Corbin, I appreciate the clarity and urgency in what you wrote. The point that really lands for me is your observation that a society that loses the ability to build for its people often defaults to projecting power through destruction. When a nation can mobilize enormous resources for war but struggles to provide housing, healthcare, or functioning infrastructure, it raises serious questions about what our systems are actually organized to serve.
At the same time, I wonder if the deeper problem is not only that we have forgotten how to build, but that we have allowed the economic framework itself to drift so far from serving the collective welfare. When economic power becomes concentrated and production is organized primarily around profit and geopolitical competition, the political system inevitably follows that logic. War then becomes less an aberration and more a symptom of a distorted set of priorities.
The rebuilding you’re calling for feels essential. But to truly change course, it may require more than restoring the state’s capacity to construct large projects. It may require rethinking how economic power is distributed in the first place and how communities regain meaningful control over the systems that shape their lives.
Your central point still stands for me: the real measure of strength should be what we are able to create for the well being of society, not what we are capable of destroying.
There’s a growing conversation happening around these questions. I’ve been contributing to a Substack called https://crisistransition.substack.com where people are exploring how our political, economic, and cultural systems might evolve beyond the patterns you’re describing. I think your analysis would resonate strongly with many of the discussions happening there.
I am 91 years old and my long, very involved life experiences enable me to agree with Corbin and Christy’s positions, both cause and effect of our current dysfunctional government and disengaged citizenry. Thank you both for sharing and articulating so concisely your insights that so many of us struggle to do. I hope to take your offers of involvement but must meet the needs of my extraordinary husband’s dementia first. Will share your information as well. In appreciation, Barb and Bud
Because the government (or what's left of it) is bought and paid for. And Howard Jarvis' dream of a government so small you could drown it in a bathtub fueled DOGE and Drumpf. Their government is fascist oligarchy. But the obese, drug-soaked, hopeless American people keep voting for their own destruction.
Corbin, thank you for the continued clarity of your message...I would imagine that it gets tough to restate it into what seems like a vacuum.
I feel like we need to help build this into a movement...one that isn't named as something that comes with connotations like Green New Deal--people jump to conclusions about what it is without learning about it...something that says what it is like Make America Work Again.
We also need to get candidates, in office or running, to adopt it--in whole or in part.
I wish I knew how to do those things...while I ponder it, I will make as much noise for us about these ideas as I can. Count me among your supporters.
You write that "We can marshal our resources just as easily for peace as we can for war. We can build comfort and safety without missiles."
Exactly!
And this is why an accurate description of how a modern monetary system works is so important. We used the power of public money to mitigate the Depression. We used the power of public money to fight WWII. We shifted 50% of the nation's GDP to fight WWII. We need to shift 10% to fight climate change.
But as long as we allow politicians to still use the "debt" to scare people into accepting Austerity, we will never get the policy package we need. The policy package of Mission for America.
Joyce asks "Why can't we do this?" The short answer is that we are still caught in the Deficit myth, and the myth that government is the problem and only the private sector can save us. We still have the entire economics profession babbling on about the danger of government spending and debt. We MUST change this narrative to reflect reality. We are no longer on the gold standard, and thus the rules of the game have changed. A better economics is out there #MMT.
Sure "we've" got to support the bright spots we see i.e. Chakrabarti, but history has shown they end up co-opted and/or in the category of symbolic (or very) controlled opposition. They are surely positioned as a threat to the "monsters" that have been in charge for far too long. Most importantly we need to have faith in the invisible march forward of truth and consciousness, not give up on our personal positive world view and keep our eyes open as manifestations of that view are (and will be) in plain site. Corbins writings are surely one of them.
I believe Fetterman was the only Dem that voted for it, though he continues to demonstrate that whatever he is besides a liar, it’s most certainly not a Dem.
Another great essay, Corbin. Right on every point!
I saw you last night with Jake Tapper on CNN. You were your usual articulate and attractive self. But I thought you came up short when confronted by your fellow guest's statement that what you want will raise taxes for everyone.
I think it's an issue that has to be faced head on. You're so good at reducing complex ideas to simple-to-understand presentations that it shouldn't be hard to lay out why we can rebuild AND also reduce taxes for most people.
For example, if we move to a single payer healthcare system, the government will save roughly $1.5 trillion - yes, TRILLION! - a year. That'll pay for a lot of hospitals and houses. Add to that the additional revenues by eliminating tax loopholes for corporations and for folks with incomes over $1 million per year, and I'll bet we'll be swimming in revenue that can be used for the public good. My guess is that we can do everything you want AND eliminate taxes for anyone earning less than $100K/year.
