Looking Back From the 23rd Century

Once upon a time there was a great empire, far more powerful than that of ancient Rome. On the founding of this mighty empire, a tiny nation at the time, their professed ideals sent a charge of hope around the world. In a world ruled by kings and ruthless tyrants, here was a new nation that stood up for the rights of people. This tiny nation declared that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights such as Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It called all people free except the black people that some of them owned. The Blacks were not considered people because they were property. Almost a hundred years passed before the Blacks were declared a free people. Their freedom came at a great loss of life on both sides of a great Civil War.

Ownership Society, 2004, Ed LucasEven though the Blacks were declared free, the Self-Seekers were able to circumvent the law of the land. They re-enslaved these black people as well as many poor white people. They called their new strategy wages. These words were never spoken publicly for many years, but the Blacks and poor people became wage slaves. In many circumstances the Blacks were worse off than in the days of slavery. Under the new system no one had the responsibility to see that the Blacks were fed and housed. Many of the freed slaves, homeless without land or employment, were helpless. Many Blacks who tried to exercise their new “freedoms” as equals were lynched. By controlling the wages the Self-Seekers controlled the people almost to the same extent they had done in the days of slavery. For many years their national government did little to correct these abuse against some of their citizens.

As the country became more industrialized large agribusinesses replaced many of the family farmers. Farmers had taken their duties as citizen seriously and used independent judgment in their voting. They were independent of wages and were not so easily manipulated. Without this large block of voters to contend with the Self-Seekers, an adversary of the common good, with the power of money were able to buy the elected offices. The corporate media also controlled by the Self-Seekers were able to manipulate the masses of people into voting against their own interests.

The Self-Seekers, drunk with their power over the purchased “elected” representatives of the people, set out to rule the world. They had been so successful in buying control of the country’s elected representatives; they conceived the idea that they could conquer the whole world with the power of money. They called this new strategy Globalization.

All the while these Self-Seekers had been able to enrich their selves by developing the Military/Industrial Complex. Never in the history of humankind had the Self-Seekers found a more profitable and powerful vehicle to control and exploit people. They sold the idea that the world was full of enemies who would invade, rape their women and plunder their property. The Self-Seekers entrapped the people into spending their work hours building death machines to export all over the world.

When business slowed down, it was easy to start a war somewhere and create great demand for their products and enhance their wealth. The Self-Seekers in their greed had no patriotism for their country. If they could acquire resources from other countries after they had succeeded in plundering and using up the resources of their own country, they would buy their way in cheaply through enslavement by the World Bank. If they met local resistance it was easy to start a war in good conscience because they were protecting human rights by replacing brutal leaders in these other countries. That was the propaganda they would use to justify their aggression. Yet in this process of liberating these abused people, they killed and wounded and made homeless far more than the local ruler had ever harmed. Since they were the victors they could rewrite history denouncing the dispossessed and honoring their own position in history. No thought was given to the youth of poor people from their own country they had fed into the military death machine. Of course, no thought was given to the suffering caused the vanquished. They were the enemy.

These new nobles and aristocrats of Globalization, the CEOs of international banks, mega corporations and their controlled mega media companies felt most secure. They controlled the police, the army and many had private armies to protect them and, of course, they controlled the money power. They felt as safe and secure as the French aristocrats who ran roughshod over the people of France in a previous age. They heeded not the warning lessons of what had happened in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s where bankers got so much control of that country’s economy. Unfortunately a certain ethnic group controlled a large number of these banks. When there came this charismatic leader from the ranks that manipulated the masses with his rhetorical voice to hatred for this ethnic group a great many innocent people suffered a holocaust. Some of these same bankers, who were also among his victims, had supported him in the early days, thinking they could control him.

Finally after much loss of life on both sides, this leader was brought down. Then the Self-Seekers of this once small nation found most of the industrial world devastated by the war. Without this destruction their industrial might was at its height. What a wonderful chance to spread the ideal of “democracy,” build new customers and lap up control. The building of a great empire was on its way.

For a while conditions of the common people of the new empire were improved. Many families acquired two or more cars, nice homes and all of the modern conveniences. The wealth of the Self-Seekers grew fulfilling these needs. The years of war had built up much pent up demand and the people had accumulated mass savings during the years of scarcity caused by the war. The new empire flexed it muscles and built military bases all over the world in the name of democracy and keeping peace. When the common people’s savings were used up, the Self-Seekers kept the industrial machine going by manufacturing money and making credit so easy the people could continue to buy their products and be the mass consumers. Then came Globalization.

Exchange Rate, 2008, Ed LucasManufacturers, without regard for the damage done to their own country, moved their factories overseas for cheaper labor. The common people became loaded up with credit and the number of local jobs declined. The Self-Seekers through their controlled legislatures began to cut community services such as health care for the poor, public education even reduced taxes on the rich again and again in spite of all of the turmoil they had created.

