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Occupy Movement Demands Fresh Thinking -- For Our Grandchildren
The laws of physics tell us we can't build a rocket that will travel faster than the speed of light, that gravity governs objects on Earth, and that perpetual motion machines are not possible. In chemistry, diffusion constants, reaction rates, and atomic properties set the limits of chemical reactions and types of molecules that can be synthesized. Biology dictates our absolute need for clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, and biodiversity for our survival and health.
Those are laws of nature and we can't change them. We have to live within their boundaries. Capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, corporations, currency, markets, and regional borders are not forces of nature. We invented them. If they don't work, we can and must change them.
Instead we try to alter nature to fit our priorities. Look at what happened at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009. We saw 192 nations gathered to deal with the atmosphere that belongs to no one -- 192 national borders, 192 economic priorities, trying to shoehorn nature to fit our creations! We should be looking for ways to make our systems work with nature, not the other way around.
It's a message that's starting to emerge from the Occupy movement. It's not just about the one per cent who rake in an ever-increasing proportion of society's wealth while 99 per cent bear the real costs. It's also about corporate power and the systems that facilitate it. A few corporations have become bigger than most governments.
Occupiers know, because so many are young, that the inequities represented by the one per cent today are also intergenerational. Although not all corporations are bad, many of them, and the super-rich who run them, are increasing their wealth at the expense of generations to come -- exhausting resources, extinguishing species, and poisoning air, water, and soil. The costs of those problems will be most strongly felt by successive generations to come, yet economists discount them.
Why do the governments we elect to look after our well-being and future act as cheerleaders for the corporate sector? Because money talks.
Corporations may produce or do things that we need and that are good for society, but their real mandate is to make money, and the more they make and the faster they make it, the better. Corporations are said to be the economic engines of society. But as Joel Bakan explains in his book The Corporation, when profit is their primary goal, corporate leaders will fight to reduce their share of taxes, demand subsidies, oppose regulations, and fire hundreds of employees for the sake of the bottom line.
Globalization does not encourage the highest standards for workers, communities, or ecosystems. Instead, corporations often go for the lowest standards of medical care, wages, and environmental regulations because it's all about maximizing profit. The global economy means our garbage and toxic effluents are shared with the world, dumped into the air, water, and land.
When you buy running shoes, a cell phone, or a car, it's almost impossible to know whether slave or child labor was involved in its production. How can you be aware of the ecological impacts or the toxic materials that may be generated in the manufacturing process? These costs are hidden, yet each time we make a purchase, we become part of that system that exploits people and ecosystems.
To me, the Occupy movement is about putting decisions and democracy back into the hands of people. We need democracy for people, not corporations; we want greater equity; we demand social justice; and we want to recognize and protect our most fundamental needs -- clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, biological diversity, and communities that support our children with love and care.
My generation and the boomers who followed have lived like reckless royalty and thoughtlessly partied like there's no tomorrow. We forgot the lessons taught to us by our parents and grandparents who came through the Great Depression: live within your means and save some for tomorrow; satisfy your needs and not your wants; help your neighbors; share and don't be greedy; money doesn't make you a better or more important person. Well, the party's over. It's time to clean up our mess and think about our children and grandchildren.
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37 Comments so far
Show AllThank you, David Suzuki, for your wise words, committed life work, and courage to tell the truth. Many may resist listening until the next climate shock hits home.
A good article until the final paragraph where Suzuki blames the victims.
Not all of us boomers took the easy road (that society accomodated and rewarded) ,"partying like there was no tomorrow". Many of us continued to be part of the real counterculture after the faux counterculture of the 60s disintegrated during the 70s.
We spent the past 40 years as square pegs in round holes, going against the grain, being ostracized for continuing to embrace ZPG, appropriate technology and sustainability (before it was a buzzword) while refusing to submit to groupthink in corporations, government, academia and most other parts of American society. While the groupthinkers prospered, we have been marginalized. We have been waiting for OWS for 40 years.