I'll leave it to you to lay out the details and possibilities, but I think it has to be done in order to neutralize the standard arguments about taxes, socialism, etc.
As always, you're spot on. We are so far down this rabbit hole. What really concerns me is that not enough people realize how far down we are. A good example is that Trump never should have made it through the primary of his first presidency. Without an honest assessment of how we got here and how far we've gone astray, I fear there will only be half-assed measures that continue to normalize and trumpet (no pun intended) 3/4 of the damaging postures we've taken and call that success.
Why the government hit Iran is clear. The same reason was in Iraq, Venezuela, and Libya – oil. They want to control oil around the world (not necessarily own it) – that's the way we survive as a country. They need that oil trades in dollars, which are invested in the U.S. to maintain our deficit economy indefinitely. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, Israel, etc. They don't need even regime change and certainly don't care that it's repressive or dictatorial as soon as they can make "deals" with it, the same as with Saudis, etc. And the war is very profitable unless it has some undesirable side effects, such as a large number of American casualties. Of course, nobody cares how many people die in Iran; it's not "our" business. They surely pretend otherwise for political purposes, which cannot be totally disregarded – another game.
Position of the Democratic majority is also clear and will never change – they are the other side of the same coin. A few mavericks are even useful for electoral purposes. What, how, when, and where in our economic and political system is determined, ultimately, by the only factor – profitability. Our government and all its branches, the legal and electoral systems, the military, police, etc. serve, in the final analysis, a single purpose – create, support, and protect favorable conditions for maximum profit extraction for the benefit of industrial and financial elites (the notorious 1 or even 0.1%) given certain constrains (social, economic, political, natural, etc.). It's that simple, and all official ideology, politics, domestic and foreign policy are directed to manage and, ideally, eliminate those constrains in the most efficient and effective way. This is the main purpose of the very existence of our and, essentially, any other modern state, whether it's a liberal democracy, dictatorship, or something in between.
There is no point lamenting about it or recalling "good old times", when the conditions and constrains mentioned above where very different. "Visions and missions" of Sanders, AOC, Corbin, Chakrabarti, DSA, etc. are, essentially, wishful thinking. These people will never be in power in our system unless some extraordinary situation or a regime change takes place. The real problem is that this activity, this blog including, the same as Sander's and AOC's tours, serves the purpose of the state and helps it to manage social constrains (anger, disappointment, fear, desires, etc.) to prevent possible undesirable collective actions (movements, protests, strikes) and creation of independent unions and political organizations with a practical goal of implementing radical economic and political changes. Ironically, these liberals and progressives play a similar role the MAGA movement does – give people false hopes for some possible, but ultimately illusive, "better future", within, and this is the key, the existing profit driven system. Most probably, a likely victory of the Democrats will provide the last convenient 'window of opportunities' for the Left to organize and become a practical and meaningful popular force that can come to power in the near future and successfully implement its "visions and missions". Unfortunately, truly independent organizing is becoming increasingly difficult because of a rapid development of HLS, surveillance systems, AI applications, and other elements of the state repressive apparatus. The sooner the Left leaders and influencers become realists and follow a practical (obviously hard and unknown) rather than imaginary (simple and familiar) way the better for everyone.
Corbin this is so spot on. We've allowed our economy to be designed of, for, and by the uber wealthy. We are a corporatocracy. The alternative, saner vision you outline here is very important. I look forward to our upcoming discussion when I get my voice back post flu!
Wow. Best One Yet, Corbin. Thank you for writing what I'm thinking, and saying what EVERYONE needs to hear. This truly says it all: "We can marshal our resources just as easily for peace as we can for war." Please keep doing what you're doing!!
Finally. Somebody who agrees with me. At 80 years old, I do not have enough time left to wait and see if anything gets better; so, I am leaving this sad mess asap. Hoping for a miracle for those who remain.
For all intents and purposes, the 'white' ethnic throwback in 'murka thrives on misery. Not necessarily living it, but certainly creating it. Problem is, what goes around always comes around. Cut off your nose to spite your face stuff. You succumb to fear only to become feared, and then the very natural pushback puzzles you, and your only answer is yet more fear from you and toward you. Now there is a circular firing squad.
