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Community Centers as a New Beginning
With $1 billion, the US could build 4000 community centers for a quarter-million dollars each. The network of community centers in Vancouver Canada could be our model. Public spirit could arise to counter the exploding inequality.
COMMUNITY CENTERS AS A NEW BEGINNING
By Marc Batko
If Congress ended the Bush tax cuts to corporations and the top 1%, $300 billion would be available for reconstruction projects at home (see Anthony DiMaggio’s article published August 13, 2010 at
http://www.truth-out.org/the-coming-tax-war-how-letting-bush-tax-cuts-expire-could-end-economic-crisis62154?print)
Vancouver British Columbia has an incredible network of community centers in every neighborhood. Inexpensive food, computer access, library, game rooms, gym, theater, patio and class and counseling opportunities make the Carnegie Center at Main and Hastings so attractive.
With $1 billion the US could build 4000 community centers for a quarter million dollars each.
The neoliberal counter-offensive of deregulation, privatization and opening foreign economies to US corporations has led to exploding inequality and social resignation. Businessmen were described as the only ones who understand growth and development. CEOs were stylized as “job creators” and workers degraded as “cost factors.” Average working wages in the US have stagnated since the 1970s while profits and CEO bonuses have gone through the roof. Ninety percent of the benefits of the Bush tax cuts went to the top 1%.
The person could become the subject, not the owner. Values of tolerance, intercultural learning, sharing, social justice and solidarity could be learned to recover the public spirit and joy in life steamrolled by turbo-capitalism and trickle-down neoliberal hocus pocus.
Has our wealth or the dominance of the oil industry, military industry and Wall Street made us blind or cynical toward our social nature? Wouldn’t the resurgence of community centers show that cooperation and competition support each other?
Albert Einstein said the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. Has our insular “Forever Number One” mindset blocked learning from other cultures? Is there no end to the horrors of Vietnam, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan, the S&L scandal, financial meltdown, structural adjustment and bank bailouts?
Do we accept a reductionist economic theory
where “the market will set things right,”
where the old business model justifies inequality as a goad to creativity,
where freedom is reduced to property and contract,
where short-term constraints eclipse long-term necessities,
where the market, money and capital become fetishes
and lakes become anti-freeze and mountains become land fill?
Rethinking should be the command of the hour. We have been psychologized, brainwashed or dummified
to think economic problems are temporary, personal motivation or industrial accidents and not systemic and structural,
to identify with the elite instead of the poor,
to confuse means and ends, part and whole, personal and private and real and imaginary.
In a "bright-sided" culture enamored with credit-bubble prosperity, short-term constraints trump future necessities as ideology trumps structure in a post-democracy (cf. Barney Frank and Thomas Frank). The dark side can be repressed and the bright side exaggerated. Rufus Keller wrote about this in "Deadly Progress and the Shadows" when Switzerland was turned into a sky circus and only beautiful women dominated car shows without a word about the deaths and destruction http://216.139.253.38/newswire/display/35102/index.php.
In a thought-provoking age, we have lost the ability to think (M. Heidegger) and the ability to remember and mourn. In a consumerist society, memory and hope are threatened along with festivity and fantasy (cf. Harvey Cox "Feast of Fools").
The present is more than the present since it includes the promise. The future should be anticipated and protected in the present, not extrapolated from the present. (J. Moltmann).
Language can break the frozen soul (F. Kafka).
In an elite post-democracy, forms and institutions exist without substance, passion and conviviality (cf. I. Illich). As having can prevail over being, people can be enticed to surrender their freedom for authoritarian protection (cf. E. Fromm, "Escape from Freedom"). Services can serve themselves; people can be afraid to walk around the block without a doctor's prescription (cf. I. Illich). The paper chase, the race to resume heaven, can replace real job creation where universities, the media, the church and unions bereft of their independence confuse the race to the bottom and the melting of the dollar with reducing working hours and exchange of roles.
In a culture of vulgar materialism and appearance, time is saved to be killed. Privatism and consumerism are stylized as ends and not decried as traps and blindnesses. Narcissism is an epidemic that can be overcome just as prejudice can be overcome (cf. Jean Twenge, "The Narcissism Epidemic").
