Interesting article about Chomsky at 90 years old.
HERE. Chomsky's been a front man for the US anti-establishment / anti Capitalism for as long as I can remember and still going strong. In many ways this article sums up some of the most important fundamental flaws in any establishment and the importance of a constant rebellion agaisnt any kind of established order. It's an eternal struggle best understood in the context of pendulum swings and battles won rather than any actual conclusive final end to the endless war.
Hegemonic common sense is a good phrase- a reference to the agreed story line that an establishment will endlessly regurgitate while leaving out clear massive fundamental flaws in that story such as the silliness of the myth of eternal macro economic growth or down playing the existential threat posed by ecological and climate meltdown. In the past we had myths of Sons of God and burning hells and now we have myths of Human Gods, Money Gods and the real possibility of a burning hell here as climate breakdowns. Real common sense is abandoned (as it was under former hegemonic ideologies) as the hegemony exert their version of common sense and then people who advocate real common sense are then perceived as outsiders/ untouchables.That fear of that social exclusion and the benefits of going along with fundamentally flawed story is a massive controlling force and pulls the majority into line.The dogma of economic growth and the power of the free market are clear myths that are constantly blasted out over the beacons of the masses but are clearly completely insane ideas. That doesn't stop society from moving in that direction as the hegemony is established by effectively hacking the group psychology by exploiting vulnerabilities within the human condition. Power is a spell and those who understand it cannot be controlled under it. Whether your society in under the spell of a Christain Myth or a Capitalist myth, individual empowerment lies within that understanding.
For those interested in nature, the establishment is clearly anti-nature and since the great recession of 2007/2008 and as a result of austerity, regulatory cuts and funding cuts that assault on nature by the establishment has accelerated. We have seen a resistance to that e.g. the likes of Avery/Packham, The People's March for Wildlife, Hen Harrier Day, the rise of legal cases and conflicts agaisnt public bodies by bird groups (e.g. the Beddington Farmlands Bird Group), The Green Surge (a large increase in Green party membership), the rise of Extinction Rebellion direct action group, the rise of the Child Revolutionaries such as Greta Thunberg, Bella Lack, BirdGirl etc and overall a radicalisation of nature conservation.
Since world war 2, the current fundamental Capitalist paradigm has been the framework for business as usual, a framework that undervalues nature massively. However that framework is now clearly crumbling as the area of common sense outside of hegemonic common sense is being activated in response to the myths, as those myths are debunked as the consequences of propagating lies start to build up - such as the impacts of ecological meltdown and climate change.
However the nature of change is that the establishment will continue propagating lies for as long as they can hold on and in that environment the source of reliable information (as Chomsky explains) is generally small journals, independent media sources etc. Journals like British Wildlife are very high quality and there are numerous social media outlets that deliver reliable information. This blog aims to be one of those sources for local issues around Beddington Farmlands and the battle we are having with our local Capitalists and their local authority and politician facilitators.
The last days of any society cycle is frightening as chaos escalates until a new set of rules, a new set of values are won which will form the basis of the next cycle of hegemonic common sense. The radical element of society will then go back underground and then start gathering momentum again to overthrow that cycle as the flaws in that system accumulate. At first its your crazies (climate alarmists in the 1960s and 1970s were widely considered as nutters) but as things move on and more people find themselves on the wrong line of that hegemony the number of radicals start to increase until there are enough to overthrow the hegemony. We are moving to that overthrow stage.
It's an endless process but it is a process of constant refining, constant improving- constant evolution- sometimes elements of that evolution is a Feng Shui or a change of guard rather than any tangible improvement- it gives others a chance to have a go. Establishing orders requires a large body of the populace to be gullible and rather stupid but during a radical age that stupidity is dangerous. In the early stages of a cycle that stupidity is beneficial for society as a whole but at the end it will be a big factor in who will be the victims of a revolution. My advice to anyone is wake up before its too late for you.
The main thing is to make sure us individuals are on the right line of history as it starts unfolding and we are in a radical age and there is an increasing pressure to pick sides and get off the sidelines (as the sidelines are being carved up in the chaos) . The establishment is crystallising into a smaller and smaller group of increasingly powerful wealthy oligarchs, their politician protectors and the increasing herd of drones that serve them (you may be well be one of those drones- we all are, I am but can only detach from their growing power as much as possible).
The victory for a more nature centric society will be won when that herd of drones turns on the capitalist oligarchs and their lackeys in greater and greater numbers. That is what we are doing on our local patch, trying to build that movement locally and link into the wider political movement. Good to see the scale of the youth climate strikes across the world today.
