Posts
I
have been avoiding this subject because it makes me extremely
uncomfortable and I do not know how to approach it.
On
the one thing I can really relate to Greta Thunberg and all the young
people coming out because they are frustrated and want action.
What
makes me uncomfortable is that this is being embraced by the media
and people I would regard as sociopaths that have agendas that are
quite different from the young people.
I
believe that these young people are being used in another agenda
which involves getting everyone to drive electric cars. Once we've
worked out where the electricity is going to come from I would
encourage people to contemplate how they might be aiding and abetting
in the recolonisation of the Third World and slave labour in Africa,
“Saving
the planet” by enslaving African children – is that ethical?
I
can see the ultimate futility of this action but I would never tell
any one to “do nothing”.
I
think I will stay away from activism and stick to being a chronicler.
'Global Strike 4 Climate
world
Change' rallies round the
world
Millions of people including hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren are taking to the streets in 150 countries today for the largest climate protest in history.
'Global Strike 4 Climate Change' protesters were photographed in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Uganda, Kenya, the Solomon Island, Cyprus, Poland, Germany and London on Wednesday morning, with those living in the Americas expected to join as the day wares on.
In Sydney, the first major city to take to the streets, Thor star Chris Hemsworth and his young daughter India joined 50,000 in a rally that saw some violent clashes between police and protesters.
Hundreds of thousands of children were among the crowds having walked out of lessons to join the marches, inspired by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg who began leaving school every Friday in order to protest climate change in a movement that has spread around the world.
She is currently in Washington where she addressed Congress on climate change Thursday, and is expected to lead marchers there later today in New York.
Demonstrators are demanding world leaders take greater action to combat the effects of climate change, as each month sees new weather records broken. This year alone has seen the hottest month ever recorded on earth, record-breaking wildfires in Siberia, huge swathes of the Amazon burned, and the most powerful storm ever to make landfall hit the Bahamas.
Protesters take to the streets of Sydney on Friday morning as the largest climate demonstration in history, which is due to take place in 150 countries, got underway
Tens of thousands of people also took to the streets in Berlin, while other German cities including Frankfurt and Munich also saw their own demonstrations take place
Activists take part in Global Strike 4 Climate Change protests in Lodz, the manufacturing hub of Poland, on Friday
A young woman holds a poster as she takes part in a strike to protest against governmental inaction towards climate change in New Delhi, India - one of the most polluted countries anywhere in the world
Thousands of Turkish students, holding banners and posters, take part in demonstrations against climate change in Ankara
The majority of protesters are young people or children who walked out of school to take part in the demonstrations, inspired by activist Greta Thunberg. Pictured are demonstrators in Cyprus
Indonesian activists carry placards as they rally as part of a global climate change campaign in Jakarta
Advocates for environmental protection hold signs during a rally in solidarity with the Global Climate Strike at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City
People hold placards and chant slogans as they take part in a climate strike rally in Hong Kong's Central district
Protesters gather during a global climate strike demonstration in Paris, France
School students and protesters gather during a climate strike rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Young demonstrators take part in the Global Climate Strike protest in Bangkok on Friday morning
Young people gather for a protest against climate change at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic
Schoolchildren protest with banners outside parliament in London, Friday, September 20
Greek students and activists of environmental take part in a Global Climate Strike rally of the movement Fridays for Future in Athens, Greece
Kenyan environment activists dressed in plactic waste attire join hundreds of youths and students during a protest against climate change in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya
Young people hold up banners as they take part in a march, part of the global Climate Walk 2019, against climate change in Wakiso, Uganda
Bali: People display placards during a rally as part of a global climate change campaign at Sanur beach on Indonesia's resort island
Students take part in a demonstration part of the Fridays for Future global climate strike, in Wageningen, The Netherlands
Thousands of environmentalist gather during a demonstration to draw attention to global warming and climate change in Brussels, Belgium
Led by climate activist Greta Thunberg (centre), young activists and their supporters rally for action on climate change in New York City today
In Defense of Cory
Morningstar &
“Manufacturing for Consent”
Hiroyuki Hamada
,
20 September, 2019
Good investigative journalism doesn’t only reveal hidden mechanisms of our time; it also exposes those who refuse to confront the mechanisms.
