Category: Commentary

Chapter 5 from The Grapes of Wrath has been reproduced on Kenan Malik’s Pandaemonium. Select it here: “Steinbeck”
Worth a read.

Trump’s ascendancy has pushed the conversation back to base emotions. All the eloquent and impassioned speeches are now heard only by the respective chorus to whom they are directed. The ability or desire to have constructive discussion is effectively past.
Therefore, it is instructive to speak in terms of base ideas, with an overhead view.
We, as primates, show certain tendencies that are reflected in our cousins. We have been, until about 3,000 years ago, loosely organized in communities that were matriarchies, or guided by the principles of matriarchies: peace within the community, enabled by respectful communication, with the general goals of enabling survival, creativity and family growth.
Rambunctious males would be tolerated for a time within the community, but if their actions became destructive, the designated silverbacks would be required to drive them out. This type of behaviour is reflected in observations by Jane Goodall and the late Diane Fossey, and others.
The rebuked young males would often gather in packs for mutual protection and support. Those packs would occasionally raid their former communities for food or fun, but they would usually be repelled and kept at bay by the concerted efforts of the community.
Until the Bronze Age and Iron Age.
When overpowering personal weapons, converted from agricultural implements, came into the hands of, shall we call them, the punk packs, they started decimating and/or taking over communities. From this came feudalism and other forms of repressive control of communities by the various punk packs.
Humanity has struggled over the past 5,000 years with the balance between the primal need for principles of matriarchal stability, against the randomly directed forces of raw power.
The ascendency of Trump – and the meme of raw power that has spread throughout the world – has likely set humanity back millennia. Egoistic bluster that was recently fought during two world wars, and many other more local conflagrations, has once more become the power in charge. The weapon used in this case is not bronze or iron, but money.
Multibillionaire punk packs now rule humanity.
World-wide, those who viscerally feel in jeopardy are protesting. The multibillionaire punk packs and their supporters – whose rallying cry is “down with all regulations” – laugh at the protesters, knowing they now have the Power. They control the power-points of society. They are now in charge of writing and enforcing legislation, which they use to further entrench their power. They have legitimized the focus on Money as being central to all activities in society. Where “money” had been merely a measure of activities in the past, it is now the end goal. That this is a corroding circular argument is beyond the ken of the multibillionaire punk pack or their supporters.
The multibillionaire punk pack is circling the carcass of a gutted society.
So, we have the vision of Pink standing up to Money.
Who do you think will win?

What of our planet’s other lifeforms?