Monday, September 12, 2005

Cascadia Rising

Can’t you just feel it sometimes?

The angst, the schadenfreude, the hubris.
Rotting from the core, oblivious to what they don’t want to hear, the center cannot hold it all together.
The steady drumbeat of stories chronicling the slow crumbling and dissolution of the Imperial ‘Murcan Empire?

Endless “spin” to counter truth, rampant cronyism, unprecedented corruption, incompetance beyond belief, religious doctrine foisted off as policy. Lies, lies, and more lies and a press that, until recently, was so cowed by the administration that they wouldn’t (or weren’t permitted to) ask the uncomfortable questions that need to be asked.

A “loyal opposition” that has been more loyal than opposition. The Democrats have played possum ever since 9/11. Four years on, they are threatening to actually grow a spine someday. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Why do I continue to have hope in the face of evil deeds and those who abet it? I am not a Pollyanna or prone to “just pretend it’s all OK”, as a recent satirical bumpersticker put it. It’s because of my feeling - and it’s difficult to find hope in facing certain disaster - that we’re seeing the beginning of the end for Bush and his cronies, and their repugnant corporatist ideology. At least for some parts of the U.S.

But first, there will be more of the same ol’, same ol’ - more natural disasters driven by global warming, more denial of humankind’s effects on the environment, more wars over natural resources, more ugly ideology-driven politics, more gutting of any regulation of pollution and corporate malfeasance, even more massive budget deficits and more clamping down on Constitutional rights.

Business as usual cannot go on much longer. Another few years of these policies will end in a global war or a depression worse than the one 75 years ago. The Earth itself can’t take much more. It’s letting us know in increasingly unsubtle ways. What gives me hope is that the long-term effects of these policies upon the U.S. are starting to perhaps break the back of Bush’s support or more likely, the “Blue States” will finally secede from the increasingly fascist American Empire.

Why do I think this? The first signs are already at hand - Oregon, Washington and California and the states of the Northeast are taking matters of energy, global warming and pollution into our own hands, because the Feds will not. The Bush regime is instead trying to make things worse - aiding and abetting their friends in the oil and automobile industries, and trying to strike down state laws on pollution and fuel economy.

We who live in these states consider this one more madness, compounded on all the others. In the ongoing “Reign of Error” the Bush regime has once again made not only the wrong choice, but the worst possible choice out of all available options.

There’s already a lot of resentment in many of these states about the constant religion-based and ideology-driven attempts to roll back state laws on things like assisted suicide, medical marijuana, women’s rights, reproductive rights and gender rights. It won’t take many more such meddlings in state’s affairs before you start seeing serious talk of secession in the mainstream media. Of course, something like the Federal government reneging on Social Security, which Bush hinted about in April, probably would be enough, too.

The Republican Party’s use of “wedge issues” for the last 30 years has succeeded in splitting the Union along ideological grounds. The “culture wars” are increasingly between the Red and Blue states, and will probably end in a breakup that hopefully won’t take the form of a civil war, only because the rest of the U.S, will be too consumed with the latest crisis du jour.

I’m thinking something along the lines of the breakup of the Soviet Union. We have reached the point - like the Soviets - where there is no longer enough “social glue” to hold together a country that is increasingly polarized and too big to effectively govern. We have a president who is actively dividing people rather than uniting and has little interest in governance, planning or followthrough. We have less and less in common with other regions, and have become 2 or 3 or more distinct societies. And so, it will likely break asunder, although it may take a generation to do so.

The loss of the West Coast and Northeast will cut off most of the financial base of the American war machine. Check out the balance of payments between individual states and the Feds in regards to both taxes and benefits. The blue states pay much more in, on average, than they get back. Without that cash flow, the red states will be unable to bully the Middle East, or much of anywhere else for that matter.

I, for one, will welcome the end of the ability of the U.S. to throw its massive resources behind Bush’s latest brainfart. And an independent Cascadia or Pacifica will be able to move beyond the dead-end petroleum-based economy much faster without the hindrance of the U.S. government forbidding us to act.

So what do you do, individually? How can one person stand against vast machines of greed, death and destruction?

Watch water and how it behaves. It is soft as silk, but infinitely persistant. Even the hardest rock cannot stand against it, not in the long run.

Do likewise. Be gentle, but persist. Live your life well, but with the Earth in mind. You are as much a part of it as it is of you.

Grow. Nurture. Feel. Plant seeds, talk to friends and family, sing songs. Drive less, read more.

Take control of your life - individually, neighborhood, city, state and region-wide. Eat local food, patronize local businesses. Disengage from the Great American Death Machine a little more every day. Encourage your local and state governments to do the same. Turn off the TV, take a walk in the sun, or among the falling leaves and rain. And while you’re at it, look for the silver lining and await the coming of spring.

Cascadia has always been here, it’s just waiting for us to realize it.

- Bob Woods