Remember when the late Bruce Dixon courageously and cogently called Bernie Sanders “a sheep dog candidate”?
Remember when Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley and others truly stood with Syrian people in opposing the western intervention?
I do. Those who could not face the reality came up with all sorts of profanities and ill conceived theories to demonize the messengers.
Cory Morningstar has been a dedicated environmental activist with a sound track record, who has closely worked with various NGOs. She is a mother. She is an avid gardener. She is an honest person with empathy, passion, love for people, love for our fellow creatures and love for nature.
Her human character and sense of justice has culminated in her keen insights, observations and analyses. Her writings have inspired many of us to see the depth and scope of capitalist institutions as part of the social dynamics affecting our consciousness. Her meticulous pursuit of facts in illustrating mechanisms of our world evokes a sense of awe. She is a respected colleague in our struggle toward a better tomorrow.
While her latest series, The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg—for Consent: The Political Economy of Non Profit Industrial Complex Volume Iand Volume II , has been wildly praised as a ground breaking milestone in depicting the vast mechanism of exploitation and subjugation involving the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, it has been also maliciously misrepresented.
One of the very common, yet blatantly erroneous criticisms, centers around the series’s focus on the young activist.
Why do they attack the author as a child abuser? The series does not attack the 16 year old activist at all. It points out those organizations and individuals which closely surround her in forming a momentum for their agenda. It delineates how the mobilization fits within the larger framework of corporate “environmentalism”, colonialism, global capitalism and imperialism.
The trickery of the accusation that the work attacks a child and smears the youth led activism follows the same pattern of lies and deceptions unfolding against serious journalism for sometime.
It reflects how establishment successfully dominates our minds as it dominates the hierarchy of money and violence. The ruling class actually abuses children by making them pawns for lucrative business projects–such as carbon capture and storage, “renewable energy” schemes, carbon trading and so on (the series discusses why they do not work extensively).
They trick the innocent youth into digging their own graves while making profits out of it.
Remember people called you racist, when you pointed out President Obama’s drone killings? Remember people called you misogynist when you criticized Secretary Clinton’s colonial policies? Those who did didn’t mind brown people blown into pieces, and didn’t mind the colonial oppression of women in colonized lands.
The capitalist hierarchy structurally forces us to embrace the values, norms and beliefs of the ruling class, as it trains people to climb the social ladder as expected.
The momentum to accuse Morningstar’s work as a child abuse stems from the same psychological projection of accusers’ own complicity in consecrating a teenager as an invincible saint of their movement.
Then there is the most typical argument to condone obvious institutional tendencies of inhumanity: “things aren’t always black and white”. Of course there are good environmentalists doing good work as well.
We have gone through this in so many incarnations.
When we point out police brutality, we hear “not all police officers are bad”. When we point out obvious racism among us: “not all white people are racist”.
Those
are certainly true. But could we also say “not
all slave masters were evil”, “not
all Kings and queens were evil”, “not
all colonizers were evil” and
so on?
Well, sure. But does that mean we can bring back slavery, feudalism or colonialism? No. Refusal to talk about the systematic inhumanity inflicted by the system tolerates the status quo as acceptable.
And please do stop with “but the movement gives us hope” nonsense.
What happened when we were sold “hope”, “change” and “forward”, and received colonial wars, big bank bailout, global surveillance and loss of legal protections during the Obama presidency? We got Donald Trump.
When the system squeezes already oppressed people while shuttering their hope and making them embrace fear, people try their best to hold onto whatever they have.
They embrace an illusion of salvation in authoritarian lies and hatred against “others”. It is extremely important that we strive to discuss such a mechanism among us instead of jumping into the same momentum. We must discuss the true hope of building a momentum moving beyond the lies and deceptions coming out of the destructive hierarchy.
Morningstar states in The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg—for Consent: The Political Economy of Non Profit Industrial Complex Volume II Act IV:
Consider that collectively, the populace appears to believe that not only is it possible to colonize another planet, but that we will do so in the not-so-distant future. This is incredible considering the massive odds of and colossal barriers to such an endeavour succeeding. Thus, it is alarming, that this same populace appears not to believe it is not possible to create new societies where necessity is detached from want (superfluous consumer goods).
