay.

 

Sometimes it may be difficult to identify who they really are. And to some extent, we are all complicit in the destruction of the earth’s habitat, especially those of us in the global north. But we have been conditioned to perceive our world by the dominant culture of our time; and that culture is undeniably defined by the forces of capital. Historically, language has always served as a means for social control. Colonized indigenous peoples understand this all too well. One of the first actions by colonizers was to erase indigenous history. The next was to erase the language.

 

Today the 1% have imposed a culture of obfuscation and use language that is intentionally duplicitous. This isn’t that difficult to grasp when we are reminded that only a handful of corporations control at least 90% of the media. Their technicians are peddlers of meaningless, alienating or demoralizing jargon. And they are integrated into the highest precincts of power. The Pentagon and the Department of Defense have long dictated Hollywood propaganda, but now social media has emerged and taken it to a whole other level. Its algorithms are designed to prick neuro-signals that enable social control and conformity. It has been a boon to the surveillance state. In the meantime a parlance of pale, placating euphemisms numbs us to our own oblivion. And it is done with such staggering precision and ease that it has become ever more difficult to decipher and parse.  But in the end not even the most viral of memes or clever of hashtags will be able to eternally hide atrocity or cloak the stench of a dying world.

 

While there are cracks in the façade, the zeitgeist of the era still demands a kind of militant optimism and the denial of reality. One can see this in a simple test. Mention the words ‘climate change’ in the comment section of a report on a hurricane or wildfire on almost any mainstream news page and you will see a flurry of laugh emojis and comments of ridicule. Such coordinated assaults on reason have the fingerprints of denialist think tanks like The Heartland Institute all over it. But even many self-described progressives perpetuate a language that denies the lived reality of millions of people or pose solutions that do nothing to dislodge the failed and utterly corrupt capitalist paradigm. They insist on political solutions, even pseudo-socialist ones, within a bipartisan framework that has proven to be a sham. And how has this helped anyone? In the US most live in state of perpetual stress and distraction. Distracted by the demands of work, shrinking social safety nets and a political landscape that has merged with mass entertainment, the corporate surveillance state keeps the masses in line by neutralizing public opinion, policing thought and censoring dialogue. Many live in states that are destined to experience more and more catastrophic flooding or prolonged and entrenched drought thanks to climate change.

 

Hyperbolic? Perhaps to some. But in the global south, which often includes areas inside Western nations, dystopia is now. They inhabit capitalism’s sacrifice zones, places where ruthless exploitation, destruction and abandonment are considered acceptable. For them water is already scarce, food is already insecure, addiction is already an epidemic, cancer and other diseases are already the norm, and their homes are already sinking beneath the tide. They understand that denialism, false hope and language that cloaks reality only perpetuate the misery and maintains the status quo death march to extinction. They have taught us all how we must dissent to the madness of the Anthropocene. Thanks to centuries of massacre, exploitation and having their histories rewritten, from Chiapas to Sápmi, they have responded by nourishing solidarity and resistance. They have demonstrated to us that agency rests in a relentless drive to push back, build economies independent of the “free market,” foster independent media and journalism, create representative forms of governance despite cynicism, stand united against the violence of the state against the odds, paint murals that reflect the people’s history and speak in a language that boldly defies the ruling class narrative.

 

As a species we have either created, permitted or have been oppressed by an order that has been threatening our collective demise for decades in what amounts to a mere blip of geologic time. Indeed, it is this order that has already sentenced countless species to the halls of extinction, carpet bombed millions over the last century, justified slavery, devastated verdant regions, and enslaved millions of people around the world in for profit prisons, sweatshop fire traps, pesticide ridden fields and lung choking mines. But we should understand that the language of this era is no accident. It has been carefully crafted by the forces of capital to control the dominant narrative, condition our thinking, and dictate how we will act. It is designed to keep us distracted while they keep up their pillage. The beginning of dissent and resistance, then, lies in learning a different tongue.

 

Kenn Orphan   September 2018