2018/12/31, Year going, year coming: The Battle is Always Lost within the Castle

The battle is always lost within the castle… War is over if you want it… You’ve got to start on the home ground. Convert your parents. We think we have a right to have a say in the future, and the future is made in your mind.

- John Lennon, 1969

War is over, if you want it. What a shame it still needs to be said. And Yoko Ono still keeps the War is Over campaign alive, though it’s a well-kept secret considering the lack of reporting on it. In 1969, the level of violence in the world might have been much higher, but that perception is due partly to the fact that Americans could be drafted into the war, so people paid attention. War continued after the 1970s in Central America and Yugoslavia, and the African World War happened from 1990-2007, hardly registering as such on the front pages of news media in Europe and North America. Then there was the “war on terror,” invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, regime change operations in Libya and Ukraine, and an attempt to overthrow the government of Syria. And this year the new problem has been declared to be “great power adversaries.” The Cold War is back. But the chickens have come home to roost within America. The ruling parties can no longer accomplish anything for their own citizens. The empire is exhausted. The Democrats would rather lose to Donald Trump again than do anything substantial to end the war economy and create a new one that would improve the social conditions of millions of suffering fellow citizens. Donald Trump knew this when he plotted his campaign. He knew he could rout the Republican Party from within, and the Democrats would be too scared to move left and lose their corporate sponsors. Like Louis Napoleon after the 1848 Revolution, Trump appealed directly to the working class because he realized no one else was doing it. The parties, intellectuals and the elected assembly had abandoned the working class, so the void was ripe for exploitation by a rank outsider that the bourgeois had laughed at only a short time before. This is how the battle is lost within in the castle. For America, 2019 is another year to shine in this dreary epoch. Sad.

I close off the year on this blog with an update of the “war is over, if you want it” message. The Italian sociologist Riccardo Petrella spoke on this subject one year ago (2017/12), noting how in recent years, despite John and Yoko’s efforts, the global economy has become more dependent on gaining its profits from selling armaments and making war. But his message is just what John and Yoko’s was fifty years ago: we have to change ourselves, change our fundamental value system.

Riccardo Petrella:

We are rich because we are impoverishing Africa again, as we are Latin America and Asia. We are responsible for the millions of dead. It is we who say you can have access to water only if you pay for it, that I'll send you water if I find it profitable in Africa. We do this. Not them. They used to be able to do it for themselves in their own communities. So, at present, we have to ask ourselves about the wars we are fighting, "What are they?" Were we attacked? By whom? When Sarkozy bombarded Libya, no Libyan had attacked France. France had not been bombed by anyone. And when the Americans bombarded Baghdad or Iraq because they were "the evil enemy" ... All those millions who died, and all those millions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, etc. Are they the ones who wanted the war? And we have the courage afterwards to say, "I'm going to help you stay in your country," after we've created the conditions they want to escape from. And Europe hypocritically gives 6 billion to Turkey, and 2 billion to Libya so they can hold the people who come from Africa where wars are being fomented. We have to stop telling ourselves nonsense here. We have to stop. We no longer make war to kill an enemy. War has become, because of technological development (as it was before too), the most profitable activity after the pharmaceutical industry and the information industry. We make war because it makes money. And if we don't change our leaders, and change ourselves, not in the individual sense, but change our fundamental value system: national security that depends on war, national sovereignty, the privatization of life, etc. For all these, we make war. Why? Because all these will become more and more profitable. If in the next few years, we eliminate war, the global GDP will plummet, according to the dominant system. It won't plummet if we are in a different system. On the contrary, the disappearance of war will be a source of wealth. This is why the dominant powers, currently, do not want to reduce armaments, do not want to reduce the occurrence of war. Imagine France without war. What would happen to the economy? Imagine the United States without war. They would be poor, impoverished economies. Thus today we have gone back to a phase in which we wage war because it is profitable. And there will be no current world leader who will stop war because he would be crucified otherwise. He would be stoned to death because he would be going against the logic: War increases global GDP. War creates economic growth. And it is believed that if we make war, we create more jobs for ourselves. Isn't that so?

War is Over. You can say it in so many languages, but as Marianne Faithful noted,
the victims really need to say it in Broken English to make sure the right people hear it.

Nous, on est riches parce qu’on est en train d’appauvrir l’Afrique de nouveau, l’Amérique latine et l’Asie. Nous sommes les responsables de ces millions de morts. C’est nous qui disons que tu peux avoir accès à l’eau seulement si tu la paies, que je t’amènerai de l’eau si je suis rentable, en Afrique. C’est nous. Ce n’est pas eux. Eux, ils étaient capables de le faire en communauté. Et donc, à l’heure actuelle, il faut se dire que les guerres qu’on est en train de faire, c’est quoi? C’est parce qu’ils nous ont attaqués? Qui? Quand Sarkozy a bombardé la Libye, aucun Libyen n’avait attaqué la France. La France n’avait été bombardée par personne. Et quand les Américains ont bombardé Bagdad ou l’Irak, parce qu’ils étaient l’ennemi du mal... Tous ces millions qui sont morts, et tous ces millions de réfugiés syriens, irakiens, etc. C’est eux qui l’ont voulu? Et nous, on a le courage après de dire, “Je vais t’aider, pour rester chez toi,” alors qu’on a créé les conditions pour qu’ils doivent fuir. Et cette Europe, hypocritement, donne 6 milliards à la Turquie, 2 milliards aux Libyens, pour pouvoir tenir ces gens qui viennent d’Afrique où on est en train d’alimenter le guerres. Mais il faut arrêter de se raconter de balivernes, ici. Il faut arrêter. La guerre ne se fait plus parce qu’on tue l’ennemi. La guerre est devenue, grâce à la technologisation, elle l’était aussi avant, mais elle est devenue l’activité économique la plus rentable après l’industrie pharmaceutique et l’industrie informatique. On fait la guerre parce que c’est rentable. Et si nous ne changeons pas nos dirigeants, et nous-mêmes, pas dans le sens individuel, mais le système de valeurs fondamentales: la sécurité nationale qui explique la guerre, la souveraineté nationale, l’appropriation privée du vivant, etc. Avec tout ça, on fera la guerre. Pourquoi? Parce que tout cela deviendra une activité de plus en plus rentable. D’ici quelques années, si vous éliminez la guerre, le PIB mondial chutera, d’après le système dominant. Il ne chutera pas si on est dans un autre système. Au contraire, la disparition de la guerre sera une source de richesses. Mais c’est pour cela que les dominants, à l’heure actuelle, ne veulent pas réduire les armements, ne veulent pas réduire les occasions de guerre. Parce qu’imaginez-vous la France sans la guerre. Qu’est-ce que ça serait comme économie? Imaginez-vous les Etats-Unis sans la guerre. Ils deviendraient pauvres, des économies pauvres. Donc aujourd’hui, on est rentré dans une phase où on fait la guerre parce que c’est rentable. Et vous n’aurez aucun dirigeant actuel du monde qui arrêtera la guerre parce qu’il sera crucifié, parce qu’il sera lapidé parce qu’il va contra la logique: La guerre fait augmenter le PIB mondial. La guerre permet la croissance économique. Et on suppose que si on fait la guerre, on augmente la création d’emplois chez nous. Non?