Welcome to the struggle, David. It has been waiting for you at least since the seventies when I worked at UBC and you were debauching left wing environmental activism., One more step and you will realize the environment you deeply cherish cannot coexist with the capitalist system.
A great and necessary article by David, regarding the need to think more deeply and break the conventional corporate/financial/economic "Empire-thinking" model with a new "democracy-thinking" model in all spheres of our lives; economic, political, social, environmental, cultural, legal, etc. etc.
This is a reaction I had this morning to the dead-ended "Empire-thinking" of CNN on this one economic issue:
CNN Money has a story today, "Protect your money -- dodge Europe's crisis", but the far more important issue is 'Protect OUR democracy' from global Empire.
What's happening in Europe today is the leading edge of the global Empire disciplining the functioning social democracies of Europe --- which all have a much more fair and egalitarian income equality than the US and the third world imperial oil 'territories' like; Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Sudan, and the entire "GAP" region which is in the cross hairs of "The Pentagon's New Map" [Thomas Barnett, Naval War College].
So, the global Empire, which has fully 'captured' and controls our former country by hiding behind the facade of its Two-Party 'Vichy' sham of faux-democratic and illegitimate government, is now in the process of asserting, expanding, and cementing the power of the global Empire over all areas of the world.
In the 'Heart of Empire' or the "Heart of Darkness" [Conrad], which is America, the Empire has been able through guile, propaganda, and distraction to achieve a high level of 'privatization' of wealth and its Wall Street looting scheme, to increase the GINI Coefficient of Income Inequality to the same oppressive level as in the 3rd world oil territories and dictatorships --- about 0.50 GINI.
But the still partially functional social democracies of Europe and Japan remain much more socially responsive to representing and protecting their citizens' demands for responsive political representation and reasonable income equality -- [GINI low/egalitarian levels of 0.25 to 0.35].
Now the fast evolving and crushing global Empire in the 21st century is committed and carrying out crisis 'shock doctrines' to push the levels of GINI Income Inequality of Europe (and soon, likely Japan) from true democratic levels of equality to the oppressive levels of the dictatorships of the 3rd world 'territories' and the deceived masses in the Empire's nominal HQ in America.
The global Empire has successfully used a combination of military oppression "abroad" in its 3rd world territories, and tyranny and media propaganda "at home" to oppress the 90+% of uninformed, intimidated, and scared general population --- but these techniques of Empire are not working well on Europeans, who have long been leery of Empire, since they suffered under Empire WWI and WWII.
Americans have basically been asleep at the switch, while the 'big switch-a-roo' from democratic Republic to Empire has been pulled on us over the last three to five decades. But now with the Occupy movement, a small percentage of Americans are waking up to the seminal causal cancer of the camouflaged global Empire hiding in the burning kitchen our our own nearly moribund democracy. Occupy currently is merely using the tactic of physically 'occupying' some geographical and symbolic locations like Wall Street, Washington, Boston, etc, as modeled on the Tunisia, Egypt, Libya model in the territories. But this brave model in the dictatorial territories of the global Empire is only 'necessary but not sufficient' in the 'heart of the Empire'.
Soon Occupy will have to turn up the strategy from these initial tactics and articulate what they are committed to 'occupying', and will clearly define an "Occupy Empire" singular and clearly understandable message "Against Empire" --- which all true Americans will then rally around, just as the American colonists quickly rallied around once they understood that the unresponsive British Empire's royalist governors were oppressing their political life, the royally chartered British Empire's East India Corporation was oppressing their economic lives, the British Empire's Red-coated military was oppressing their physical lives, and the British Empire's legal monopoly was oppressing their freedoms as independent people.
So in summary, the global Empire is real and has already oppressed the people of the 3rd world territories 'abroad', along with oppressing by guile and propaganda the population 'at home'.
But the people of former nationalist Empires in Europe and Japan are wise to the terrible error of allowing national Empires to rule their lives, slaughter their sons in needless world wars of Empire, and thus are now revolting against the increasing economic, social, and tyrannical oppressions of a new global Empire.
