COASTAL POST
(415)868 1600 FAX (415) 868 0502
P.O. Box 31
Bolinas CA 94924
http://www.coastalpost.com
email: [log in to unmask]
November, 2004


After the Vote

by Frank Scott


A minority of the electorate will have chosen a president who serves
wealth , empire and israel.  Whether victory was by landslide or court
ruling, it will make no difference to those being killed in iraq,
Palestine, Colombia, Haiti and all the other places where the empire is
trying to crush its resisting subjects.

Much of the  antiwar movement supported a pro-war candidate and,
perversely, it won.  Whether it suffered  temporary insanity or simply
retired until after the election, It will hopefully soon come to its
senses. The war it previously demonstrated against continues, as will
the policies that may bring  another act of terrorism to American soil.

Such an attack could lead to  further insane retaliation by the
administration in power. It might also awaken the movement  which always
opposed this madness, but never achieves  peace  because of  crackpot
“realism” that  has it rally to  lesser evil, rather than demand greater
good.  But even if the  peace movement does nothing , further violence
will  unite much of the world in opposition to the monster that menaces
the entire planet. That is the U.S. , whether led by corporate
christian zionists, or corporate zionist christians.

Islam, the arab world, and retail  terrorism will still be seen by our
rulers as the greatest threat to godliness since communism, with no
understanding of  why so many  hate  America. And zealous cold warriors
who miss the old soviet menace will still flock to the church of
wholesale  terrorism , abusing  public consciousness,  social justice
and  “homeland security” as they do it.

There will either be an increase in Hate Bush marketing, or a new surge
of Hate Kerry products, which will bring  some local joy to an economy
recently exulted as the blessed  future of humanity, but more clearly
seen as  the cursed  future of everything.

We live in a physical and metaphysical environment that is  forcing us,
like lemmings, to the edge of a precipice. From the industrial practices
of capital which foul, despoil and commodify the earth, air  and  water
, to its electronic  technologies  which are used to empty our heads of
anything meaningful while filling them with trivia and misinformation ,
we live in a smothering atmosphere, as political  captives being marched
towards
disaster.

Corporate consciousness extends  credit lines and creates  enemies to
keep us focused  on shopping and war, but  awareness is slowly breaking
into the false reverie of  managed ignorance. Private domination of
markets in the service of profit accumulation  is creating a world wide
elite and an affluent class of its servants, but its social inequality
and ecological ravages menace far more than  they benefit. This  threat
to our future was unfazed by the November vote, which assumed great
significance only to  an affluent minority.

For most people, the American election  meant nothing at all . Some
will wildly  celebrate , others madly grieve, but most  will grimly
contemplate the ugliness they face in order to simply survive. Much of
humanity  lives in wretched poverty, and while a global  middle class
grows , much greater numbers are still left far behind . The world has
become an upscale mall patronized by a market elite,  but it is
surrounded by massive ghettos and slums which supply its cheap migrant
labor.

Many in the new global middle  viewed our elections with  hope and fear,
but they are among the shopping class, not its servants. That second
group  hardly cares who serves corporate capital in the white house.
They are subjugated , locked out of material progress and falling
further behind the affluent minority . Their despair, anger and
ultimately, hatred is  growing. It helps contribute to  the threat of
global terror,  which is  a modern version of a very old conflict .

Survival struggles have long pitted abused, exploited majorities against
rich minorities which squandered social wealth because of their
divinity, wisdom, or other pretenses that really meant they had the
weapons to suppress those majorities. What globalization has brought
about is not only a faster means of private profit accumulation and
social loss, but  the  involvement of more people in that process,
wherever they reside under its all encompassing reign of pain, and with
less superstition and ignorance than in the past.

Resistance to oppression that once needed  direct physical contact among
the people of  tribes, clans, or finally, states, can now be
communicated to an enormous  public, instantly. The  abused and
aggrieved  have more means  to  organize themselves, and many of the
most desperate have access to  deadly weapons formerly owned only by
their rulers. That makes for a murderous equality, which is unfortunate
for the   innocents  caught in the crossfire . But the death tolls
suffered  in terror bombings are small, however tragic,  in comparison
to the millions who have  died, and continue to
suffer, under the  rule of  greedy, racist  domination by minorities .

The movement  for global peace and social justice will have to reassert
itself after its recent hibernation. It will also have to paraphrase its
hopeful slogan. Another world is impossible,  with  power remaining in
the hands of  corporate capital and exercised exclusively for private
gain at public expense. That power relationship is at the root of what
threatens future survival, but in the November American election, it was
not even up for discussion .

Democracy  suffered another defeat in the USA, with most eligible
voters  part of a majority that did not select the winner. That group
needs to stop working  against its  interests, and begin organizing to
achieve its principles. If the people privileged to  shop at the global
mall don’t  create democratic action for justice and peace, those
outside will be forced to create murderous actions that bring social
chaos. Power concedes nothing without a demand, and this election
demanded nothing from power. We can’t afford to tolerate another vote
that simply offers a change of American
commandants at a global  death camp.




Copyright (c) 2004 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

             This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
             fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
           archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
            the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
           Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
          other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author

frank scott
email: [log in to unmask]
225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415  cell (415)847 4105