Dangerous Presumptions

And their effect on critical thinking and the search for a solution

Let me start by saying I love Norman Finkelstein. He’s erudite, witty, a wonderful debater with a control of his emotions that I envy, with an obvious compassion for the plight of humanity. As far as his knowledge on the history of Palestine/Israel goes, I’m not even fit to hold the lighter to light the candle not to be held to the lighthouse beam of his depth of understanding. I encourage everyone to watch and read his output, including the interview with Chris Hedges below.

Deconstructing Trump's Gaza 'Peace' Plan (w/ Norman Finkelstein) | The Chris Hedges Report

Yet I also find his arguments to be symptomatic of large swathes of resistance around the globe. He comes from a presumed footing that this geonocideconomicpolitical system and its mental strangle hold on our collective consciousness can and will be made right. That somehow within the norms of it, there’s the path to peace and prosperity, if only we abide by the rules and implement things as designed.

However, unless we are prepared to actually question that fundamental premise, aren’t we perhaps guilty of maintaining the poison seed that inexorably leads to where we are today? If we never ask that question, how do we even explore the possibility of there being a truth there?

Let me highlight a couple of examples from the above and discuss them.

Norman refers to Trump as a megalomaniac thug. Indeed, a megalomaniac thug he is - but is he the root cause or is he the symptom? Sure, he is a problem. So too are flu based fever and headaches, but we can all agree that those symptoms are not the root cause. The Duhnald Stumps and Bibi Satanyahoos of this world are not some genetic aberration like a cancerous haemorrhoid on the prolapsed arsehole of humanity dragging us all kicking and screaming deep into the fiery depths of hell. Need I remind anyone that 80 years ago Trumann needlessly dropped the atom bomb in anger, twice? They are a guaranteed byproduct of a thought system so totally at odds with the transcendent reality of being subjective expressions of a cosmic energy so powerful that it birthed the entire universe and its ever flowing, ever mutable, ever beautiful reality.

Norman also brings up the case of South Africa bringing the case to the ICJ. Yes, on the face of it, this is a good thing. However, alongside this, South Africa carried on selling huge quantities of coal to the Israeli state to help them keep the target beams illuminated.

He also brings up Russia’s statement on the Security Council Resolution abstention. Now I get why Norman has a natural affinity towards Russia, given the history of his family and Russia’s actions during and after World War 2. Again, that said, did Russia cut off economic ties with Israel when the Genocide began in earnest? No, they carried on trading away baby. Similarly China too. Have they cut off ties now? Heck no.

It’s remiss of Norman not to mention these facts, as they are highly revealing. They speak to just how deeply the idea of special paper/zeros have burrowed into our collective consciousness. We have elevated the idea of paper/zeros to such importance that we have made them integral to our survival. Akin to food, water, air and, to a lesser degree, shelter.

Now, no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, no matter how clever we become, we cannot change the reality of food, air, water and shelter of some sort being prerequisites for survival. It has ever been thus and ever will be for not only us, but for all forms of life on the planet. Remove any of those for a sufficient length of time, we die prematurely. No ifs, no ands and no buts.

Now, it is currently true for nearly all of us humans on the planet that within our modern society, remove access to paper/zeros, either our own or from the charity of others, for sufficiently long enough that we die prematurely too. That, however, is not immutable. That is a recent development entirely of our own making. How do I know? Er, well, um, history. We’ve been on this planet and thriving without the paper/zero ideas than we have been suffering under its yoke. And we are the only ones with the power to change that. Fact, as we are the ones that brought the idea into existence. Do you see blue whales checking the DOW and FTSE?

So currently all other considerations born within our society and even many of those that are hardwired into us like collaboration, empathy and social interaction must become subservient to paper/zeros. Because now without the fucking paper we can’t actually get to some of those universal prerequisites to ensure our survival. Does that not strike you as a bit fucking stupid? Nae, worse, dangerous? Nae, worse still, suicidal? It leads to such glaring examples of contradictory, counter intuitive behaviour as displayed by South Africa, China and Russia and allows horrors like genocide/ecocide to flourish without any meaningful form of challenge. And it gets worse, as we’ve wrapped that little poisoned idea in the endless layers of legal bubblewrap and an avalanche of subsequent ideas, products, stories, studies, research etc so complex and confusing that it makes kittens in a wool factory look like the epitome of organised simplicity. And this avalanche shapes our psyche, it builds our psychological profile. In our youth we are powerless to resist it, it surrounds us, envelops us and penetrates us (to quote Obi Wan Kenobi) and as a result we perpetuate it, passing it and its mounting list of ever more grave symptomatic problems on to the next generation. We then spend vast quantities of said paper/zeros trying to deal with the resultant symptoms of collectively inflicting this on ourselves and on and on it spins, a never ending horror-go-round with an increasingly wonky, doppler warped, maniacal soundtrack. What do you think Duhnald is dancing too in his head? It sure as shit isn’t The YMCA…

Which leads me back to the beginning and my bug bear with our milque toast, meek and mild resistance. We only ever seem to get a grip on the symptoms, to fight the symptoms, never getting to the root cause.

We need to own it.

We’ve been doing it to ourselves.

But also own this. We can unmake it, together, any time we want. This little step of ownership starts to loosen the hold the societally shaped psychological profile has on us, allowing our inherent qualities of empathy, collaboration etc to breathe and begin to develop, which in turns loosens the noose further. And thus begins our journey towards a healthy society.

We can.

We must.