It will be up to the awakened and 'ordinary people of America' to be responsible for the Empire HQ in our midst. The 'ordinary German' people were faced with the same challenge more than half a century ago, against the nationalist Nazi Empire then. But today there is no Plan B, there is no alternative to the fast metastasizing cancer of this modernized fascist global Empire except 'ordinary Americans'.
We 'ordinary Americans' must Occupy Empire in our midst, Expose the Empire to our friends and country-men, then Confront Empire non-violently, and finally Excise Empire from our world.
As Hannah Arendt famously warned of the Nazi Empire and its 'Vichy' facade occupying France, "Empire abroad entails tyranny at home"
Best luck and love to Occupy
Liberty, democracy, justice, and equality
over
violent/Vichy
empire,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
"We forgot the lessons taught to us by our parents and grandparents who came through the Great Depression: live within your means and save some for tomorrow; satisfy your needs and not your wants"
Get a clue Suzuki! Millions on this planet are unable to satisfy their needs precisely because the world's economy is capitalism. We don't need a lecture from a liberal about not being greedy. After all these years, you still don't get it. You continue to refuse to recognize the class basis of how "wants" are created in this society. It is the capitalist system itself, in its endless drive to grow capital that people are educated to want things beyond what they really need. Over 20 years ago, I saw you challenged about your support of capitalism and all these years later, you haven't learned a thing. You continue to blame the victims of this rotten system rather than the system itself. I guess that explains why, anyone who really challenges the capitalist system gets shunned and blackballed, while those who support it, get to become TV celebrities.
Growing up during the 60s I was one of the few people I knew that actually embraced "the lessons from our parents and grandparents about the grest depression". Nearly everybody mocked me and wrote snide remarks in my high school yearbook about my values . If "we" means the majority of Americans, "we" DIDN'T "forget the lessons of the great depression", "we" ignored them from the beginning and fell for corporate propaganda every step of the way.
Struggle: Most people hold specialized interests and areas of expertise. We don't ask a chef to comment on policies in Southeast Asia nor does the artist necessarily produce expert testimony on global economics. I've noted a REGULAR pattern on C.D., that invariably someone shows up to discredit any article's source. They may aim their armed words at that individual's stock portfolio, a comment made, or position taken 20 years ago, their entire voting record, etc. There IS something to be said for looking at what's positive. Who amongst us is 100% saintlike, doesn't deviate from some preferred course in at least one zone of our lives? It is FAR more productive to support what David Suzuki does right--in the way of raising consciousness about environmental concerns--than seek to damage his reputation because he's not a socialist, or against capitalism.
I don't think he's blaming the victims. It's more than valid to speak of the excesses of modern Western lifestyles and how these damage interlocking, quite NECESSARY ecosystems. This understanding goes back to the Indigenous wisdom:
"Live simply that others may simply live."
It's elegant, and inevitable. The way things are going with nature, easy/cheap oil access, and global economics... like it or not, the SIMPLICITY clause will become the norm in a few years.
"It's more than valid to speak of the excesses of modern Western lifestyles and how these damage interlocking, quite NECESSARY ecosystems. "
I don't dispute what you're saying here, but as usual, you miss the point. These modern Western lifestyles don't come out of thin air. Modern monopoly capitalism creates this lifestyle through their sales efforts. People don't wake up one morning and out of the blue think, "I need an Ipod". (A tribe in the Amazon has no need for an Ipod nor a desire for one.) They are sold an Ipod and told that it is the latest and greatest thing and without it they are behind everyone else that has one and aren't successful as measured by the system of capitalist indoctrination.
In short, and I'll say it again - it is the economic system we live in that creates this consumer lifestyle and the "victim" in this case are all of us that live under this system. It does no good to blame victims while continuing to support this rotten system, as David has been doing now for many years.