Christians and lovers of life should be alarmed
at the fading of the social state, at the redefinition of justice as "rewarding achievers" instead of distribution justice,
at the transfiguration of the corporation and mistaking the arsonist for the firefighter and the goat for the gardener,
at the return of the "No Nothing Party" as the Party of No
at the emergence of nitwit politicians with contempt of international law and the daily deaths of 100,000 (one child under ten every five seconds)
Elite consciousness is a frozen consciousness where there are no alternatives and bankruptcies are only normal business practice (cf. C. Boylan on CFRO Vancouver coop radio, http://www.coopradio.org).
Security, work, strength and health must be redefined. Albert Einstein lamented that the atom bomb had changed everything except the way we think. The one thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history (cf. A. Einstein). Normalizing war, militarizing foreign policy and waging wars of adventure in endless Vietnamization are signs of that learning incapacity.
The me-society, the majority society, has lost its way and needs the immigration society. Sustainability means not taking chances from the coming generation and seeing nature as our mother and partner, not as a free good, external or sink.
Economic rights are at the core of human dignity. Fight the war on greed; do something for the inalienable rights:
http://warongreed.org/dreams.php
The empire can become the republic (cf. Chalmers Johnson, "Nemesis"). The welcoming tradition of the US can supplant the tradition of fear as the free moral state can supplant the national security or police state.
Without the social contract, we become wolves to one another, commodified narcissists, rich in things and poor in soul. Solidarity, social justice and sharing open doors while tax cuts for the super-rich lead to exploding inequality and disappearance of public spirit. Building community centers would be a sign of hope, love for life and love for the future, a break from the one-dimensional profit worship that benefits only a few.
By Marc Batko
If Congress ended the Bush tax cuts to corporations and the top 1%, $300 billion would be available for reconstruction projects at home (see Anthony DiMaggio’s article published August 13, 2010 at
http://www.truth-out.org/the-coming-tax-war-how-letting-bush-tax-cuts-expire-could-end-economic-crisis62154?print)
Vancouver British Columbia has an incredible network of community centers in every neighborhood. Inexpensive food, computer access, library, game rooms, gym, theater, patio and class and counseling opportunities make the Carnegie Center at Main and Hastings so attractive.
With $1 billion the US could build 4000 community centers for a quarter million dollars each.
The neoliberal counter-offensive of deregulation, privatization and opening foreign economies to US corporations has led to exploding inequality and social resignation. Businessmen were described as the only ones who understand growth and development. CEOs were stylized as “job creators” and workers degraded as “cost factors.” Average working wages in the US have stagnated since the 1970s while profits and CEO bonuses have gone through the roof. Ninety percent of the benefits of the Bush tax cuts went to the top 1%.
The person could become the subject, not the owner. Values of tolerance, intercultural learning, sharing, social justice and solidarity could be learned to recover the public spirit and joy in life steamrolled by turbo-capitalism and trickle-down neoliberal hocus pocus.
Has our wealth or the dominance of the oil industry, military industry and Wall Street made us blind or cynical toward our social nature? Wouldn’t the resurgence of community centers show that cooperation and competition support each other?
Albert Einstein said the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. Has our insular “Forever Number One” mindset blocked learning from other cultures? Is there no end to the horrors of Vietnam, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan, the S&L scandal, financial meltdown, structural adjustment and bank bailouts?
Do we accept a reductionist economic theory
where “the market will set things right,”
where the old business model justifies inequality as a goad to creativity,
where freedom is reduced to property and contract,
where short-term constraints eclipse long-term necessities,
where the market, money and capital become fetishes
and lakes become anti-freeze and mountains become land fill?
Rethinking should be the command of the hour. We have been psychologized, brainwashed or dummified
to think economic problems are temporary, personal motivation or industrial accidents and not systemic and structural,
to identify with the elite instead of the poor,
to confuse means and ends, part and whole, personal and private and real and imaginary.