Now this is not to say that other ethnic groups in 'murka do not live in misery. They do, but for them the road to misery runs through them. They, reluctantly and with agitation, have little choice but to accept it. They do not have the leverage to do much about it. You can throw in the LGBT+ community too, and, most puzzling, the rank and file female population. Women either suffer from the paternity of Stockholm Syndrome, or are awash in the personal vanity of competition for male acceptance or male adoration or male domination or becoming superior to males in a male's world.
This is what we now build. Grievances. Agitation. Cynicism. Pessimism. Faux competition for third-rate prizes. And largest of all, we build waste and toxicity. It is absolutely everywhere, and we cannot keep up with the disposal and cleanup.
Few in 'murka want to work, let alone know how to work. The ones who do are being hunted down, beaten, detained, deported, destroyed. Our economy is consumption, and we are running out of credit to keep consuming. We are literally running on empty. This is the only reason WAR looks inviting. Puff the chest, clench the fist, force misery on anyone else but us, while yet most of us live in misery that we have to project upon anybody but us.
Why have we threatened and hassled Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Denmark, much of Europe, Gaza, Somalia, and the list that just keeps growing and giving us cause for grievances? As Corbin says, we have nothing else. Technology and gadgets and hubris have destroyed us. TFG is a vicious carpetbagger, nothing more. Its ilk just zooms around the world burning jet fuel like kids eat bad candy, making 'deals' that produce nothing except more misery. Stockholm Syndrome is much more than addiction to misery -- it is the embrace of misery, the complete capitulation to the Dark Side. This is why, right now, inside out looks right side up, bad resembles good, stupidity replaces intelligence and wisdom, violence is depicted as love.
Corbin sees the logical side of all this, but there are much deeper ills than failing to build out a present and future that shares. Sharing is incompatible with misery. Misery hoards, steals, manipulates, takes by force or subterfuge, and lies and lies and lies.
'murka now is nothing more than lipstick on a pig. Hubris is, in the ancient Greek, a violent mindset that must wreak vengeance on some 'other.' Avarice is a favorite weapon of hoarding, take something, anything you had no hand in creating, ruin it, rape it, tear it apart and then throw in an area of town you do not live in, and then complain how trashy that side of town looks. We live in a prison made for us by the worst of us, and we are advertised into enjoying prison life. Here, Neo, have a cookie.
Nothing like ahistorical tunnel vision, or is it just your focus on the present? There are a lot of folks singing praises here, I am more skeptical. Your assertions are not wrong per se, but do ignore the herd of elephants in the room. Your stuff is not new, but ignoring the essential, foundational characteristics of western, Euro/Amer culture assures your failure and that of any politician working from within this culture.
The simple fact is most of the driving force powering the USA for centuries has been criminal behavior - piracy - murder and theft, lying, cheating and more, justified and glossed over on Sunday as religiously justified destiny and the end game is a massive war in west Asia that will bring the Savior, the one to fix everything, into being. That works for over a third of the population - including folk who are impoverished, and also non-white.
What then works for the rest is material comfort, material competitiveness, acquisition and entertainments accessed through predatory activities which include the system of non-profits and charitable enterprises. All the foregoing protected by increasingly militarized enforcers ostensibly acting within a system of laws which just so happen to favor predatory actions and is only actually accessible to those with sufficient resources to make the system respond to their wishes. Resources gained through sly manipulations and clever predations.
A very serious flaw in the perspective of Euro/Amer culture is this implacable, armored insistence that all things are defined by this culture. The self-assured confidence that if a thing, a people, anything and all things are defined in reality, permanently and forever by white Euro/Amer perceptions, standards, definitions, by the language of this culture it is then real. This makes idiots of this distinct minority in the world. This phenomena is a core quality. This matters because this generates impenetrable ignorance which gives rise to defensive arrogance which, when challenged, is responded to with smug superiority backed by anger and violence.
Hence, this war.
Until these foundational qualities are recognized and modified, the path of death and destruction is assured. Your prescriptions fail in the face of this inexorable force of a culture founded in predation, in death and destruction as a primary mover.
Corbin, I appreciate the clarity and urgency in what you wrote. The point that really lands for me is your observation that a society that loses the ability to build for its people often defaults to projecting power through destruction. When a nation can mobilize enormous resources for war but struggles to provide housing, healthcare, or functioning infrastructure, it raises serious questions about what our systems are actually organized to serve.