Suzuki is stating the obvious (although I guess not obvious enough for many people) but it is still good to see it from his perspective. The more people who speak out the better! Thank you David.
Nice piece. I thought I read somewhere that someone broke Einsteins's speed limit.
You probably heard about the recent clocking of neutrinos. I was involved in neutrino detection back in the eighties--it was hypothesized that the particles were limited by Einsteins theories, but by being able to travel faster than the speed of light (i.e. C is still impossible). Neutrino detection has made it possible to measure their speed, and tests appear to confirm that neutrinos cannot travel at the speed of light or slower. We humans and our matter are still limited to less than the speed of light.
Thank you so much. The article I read gave the very real impression there was about to be a revolution in physics.
Had it not been for the work I was involved in in early neutrino detection, I would have come to the same conclusion--a revolution in physics--instead I was like, "I knew that 25 years ago." What has changed that instead of just detecting neutrinos, we can now "shoot" a neutrino towards a detector--which means we can clock how fast they're moving. I assume this also means we can now use neutrino detection to locate nuclear reactors (neutrino sources) even if they are beneath the sea (the military application--submarine detection), which would mean submerged nuclear submarines are no longer "invisible."
Thank you so much. The article I read gave the very real impression there was about to be a revolution in physics.
great piece
dr suzuki says that not all corporations are psychopathic (my word) and i disagree with him - they are all mad dogs and as he pointed out they have ruined, for the sake of short term bonuses, the world
wars are now fought for corporations - or, option b for the zionists in israel
the food system has been taken over by corporations who now offer three food types: shit in bags, shit in boxes and shit in cans
our water supply has been poisoned by a million chemicals and by fluoride thanks to the corporations
our schools have dumbed down the population as part of the rockefeller takeover of the curricula, from grade 1 to university
the media, wholly owned by 3 corporations, presents a sick and biased paralell reality where sean hannity and fat boy limburger are considered to be personalities
useless and destructive medications affecting cognitive function are crammed down our throats from childbirth on
vaccines....don't even get me started
and through it all we continue to kill off the peasants and steal their shit
i agree with dr s - we need to reboot this system and in doing so take out a lot of trash that has accumulated over the years we binged and medicated
time to arise sleepyheads!!!!!!!!!
Its not a question of good corporations verses bad corporations.
From a legal standpoint, US corporations are required to work for the betterment of the shareholders, not their customers, not for any city, county, state, nation, or planet. Stockholders will sue a corporation that fails to act in their interest. CEOs therefore will NEVER do anything that may result in a stockholder suit.
Government regulation and consumer boycotts of corporations are the ONLY two ways to change corporate behavior.
The industrialized societies of the world are mired in the capitalism system. People are dependent on the system for life's necessities. Very few people living in this system could be totally self sufficient. Capitalism and self sufficiency are for the most part incompatible, and I think this is the foundation for most of the complaints of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We all want more control over our lives, but because of our dependency on the system, we are stuck trying to get by in a system we have little control over. Mr. Suzuki is right, we need to protect our fundamental needs and demand social justice. I just don't think our political system is up to the task.
DavidL,
i agree w/ you on both points. we are stuck living in an inherently unsustainable economy and the political system, in the status quo, is incapable of addressing the multiple crises we confront as a species.
were in an intractable situation - as the situation deteriorates (war/environmental degradation/poverty) we, as americans, will see the state resort more willingly to violence to protect its legitimacy and the wealth of the few. meanwhile, the sheep will continue to drive, work, shop, eat, consume TV, sleep, shower, eat, work, shop, eat, consume TV, sleep, shower, work.... as they say "work shall set you free"....
...peace...
"It's not just about the one per cent who rake in an ever-increasing proportion of society's wealth while 99 per cent bear the real costs. It's also about corporate power and the systems that facilitate it. A few corporations have become bigger than most governments."
But a tiny fraction of the 1% make the rules and corporate power systems; the majority stockholders of banks and corporations. Minority stockholders simply follow their lead. It is all about the one per cent.
