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You are here: Frontpage > Issues > 2446 >
PeaceNews #2446: Whose utopia is it anyway?
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Whose utopia is it anyway?
Ippy D
It would be very easy to argue that the
true "axis of evil" is actually rather short,
and stretches from the White House
across the river Potomac and down to the
Pentagon. But perhaps we would begin to
sound like "America bashers".
The problem is, as many have noted, that
in this reality there is one dominant force (in
a hegemony that also includes Britain, most
of the European Union and some of south
Asia) and that is the United States.
Total war
The "war on terror", or perhaps we should
call it the "total" or "permanent" war, provides
us, with a new or at least more obvious
and renewed, paradigm. When we look at
the list of "enemies" Mr Bush has kindly prepared
for us, we see the same old story:
North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. What is
new is the openness with which these countries
(and more importantly their inhabitants)
have been identified as targets. Parallels with
the Cold War are easily drawn.
Tough love
Since 11 September new levels of double-speak
have been reached. Human rights are
being curtailed around the world in order to
"maintain our freedom"; the US has "liberated"
women in Afghanistan; the US and its
allies have, while bombing, "saved a people
from starvation and freed a country from
brutal oppression".
This "tough love" approach to foreign policy
(you need to be bombed because we
know what's best for you), while traditional,
smacks of a final push to "persuade" the
likes of Iraq, North Korea, et al that they'd
better get with the (capitalist) programme or
prepare to suffer the consequences.
Pitfalls of armed struggle
As well as being gruesome in their direct
consequences, the actions of the 11 September
"terrorists" have provoked ripples
across the world. If you are committed to a
long and violent struggle - where your opponent
is the biggest military force on the planet
- these "ripples" might sound OK. While
the deportations, arrests, raids, racist
harassment, restrictions on movement, new
laws and so on, may reveal the true behaviour
and purpose of government, it's still not
much fun for the rest of us.
Irrespective of the morality, armed struggle
- or erratic violent tactics - rarely contribute to
a workable, positive, strategy. Even when
"successful", the use of force to achieve political
goals lays a poor and frequently rotten
foundation for the "new" power base.
Take Zimbabwe for example. A country
which broke free from the colonial masters,
some would claim exclusively through armed
struggle. Fast forward 20+ years and we see
the "heroic" liberators still in positions of
power, desperately clinging on to it through
oppressive domestic policies and practices.
The issues of hierarchy, formal or otherwise,
militarism (who "controls" the army in a
"liberated" country?) and personal greed
seem to remain present in all forms of society
and community whenever power is gained
"through the barrel of a gun" (look at the
"benevolent" state that China is today).
Strike!
Internationally, tackling a range of issues
which stem from a problem of economics
combined with a militaristic mindset, patriarchal
values, and a specific (as in species)
superiority complex, throws up a few challenges!
However, when we look at the range
of known options available to us in confronting
these issues, both individually and
collectively, it becomes obvious that some of
the simplest and least violent tactics are the
ones we often choose to ignore.
For example, it would be relatively easy to
chop away at the metaphorical legs of global
capitalism through refusing to work in main-stream
industry, commerce and - because it
would only be a matter of time before they
were called on to suppress such non-compliance
- the military. A deliberate attempt at
using, maintaining and supporting only the
services and products we really need (education,
health, fire service, local food production,
etc), even for just a few months,
would send a clear message.
Your utopia, my dystopia
This new/old place we find ourselves in today
probably issomeone's idea of utopia. The
bosses are rich, they have the militaries on
their side (mostly), opposition is in flux, and
women still know their place (mostly): white
men still own and control pretty much all of
the planet's resources.
In our post 11/09 world, creating a viable,
flexible and inclusive scheme for living, which
encompasses all the things we collectively
hold dear to our hearts: respect, non-hierarchy,
nonviolence, tolerance and so on, has
become more important than ever.
In the French sci-fi film The Fifth Element,
a vast and evil energy source appears in the
galaxy, consuming everything thrown at it. Its
purpose: total power. Only through bringing
together the elements representing life can it
be defeated. Like the hapless (but audaciously
Gaultier-suited) heroes and heroines
of the movie, that is our mission too. One
question: can we do it in such style?
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