Winners and Losers of this 4T

[Eric the Green]

(10-03-2021, 10:53 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Was looking for a thread on likely issues for this 4T and this was the closest one I could find.  Can we list the likely issues yet to reach their crescendo. You may also add extra ideas as well. In going back over the ideas and issues, which ones do you feel will get the green light, and which others may get the yellow or red light. Here are a few I have mentioned, and you can select green, yellow or red.

Legalizing or at least decriminalizing sex work.

A reduction in automobile dependency, which strongly relates to carbon footprint concerns.

Curbing the seemingly insatiable appetite of Corporate America through unbridled mergers and buyouts, with greater enforcement of antitrust laws. The end of them being able to constantly whipsaw jurisdictions to get what they want.

These are the three that come to my mind the most, in addition to moving to a saner housing strategy to bring down barbaric costs that squeeze out modest earnings families and businesses.

On many of our central issues we seem to be conflicted and unsure which way to turn. Could the best route be to take our time and re-evaluate before committing to something?

No, we are out of time to reflect. But that doesn't mean there won't be further delays. These are caused by the power of wealthy interests and by the ideology and prejudice that empowers them.

Global warming/climate change is the "peak" issue, the existential crisis. It's the carbon footprint concerns, but it goes far beyond cars. It is how we generate all our energy. It must be converted to renewable energy and this needs a big boost in this 4T, when we are now feeling the effects, and they will only get worse. Unfortunately Senator Manchin has put up a red light on this, so far, and so in society as a whole there's a yellow light when we need a green one. So as of now it looks like hothouse Earth could be on the horizon, and much sooner and more irreversibly than we think. But our constitution gives favor to rural, provincial states full of prejudiced people like West Virginia, so "a handful of senators don't pass legislation" putting us on the "eve of destruction." The power of fossil fuel company donors and the neoliberal ideology of free enterprise has more relevance to these senators than the life and prosperity of the people.

The pandemic has put the issue of pandemics on the front burner too. Trump tore down the response team that could have reduced the effects, but this is also related to our relationship to Nature, which is the chief issue we face. We need to prepare for future pandemics as well as control covid. Extinction of species is also an existential crisis, caused not only by global warming but most of all by human encroachment on Nature, which also has exposed us to the increasing series of pandemics we've had, with more to come. The time is up to change our relationship with Nature, but due to greed and our desire to exploit and live in places we should leave alone and take care of, delay will mean further extinctions and pandemics.

How we relate to science, and our distrust of authority, has led us to conspiracy theory, and this has now also itself become part of the existential crisis, especially the pandemic of which these theories are a principle cause. Again, the time is up on conspiracy theory, but people are stuck on it.

The housing crisis and the need "to bring down barbaric costs that squeeze out modest earnings families and businesses", and the "seemingly insatiable appetite of Corporate America through unbridled mergers and buyouts", are part of the general issue of inequality and the economic crisis for the middle class and poor. This crisis has come about because of neoliberal, free-market ideology, and the charm of one actor who got elected president in 1980 and steered our country to this ideology, which says if we reduce taxes and regulations on business and end dependency on government spending, that prosperity will trickle down, and we'll protect "freedom" (meaning mostly free enterprise without which all freedom is impossible) from rising totalitarian communism and socialism. The heritage of racism and religious prejudice in the USA also play into the power of this ideology, and the gun obsession and the police brutality that go along with this ideology.

The defeat of this ideology, and restoration of balance between ideas that promote the growth of unregulated, predatory capitalism and those which promote socialism, is a chief existential crisis that also underlies not only inequality but the human encroachment on and destruction of our climate and Nature. So our chief need is to switch away from this destructive neoliberal narrative and adopt a better ecology-based one. This should have happened after the economic collapse of 2008, but we are still clinging to the past, thanks to our constitution which gives the past too much power. Part of this is also the failure and destruction of democracy both through this constitution and voter suppression and cheating, but mainly through the power of money in our political system, which again is defended by the same neoliberal ideology.

So it's mostly a matter of ideology and what we believe. The time is up to change, and the neoliberal ideology and conspiracy theory was never needed in the first place, but delays continue anyway, because there is an ignorance level in our republic, combined with many greedy tyrants around the world.

As long as we continue to deny or ignore that these are the issues we face, our road to destruction continues to be paved by ignorance and bad intentions. Change and action not only needs no more reflection, but is long over-due.