FROM FASCISM TO FREEDOM-Stirring the Winds of Political Climate Change

[babylonsister]

FROM FASCISM TO FREEDOM
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2007-10-05 01:00. Media

Stirring the Winds of Political Climate Change
By Steve Bhaerman

There is a poignant passage in Kurt Vonnegut's book Slaughterhouse Five where he imagines a devastating bombing scene as a movie being run backward on a projector. The fires on the ground disappear as the bombs are sucked up into the bombers, which fly backward and land on a military base. There, the bombs are removed from the planes and taken to a factory, where they are dismantled. Perhaps this wishful fantasy was inspired by Vonnegut's own experience watching the fire bombing of Dresden.

If and when our bombs begin falling on Iran, given our current limitations in navigating space and time, we will not be able to run the movie backward. The dead will still be dead, the destroyed will still be destroyed, and among the casualties will be our own open society. The damage will be irreversible, and in fact will have reversed 230 years of forward progress towards a just society, and a sane world.

But there is something we can and must "run backward" at this time. We must stand together to face the dark forces that have taken us from freedom to fascism, and reverse the momentum back to sanity and freedom.

There are two common impulses at a crisis time like this. The first is, "Don't just stand there. Do something!" The other is, "Don't do something. Just stand there." So instead of futilely flailing about or hopelessly resigning, it makes sense to take a deep breath and fully assess the situation. The first piece of good news is, there are at least 50 million of us in accord that the reins of power have gotten out of our hands, and this illegitimate power must be reined in.

Three situations that have been in the news in recent weeks -- the tasering of the student by police in Florida and the "tasering" of MoveOn by the U.S. Senate; the momentum toward attacking Iran that the Democratic misleadership seems to have fallen in line with; the further exposure of Blackwater as "contractors" in the Mafia sense of "contract" -- have focused a sense of urgency. That's a good thing.

Perhaps finally those hundred thousand organizations Paul Hawken talks about as working for a healthier world can stop what they are doing and address the huge elephant in the living room -- the American empire that promotes torture and assassination abroad and fascism at home. We must face the obstacle right in front of us that stands in the way of all of the good things that are possible in this world. In other words, there will be no action on climate change until there is political climate change, and to have political climate change requires focus. As the Swami says, "If we want the political winds to change, we must all blow in the same direction at the same time."

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