Reply #39: Clark wants a grand strategy? A new opponent? I got one for him... [View All]

[0rganism]

Global poverty. It is the root of discontent, that leads to fanaticism and violence, that leads to terrorism and warlord parasites establishing their "protective" feifdoms. It is the heart of the economic disparity that enables corporate fatcats to syphon jobs away from American workers to maquiladoras in 3rd-world dictatorships. The only way the various "free trade" treaties can be put to work for the people rather than against the people is if we shrink the vast gaps between the needs of the poor and the means by which they can meet those needs, to remove the motivation of utter desparation.

Take on poverty just like we took on the Soviet bloc in the 50s. Fight it at home and abroad with as much zeal and vigor as was ever applied to the cold war. It is a fearsome enemy, to be sure: famine and pestilence are its weapons, war and death follow in its wake. It is both high-octane fuel for the capitalist engine of conspicuous consumption and the rust that will eventually destroy that engine completely.

The battle itself would change us all for the better, win or lose. In victory, we may find the resources to return humanity to balance within the biosphere and once again begin to seek the tree of life. But fail to face it at all, and we will see corruption and blight spread across the planet like never before.