What major geopolitical changes have been going on these last few months ! Iran and China have been moving up in the world, and the once great United States has been floundering in a widening morass of confusion and chaos, losing status measurably by the day. Today, most of the world considers Uncle Sam to be an old and feeble windbag, and getting to be a bit senile. The whole United States empire, with military bases all over the world, is beginning to smell like old fish to most of the residents of the planet. “Take your toys and go home, Donald.” That’s all there is left for him to do, and we will see with what grace he accepts the inevitable. Yankee Go Home.
Most of the rest of the world, of course, has been cheering for Iran, and there are very few who regret seeing Uncle Sam’s comeuppance, even among most American citizens, who are as disgusted as anyone else with all of these wars, which a resounding majority of the American people do not want. [March 19, 2008, Dick Cheney, confronted with polling showing that two thirds of Americans opposed the Iraq War, Cheney replied: “So?” The naïve still believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Democracy.]
I say “Uncle Sam,” not “Donald Trump.” The Donald will take the fall, of course (and it could be messy, but no one will mourn; we just mop up, and go on), but really it is the entire corrupt American system ~ the Congress, the Supreme Court, and all the greedy industrial robber barons and billionaires who are to blame for the accelerating collapse of our country, including especially the arms merchants and the traffickers in fossil fuels.
Some people think we live in a Democracy, and perhaps it is technically some form of that, but that doesn’t really describe the essence of our political system, which is more aptly described as Capitalism, or Jungle Democracy, far removed from the town fathers in Athens coming together to decide important issues. Jungle Democracy (King of the Mountain), Capitalism, Plutocracy, Oligarchy ~ it is all of these, and Monarchy, too, if one man be allowed to have so much control over the direction of a country.
A Parliamentary Democracy, on the other hand, is one step up, having a separate figure as Head of State, separate from the Prime Minister who actually takes responsibility for running the state. That figure, on a level above the actual political executive, is an important part of the balance of power, even if it frequently fails to function as designed. In earlier days it was the King or Queen who exercised this top level of authority, whose interest it was to root out corruption in the government. In fact, in ancient times, the most common political balance of power was an alliance between the King and the People opposed to the Nobles and the Church (in today’s terms ~ the wealthy and powerful). So the King, as father of his people, would measure his personal success by the success, happiness, health, and prosperity of his people, serving as a counterweight to the wealth and power of the Nobles and the Church, who try to take as much for themselves as they can.
Of course, history has seen a great many times when this ideal vision has been corrupted, and many a king has failed his people ~ a hereditary monarchy is just far too unreliable. However, some sort of institution is needed to provide that supervision from above, over the machinations of corrupt politicians and robber barons. You don’t, in other words, hire a fox to guard the hen house. [“Who will watch the Watchers ?” vide: Book of Enoch.]
My idea is to establish a school of the best and the brightest candidates from all over the world, who would be given the best possible education aimed at a full understanding of the whole world and its problems. This school, when its students would come of age, would collectively hold the highest authority as a trust, for the benefit of the people (or of the world, if we can institute this plan over the whole globe). There would also be a Prime Minister, a government, and a Parliament, but they would be responsible to the Advocate for the Tree, who would supervise the system, rooting out corruption, and making sure that the whole planet function as efficiently as possible to maximize the health and vitality of the entire biosphere.
Of course this is a radical idea, but it seems to me that now is the time for a radical idea (radix, the root of the problem, which is the best place to implement change) to come along and take the place of the Jungle Democracy under which this poor world has been suffering ~ the Many exploited by the Few ~ oligarchs and plutocrats, who have been running this planet into the ground for their profit, while the rest of the world suffers the degradation of the planet as it descends into increasing chaos and war, compounding the problems of climate change, due to the frenzied pace of consumption of the millions of years of accumulated Trees and fossil fuels, in a paroxysm of conflagration, egregiously exacerbated by armed war, tending inevitably to nuclear annihilation.
The alternative is to cultivate the earth as a Garden.
So, yes, it is time for something radically new.
Curriculum Vitae ~ links about the Author and his work.
