The indifference of the liberal middle class is mind boggling.
by David Pear
The liberal middle class is brain dead about the wars. They do not want to hear about war, speak about war or see war protesters.
The liberal middle class has emotionally numbed out. They have a complete lack of empathy for the millions of people that the USA has slaughtered, the nations that the USA has bombed to piles of rubble, and the suffering the USA has caused to tens of millions of people.
Out of sight and out of mind, the USA has destroyed millions of minds, bodies, homes and lives forever. The indifference of the liberal middle class is mind boggling. Some sadistically see the war images as entertainment and even beautiful displays of power.
I am still reeling from Earth Day and the March for Science. Where was the message that war is destroying the Earth? The Pentagon is the number one consumer of fossil fuels and the number one polluter of the Earth. Why was the Pentagon given a pass on Earth Day?
Do scientists deny that war causes global warming? The liberal middle class should not feel superior to Republicans and Donald J. Trump about climate change. They have their heads stuck in the sand too. At least the Republicans are honest in their stupidity of denial about climate change.
The liberal middle class’s dishonest stupidity is to lie by omission and not confront war as the number one polluter. The Pentagon and militarism are the greatest danger to the Earth and every living creature on it. The world is racing headlong towards nuclear war and the liberal middle class is in deep denial.
Earth Day and the March for Science were more hypocrisy and feel good faux solidarity of concern for the Earth. Earth Day was carefully stage-managed to not offend or affect any change.
Earth Day was just a fun day. Those that attended appeared to be mostly liberal middle class families, couples, singles and students. It was a sterile showing of solidarity, with the bonus activity of hugging science. Science is worth hugging, but scientists were mum on Earth Day that the Pentagon, militarism and war are the number one threat to the Earth.
The liberal middle class’s dishonest stupidity is to lie by omission and not confront war as the number one polluter. The Pentagon and militarism are the greatest danger to the Earth and every living creature on it. The world is racing headlong towards nuclear war and the liberal middle class is in deep denial.
There were very few speeches, posters or demonstration againstwar. None of the “Top Ten Posters” were antiwar. Talking about war was a conversation stopper and spoiled the fun for others who just wanted to enjoy organic snacks, browse among sustainable gadgets and grandstand.
George Orwell wrote about the mind control effect of conformist demonstrations. They let the public blow off a little steam without any risk, and they reinforce the status quo. It also gives the Thought Police an opportunity to take names of anybody that does not conform.
Earth Day was like Orwell’s two minutes of hate. Climate Change is the liberal-middle class’s hated Emmanuel Goldstein. Big Brother and the mainstream media know how to co-opt dissent and make it meaningless, while letting the people feel relevant and powerful. Real protests and real power of the people are brutally crushed by the police state.
Any act considered unpatriotic was discouraged during Earth Day. There was no mourning for the millions of people the USA has slaughtered in the past couple of decades. There was no mention of the USA poisoning South Asia with uranium and burn pits billowing out a smorgasbord of carcinogenic chemical pollution.
There was no scientific discussion of the poisonous ingredients in the Mother of All Bombs and the pollution caused by war. No discussion of nuclear winter, radiation sickness, and mass starvation from a nuclear war. Nor were there any pledges by scientists not to work for the military-industrial complex.
Like Mark Twain said about the weather: everybody talks about climate change but nobody does anything about it. And they won’t until there is a stop to war. Until then there will be no budget for doing something about climate change. Nor will there be any budget for healthcare, education, mass transportation and relieving suffering and ignorance. Lacking is a massive anti-war movement.
I had the personal experience of being a spoiler on Earth Day. I belong to St. Pete for Peace in Saint Petersburg, Florida. It is an anti-war group that has been able to survive the peace drought after the USA invasion of Iraq in 2003. We thought it would be a good idea to take an anti-war rally to Williams Park in downtown St. Petersburg where there was an Earth Day fair. Our reception was anything but warm. It was like a cold bucket of Agent Orange.
We were warned not to take our anti-war posters into Williams Park. It was not the police that warned us, it was the organizers of St. Pete Earth Day. They told us to stay on the corner across the street and out of sight or they would have us arrested.
