The life of every terrestrial organism is being threatened with the steadily growing possibility of nuclear war because after the fall of the USSR a few imperialists decided that US unipolar hegemony needs to be maintained at all cost. I'm growing a uniquely deep hatred for people who scoff at me for saying that nuclear war is a real risk. There's no basis whatsoever for the belief that what the US empire is doing with Russia and China is safe. Your source is your own cognitive dissonance with the subject.
In my experience, the "you don't understand economics" folks don't generally understand something far more fundamental. Economics is a human cognitive construct. Unlike the natural sciences, which try to describe the world and universe that preceded us (admittedly, sometimes inadequately), economics can be re-invented to be anything we want it to be. Logically, however, to not be self-destructive that re-invention must factor-in the natural science principles we observe around us, for example the reciprocal (feedback) nature of the energy/matter exchanges among living beings, the adaptive characteristics of species in their ecological niche, and the 2nd law of thermodynamics during energy transformations. These notions were/are appreciated intuitively and implicitly by aboriginal people and have been endlessly denied by capitalism since the agricultural revolution about 20,000 years ago. The current movement for regenerative agriculture is essentially a recognition that only a return to those pre-existing parameters of physico-chemo-biological science can salvage us and what's left of natural systems. Market capitalism whether by feudal lords or corporate oligarchs is not amenable to that philosophy of agriculture and commerce. It has, hence, been un-natural since its inception. That is precisely what the real fools don't understand about economics, especially the fools who spout economic terminology as a smokescreen for "understanding".
I've been watching this madness for the past fifty years and I think that Caitlin's essay hits the problem right on the head. The one thing she left out is the timing of such errors. During the sixties, the flight time of an ICBM was about half-an-hour. That allowed our "enemies" time to determine whether the attack was real or a malfunction of some sort. Just reading about the events you can follow the effort to see how much time it took to learn that the attack was not happening. Today, with U.S. offensive weapons located on Russia's borders, the flight time is now a very few minutes and leaves almost zero time to decide whether an attack is real or not. Our unrelenting hostility to countries around the world may very well have set the stage for our own nation's suicide.
I think Caitlin paints with too wide a brush in condemning Capitalism. A successful democratic society needs Capitalistic aspects and Socialistic aspects incorporated into its social fabric. That's actually what we have, although the Capitalistic feature is much too strong.
I agree that this preponderance of Capitalistic behavior is killing us, something indicated by the huge inequality we see. But the USSR collapsed for the opposite reason, with too much emphasis on Socialistic features. We need a balance.
Human beings are a dualism. We are both individuals and social animals. Suppressing one over the other leads to serious problems, as we have now.
I don't think it's only by accident that nuclear war could get started. If open hostilities were to break out between Russian and the US, for example, would it be possible that either side would trust the other side to show forbearance enough not to utilize every weapon at their disposal?
In my experience, the "you don't understand economics" folks don't generally understand something far more fundamental. Economics is a human cognitive construct. Unlike the natural sciences, which try to describe the world and universe that preceded us (admittedly, sometimes inadequately), economics can be re-invented to be anything we want it to be. Logically, however, to not be self-destructive that re-invention must factor-in the natural science principles we observe around us, for example the reciprocal (feedback) nature of the energy/matter exchanges among living beings, the adaptive characteristics of species in their ecological niche, and the 2nd law of thermodynamics during energy transformations. These notions were/are appreciated intuitively and implicitly by aboriginal people and have been endlessly denied by capitalism since the agricultural revolution about 20,000 years ago. The current movement for regenerative agriculture is essentially a recognition that only a return to those pre-existing parameters of physico-chemo-biological science can salvage us and what's left of natural systems. Market capitalism whether by feudal lords or corporate oligarchs is not amenable to that philosophy of agriculture and commerce. It has, hence, been un-natural since its inception. That is precisely what the real fools don't understand about economics, especially the fools who spout economic terminology as a smokescreen for "understanding".
I've been watching this madness for the past fifty years and I think that Caitlin's essay hits the problem right on the head. The one thing she left out is the timing of such errors. During the sixties, the flight time of an ICBM was about half-an-hour. That allowed our "enemies" time to determine whether the attack was real or a malfunction of some sort. Just reading about the events you can follow the effort to see how much time it took to learn that the attack was not happening. Today, with U.S. offensive weapons located on Russia's borders, the flight time is now a very few minutes and leaves almost zero time to decide whether an attack is real or not. Our unrelenting hostility to countries around the world may very well have set the stage for our own nation's suicide.
I think Caitlin paints with too wide a brush in condemning Capitalism. A successful democratic society needs Capitalistic aspects and Socialistic aspects incorporated into its social fabric. That's actually what we have, although the Capitalistic feature is much too strong.
I agree that this preponderance of Capitalistic behavior is killing us, something indicated by the huge inequality we see. But the USSR collapsed for the opposite reason, with too much emphasis on Socialistic features. We need a balance.
Human beings are a dualism. We are both individuals and social animals. Suppressing one over the other leads to serious problems, as we have now.
I don't think it's only by accident that nuclear war could get started. If open hostilities were to break out between Russian and the US, for example, would it be possible that either side would trust the other side to show forbearance enough not to utilize every weapon at their disposal?