This begs the question – have we been fully conditioned to believe only those that represent hegemonic interests? It is a sound question considering the billionaires of the world are currently petrified of the capitalist system collapsing – while those oppressed by the capitalist system believe it cannot be dismantled.
Yet we can dismantle institutions. We can dismantle the capitalist economic system devouring what remains of the natural world – but not if we identify with our oppressors and the very system that enslaves us. It is our natural world and her living natural communities that sustain us. Not industrial civilization – not technology.
Hopelessness and cynicism do creep up to justify the status quo. But we also must recognize that such a position does away with putting our efforts toward standing with the truly oppressed ones.
Morningstar’s series meticulously documents how powerful global organizations seek ways to cultivate a consensus for their trajectory. And it carefully states, with facts, why the trajectory does not lead to achieving their promises – preventing climate change and other environmental calamities.
The illustrated mechanism has been revealed over and over through their past crimes – the coordinated actions of industries, bankers, politicians, NGOs, UN, global financial institutions and media have culminated into colonial wars, coverups of nuclear disasters, regime change, and other corporate, colonial and imperial policies.
There is nothing speculative, coincidental or conspiratorial about the series. It is based on careful research, honesty, courage to face the real issue and true love for humanity. It is again curiously indicative that those who engage in a conspiracy to mobilize the people according to their agendas accuse those who see through the attempt as “conspiracy theorist”. The use of the derogatory term invented by the US intelligence agency to label dissidents as tin-hat wearing nuts jobs hardly proves their legitimacy.
Moreover, I must say that it is extremely odd and disingenuous that the series has been portrayed as a refusal to take any action, instead insisting on ideological purity. Such an attack has been coming out of those who have been pointing out the same moneyed network in forwarding corporatism, colonialism and militarism by manipulating popular opinions.
What is the difference between opposing destructive colonial wars and opposing colonization of nature/co-optation of activism? More specifically, what prompts some of them to say “what is your solution?”, “we can’t wait for capitalism to be overthrown to solve climate change” and so on. The obvious falsehood of such an angle is the stark absence of solutions within their own “green momentum”.
Morningstar’s research does not talk about the necessity of establishing a communist statehood or overthrowing capitalism in order to solve the impending crisis. It simply states facts in a cohesive manner.
Consequently, it certainly indicates the systematic structural issues presented by the hierarchy of money and violence. The research clearly names individuals and organizations that are involved in mobilizing the population in installing government policies that are lucrative to the associated corporations and beneficial to the imperial framework. Capitalist hegemony does present itself as a source of predicaments of our time. But is that new to us?
Needless to say, for those of us who believe in the Marxist perspective, the solution amounts to a structural transformation of our society into one that doesn’t monopolize the means of production for the ruling class.
The economic activities must be subservient to harmonious existence of the people, environment and other species. And our social interactions must be under a control of such aims, instead of financial and social power of the ruling class. But make no mistake that that is simply an ultimate direction.
Just as we voice our objections against any form of inhumanity regardless of our systematic problem, when we see certain environmental policies being subservient to the corporate agenda, likely to result in worsened conditions for the people, we discuss them.
There shouldn’t be anything different about pointing out the US military aggression and the fallacy of US environmental policies, especially when they are forwarded by the same western establishment. When we find the carbon capture schemes to be disingenuous, for example, we simply point it out.
We demand an answer to why corporate “solutions” are upheld as people’s “solutions”. And people who buy into false narratives should be noted as not credible leaders in people’s movement.
So the question “what is your solution?” really should be directed at those who subscribe to those erroneous “solutions.”
They need to be asked how those solutions would be a worthy cause at the first place, and why cogent criticisms against implementations of destructive schemes can not be embraced because “we can’t wait for a socialist revolution”.
What people desperately need today is good investigative reports like the one presented by Cory Morningstar, along with our educational efforts to reveal the mechanisms of our time.