The fortunes of the moneychangers still flourished by manipulating paper values. The Self-Seekers in their greed for money generated a scam by creating a massive real estate boom. Prices of homes increased almost to the extent that the average working person could no longer afford the monthly payments. They then created a mortgage boom by granting low cost interest loans by use of variable rate mortgages with low interest at first, but could later be adjusted upwards when the prime rate went up. When they made the loans the Self-Seekers overcame people’s fears of interest rate change upward by saying don’t worry about higher interest, you can always resell at a big profit the way real estate is going up. End of Suburbia, 2005, Ed LucasThe Self-Seekers made many fortunes in commissions in placing and trading these mortgages on deluded investors. When everybody was loaded up with these new mortgages, guess what happened? The prime rate controlled by bankers increased considerably. Many people, who could not make these greatly increased monthly payments, lost their homes, savings and improvements that had been invested in their homes. Since the Self-Seekers controlled the legislature, they had the government bail them out when their free market crashed. Very few of the suited thugs went to jail, but lavished in their new wealth while their victims were made homeless.

The Self-Seekers destroyed the mass consumer market in their own country by their greed for the fast buck by moving their manufacturing businesses out of the country to take advantage of cheap labor elsewhere. The Self-Seekers had also developed massive agribusinesses controlled by large corporations that used petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers that destroyed the land and much of the fresh water in rivers and lakes and subterranean water. Agribusinesses in their greed for the fast buck destroyed the land that once could feed the citizens of their country much of the rest of the world.

Then one day the unemployed and greatly impoverished working people whose numbers had vastly grown woke up to the fact that they had been had by the wealthy Self-Seekers. The new aristocrats, CEOs of international banks, mega corporation, corporate media companies, their highly placed sycophants and their elected toadies in public office felt safe and comfortable in their gated ghettoes guarded by private mercenaries and local police.

Then a hundred-year-old story of George’s Dream of a much better new world being possible resurfaced and created a spark that went around the world. The fire of anger, before it ran its course, made the French Revolution look like a picnic. The private mercenaries and police saw the flame coming and jumped to the other side.

After the destruction most the Self-Seekers were gone except for a few who went into hiding in work clothes. A new world order arose replacing what was left of the world after financial globalization and global warming had taken their toll. History had proven that nation states were little better than warring exploiters creating havoc in the world and were no longer permitted. Regional provinces were organized to fulfill the broader needs that individual communities were not set up to do. Although most communities had volunteer National Guard units to serve the people in case of local or regional emergencies, national armies were no longer permitted. The family of provinces maintained a small standing army and could call on National Guard units from the provinces to maintain order in the event of abuse of human rights or if it became necessary to remove outlaw leaders who abused their authority. Provincial courts settled disputes between communities or citizens from different communities and the family of provinces established a Supreme Court to settle disputes between provinces. Lawyers and judges were trained for their jobs and were compensated as civil servants in order that justice would no longer treated as a commercial commodity.

Nashville Tomato, 2008, Ed LucasEach community was expected to feed itself with local organic agriculture and surpluses were acquired by the provinces and distributed where needed, locally or inter-provincial. A vast rebuilding and restoring of the earth was launched making room for all life. All peoples of the world were cared for. Population growth was maintained at a sustainable level that the earth and resources would support and not hinder restoring the earth to recovery after the devastation of global warming and globalization. When population growth was needed there were no restrictions on birth, but at first signs of overpopulation newlyweds drew a number and whether they could bring new offspring in the world depended on luck of the draw.

The world became a true democratic society and the Declarations of Human Rights authored by the earlier defunct United Nations that had been destroyed by greed of empire, became law for everyone. A new constitution was developed that protected the minority from ill will of the majority and allowed for peaceable settlement of disputes. Opportunities for education and development of talents were universal with all peoples equally treated before the law. Corruptions of any and all kinds were vigorously prohibited. Criminal justice systems were more for re-training and restoration to full productive citizenship and were functions of democratically controlled governments. Trained civil servants conducted the government’s business and community and provincial citizen representatives determined policy. Professional politicians and professional lobbyist were no longer permitted. The overall objectives were to rebuild the earth into the Garden of Eden with opportunities for everyone to enjoy a stable and interesting life with equal justice and opportunity for all with a sensible balance between private and public ownership.

“Now my students,” the teacher said, “you’ve had a short history lesson of the devastation that the shortcoming and failures of the 21st century brought upon the world. The warning signs were there, but the Self-Seekers who had control were blinded by greed. The Self-Seekers belittled and denigrated environmentalists as Noahs and called anti-war people peaceniks and they paid dearly for their arrogance. We here in the 23rd century know better and must be eternally on guard against losing control ever again to the Self-Seekers. It’s the common good we must forever keep in our hearts. Class dismissed.”

Copyleft 2011 J. Glenn Evans (Feel free to copy and distribute as broadly as possible)

J. Glenn Evans Poet, novelist, historian and political activist, Seattle resident since 1960, author of Peoples’ Manifesto, The Hour is Late, numerous other political essays and Little History of Pike Place Market. several local histories, two novels: Broker Jim and Zeke’s Revenge and four books of poetry: Window in the Sky, Seattle Poems and Buffalo Tracks, Deadly Mistress. Part Cherokee, native of Oklahoma and graduate Wewoka High School 1949 and East Central University, (OK, 1956). Produces and hosts a weekly radio show of poetry and stories on KSER 90.7 FM, available to nonprofit radio stations worldwide through Pacifica’s AudioPort. Email JGE. Poetswest.com