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The answer when someone asks,

“What’s the alternative?”

Ending Class Warfare Before It Ends Us

I’m sorry to be so persistently in your inbox, but yesterday was May Day. Like most peace-culture pacifists, I am totally, unalterably opposed to all war, even class war. In fact, of all the wars taking place today, including Ukraine, the class war is the one we most need to terminate peacefully right now. After all, the class war and the selfish, hierarchical war-culture mindset behind it are directly responsible for all the other wars.  

My motion to terminate the class war will certainly be seconded by rich people. Rich people instinctively oppose class war. The few who are consciously and deliberately fighting that war work desperately to keep it out of public consciousness for fear of the pitchforks. But from what I can tell, most rich people have no idea they’re fighting other classes at all.

When ants crawl on my kitchen counter, I don’t think of myself as going to war. I’m a pacifist, and yet, I smash those ants with my bare hands or a sponge or something and, if they keep coming back, I spray the counter with 50% vinegar solution (chemical weapon). That seems to keep them away for a while. I don’t see this as war. I see this as me re-establishing what I consider to be the proper order of things, namely, ants not on my counter.

Me and ants is exactly how rich people think about non-rich people. That is, they really don’t think of them at all. If they get out of hand and crawl into spaces where they’re not allowed, they are smashed. Other than that, they can watch TV, freeze in their homes, starve to death or do whatever they want. It’s a free country. Smashing people who get out of line is not class war. It’s maintaining law and order.

If someone says, “The rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes,” the rich donate a bit more to their favorite politicians. That’s how they can make sure their tax rate never goes up, that they never have to pay tax on most of their property (stocks and bonds, for example), and they keep their income tax rate far lower than that paid by your average middle-class sucker who works for a living and can barely make ends meet. But from a rich person’s point of view, this is not war. This is just smart rich people cleverly using the system to get richer and avoid getting poorer. This is the fabulous, anti-communist American Way that Superman and the CIA fight so hard to defend, along with truth and justice.

Poor people don’t see themselves in a war against rich people. For one thing, they don’t have time to think about rich people. They have to find something to feed the kids tonight. For another, they blame themselves. They should never have dropped out of high school. They should never have gotten pregnant. They drink too much. They take too many drugs. They shouldn’t have got caught stealing that loaf of bread.

And finally, poor people respect the rich. If truth be known, poor people want to BE rich. Rich people won the lottery. Lucky them. Unlucky me. Smart them. Stupid me. If I get a dollar or two extra, I’ll buy a ticket. Maybe I can win the lottery, too. I guess I’ll pray and give 10% to that nice preacher on the radio.

And then, the college graduates in the middle. These folks hate even to think about class war because they don’t know which side they’re on. They’re working, after all. It’s in their direct financial interest to respect their employers, work hard, do what they’re told, and rise through the ranks to get a bit richer. The higher they climb, the less they see fighting the rich as serving their interest; the more carefully they examine what they could lose.

Even joining a union is probably more dangerous than helpful, right? Better to keep your head down, talk about how much you love the company or the country, praise the rich, join in blaming and looking down on the poor. Better to figure out what team you’re on and forcefully attack whoever your teammates are against. Could be gays or lesboquarians or white supremacists or people of color or the police or immigrants or feminists or liberals or Trumpers or FOX News or MSNBC or the media, or peace activists, or the military, maybe Musk or Bezos or billionaires, but not the rich, not as a class. Not CEOs and employers, not as a class. Not the bankers or Wall Street or the vulture funds. Not the funders of think tanks and other lobbyists. Not the political donors and other bribery experts. Not the World Bank and the IMF. Not the US and other colonial powers and their spy agencies. Better to punch down or across. Punching up is just not safe.

So year after year, the rich win the class war without hardly even trying. The poor get poorer. The ones who actually starve to death or die of easily cured diseases are mostly in failed states or across the tracks, unseeable even with our best telescopes. But eventually, as in Sri Lanka now, even the middle class gets too hungry. Then, society explodes.

When the explosion happens in the US, maybe Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Bloomberg, Gates, Soros, Clinton, Bush, Trump and a few other rich guys whose names are publicly known will be rounded up and marched to the guillotine. Their blood on the Mall in D.C., their heads on those pikes in the fence around the White House will be hugely satisfying for a few minutes, but unfortunately, the dead will immediately be replaced by even worse rich people, and the poor will still not get enough to eat. In fact, food will no longer be properly produced and delivered. Grocery shelves will be empty. Medicines will vanish. Trucks will stop coming by to pick up the trash. Ambulances will stop coming by to pick up the sick and injured. Electric and water systems will fail. Nuclear power plants will explode for lack of electricity and proper maintenance. Millions will die.  And in the chaos, the scum of the Earth will arise as warlords whose armies will offer the only ports in the storm in return for obedience and a willingness to be exploited. From near-democracy all the way back to feudalism in a few short, painful strides.

It doesn’t have to go that way. Mediation is the peaceful way to end class warfare. Mediation is how to take power and money out of politics so rich and poor, workers and management can work together to solve common problems. And ending the class war in this way is how Terry and Rebecca save the world.

If you find this whole class warfare thing ridiculous, please read Terry and Rebecca Save the World because I wrote it for you. https://www.peacinstitute.org/grp

To read the book, use the + - slide to get the font the right size, then use your cursor to drag the page so you can see the part you're reading. 

To read previous emails, see Stevez E-mails at: https://www.peacinstitute.org/stevezemails

If you are interested in the Global Resolutionary Party, send me an email. ([email protected]) The GRP does exist. It has a Federal ID Number. If several of you show interest, we can create an online forum. If any of you wants to run for office on the GRP ticket, we can figure out how to help you. I am increasingly convinced that nothing anyone says will have any meaning at all until we have a party committed to mediating.

Violence starts with taking or winning without caring about the loser. The use of power without love is destroying us, and taking down the powerful won’t save us. Mediation is the antidote to the endless power struggle currently failing to solve our problems. Mediation is the loving way to manage power, but to do what we need done, mediators must have the power to bring everyone to the table.

Steve Leeper
http://www.peacinstitute.org/

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PEAC Institute · Montclair, NJ 07042, United States
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