2h. The Pirates
“Progress in our society is measured by the speed at which we destroy the conditions that sustain life.”
George Monbiot
Legendary actor John Cleese was watching the election unfold on American television and observed that; “It looks as though Trump is assembling the crew for a pirate ship,” rather than people who will lead the United States.His captaincy and others have set up governments that are set up to plunder the planet for profit and reduce human potential to slavery in the process.
It is the role of ‘the pirates of capitalism‘ to commodify nature. To take from us what is rightfully ours and then sell it back to us for money. Pouring black oil into water so that it is undrinkable, scarce and expensive. Killing the bees with toxic pesticides so that they can be replaced with electronic insect drones, copyrighting nature itself in unbelievable acts of bio-piracy that steal nature’s resources directly from us. The water you drink, the air you breathe, the silence of night, your access to nature, even the joy of sacred intimacy – requisitioned by the pirates to be sold to you.
The same companies that fill our homes with cancer producing chemicals, provide the toxic treatments that supposedly ‘cure’ us and government legislation endorses this in support of money. For hundreds of years now, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution such wealth production at any cost has been celebrated and the industrial champions of the world admired and revered. As the sickness increases so do those who profit from our dis-eases.
So now they want our water, our air, our sunlight, our nature and unless we act, they will take it from us for the rewards of money and the status that this brings to a few insecure people. Just 8 billionaires have as much wealth as the poorest half of our planet; wealth they too often use to buy politicians and capture our democracies to keep the whole system going in their favour.
“Unchecked consumerism operates on the premise that others are only instruments to be used and that the environment is a commodity. This attitude fosters unhappiness, selfishness and contempt upon other living beings and upon our environment. People are rarely motivated to change on behalf of something for their future and that of the next generation. They resist the idea of giving up what they enjoy just for the sake of avoiding long-term disastrous effects.”
Matthieu Ricard
“We have come to see ourselves as the lords and masters of the Earth, entitled to plunder her at will. The sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life are symptoms that reflect the violence present in our hearts. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the Earth; that we breathe her air and receive life from her waters.”
Pope Francis
Pro-business rhetoric rules our governments and this can be seen in the high level of climate-deniers within the UK Conservative government. Caroline Lucas states that: “71% of Conservative MPs think that human induced climate change is either unproven or ‘environmentalist propaganda’”.
This frightening deviation to the norm is precisely because the action needed to slow down the effects of global warming run contrary to the vested interests of business people and ‘extractivism’ in general. It gets even worse when we look at Trump’s American government, who seem to have been chosen on the basis of denying global climate changes.
Parliament Must Die contains quotes from: A. Greenburg, M.D._Abraham Maslow_Albert Einstein _Alnoor Ladha_Andrew Gwynne _Anneke Lucas_Arthur Koestler _Arundhati Roy_Asgeir Jonsson _Barbara Max Paul Hubbard_Bertrand Russell _Bill Mollison _Buckminster Fuller_Calcida Jethá _Caroline Lucas_Charles the Great_Chief Arvol Looking Horse _Christopher Ryan_Copernicus_Daniel Christian Wahl_Daniel Pinchbeck_Darwin_David Edwards_David Holmgren _David Icke_Dieter Duhm_Donald Worster_Donnachadh McCarthy_Doreen Massey_Doris Lessing_Dr A Bartlett Giamatti _Dr Claire Wordley_Dr Jay Cullen_Dr Kathy Sykes _Dresden James_E C Lindeman_Eckhart Tolle_Edgar Cayce _Edward Snowden _Ethan C Roland _Ewen MacAskill_Galileo_Galtang and Ruge _George Monbiot_Gerald Heard _God in Genesis_Greta Thunberg_Gudrun Johnsen _Guido Dalla Casa _Gustave Le Bon_Guy Fawkes _Henry Cloud _Henryk Skolomowski_Isaac Cordal _J Eliot_Jack D Forbes_Jack Forbes_James Gordon M.D._James Lovelock _Jeremy Lent_Jeremy Rifkin_John Cleese _John Hammell_John Hilary_John Trudell_Jon Stone_Jonathan Bartley_Julian Assange_Karl Marx _Karlos Kukuburra_Ken Ward _Lee Williams _Leonard Higgins_Lierre Keith _Lord Strasburger_M Knowles_Maddy Harland _Marianne Williamson_Mark Boyle_Martin Kirk_Martin Winiecki_Masanobu Fukuoka _Matthieu Ricard_Mogens Herman Hansen _Nafeez Ahmed _Nanice Ellis_Neil Dawe_Nikola Tesla_Noam Chomsky_Olafur Hauksson _Osho_Paul Hawken_Paul Levy_Peter Joseph_Peter Macfadyen_Pope Francis_President Franklin Roosevelt _Rabindranath Tagore _Rene Descartes _Russell Brand_Safa Motesharrei _Seyyed Hossein Nasr_Sigmund Fraud_Silas Titus _Simon Mitchell_Sir David Attenborough_Sir Isaac Newton_Sir Joshua Stamp_Skip Sanders _Steve Kent _Sting_Terrence Mckenna_The Dalai Lama _Thomas Berry_Tom McKay_Tyler Durden_Walter Bradford Cannon_Wendell Berry_William Derham_Yaneer Bar-Yam
2h