In a "bright-sided" culture enamored with credit-bubble prosperity, short-term constraints trump future necessities as ideology trumps structure in a post-democracy (cf. Barney Frank and Thomas Frank). The dark side can be repressed and the bright side exaggerated. Rufus Keller wrote about this in "Deadly Progress and the Shadows" when Switzerland was turned into a sky circus and only beautiful women dominated car shows without a word about the deaths and destruction http://216.139.253.38/newswire/display/35102/index.php.
In a thought-provoking age, we have lost the ability to think (M. Heidegger) and the ability to remember and mourn. In a consumerist society, memory and hope are threatened along with festivity and fantasy (cf. Harvey Cox "Feast of Fools").
The present is more than the present since it includes the promise. The future should be anticipated and protected in the present, not extrapolated from the present. (J. Moltmann).
Language can break the frozen soul (F. Kafka).
In an elite post-democracy, forms and institutions exist without substance, passion and conviviality (cf. I. Illich). As having can prevail over being, people can be enticed to surrender their freedom for authoritarian protection (cf. E. Fromm, "Escape from Freedom"). Services can serve themselves; people can be afraid to walk around the block without a doctor's prescription (cf. I. Illich). The paper chase, the race to resume heaven, can replace real job creation where universities, the media, the church and unions bereft of their independence confuse the race to the bottom and the melting of the dollar with reducing working hours and exchange of roles.
In a culture of vulgar materialism and appearance, time is saved to be killed. Privatism and consumerism are stylized as ends and not decried as traps and blindnesses. Narcissism is an epidemic that can be overcome just as prejudice can be overcome (cf. Jean Twenge, "The Narcissism Epidemic").
Christians and lovers of life should be alarmed
at the fading of the social state, at the redefinition of justice as "rewarding achievers" instead of distribution justice,
at the transfiguration of the corporation and mistaking the arsonist for the firefighter and the goat for the gardener,
at the return of the "No Nothing Party" as the Party of No
at the emergence of nitwit politicians with contempt of international law and the daily deaths of 100,000 (one child under ten every five seconds)
Elite consciousness is a frozen consciousness where there are no alternatives and bankruptcies are only normal business practice (cf. C. Boylan on CFRO Vancouver coop radio, http://www.coopradio.org).
Security, work, strength and health must be redefined. Albert Einstein lamented that the atom bomb had changed everything except the way we think. The one thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history (cf. A. Einstein). Normalizing war, militarizing foreign policy and waging wars of adventure in endless Vietnamization are signs of that learning incapacity.
The me-society, the majority society, has lost its way and needs the immigration society. Sustainability means not taking chances from the coming generation and seeing nature as our mother and partner, not as a free good, external or sink.
Economic rights are at the core of human dignity. Fight the war on greed; do something for the inalienable rights:
http://warongreed.org/dreams.php
The empire can become the republic (cf. Chalmers Johnson, "Nemesis"). The welcoming tradition of the US can supplant the tradition of fear as the free moral state can supplant the national security or police state.
Without the social contract, we become wolves to one another, commodified narcissists, rich in things and poor in soul. Solidarity, social justice and sharing open doors while tax cuts for the super-rich lead to exploding inequality and disappearance of public spirit. Building community centers would be a sign of hope, love for life and love for the future, a break from the one-dimensional profit worship that benefits only a few.
For more information:
http://www.coopradio.org
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Hi! Well said, Mr. Batko! 'Commune' is a hated word/phenomenon when used in the term 'communism' and a loved word/phenomenon when used in the term 'community' and 'communication' and 'communion'. Go fig. I don't know how IndyBay gathers such a great group of writers and thinkers, but they sure do... and Marc Batko is a shining example. I'm a long-time country music musician/singer, and I find myself drawn to performing at community centers and parks... above all other places. I'm REALLY drawn to the community centers on Native American lands/reservations, because tribes REALLY do communes nicely and seem to have a good team spirit. But we have to be careful with the use of the word 'team' here, because capitalists immediately think a 'team' is for competing with other teams, instead of loving its members, and even loving those who are NOT on the team.
