Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

The evil in the world is and will remain in control as long as we respect the myth of “pragmatism.” We see—repeatedly—terrible evil excused by the non-negotiable demand that we be pragmatic.

But what’s labeled pragmatic isn’t only evil. It’s fatal. How can death, in this case the death of billions due to “practical” climate collapse, be pragmatic?

No, letting evil run rampant is easy. But it’s not pragmatic to destroy the biosphere, or to starve millions in Gaza, or to kidnap people off the streets and send them to concentration camps for torture. None of this is pragmatic. None of this is necessary.

All of these are choices. And WE should not go along with these choices. We—if we are sane and moral—must reject these choices.

And so it is with the economic and political systems which are unassailable and defended by the lie that they are pragmatic. We are told that there is no other way, or that trying to oppose these evils is futile.

This is the strategy to get us to give up in advance.

But We The People are refusing. The revolt has begun and as the limitless greed of plutocracy and the crushing brutality of fascism (still pretending to be representative government) accelerates to new depths of depravity, the movement grows.

We must not focus on the details of the cruelty. We must simply resist it and then disempower both the plutocrats and the fascists. This is tricky but EXTREMELY DOABLE.

Our opponents will scream until they are blue in the face to shut us up. They’ll claim:

1. We can only improve the system by working within the system, and they’ll demand that we stop calls for genuine resistance and simply organize to elect Democrats. They’ll push aside our objection that Democrats, like the GOP, take corporate money and are themselves plutocrats. They’ll point out, accurately, that Democrats are better than Republicans. But, because BOTH are leading us to climate extinction, it doesn’t matter. Even if reform was possible, what the Democrats offer is too little and too late.
2. The climate is doomed anyway. This is incredible to me. They want us to continue to fight for their pet causes while knowingly accepting the end of a habitable Earth, and the greatest calamity in human history. I can only say to this: what the hell are you thinking? Do you even hear yourself?
3. Arguments defending the system as if the system was a given and we the people must accept and serve the system. Who does the work? Who pays the taxes? Who is absolutely needed to actively support the system to keep it going? Working people. Taxpayers. US! Not the “powerful” people.Not the “influential” people. We found out during the worst of COVID who the essential workers are. They are us. The overseers aren’t simply useless. They are destructive. So, no we don’t need to do things that are stupid and destructive simply because that’s how democracy or capitalism works.
4. Pathetic name-calling. Yeah, I still get called a commie, which nearly 70 years after Joe McCarthy—shouted at me by liberals!—is pretty weak and sad.

The only acceptable guide for action is conscience. This sometimes requires us to do difficult things.

But We The People have power. In fact, we have nearly all the power. Our mistake is that we have been fooled and intimidated to use our power against ourselves, and for our oppressors.

Plutocrats and fascists use some of us—often with guns—to keep the rest of us in line. But that tactic, and every tactic used by despots, can fail and has failed repeatedly in the same way. Despite the dangers, The People set aside fear and simply refused to cooperate.

They refused to threaten their fellow human beings. They put down their weapons. They refused to work as operators of concentration camps. They turn to their friends and neighbors and help them—instead of enforcing fascist laws.

When we point out how so many dictators have failed, have been shut down by The People, we hear all kinds of nonsense and attempted deflections. Either the other dictator was actually overthrown by other powerful people or forces OR our situation is different and our dictator cannot be defeated.

That’s all bullcrap. You know why? Because We The People do everything. We also outnumber our opponents. Oh, and moral force is woefully underrated. We know that murder, violence, rape, and massive theft from working people by the idle rich is WRONG. It is that energy, that passion for justice, that overwhelmed Ceaușescu and Marcos and Jaruzelski and Milosevic and so many others.

This same force will overwhelm today’s despots in the United States and elsewhere.

We must rise up and shut down the Earth-destroyers by refusing to cooperate. When we refuse to follow the orders of despots, they flee in terror.

We know how. We are still organizing and growing our movement and practicing our strategy. Let’s continue. Let’s get this done. And then we can replace this absurd and brutal so-called civilization with a humane society based on community, on respect for all human beings, and dedication to protecting the biosphere that sustains us.