"The Christian must discover in contemplation, and in the giving of his life, those symbolic actions which will ignite the people's faith to resist injustice with their whole lives, lives coming together as a united force of truth and thus releasing the liberating power of the God within them." - James Douglass, Contemplation and Resistance.

Monday, April 06, 2009

How Just Our Coming Servitude




How just it seems that we should be reduced to the same status as those we have exploited these many centuries. How proper that those among us who share the name of Christian should share the fate of the wretched of the earth.

Massive non-cooperation is what's needed now. Clearly, Obama is playing the role of confidence-building front man to allow the assets of the U.S. Government to be openly transferred to Wall Street banking firms. The rest of us will play the role of debt slaves for the remainder of our and probably our children's lifetimes. Liberals have been intimidated into silence "to give Obama a chance" and they will remain silent just long enough for the wealth transfer to become irreversible. Then the noise will begin, but it will far too late by then.

We must also face our own cowardice and complicity. The latest moves are the culmination of a long series of previous moves over the past 30 years and more by the economically powerful. Because the earlier consolidations were not successfully resisted, the current one became possible, then inevitable. Debt has been the weapon of choice during each previous consolidation. While the previous strategy was to impose debt slavery on African, Asian and Latin American countries, this time they intend to use its full force against the American and European people. Their purpose is to inculcate a higher degree of "discipline" into the work force, by which they mean a return to actual slavery for the vast majority. This is necessary to continue increasing profit margins under current conditions.

Though I am not convinced that street protests will save us, I would rather go down in rage against the dying of the light than to dumbly accept my servitude as I fear will be the fate of the majority. We do have a few strategic advantages. First, the new feudal lords require an advanced technology in order to enforce their rule and that means skilled and intelligent workers. It may not be easy to entirely prevent these workers from reasoning about their servitude. Second, we have the memory of freedom, fast fading though it may be. That memory may be enough to begin a massive campaign of non-cooperation. In conscience lies our only hope.

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