There's lots more to be said about the correctness of what Mr. Batko is saying here, but, it really doesn't need more support. His words hold their own JUST FINE. Commune is the secret word, here. Communes are FLAT structures... everyone treated fairly and equally and no 'or else' extortion seen... and they are the exact opposite of competitive pyramid schemes like capitalism. I'm sure lots of IndyBay folk have already seen my favorite anti-capitalism campaign poster, but I ask them to bear with it one more time, as we attempt not only to show how very correct Mr. Batko IS, but how very wrong non-commune things are. So, although somewhat off-topic (but not much), here is my take on capitalism... yet again...
Readers, capitalists, you DO see the pyramid scheme symbol on the back of the USA one dollar bill, right? You DO see the servitude infestation in capitalism, right? And do you see the "pay up or lose your wellbeing" Chicago mob-like felony extortion widespread within capitalism? Do you see the "join or starve" felony extortion done to the 18 year olds... by this ugly competer's church called capitalism? See how forcing competer's religions onto 18 year olds... kills membership in the cooperator's church (Christianity/socialism)?? Do you understand that AmWay (American Way) (New World Order) got "the exclusive" (legal tender) on the TYPE of survival coupons (money) accepted in supply depots (stores) and leverages 18 year olds into the organization via that felony activity as well? (It puts AmWay-coupon slaving requirements called price tags... on all the survival goods). Do you understand how farmyard pyramids work... from your childhood?? Remember?? Upper 1/3 are "heads in the clouds" while the kids on the bottom ALWAYS GET HURT from the weight of the world's knees in their backs? Still with me? Do you see anything illegal, immoral, or just plain sick... in any of this pyramid scheme's activities?
Us American Christian socialists are still patiently awaiting the natural fall of the pyramid-o-servitude, or the busting of the free marketeers felony... by the USA Dept of Justice. Us Christians are VERY CLOSE to issuing a cease and desist order until the servitude and inequality goes away... which means it turns into a commune. Commune is a word we LOVE when used in the word "community"... but its one the caps HATE when used in the term "commune-ism". Go fig. PROGRAMMED!!
Do a Google IMAGE SEARCH for 'pyramid of capitalist' to see a full color picture made way back in 1911, when capitalism was first discovered to be a con/sham instigated by the Free Masons/Illuminati. Folks sure bought into the thing... hook, line, and sinker just the same. The caps didn't even check if a string was attached! Now THAT'S easy fishing, eh?
Time to level the felony pyramid scheme called capitalism. Abolish economies and ownershipism worldwide, and hurry. Economies just cause rat-racing, and rat-racing causes felony pyramiding. BUST IT, America! Look to the USA military supply/survival system... (and the USA public library system) for socialism and morals done right. Equal, owner-less, money-less, bill-less, timecard-less, and concerned with growth of value-criteria OTHER THAN money-value. Quit doing monetary discrimination immediately, and make it illegal. There are MANY measurement criteria of "value"... not just dollars. Try morals, efficiency, discrimination-levels, repairability, etc etc. Economies are cancerous tumors, and to cheer for their growth... is just insane. Profiting causes inflation, so if caps LIKE inflation, and if they LIKE a terrible time in afterlife when they meet the planet's ORIGINAL OWNER before caps tried to squat it all with ownershipism, then keep it up with the felony pyramiding. I dare you. While us Christians are finally bulldozing that pyramid scheme back to level, lets make servitude and "join or starve" (get a job or die) illegal in the USA, and lets level the architecture seen in USA courtrooms, too. Right now, USA courtrooms are church simulators or "fear chambers", by special design. Sick.
Isn't that back-of-the-dollar pyramid... a Columbian freemason symbol? And WHERE is the USA gov located? District of Columbia? (Not even part of the USA!) How much more blatant can ya get? The "Fed" runs a pyramid scheme called the free marketeers. If you're using the "federal reserve note" certificates, or using no-other-living-thing-on-the-planet entitles of ownership, you're bought into a servitude/slavery con/sham... called capitalism. Pyramiding 101.
Thanks for the excellent wisdom, Marc Batko! Keep up the good work! Go communes!
