Photo by Liana S on Unsplash

I’m a big supporter of the No Kings movement, the battle against fascism and plutocracy. But more than that, I’m FOR something.

Yes, I’m against cruelty. I oppose evil.

I founded a movement (a small international group called The Saners) whose original focus was preventing climate collapse. (The climate still remains paramount for The Saners, although we’ve added to our concerns.) I also support the movement organized by Indivisible and Fifty Fifty One — which is opposed to Kings.

Yes. I absolutely want to stop evil and I do things every day aiming to stop it. But really, that’s my short term focus.

My real goal is a positive one. I’ve been reluctant to bring it to the fore. In part, that’s because the evil we face is such a dire and immediate threat that I have little energy or attention left to really think about the future.

But I’m making time now. I know people are fearful and the fascists appear to be strong and gaining strength. I think that’s an illusion. We The People are gaining strength and, unless we flag in our attention or determination, We The People will win.

I’m convinced of that. I’m worried about us failing to persist, or being paralyzed by fear, or giving up in advance. We CAN defeat ourselves. But we cannot be defeated by a handful of cruel insane fanatics. They are too few in number and way too stupid.

Today, I want to look ahead. Where do we want to go? What do we want our civilization to look like? And how do we build it, make it happen?

What Do We Really Want?

We’ve been taught to be workers and consumers. That’s what we know. That’s our lives under this civilization. That’s true in most countries and cultures, even under (nominally) different systems. The elites in charge, they are (slightly) different depending on whether you are living under plutocracy or communism.

But our existing systems are elitist and most of us live as servants to these systems and elites. When we are told our system is better than theirs, we are being told which style of exploitation we want for ourselves.

I don’t want ANY exploitation. I don’t think you do, either. But you don’t believe there are any other choices. You are mistaken and this is the view that elites everywhere try to perpetuate.

Genuine freedom isn’t an option, we are told. We might be able to make existing systems slightly less cruel (and even that is looking doubtful), but people are hierarchical and selfish. History proves that. So, we all agree to pretend that a slight reduction in exploitation is freedom.

But What Will We Replace It With?

Is, say, Democratic Socialism better than plutocracy (like we have in America) or Communism (and does communism still exist)? Yes, Norway is way better than the United States (now a fascist country) or China (a totalitarian regime that’s at least nominally communist).

But no country is good enough. Indeed, why the hell do we need to be divided into countries? Countries are, in fact, units of exploitation. They are bordered areas marking the areas of control for various elites.

In my view, none of these are acceptable. Furthermore, even though the elites with their various countries seem to have won, they have — in fact — lost.

The rise of fascism and open brutality worldwide is a symptom of failure. The elites are losing control. They have created a series of crises — with their destruction of the climate and the biosphere being the biggest — and they are way out of their depth.

Their only way to stay in control is to generate fear and hatred and violence so they can crack down on restive populations. They need their servants to continue serving them. That’s all they have; that’s all they’ve ever had.

They are losing it.

Now, plutocracy and authoritarianism persist because we are told that we need to invent a new system with which to replace them. That’s nonsense. That’s a lame (yet somehow effective) way to prevent real change.

We don’t need to invent a new system. We need to live our values. We need to value life, each other, our planet. Systems are rarely, if ever, fully constructed by conscious choice. Our way of living and organizing ourselves emerges from values. We have been swindled in to accepting awful values. We believe that people are evil and the need for constraint overrides everything else. Many of us believe that greed is good and that unregulated competition is the key to a workable civilization.

But those values and beliefs are fading fast. We see an unworkable and unacceptably cruel society, and people everywhere want no part of it. That’s why people are in the streets—everywhere. That’s why people are saying NO—everywhere. That’s why people are organizing and resisting—everywhere.

But there is a missing piece. What do we want next? And due to this lack of vision, most people are hoping for a return to the lesser exploitation that preceded the current crisis. That is simply not good enough.

No Going Back

We can’t simply go back to what went before. That’s certain death. What went before was still exploitation but worse than that, it was exploitation that was ruining the planet’s habitability for humans—quickly and permanently.

The climate crisis is real, is worsening, and won’t go away by ignoring it. We must face it and that makes returning to “before” not only stupid, but also impossible.

We must get rid of exploitation and climate destruction. We need a system that ends those problems AND provides our species, and each of us, with something positive. Who the hell is satisfied with avoiding evil and death? Is that really enough?

Not for me.

Now

My focus, and by extension, the focus of The Saners is now twofold:

1. Provide assistance and encouragement to the popular revolt against fascism, in the United States and worldwide.
2. Promote a vision of a positive future, built on the bedrock of supportive communities, and valuing people and life more than consumer goods.

I invite you to join me in this mission. I know that you don’t yet understand the vision being offered, but I am including below a short video with a preview of that vision. I hope that is enough to inspire you. The vision will be filled out and clarified more over time.

But also, as I said, the future will not be consciously constructed. It will emerge from our values, so we much cultivated the best values in ourselves and others.

Please sign up to join The Saners at WeAreSaners.org. A new website reflected the current views and status of the movement will be going up in the next month or two.

For now, please WATCH!