Direct democracy
"Those are laws of nature and we can't change them. We have to live within their boundaries. Capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, corporations, currency, markets, and regional borders are not forces of nature. We invented them. If they don't work, we can and must change them." ............................................................ Nature made humans, so anything we make is nature's work. George Carlin figured that nature made humans because it needed a way to make plastic. Nature gave us a big brain so we can have knowledge and imagination. Nature gave us the ability to love. Big brain brought us many gifts but has gotten us into big trouble. Only heart and brain working together can save us now. Nature is a great teacher. Ask other successful social species how they get along and what to look out for. Nature likes balance. Imbalance is disease. Nature has a cure for species that act like diseases. Our species has a disease. We can cure us, or nature will cure itself.................................................................... I strive to make the arc between the Age of Knowledge to the Age of Wisdom. Work smart and hard and lovingly.............Save the Humans.................................OCCUPY EARTH
I still cant get the paragraph thingy to work. I tried typing "<", then "p", then ">". I tried typing "<", then "br", then ">". Neither worked.........OCCUPY EDUCATION too, protest thurs Nov. 17, California State University East Bay, talk of possible teachers' strike.
use br and /br inside the two greater and less than symbols. I can't type them because they won't show in print
Don't blame the boomers, you jackass. The people of this country have had zero say in how this country was run for decades. It's not like we wanted to die without health care, pay tens of thousands for educations for jobs that are outsourced, give our pensions to bankers to stuff into off shore accounts, or go to war with anyone we think smells funny. We certainly tried to stop the likes of BP destroying our beloved Gulf, but alas we found out just how voiceless we were.
Even in this article there are traces of "greed is good", in the verses that continue to pay subtle respect to and give a false legitimacy/dignity to evil ideas, if only to attract our attention because they ring bells inside our indoctrinated minds. To wean ourselves off the ego opiates, we have to thoroughly purge all remnants of respect/dignity for the greed impulse. We have to demonize evil. It's ridiculous that we do not automatically. It's evidence of mass brainwashing by/for evil. Evil concentrates at the "top" for obvious reasons. It's a "special" kind of evil up there, ehh, shiny, sparkly. We're going to achieve universal enlightenment/equity/justice, without Merkan elites and without their shiny, destructive, ideas. We don't need em!
Looks like the Chamber of Commerce in Oakland is trying to stir up an eviction of Occupy Oakland. They released a "poll" commissioned by *themselves* that purports 60% opposition to Occupy Oakland inside Oakland. And NBC 3 Bay Area has picked it up and run with it, carrying interviews calling for eviction ...
Isn't the Chamber of Commerce conservative?Republican?
And heavily embedded in the mindset of the OPD (and surrounding sheriff's/police depts) leaderships...
The young people at berkeley, students from the school of free speech were beaten by the police. The Occupy movement is fresh thinking, to all of you people that think this is a movement of dip shits you could not be more wrong. Their demands are easily understood, correct the imbalance, health care, jobs, our Social Security, our Medicare, the list goes on, it's easy, it's the golden rule, treat us as you would want to be treated. we are the people!
I lived my childhood in the Great Depression. Now my "golden" years in the new depression? Deja vu all over again.
New Thinking? Brand New Political Architecture is what is NEEDED.
Face-book 'The Joseph Solution'
perhaps a power blackout over the US for 2 weeks would help americans understand that they can self organize and get along w/ their neighbors adequately w/out a hyper militarized police state. it's going to take something on that level to awaken the sleeping masses - who are addicted to prozac and first person shooter video games.
i've heard people say that 2011 was a pivotal year (arab spring/OWS) but my sites are set on 2012. will the american people direct their anger at both political parties (during a general election) next year ? will a legitimate alternative from the true left emerge in the next year or will the US govt continue on the path to overt fascism (whether D or R wins) ?
global warming/climate change isn't going to wait around for the american public to alter its fundamental belief systems. also, china is continuing to experience economic growth - how will americans (who spend so much on war) deal w/ china's global ascent in the coming decades ?
