The genocide in Gaza is not a freakish anomaly. It is a harbinger of what awaits us as the ecosystem disintegrates and governments embrace climate fascism.
So-called “civilized” societies and their inhabitants are basically nothing but a cancer run wild on the earth as they have commodified everything now. I make exceptions for indigenous cultures that still manage to hold on to some semblance of living in balance with nature. The creation of “artificial wealth” and the ability to accumulate it by humans was the final straw in human’s evolution towards something good. Ever since then humans have been hell bent on their own extinction along with most flora and fauna. Waging wars is one of the most profitable means of accumulating that artificial wealth in this day and age. And the ongoing exponential climate collapse is going to kill us all and likely sooner than later. Enjoy what remaining days we have and be kind to others as best you can.
It’s important to note, the US has been complicit in Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people long before Donald Trump. We have provided arms to Israel since 1962. No president’s hands are clean, Democrat or Republican, hated or beloved.
On point as usual, Chris. I would regrettably only replace 'they will' with 'they are'. Take the U.S. (and their client states) alone; their interest, rhetoric, and activities in relation to Venezuela, Ukraine, Palestine, Greenland, Panama, Canada, Sudan, The DRC, Colombia, China et al. all boil down to a resource and thus wealth grab.
When I was very young I made a decision which I’ve not regretted for an instant. It was the decision to never have children. Philosophically, it’s a form of suicide.
What’s being described here is also a form of suicide: suicide of the species.
We all know how to solve it, but we choose not to. Just as I chose not to continue my genetic heritage.
I’m going to miss the world; I’ve always known that.
But the world won’t miss me, and, if you thought this essay was depressing, as all sentient beings must, take heart. The world will not miss any of us.
Not even the pretty hummingbirds that feed outside my window every morning.
This is not the end, it is the painful awakening of a new mature consciousness out of a young-souled power-driven, win or lose mentality. Often throughout history it has taken a revolution against tyranny to awaken and slowly establish a better way. This kick-back against this burgeoning conscious awareness, this progress, is extremely violent and bullying, but it is against the many by a handful. We will prevail, losses will be hard, and I will not likely see the full manifestations of these coming changes, but it will happen. We can grieve for what is being lost but still know that this is how monumental change happens. You are not alone, and you would be missed. Even our, their, deaths are not the end. Even our previous planet can, with time, renew itself. It won't be the same but it, and we, will recover eventually.
@marcia: i wish i could share your optimism. as the globe overheats, life at 130+ ºF in the shade will be unlivable, as it already is for countless people in the global south. people who did not even contribute much to this state of facts bear the brunt of the results of our global northern greed and insatiability. [beware, we're not supposed to criticize capitalism anymore!]
viruses, fires, storms and floods will soon take the best/rest of us - and nature will get a chance to regenerate itself, unperturbed by the influence of critters who had everything - but not the faintest clue about how to use and enjoy it fairly, wisely.
...precious planet (it's not "previous" yet). And yes, our lovely hummingbirds, the birds and bees and trees and flowers and gorgeous skies are still with us, I watch them with total joy. We must counterbalance the sorrow with the beauty we see before our eyes, what and who we love, what we value in our world. Those ugly few must not rob us of the truth that beauty and love still exists, and we still nurture and support it. They matter, we matter, it matters.💞
Well. That is about as bleak as it gets, Monsieur Hedges. But it is the truth, it seems to me. On most levels of "reality". I still, though, have this feeling that we might be missing something...Something to do with love and the collective consciousness. Did we really just evolve and devolve into this wretched and destructive species that will annihilate itself and everything else? Or is there a chance that this is the "bottom of the barrel" and that having reached it, or very close to it, we might just make a U turn towards "enlightenment"? Doesnt' it seem odd that we've spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving into a death machine that will end up destroying all beauty and all life?
Something about it seems too dark to be believable-(-though one only has to read the papers to believe it.) Still...it feels too perverse compared to the behaviours and systems of the natural world.
Or, speaking of the natural world, maybe humans are supposed to disappear. In which case, I hope we do it fairly quickly, while there are still a few butterflies and maybe a pair of tigers somewhere.
At a fundamental level, all life will expand its boundaries until it exhausts its resources. We aren't different in that respect. One of the biggest problems is have with religions is that they teach that humans are something special, not part of nature. Our hubris is about to end us.
Not all "religions" teach this. North American indigenous people hold in common the understanding that we are ALL relatives and must be comprehended and treated as such. Nothing is separate, all are related. Some Buddhist sects also teach this foundational understanding.
