The Frustrations of Leftward Political Activism

I've had to put a moratorium on my political activism. Activist meetings now put me in despair. Here's the reason: the last one I went to, when we went around the table introducing ourselves, everyone had a different idea about what the priority was. One person, the person who had the highest standing, said that before we did anything else, we had to make Missouri food self-sufficient. (I wanted to ask why Missouri and not Eastern Missouri, Western Missouri, or Missouri, Iowa and Illinois together?) Another said the environment was the thing we had to work on first. A third said voting rights and balloting reforms were the most important, a fourth said clean energy was most important, and another said campaign finance reform was the most important. Than of course, there's jobs, there's education, there's healthcare, there's the war in Afghanistan . . .

It depressed me, but not because I disagreed with any of it. No, just the opposite. Except maybe for the food self-sufficiency one, (where I disagrees on the arbitrary particular but not the principle), they were all right about it. Those issues are all very important. They all critically need the work. What's more, any one of them could be the highest priority, they are all that important.

What makes me grieve about all of it and what all the other activists missed is this: all of those things going wrong at once means that this system, this nation, is finished. Because any government that has allowed that much, and more, to go wrong is not capable of correcting any of it. The socio-governing process in this country is broken beyond repair. Moreover, you can't correct that many serious problems in any reasonable time with our government now. Three or four of those are crippling. All of them at once are fatal. As the cliche says, I've read the writing on the wall. I don't like the news, but it's it's the truth.

I wish I knew what could possibly replace the United States, and I wish I thought the world without it would be better, at least within my remaining lifetime, but I don't. Our nation is finished, and I don't see anything good coming out of it. I also wish I knew exactly what I meant by saying "our nation is finished." What will happen? Will the Red States secede while the Blue States petition to join Canada? Will Texas secede from the Union and end up being ruled from Mexico? (In the short term, at least that would make Perry ineligible for the presidency). Will we fall into a Somali-type civil war while the federal government collapses? I don't know.

Rome fell, but Italy still existed afterward. Obviously something would still be here. Whether it's a bunch of separate nation-states or squalid hunter gatherer tribes at the end does matter.

I also wish I had a solution, that is, some marvelous socio-economic system that works great on paper and is ready for a field test. However, the trials and tribulations of the twentieth century makes me jaded about any such thing.

So, what would I suggest to the left now? Try to formulate and organize such a system while this one falls. Don't push it. Don't aggravate the wounded beast that is the US. Just stay out of its way until it stops moving and rebuild afterward. That's all I could suggest.

And meanwhile, find a way to mentally escape, such as in Brazil, and educate others as to what is unfolding.