At the same time, I wonder if the deeper problem is not only that we have forgotten how to build, but that we have allowed the economic framework itself to drift so far from serving the collective welfare. When economic power becomes concentrated and production is organized primarily around profit and geopolitical competition, the political system inevitably follows that logic. War then becomes less an aberration and more a symptom of a distorted set of priorities.
The rebuilding you’re calling for feels essential. But to truly change course, it may require more than restoring the state’s capacity to construct large projects. It may require rethinking how economic power is distributed in the first place and how communities regain meaningful control over the systems that shape their lives.
Your central point still stands for me: the real measure of strength should be what we are able to create for the well being of society, not what we are capable of destroying.
There’s a growing conversation happening around these questions. I’ve been contributing to a Substack called https://crisistransition.substack.com where people are exploring how our political, economic, and cultural systems might evolve beyond the patterns you’re describing. I think your analysis would resonate strongly with many of the discussions happening there.
I am 91 years old and my long, very involved life experiences enable me to agree with Corbin and Christy’s positions, both cause and effect of our current dysfunctional government and disengaged citizenry. Thank you both for sharing and articulating so concisely your insights that so many of us struggle to do. I hope to take your offers of involvement but must meet the needs of my extraordinary husband’s dementia first. Will share your information as well. In appreciation, Barb and Bud
Thank you Barb and Bud.
Thanks for sharing, this was exactly the hopeful but realistic messaging about ALL the crises we're facing. "Polycrisis" is a great term.
Because the government (or what's left of it) is bought and paid for. And Howard Jarvis' dream of a government so small you could drown it in a bathtub fueled DOGE and Drumpf. Their government is fascist oligarchy. But the obese, drug-soaked, hopeless American people keep voting for their own destruction.
Obese?
US National Obesity Epidemic. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult-obesity-facts/index.html
You’re blaming obese people for the failures of US healthcare? So it’s not profit-driven insurance and pharmaceutical companies? Wow.
I'm blaming the system, obviously, but also the people who voted for it.
Sounds like a personal issue for you.
Definitely. Look what it's doing to the healthcare system.
Corbin, thank you for the continued clarity of your message...I would imagine that it gets tough to restate it into what seems like a vacuum.
I feel like we need to help build this into a movement...one that isn't named as something that comes with connotations like Green New Deal--people jump to conclusions about what it is without learning about it...something that says what it is like Make America Work Again.
We also need to get candidates, in office or running, to adopt it--in whole or in part.
I wish I knew how to do those things...while I ponder it, I will make as much noise for us about these ideas as I can. Count me among your supporters.
You write that "We can marshal our resources just as easily for peace as we can for war. We can build comfort and safety without missiles."
Exactly!
And this is why an accurate description of how a modern monetary system works is so important. We used the power of public money to mitigate the Depression. We used the power of public money to fight WWII. We shifted 50% of the nation's GDP to fight WWII. We need to shift 10% to fight climate change.
But as long as we allow politicians to still use the "debt" to scare people into accepting Austerity, we will never get the policy package we need. The policy package of Mission for America.
Joyce asks "Why can't we do this?" The short answer is that we are still caught in the Deficit myth, and the myth that government is the problem and only the private sector can save us. We still have the entire economics profession babbling on about the danger of government spending and debt. We MUST change this narrative to reflect reality. We are no longer on the gold standard, and thus the rules of the game have changed. A better economics is out there #MMT.
Probably the most single, heartbreaking assessment of the US right now. We need to wake the fuck up.
Sure "we've" got to support the bright spots we see i.e. Chakrabarti, but history has shown they end up co-opted and/or in the category of symbolic (or very) controlled opposition. They are surely positioned as a threat to the "monsters" that have been in charge for far too long. Most importantly we need to have faith in the invisible march forward of truth and consciousness, not give up on our personal positive world view and keep our eyes open as manifestations of that view are (and will be) in plain site. Corbins writings are surely one of them.
I was confused by the vote on the war. There were too many negatives for me to parse. Which Dems voted FOR the war?
I believe Fetterman was the only Dem that voted for it, though he continues to demonstrate that whatever he is besides a liar, it’s most certainly not a Dem.
Another great essay, Corbin. Right on every point!
I saw you last night with Jake Tapper on CNN. You were your usual articulate and attractive self. But I thought you came up short when confronted by your fellow guest's statement that what you want will raise taxes for everyone.
I think it's an issue that has to be faced head on. You're so good at reducing complex ideas to simple-to-understand presentations that it shouldn't be hard to lay out why we can rebuild AND also reduce taxes for most people.