Not all human life expanded its boundaries until it exhausted its resources. Aboriginal people lived sustainably for at least 65,000 years on the Australian continent. I don't know how they achieved it - apart from (1) a worldview/cosmology so unlike the European colonisers they called it 'the Dreamtime' for want of a better term; and (2) the ability to stabilise their population.
Fair question. An interesting fact is that some 600 tribes of Indigenous Australians fought battles, but never wars of conquest. They respected each other's territory.
Thank you for this piece. It was hard to read but absolutely necessary if we are to move forward in this horror… clarity not illusions are essential during these times. Reading this reminded me of reading these words almost 10 years after they were spoken… absolutely relevant today:
Mario Savio Excerpt
delivered 2 December 1964, The University of California at Berkeley
“And that -- that brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!”
This will not all just go away by electing a new party or king… Genocide Joe was there to give people an illusion of choice. Voting and religion are the opiates of the people.
“let’s stop talking falsely now, the hour is getting late”
While I substantially agree with Chris's analysis, I find that there are things that I do not subscribe to that Chris articulates. I agree with Marx that there is a Class War happening, but I do not agree with the solutions proposed by those who follow Marx. My belief is that "All have sinned & fallen short of the Glory of God" which in practical terms means anyone given unlimited power will do horrific things. So Unions have as much capacity to do evil as Capitalists. The solution is in having checks & balances so no one has unlimited power.
We are in a Class War in 2025, except this time it is global elite & thier supplicants against everyone else. The focus of this Class War is on controlling the narrative, and is fought on many different fronts. The Global Elites control through thier supplicants (Academia, Media, Managerial, Government Bureaucrats) the narrative. They produce nothing tangible & are basically parasites that exist of the productive population (Everyone Else)
The Climate Change Narrative is a distraction. A distraction from real environmental problems such as our food supply and how it has been contaminated by Industrial Agriculture & Food Manufacturing. It is a distraction from how our economy has been financialized and everything from housing to tomatoes is about generating revenue for them which means that no problem is ever solved. Finacialization is the problem so solving it, would reduce thier power & wealth.
When it is all distilled, our Elites see themselves as the Inheritors of the Earth and the rest of us as an inconvenience that needs to managed. What is happening in Gaza is a model for what is coming for the rest of us. They are betting on AI because thier agenda is that they no longer require people to produce the luxury items they desire so can dispense of the rest of us.
Personally I see them as detached from reality, and pursuing things that do not & will not ever work, but that does not matter because our Elites are making all the decisions and are protected by thier wealth from the consequences of thier decisions. It is the rest of us who are faced with the negative consequences of thier actions.
Thank you for continuing to say what needs to be said. I feel this urgency in my own soul daily. I also feel like my resistance is a drop in the bucket but I will contine to speak and live love and life while I'm here.
"We must fight these battles while we still have a chance. The openings for resistance are closing with alarming speed. We must, through civil disobedience, shut down the machine. We must remake the world. This means removing the ruling global class. It means demolishing a society constructed around the mania for capitalist expansion. It means ending our reliance on fossil fuels. It means enforcing international law and dismantling Israel’s settler colonial and genocidal rule. "
But we won't. "The masses will never revolt." --O'Brien to Winston Smith.
Never revolt?! Have you forgotten the French revolution? the Russian revolution? All the recent movements for labor unions, civil rights, etc? There was resistance to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, partisan fighters in occupied Europe. The oppressed will fight back. They may lose, but they will not surrender.
Unfortunately, Americans have been successfully duped into warring against each other along cultural lines and don't recognize that the real war is an economic war. Both the French and Russian revolutions were fought for economic justice, not for trivial matters like woke. They were motivated by real issues like hunger.
The American revolution was also an economic war led by the rich and powerful colonists who objected to the King's domination (and taxation)
Political parties in our country have successfully divided our citizens along cultural lines to the extent that we will war against each other before we will war against the establishment. There weren't any political parties like that in Russia or France at the time of the revolutions.
It's the elitists and their political parties that are the real enemies of our country; but how many Americans realize that?
The main problem in our country is the near equal divide that will likely lead to civil war long before revolution. That is -- if Trump doesn't drag us into a nuclear war first.
Civil disobedience will not work. The ruling class will slaughter the protesters like China did at Tienamen Square. There's another way; we just cannot spell it out.
So-called “civilized” societies and their inhabitants are basically nothing but a cancer run wild on the earth as they have commodified everything now. I make exceptions for indigenous cultures that still manage to hold on to some semblance of living in balance with nature. The creation of “artificial wealth” and the ability to accumulate it by humans was the final straw in human’s evolution towards something good. Ever since then humans have been hell bent on their own extinction along with most flora and fauna. Waging wars is one of the most profitable means of accumulating that artificial wealth in this day and age. And the ongoing exponential climate collapse is going to kill us all and likely sooner than later. Enjoy what remaining days we have and be kind to others as best you can.