...peace...
A bit of threadjacking here:
From what I've been able to understand, Gandhi's Satyagraha is a method requiring moral fitness, strength of will, and intellectual/spiritual training that pretty much turns you into a Jedi Master of revolution. Like, a couple of them on a space station and it's total catastrophe for the bad guys. According to Gandhi, if you can get the hang of it you can be every bit the superbillybadass (from a revolutionary point of view) that MLK Jr., Mandela, or little 125 lbs Gandhi were.
A single Satyagrahi is 100% certainty that the oppressors will be defeated.
I'm coming around to believe him.
As I understand it, first you have to get as right as you can with your morals, religion, and intellect. Then you admit that the State has absolute power over your body. Then you come to terms with the State having no power whatsoever over your soul.
Souls become the battleground.
Each Satyagrahi is fighting a total and relentless war, without any trace of violence. You don't even want to scare your adversaries, much less hurt them. Your goal is to do everything you can to stop them while trying to convert them.
Your weapon is your own suffering. You have to be willing - eager, even - to resist oppression as hard you can and get punished for it. You use their punishment as a weapon to show them your innocence and trust to their innate humanity to eventually win out. You must be patient and wait forever for this result if you have to.
You absolutely can't be a pussy. You have to be fearless and organize unions and marches and boycotts and sit-ins, but when "they" come to get you you greet them with open arms, because this is the ground you've trained to fight on.
That's how I'm understanding it so far. I'd like to talk to people about it because if it works as advertised I'll bet we can adapt it to #OWS purposes.
At this point I'm so hard up for feedback I'll listen to anything anybody has to say.
Threadjacking or not, that reads like an inspired piece of writing, Hansjurg. And a welcome change from reading all the cynical posts lately. It may provoke some knee-jerk reactions, especially if people miss the basic point about a Satyagrahi: he/she needs to work that much harder to face up to one's own fear and to confront hypocrisy in themselves. Anyone who has gone far enough on this path is a clear threat to the rulers. Because such people have a strong potential to "corrupt" the masses to break out of their own fear. Such people have the potential to break down "order" that has been maintained with physical force. And what's more, beating up and "defeating" these people would be no victory at all, and the rulers would have to know it in their heart of hearts.
You say, "I'm coming around to believe him." Yes, I would imagine that the people who "come around" to such a position do so consciously. More power to them!
How can we break the chains of tyranny if no one understands its the debt-REQUIRED to PRINT new US DOLLARS (FRNs) but if not enough people can borrow anymore then less cash than necessary for the economy is avail. This means inflation.
STEP 2. REPEAT STEP 1 but your money is worth less now & there are more people who can't EVEN QUALIFY to get more debt much less get more money out of the sky. My idea solves this contrived conundrum & reverses the disparity. Wrangling w the chains of hypnotic slavery WILL NOT BREAK THEM unless monetizing windpower via POWER & BARTER/dollar indexing of soft-consumables & labor is instituted. Our Treasury & FED
Hi David, from a fellow Canadian.
I once thought science could be the lingua franca of the world, uniting us all.
How wrong I appear to have been.
Mention science to a dogmatic religious, and you are toast - perhaps literally, and evolution is the keystone - the concept which cannot be even considered.
The hate and violence of the religious dogmatic has no equal in all of our history - and all disguised as 'do unto others'.
I wanted little to do with the human race - and climbed mountains for seven years straight, as a full time amateur. That made me human, and now Julie and I are married, and together we have a seven year old son.
So I blog, but I think I may be kidding myself.
Is there anyone listening - any but a few?
Manysummits
====
Agree. I've written "Time for Millennials to Take Control" http://www.paulglover.org/1005.html
and "Los Angeles: A History of the Future" http://paulglover.org/8212.html
http://www.zcommunications.org/occupy-denialism-toward-ecological-and-social-revolution-by-john-bellamy-foster
David, please read this!