July 4th, Independence Day
"I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our
monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government
to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
Thomas Jefferson, 1816.
When they gained independence America, like ireland, simply swaped
one hierarchical system with a ruling elite for another. The framers
of the American constitution came to regret this. Now we have a core
group of tycoons benefitting from a malformed market ideology that
serves to make us all, as a species, compete rather than come
together in solidarity.
The only proper attempt to build an alternative to market capitalism
has been Communism, any attempts at Anarchism or other forms of
Socialism were sadly drowned at birth. Communism involved a central
planning system that eventually resorted to the use of secret police
and the like in order to coerce the average citizen into obeying the
wishes of the state. Like capitalism, Communism resulted in elite
groups holding all the power, all the information, and all the cards.
By the amount of sheer suffering, degredation and bloodshed that have
come as the by-products of both Capitalism and Communism I think it
is safe to conclude that both social experiments are resounding
failures.
It is time for us to start talking alternatives. From the sounds of
life in Chiapas, in the reclaimed farm lands of Brazil and in the
worker owned factories of Argentina it seems that some people have
started putting ideas into action already. These people have had to
do so. Books like 'Parecon' by Michael Albert and Monbiot's 'Age of
Consent' are also trying to come up with something new as are the
advocates of localised bio-regionalism. many of these voices clash
but the more our world changes the more these fragmentory concepts
will cohese into something implementable. Then we'll have an
independence day worth celebrating.
Created By: Garret Shanley