Spoken like a proper cat!
Well said!
And resist! At every opportunity.
It’s important to note, the US has been complicit in Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people long before Donald Trump. We have provided arms to Israel since 1962. No president’s hands are clean, Democrat or Republican, hated or beloved.
I think 1964. LBJ and from then on. . . .obstacle removed 11/22/63. . .
On point as usual, Chris. I would regrettably only replace 'they will' with 'they are'. Take the U.S. (and their client states) alone; their interest, rhetoric, and activities in relation to Venezuela, Ukraine, Palestine, Greenland, Panama, Canada, Sudan, The DRC, Colombia, China et al. all boil down to a resource and thus wealth grab.
When I was very young I made a decision which I’ve not regretted for an instant. It was the decision to never have children. Philosophically, it’s a form of suicide.
What’s being described here is also a form of suicide: suicide of the species.
We all know how to solve it, but we choose not to. Just as I chose not to continue my genetic heritage.
I’m going to miss the world; I’ve always known that.
But the world won’t miss me, and, if you thought this essay was depressing, as all sentient beings must, take heart. The world will not miss any of us.
Not even the pretty hummingbirds that feed outside my window every morning.
This is not the end, it is the painful awakening of a new mature consciousness out of a young-souled power-driven, win or lose mentality. Often throughout history it has taken a revolution against tyranny to awaken and slowly establish a better way. This kick-back against this burgeoning conscious awareness, this progress, is extremely violent and bullying, but it is against the many by a handful. We will prevail, losses will be hard, and I will not likely see the full manifestations of these coming changes, but it will happen. We can grieve for what is being lost but still know that this is how monumental change happens. You are not alone, and you would be missed. Even our, their, deaths are not the end. Even our previous planet can, with time, renew itself. It won't be the same but it, and we, will recover eventually.
@marcia: i wish i could share your optimism. as the globe overheats, life at 130+ ºF in the shade will be unlivable, as it already is for countless people in the global south. people who did not even contribute much to this state of facts bear the brunt of the results of our global northern greed and insatiability. [beware, we're not supposed to criticize capitalism anymore!]
viruses, fires, storms and floods will soon take the best/rest of us - and nature will get a chance to regenerate itself, unperturbed by the influence of critters who had everything - but not the faintest clue about how to use and enjoy it fairly, wisely.
correction: "not the faintest clue about how" must read "not the faintest desire"
...precious planet (it's not "previous" yet). And yes, our lovely hummingbirds, the birds and bees and trees and flowers and gorgeous skies are still with us, I watch them with total joy. We must counterbalance the sorrow with the beauty we see before our eyes, what and who we love, what we value in our world. Those ugly few must not rob us of the truth that beauty and love still exists, and we still nurture and support it. They matter, we matter, it matters.💞
"we will recover"? the planet will continue, it doesn't need us, check out George Carlin on this topic
Well. That is about as bleak as it gets, Monsieur Hedges. But it is the truth, it seems to me. On most levels of "reality". I still, though, have this feeling that we might be missing something...Something to do with love and the collective consciousness. Did we really just evolve and devolve into this wretched and destructive species that will annihilate itself and everything else? Or is there a chance that this is the "bottom of the barrel" and that having reached it, or very close to it, we might just make a U turn towards "enlightenment"? Doesnt' it seem odd that we've spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving into a death machine that will end up destroying all beauty and all life?
Something about it seems too dark to be believable-(-though one only has to read the papers to believe it.) Still...it feels too perverse compared to the behaviours and systems of the natural world.
Or, speaking of the natural world, maybe humans are supposed to disappear. In which case, I hope we do it fairly quickly, while there are still a few butterflies and maybe a pair of tigers somewhere.
At a fundamental level, all life will expand its boundaries until it exhausts its resources. We aren't different in that respect. One of the biggest problems is have with religions is that they teach that humans are something special, not part of nature. Our hubris is about to end us.
Not all "religions" teach this. North American indigenous people hold in common the understanding that we are ALL relatives and must be comprehended and treated as such. Nothing is separate, all are related. Some Buddhist sects also teach this foundational understanding.
I didn't say all religions. I should have been more clear.
Not all human life expanded its boundaries until it exhausted its resources. Aboriginal people lived sustainably for at least 65,000 years on the Australian continent. I don't know how they achieved it - apart from (1) a worldview/cosmology so unlike the European colonisers they called it 'the Dreamtime' for want of a better term; and (2) the ability to stabilise their population.