We must learn how the unprecedented wealth accumulation among the very few ends up protected by layers and layers of moneyed social institutions coordinating to perpetuate the system, while progressively oppressive financial pressure and state violence against already oppressed people keep herding people into the capitalist framework.
When we face the sad reality of people embracing policies that allow the powerful minorities to exploit and subjugate them over and over, what we need is not a popular mobilization guided by vague slogans easily subsumed by the imperial framework. Such a method would lead to draconian enforcement of corporate “solutions” according to their definition of “problems”. It is a recipe for bringing about a fascist order.
What we need is openness and willingness to learn how we are domesticated by the authoritarian framework so that the actions are guided by the interests of the people in forming a society that allows true liberation of the people in a mutually respectful and harmonious manner.
Please do read The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg—for Consent: The Political Economy of Non Profit Industrial Complex Volume I and II. It gives us an excellent starting point in learning how to build a better tomorrow for all of us.
Environmental activists in Britain and France have stepped up campaigns to get their governments to confront climate change with greater urgency, part of a week of global climate actions.
Thousands of people marched in south Paris to press French President Emmanuel Macron, world leaders at the United Nations and multinational companies to reduce greenhouse emissions faster, The protest turned violent for a while after dozens of marchers dressed in black broke windows and set fire to makeshift street barricades. Police blocked off side streets and used tear gas and batons indiscriminately to disperse the crowds as demonstrators ran for cover. French police fired tear gas and made over 100 arrests.
https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/paris-climate-protest-halted-amid-clashes-with-police/news-story/b3239321850eb808182e25c6ba5a3f9f?fbclid=IwAR25xqbYPYO_feCq2W7Z8qxNdj4dezT6d5TVIaWbQf2PQqiDBlKlSkm1KLc
I wrote this last night
ReplyDeleteRobert Atack
1 second ago
Climate change. I'm just a dumb builder, but this is my take away after nearly 20 years of reading shit, and listening to 'like minded' people = hundreds or years study ???
But still I only got my drivers licence and SFA else ) but here is my speal anyway...
bla bla ... The last time the environment saw over 410 ppm CO2 average. Just lets ignore the who put it their or if it is a cause, lets just call it an indicator, like a mark on a sick.
The last time the mark on the stick was reached, from the lower mark (of 280 ppm) it took 10,000 years to reach the higher mark, during that slow rise of the CO2, the deep oceans would have slowly heated and expanded, and once the ocean ice had melted the heating would have happened faster.
So the last time the planet saw 415 ppm CO2 the global average temperature was about 21C not 15.5 as it is now. And the oceans were 80 meters higher, and toxic to about 85% of life.
Just going on the factual geological records it doesn't look good for us.
Also in the past rise to 415, most/all of the then ice would have melted, releasing the 'then' stored CH4, of which approximately 1% of what is held in place under the East Siberian Arctic Shelf THIS TIME AROUND , is equal to all the CO2 humans have added in the last 200 years. - CH4 though considered 'short lived' can be 150 times stronger a GHG than CO2 (If CO2 was a thing that is) a lot of the CH4 breaks down to CO2 over an average of 15 years, then hangs around with the rest of the CO2 duds for about 1,000 years. Humans are not going to see sub 415 ppm CO2 anytime soon.
The Climate Strike people are 100% suspicious that is for sure? god knows who is up to what? They are telling the 'kids' how stuffed we all are, in one breath, then saying we have 12 years left and need to declare an 'emergency' it is a bit like King Canute trying to stop the high tide, or declaring the bullet hasn't gone through your head, when it is in bedded in the wall behind ya )
They are lying to the kids, in as much as they are actually giving them hope.
Robert Atack
Robert Atack
1 second ago
And that will be their own Cognitive dissonance kicking in "If we can bring the system down via these children, they will save our sorry butts or some such??? buggered if I know what drives fools? Anyway the lie is that there is something humans can do and we can prevent what is fast unfolding (think 5 yer old dreaming of driving the fire engine)
The Dark State weren't around 250 million years ago, I don't think they can get their heads around it.
Not that it matters to us, but I think this time around will be worse that 2.5 mill years ago, this is an unprecedented event. And dopey humans, you know the 'qualified' ones haven't a bloody clue. beep beep