[Peace-discuss] Beyond ideology

[n.dahlheim at mchsi.com]

I think the masses should be allowed to vote, and I don't think they should be treated poorly or 
subjugated under the yoke of a rapacious global corporate capitalism.   But, I don't know if we can get 
humanity to scale back its resource consumption, engage in local economic activities with their local 
farmers and bankers, or give up barbaric religious ideas that fan the flames of hatred and violence...  In 
theory, the people deserve to live this way.  The modern Jeffersonian vision articulated in writers as 
diverse as Wendell Berry, GK Chesterton, and EF Schumacher seems a far way off from being on the 
radar screen of the political consciousness of the masses drowning in debt, cheap consumption, and 
vicarious entertainment...  When the rural poor as described in "What's the Matter with Kanas" by 
Thomas Frank continually resort to religious fundamentalism, racism, homophobia, and anti-
intellectualism instead of concerted democratic action against concentrated political/economic powers, 
I have serious doubts about the abilities of the masses to realize the democratic society that would be 
theirs for the taking...
   Unfortunately, it appears the glue of human societies and anything more than the smallest group 
associations of human beings seems to be that of murderous hatred.  Hence, the entrenched elites 
foment hatred for designated scapegoats in order to deflect the masses' understanding of the skewed 
power distributions.  Time and time again, the masses have willingly fallen for this same old pattern.  It 
makes me wonder if the mass consciousness doesn't unwittingly follow some preprogrammed 
template.  So, will the masses organize for peace?  Well, MLK and Gandhi point the way to partial 
successes.  MLK got African-American suffrage and the basic veneer of political rights yet economic 
inequality has persisted and even increased in this country as it seems as if African-American 
population, particularly its young men, appear to be socially conditioned by our racist society for a life 
spent without hope and behind iron bars.  Gandhi freed India from the British, but he couldn't protect it 
from the poisonous religious sectarianism that killed him and started the long-running conflict 
between India and Pakistan.  So, perhaps we will have another moment like that here in this country.  
But, the culture must change radically and move away from its hedonistic, crass materialism that is so 
destructive of community and cultural memory.  If we are to have democracy at all, we will need these 
as refuges for the long struggle ahead against an entrenched corporate oligarchy eager to enslave us in 
their version of Pleasure Island (sponsored by Chase Mastercard!) while we drain the planet's reources 
and exhaust its ecosystems....