Thinking that I had a Constitutional right to do so, I walked through the park anyway with an upside down American flag as a freedom of speech statement. I was immediately accosted and told that no demonstrations were allowed. I thought Earth Day was supposed to be a demonstration, and a protest against the continued destruction of the Earth and all its living creatures.
Florida is one of those “Stand Your Ground” states. So we stood our ground with open carry of anti-war signs. We were not going to go quietly. As we walked through the fair with our anti-war signs we said “Happy Earth Day” to the vendors and attendees. Their responses were a few polite “thank you’s”. Mostly we got cold stares or avoidance of eye contact. My upside down flag of distress got a few hoots and confrontations. But few people wanted any dialog about war.
Normally I do not write about myself, but Earth Day has been eating away at me. It left me angry and dumbfounded. I keep asking myself, “is the liberal middle class braindead?” Is it possible for people to want to do something about climate change and not see the connection to war, militarism and empire? They just don’t get it: war, climate change, war, climate change, war…
The liberal middle class is as stuck in the American mythology as conservative Republicans. They still think that capitalism is the best of all possible worlds; that America is the best country in the world; that America cares about democracy and human rights; and that being anti-war is unpatriotic.
Like Obama in the White House: all symbol and no substance. The liberal middle class are too comfortable in their isolated world of high rise condominiums and SUV’s. What will it take to bring them down from their ivory tower in the mostly white Northside of St. Petersburg? Do they ever think about the mostly black Southside of St. Petersburg and its lack of basic social services?
During the rainy season in Florida, the Southside is flooded with raw sewage because the city closed the Albert Whitted sewage treatment plant for lack of funds. The city saved $32 million a year by letting raw sewage flood the black neighborhood and flowing into Tampa Bay where it pollutes the water.
What has happened in St. Petersburg has happened in cities all over America. It is called austerity. Funding that should be going to education, housing, mass transportation, healthcare, poverty programs and infrastructure are being sucked out of the economy. The money is going for militarism, war making and war profiteering. The money spent by the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and the Police State are making us less secure, less safe, and less free.
Empire building, imperialism and war are perverting the domestic economy, sucking out its resources and denying citizens of the socialist programs that the Bernie Revolution talked about. Even Bernie Sanders does not take on the military industrial complex.
Either Bernie is just another politician or he suffers from cognitive dissonance. His supporters made excuses for him that being anti-war during his 2016 presidential campaign would be “political suicide”, and that secretly Bernie was anti-war.
If being anti-war would be political suicide, then how did Bernie’s supporters think that the country could pay for popular social programs like healthcare for everyone and free college? There is not enough money for Bernie’s boondoggle F-35 that doesn’t fly right, never ending wars that cannot be won and popular socialist domestic programs?
In a recent CNN interview Bernie said: “Assad has got to go. ISIS has got to be defeated, but I do not want to see the United States get sucked into perpetual warfare in the Middle East.” Bernie is part of the problem, not the solution.
“Assad has to go and ISIS has to be defeated” is magical thinking without “getting bogged down in perpetual war”. Thinking so is unconsciously letting the warmongers continue the status quo. It is saying more war, more destruction, more death and more climate change. Bernie’s revolution has melted like the Arctic ice.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing of significance is going to improve in America until the dogs of war are leashed. Education will not improve. There will be no single payer healthcare, no mass transportation, no free college, no antipoverty programs, no reparations for the oppressed, and no progress made against climate change until we stop the wars. Foreign wars and empire mean more austerity at home.
We can be relevant, powerful and do something about climate change and save millions of lives. We can hit the streets with mass protests against war. Support whistleblowers and those that refuse to obey illegal orders. Refuse to cooperate. Be disruptive. Use non-violent civil disobedience to sabotage the war machine.
Otherwise, wars have doomed us to the ravages of climate change. Nuclear war is a real possibility that the public is in denial about. A group of scientists just advanced the Doomsday Clock to 2 ½ minutes until midnight at which time we are doomed permanently. Is anybody listening to these scientists?
David William Pear is an unpaid Senior Editor for OpEdNews (OEN). All of his articles and comments are his own, and are not the responsibility of, or reflect the editorial opinion of OEN. David is a progressive columnist writing on economic, political and social issues. He is a regular columnist and commenter on OEN.
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