For example, if we move to a single payer healthcare system, the government will save roughly $1.5 trillion - yes, TRILLION! - a year. That'll pay for a lot of hospitals and houses. Add to that the additional revenues by eliminating tax loopholes for corporations and for folks with incomes over $1 million per year, and I'll bet we'll be swimming in revenue that can be used for the public good. My guess is that we can do everything you want AND eliminate taxes for anyone earning less than $100K/year.
I'll leave it to you to lay out the details and possibilities, but I think it has to be done in order to neutralize the standard arguments about taxes, socialism, etc.
As always, you're spot on. We are so far down this rabbit hole. What really concerns me is that not enough people realize how far down we are. A good example is that Trump never should have made it through the primary of his first presidency. Without an honest assessment of how we got here and how far we've gone astray, I fear there will only be half-assed measures that continue to normalize and trumpet (no pun intended) 3/4 of the damaging postures we've taken and call that success.
Why the government hit Iran is clear. The same reason was in Iraq, Venezuela, and Libya – oil. They want to control oil around the world (not necessarily own it) – that's the way we survive as a country. They need that oil trades in dollars, which are invested in the U.S. to maintain our deficit economy indefinitely. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, Israel, etc. They don't need even regime change and certainly don't care that it's repressive or dictatorial as soon as they can make "deals" with it, the same as with Saudis, etc. And the war is very profitable unless it has some undesirable side effects, such as a large number of American casualties. Of course, nobody cares how many people die in Iran; it's not "our" business. They surely pretend otherwise for political purposes, which cannot be totally disregarded – another game.
Position of the Democratic majority is also clear and will never change – they are the other side of the same coin. A few mavericks are even useful for electoral purposes. What, how, when, and where in our economic and political system is determined, ultimately, by the only factor – profitability. Our government and all its branches, the legal and electoral systems, the military, police, etc. serve, in the final analysis, a single purpose – create, support, and protect favorable conditions for maximum profit extraction for the benefit of industrial and financial elites (the notorious 1 or even 0.1%) given certain constrains (social, economic, political, natural, etc.). It's that simple, and all official ideology, politics, domestic and foreign policy are directed to manage and, ideally, eliminate those constrains in the most efficient and effective way. This is the main purpose of the very existence of our and, essentially, any other modern state, whether it's a liberal democracy, dictatorship, or something in between.
There is no point lamenting about it or recalling "good old times", when the conditions and constrains mentioned above where very different. "Visions and missions" of Sanders, AOC, Corbin, Chakrabarti, DSA, etc. are, essentially, wishful thinking. These people will never be in power in our system unless some extraordinary situation or a regime change takes place. The real problem is that this activity, this blog including, the same as Sander's and AOC's tours, serves the purpose of the state and helps it to manage social constrains (anger, disappointment, fear, desires, etc.) to prevent possible undesirable collective actions (movements, protests, strikes) and creation of independent unions and political organizations with a practical goal of implementing radical economic and political changes. Ironically, these liberals and progressives play a similar role the MAGA movement does – give people false hopes for some possible, but ultimately illusive, "better future", within, and this is the key, the existing profit driven system. Most probably, a likely victory of the Democrats will provide the last convenient 'window of opportunities' for the Left to organize and become a practical and meaningful popular force that can come to power in the near future and successfully implement its "visions and missions". Unfortunately, truly independent organizing is becoming increasingly difficult because of a rapid development of HLS, surveillance systems, AI applications, and other elements of the state repressive apparatus. The sooner the Left leaders and influencers become realists and follow a practical (obviously hard and unknown) rather than imaginary (simple and familiar) way the better for everyone.
At last... Somebody who "gets it" and can articulate it! Today I feel hopeful. What are you doing in 2028? 😁
Corbin this is so spot on. We've allowed our economy to be designed of, for, and by the uber wealthy. We are a corporatocracy. The alternative, saner vision you outline here is very important. I look forward to our upcoming discussion when I get my voice back post flu!
Wow. Best One Yet, Corbin. Thank you for writing what I'm thinking, and saying what EVERYONE needs to hear. This truly says it all: "We can marshal our resources just as easily for peace as we can for war." Please keep doing what you're doing!!
Finally. Somebody who agrees with me. At 80 years old, I do not have enough time left to wait and see if anything gets better; so, I am leaving this sad mess asap. Hoping for a miracle for those who remain.
