Mark Lipman originally published the following article in People’s Tribune on August 2, 2024.
The people need a visionary agenda, not corporate collusion, poverty and endless wars
We all want to think of ourselves as “the good guy” (or gal). For the most part, we all want the same things in life: Housing for our stability, healthcare for when we’re sick, good education for our children, clean food and water, to live in peace with those around us… to have bodily autonomy.
Yet, how profitable would it be if our government actually guaranteed all that for us?
Without poverty, how could we recruit soldiers for our armies to go steal resources from other lands? So they divide us, between those who have a little and those who have nothing at all, while those with everything sit back and laugh as we fight over the scraps… we all know this to be true.
As the oligarchs, the billionaires and their corporations with their paid-for politicians, divvy up the pie for themselves, the only way so few can have so much is by keeping the masses at each other’s throats, by stoking hatred and fear.
To do this they first must separate us by identity, by placing us in boxes within boxes. No… it’s not rich versus poor… it’s red verses blue… it’s man versus woman… it’s gay and trans verses straight… it’s black against white against brown… it’s whatever your niche is, you, and only you, are good and worthy of a decent life. This is what they do.
We’ve been so conditioned by the mirror, with us versus them, that we’ve forgotten the difference between right and wrong, as on cue everyone jumps right into their box and does what’s expected of them without ever stopping to just breathe and think.
“My team is good; their team is bad.” That’s about as far as anyone ever goes in their analysis, and then it’s all just snark and memes from there.
Any critique, any call for accountability, is immediately attacked and dismissed as coming from an agent of “the other side.”
Policy, what they actually do, is irrelevant. They could commit genocide and their followers would still vote for them, regurgitating any number of justifications and talking points handed down to them through the billionaire controlled media that convinces them that they’re actually thinking for themselves, when they’re just jumping over the cliff of their own ignorance.
This is how the very same people who deny you a primary election will turn around and say that “Democracy is a stake, if you don’t vote for who we’ve installed as the pre-ordained.”
Where’s the debate? Where’s the hashing out of ideas and solutions?
It simply can’t exist within a vacuum.
If you haven’t noticed, the entire system is imploding, and those who are trying to manage the collapse will always choose the corporation over the people, they have no choice because capitalism and democracy are fundamentally opposed to each other, and that’s why fascism is on the rise from “both sides,” because that’s what those in power do when they’re forced to choose between money and the people.
The only way out of this is to step out of our mirrors and boxes and look at what’s happening objectively.
Right now, today, Republicans are rallying their forces with hate. They’re giving their voters targets to blame for the poverty that’s imposed on them… by both sides. As wrong as they are, they’re still getting stronger, because hatred makes them determined.
On the other side, Democrats are trying to corral voters with fear… of pointing to the “other team” and terrifying people over what might happen is their team doesn’t win. The problem with this strategy is that fear doesn’t motivate, it operates from a position of weakness and causes people to act irrationally… it makes them controllable, so that when they obey and just fall in line they feel safe… which of course leads to violent outbursts when that safe bubble is challenged by anyone outside their group as just an illusion.
The only way to defeat the boogieman, to turn this around and get us to a place where we can start healing and repairing the world around us, is with hope.
Without presenting a vision for a better future, without a clear policy agenda that stands in sharp contrast to what the Republicans propose, and to what the Democrats are doing today, let’s not forget the blind eye and complicity they have turned towards genocide for the last ten months! Ten months of providing money, weapons and political cover – to – kill – children!
To this date there’s still been no accountability on that point and “don’t talk about that” isn’t going to win any votes, no more than “My genocide is better than your genocide,” will bring back the millions of angered and disenfranchised voters who’ve been scorned and ridiculed and pushed aside.
The only way out of this is to hold ourselves accountable and actually put forward an agenda that will stand in contrast to corporate collusion and endless wars, and give people something to finally believe in again.
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