One wonders what they would done given far more time, rather than changed by colonization and exploitation. No way of knowing now.
Fair question. An interesting fact is that some 600 tribes of Indigenous Australians fought battles, but never wars of conquest. They respected each other's territory.
Thank you for this piece. It was hard to read but absolutely necessary if we are to move forward in this horror… clarity not illusions are essential during these times. Reading this reminded me of reading these words almost 10 years after they were spoken… absolutely relevant today:
Mario Savio Excerpt
delivered 2 December 1964, The University of California at Berkeley
“And that -- that brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio
This will not all just go away by electing a new party or king… Genocide Joe was there to give people an illusion of choice. Voting and religion are the opiates of the people.
“let’s stop talking falsely now, the hour is getting late”
While I substantially agree with Chris's analysis, I find that there are things that I do not subscribe to that Chris articulates. I agree with Marx that there is a Class War happening, but I do not agree with the solutions proposed by those who follow Marx. My belief is that "All have sinned & fallen short of the Glory of God" which in practical terms means anyone given unlimited power will do horrific things. So Unions have as much capacity to do evil as Capitalists. The solution is in having checks & balances so no one has unlimited power.
We are in a Class War in 2025, except this time it is global elite & thier supplicants against everyone else. The focus of this Class War is on controlling the narrative, and is fought on many different fronts. The Global Elites control through thier supplicants (Academia, Media, Managerial, Government Bureaucrats) the narrative. They produce nothing tangible & are basically parasites that exist of the productive population (Everyone Else)
The Climate Change Narrative is a distraction. A distraction from real environmental problems such as our food supply and how it has been contaminated by Industrial Agriculture & Food Manufacturing. It is a distraction from how our economy has been financialized and everything from housing to tomatoes is about generating revenue for them which means that no problem is ever solved. Finacialization is the problem so solving it, would reduce thier power & wealth.
When it is all distilled, our Elites see themselves as the Inheritors of the Earth and the rest of us as an inconvenience that needs to managed. What is happening in Gaza is a model for what is coming for the rest of us. They are betting on AI because thier agenda is that they no longer require people to produce the luxury items they desire so can dispense of the rest of us.
Personally I see them as detached from reality, and pursuing things that do not & will not ever work, but that does not matter because our Elites are making all the decisions and are protected by thier wealth from the consequences of thier decisions. It is the rest of us who are faced with the negative consequences of thier actions.
Life Is Cheap as in Gaza means all life, yours and mine as well. Even those who don't care about Palestinians might give a thought to that.
"If can't happen here," until it does.
Thank you for continuing to say what needs to be said. I feel this urgency in my own soul daily. I also feel like my resistance is a drop in the bucket but I will contine to speak and live love and life while I'm here.
The ocean is made of drops like you and me.
"We must fight these battles while we still have a chance. The openings for resistance are closing with alarming speed. We must, through civil disobedience, shut down the machine. We must remake the world. This means removing the ruling global class. It means demolishing a society constructed around the mania for capitalist expansion. It means ending our reliance on fossil fuels. It means enforcing international law and dismantling Israel’s settler colonial and genocidal rule. "
But we won't. "The masses will never revolt." --O'Brien to Winston Smith.
Never revolt?! Have you forgotten the French revolution? the Russian revolution? All the recent movements for labor unions, civil rights, etc? There was resistance to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, partisan fighters in occupied Europe. The oppressed will fight back. They may lose, but they will not surrender.
Unfortunately, Americans have been successfully duped into warring against each other along cultural lines and don't recognize that the real war is an economic war. Both the French and Russian revolutions were fought for economic justice, not for trivial matters like woke. They were motivated by real issues like hunger.
The American revolution was also an economic war led by the rich and powerful colonists who objected to the King's domination (and taxation)
Political parties in our country have successfully divided our citizens along cultural lines to the extent that we will war against each other before we will war against the establishment. There weren't any political parties like that in Russia or France at the time of the revolutions.
It's the elitists and their political parties that are the real enemies of our country; but how many Americans realize that?
The main problem in our country is the near equal divide that will likely lead to civil war long before revolution. That is -- if Trump doesn't drag us into a nuclear war first.
Elect zohran for a start. Need a win. 🏆
Thank you, Chris, for all your work.
Sounds accurate.
You are so good
Civil disobedience will not work. The ruling class will slaughter the protesters like China did at Tienamen Square. There's another way; we just cannot spell it out.
I don't understand your last sentence. I hope you're willing to enlighten me. Thanks.
Yes, I am willing to enlighten you. I am referring to building an underground resistance movement.
Thank you.
He that has ears, let him hear. He that has eyes, let him see.