For all intents and purposes, the 'white' ethnic throwback in 'murka thrives on misery. Not necessarily living it, but certainly creating it. Problem is, what goes around always comes around. Cut off your nose to spite your face stuff. You succumb to fear only to become feared, and then the very natural pushback puzzles you, and your only answer is yet more fear from you and toward you. Now there is a circular firing squad.
Now this is not to say that other ethnic groups in 'murka do not live in misery. They do, but for them the road to misery runs through them. They, reluctantly and with agitation, have little choice but to accept it. They do not have the leverage to do much about it. You can throw in the LGBT+ community too, and, most puzzling, the rank and file female population. Women either suffer from the paternity of Stockholm Syndrome, or are awash in the personal vanity of competition for male acceptance or male adoration or male domination or becoming superior to males in a male's world.
This is what we now build. Grievances. Agitation. Cynicism. Pessimism. Faux competition for third-rate prizes. And largest of all, we build waste and toxicity. It is absolutely everywhere, and we cannot keep up with the disposal and cleanup.
Few in 'murka want to work, let alone know how to work. The ones who do are being hunted down, beaten, detained, deported, destroyed. Our economy is consumption, and we are running out of credit to keep consuming. We are literally running on empty. This is the only reason WAR looks inviting. Puff the chest, clench the fist, force misery on anyone else but us, while yet most of us live in misery that we have to project upon anybody but us.
Why have we threatened and hassled Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Denmark, much of Europe, Gaza, Somalia, and the list that just keeps growing and giving us cause for grievances? As Corbin says, we have nothing else. Technology and gadgets and hubris have destroyed us. TFG is a vicious carpetbagger, nothing more. Its ilk just zooms around the world burning jet fuel like kids eat bad candy, making 'deals' that produce nothing except more misery. Stockholm Syndrome is much more than addiction to misery -- it is the embrace of misery, the complete capitulation to the Dark Side. This is why, right now, inside out looks right side up, bad resembles good, stupidity replaces intelligence and wisdom, violence is depicted as love.
Corbin sees the logical side of all this, but there are much deeper ills than failing to build out a present and future that shares. Sharing is incompatible with misery. Misery hoards, steals, manipulates, takes by force or subterfuge, and lies and lies and lies.
'murka now is nothing more than lipstick on a pig. Hubris is, in the ancient Greek, a violent mindset that must wreak vengeance on some 'other.' Avarice is a favorite weapon of hoarding, take something, anything you had no hand in creating, ruin it, rape it, tear it apart and then throw in an area of town you do not live in, and then complain how trashy that side of town looks. We live in a prison made for us by the worst of us, and we are advertised into enjoying prison life. Here, Neo, have a cookie.
Nothing like ahistorical tunnel vision, or is it just your focus on the present? There are a lot of folks singing praises here, I am more skeptical. Your assertions are not wrong per se, but do ignore the herd of elephants in the room. Your stuff is not new, but ignoring the essential, foundational characteristics of western, Euro/Amer culture assures your failure and that of any politician working from within this culture.
The simple fact is most of the driving force powering the USA for centuries has been criminal behavior - piracy - murder and theft, lying, cheating and more, justified and glossed over on Sunday as religiously justified destiny and the end game is a massive war in west Asia that will bring the Savior, the one to fix everything, into being. That works for over a third of the population - including folk who are impoverished, and also non-white.
What then works for the rest is material comfort, material competitiveness, acquisition and entertainments accessed through predatory activities which include the system of non-profits and charitable enterprises. All the foregoing protected by increasingly militarized enforcers ostensibly acting within a system of laws which just so happen to favor predatory actions and is only actually accessible to those with sufficient resources to make the system respond to their wishes. Resources gained through sly manipulations and clever predations.
A very serious flaw in the perspective of Euro/Amer culture is this implacable, armored insistence that all things are defined by this culture. The self-assured confidence that if a thing, a people, anything and all things are defined in reality, permanently and forever by white Euro/Amer perceptions, standards, definitions, by the language of this culture it is then real. This makes idiots of this distinct minority in the world. This phenomena is a core quality. This matters because this generates impenetrable ignorance which gives rise to defensive arrogance which, when challenged, is responded to with smug superiority backed by anger and violence.
Hence, this war.
Until these foundational qualities are recognized and modified, the path of death and destruction is assured. Your prescriptions fail in the face of this inexorable force of a culture founded in predation, in death and destruction as a primary mover.