Larry "Wingnut" Wendlandt
MaStars - Mothers Against Stuff That Ain't Right
(anti-capitalism-ists)
Bessemer MI USA
There's lots more to be said about the correctness of what Mr. Batko is saying here, but, it really doesn't need more support. His words hold their own JUST FINE. Commune is the secret word, here. Communes are FLAT structures... everyone treated fairly and equally and no 'or else' extortion seen... and they are the exact opposite of competitive pyramid schemes like capitalism. I'm sure lots of IndyBay folk have already seen my favorite anti-capitalism campaign poster, but I ask them to bear with it one more time, as we attempt not only to show how very correct Mr. Batko IS, but how very wrong non-commune things are. So, although somewhat off-topic (but not much), here is my take on capitalism... yet again...
Readers, capitalists, you DO see the pyramid scheme symbol on the back of the USA one dollar bill, right? You DO see the servitude infestation in capitalism, right? And do you see the "pay up or lose your wellbeing" Chicago mob-like felony extortion widespread within capitalism? Do you see the "join or starve" felony extortion done to the 18 year olds... by this ugly competer's church called capitalism? See how forcing competer's religions onto 18 year olds... kills membership in the cooperator's church (Christianity/socialism)?? Do you understand that AmWay (American Way) (New World Order) got "the exclusive" (legal tender) on the TYPE of survival coupons (money) accepted in supply depots (stores) and leverages 18 year olds into the organization via that felony activity as well? (It puts AmWay-coupon slaving requirements called price tags... on all the survival goods). Do you understand how farmyard pyramids work... from your childhood?? Remember?? Upper 1/3 are "heads in the clouds" while the kids on the bottom ALWAYS GET HURT from the weight of the world's knees in their backs? Still with me? Do you see anything illegal, immoral, or just plain sick... in any of this pyramid scheme's activities?
Us American Christian socialists are still patiently awaiting the natural fall of the pyramid-o-servitude, or the busting of the free marketeers felony... by the USA Dept of Justice. Us Christians are VERY CLOSE to issuing a cease and desist order until the servitude and inequality goes away... which means it turns into a commune. Commune is a word we LOVE when used in the word "community"... but its one the caps HATE when used in the term "commune-ism". Go fig. PROGRAMMED!!
Do a Google IMAGE SEARCH for 'pyramid of capitalist' to see a full color picture made way back in 1911, when capitalism was first discovered to be a con/sham instigated by the Free Masons/Illuminati. Folks sure bought into the thing... hook, line, and sinker just the same. The caps didn't even check if a string was attached! Now THAT'S easy fishing, eh?
Time to level the felony pyramid scheme called capitalism. Abolish economies and ownershipism worldwide, and hurry. Economies just cause rat-racing, and rat-racing causes felony pyramiding. BUST IT, America! Look to the USA military supply/survival system... (and the USA public library system) for socialism and morals done right. Equal, owner-less, money-less, bill-less, timecard-less, and concerned with growth of value-criteria OTHER THAN money-value. Quit doing monetary discrimination immediately, and make it illegal. There are MANY measurement criteria of "value"... not just dollars. Try morals, efficiency, discrimination-levels, repairability, etc etc. Economies are cancerous tumors, and to cheer for their growth... is just insane. Profiting causes inflation, so if caps LIKE inflation, and if they LIKE a terrible time in afterlife when they meet the planet's ORIGINAL OWNER before caps tried to squat it all with ownershipism, then keep it up with the felony pyramiding. I dare you. While us Christians are finally bulldozing that pyramid scheme back to level, lets make servitude and "join or starve" (get a job or die) illegal in the USA, and lets level the architecture seen in USA courtrooms, too. Right now, USA courtrooms are church simulators or "fear chambers", by special design. Sick.
Isn't that back-of-the-dollar pyramid... a Columbian freemason symbol? And WHERE is the USA gov located? District of Columbia? (Not even part of the USA!) How much more blatant can ya get? The "Fed" runs a pyramid scheme called the free marketeers. If you're using the "federal reserve note" certificates, or using no-other-living-thing-on-the-planet entitles of ownership, you're bought into a servitude/slavery con/sham... called capitalism. Pyramiding 101.
Thanks for the excellent wisdom, Marc Batko! Keep up the good work! Go communes!
Larry "Wingnut" Wendlandt
MaStars - Mothers Against Stuff That Ain't Right
(anti-capitalism-ists)
Bessemer MI USA
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