Some Not-so Conventional Wisdom

The greatest threat to humankind, it would seem, is Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his brutal regime. His invasion of neighboring state Ukraine has the whole of human civilization locked in a state of outrage and horror. He is attempting to destroy an entire country and its people. He also is threatening to use nuclear weapons if he doesn't get his way.

The American people, by and large, share in the outrage and horror, and our president and Congress have been sending billions of dollars in military, financial and emergency aid to Ukraine. So Russia is the greatest threat to humanity, we all seem to agree.

Not so fast with the condemnation, though. We have a greater enemy, at least according to the FBI, our foreign policy establishment, our journalistic community, and our punditocracy. China is our most dangerous adversary, so they say.

China was our ally against Japan in World War II, but now is our chief competitor on the world stage. It is making threats against its neighbor Taiwan, and is claiming territories in its vicinity that have long "belonged" to other jurisdictions.

We must prepare. Thwart them. Make our own threats. Maybe engage in warfare. This could lead to nuclear confrontation, but what choice do we have? It’s them or us.

Er, haven't we been here before? Haven’t we learned anything? A nuclear confrontation with China would be as dangerous as a nuclear confrontation with Russia. Wars are uncontrollable and unpredictable, and should be avoided at all cost.

All cost, that is, except the threat of being "second." We, "America," must be "first." Everyone else on the planet are also-rans, bystanders, extras in the grand movie. It’s us and China and nobody else. This is the conventional wisdom.

I have some unconventional wisdom. There is no such thing as "China," and there is no such thing as "The United States of America." These are human impositions on the land, arbitrary claims that the land itself does not recognize, and the plants and animals don’t recognize either. The air and water don’t recognize any "U.S." and "China" as well. Outer space doesn’t see any "China" or "U.S." Only "civilized" humans do.

There didn’t used to be a China, and there didn’t used to be a U.S. There didn’t used to be people either, and when the human species began it was in "Africa," so even in our early years as homo sapiens none of us were in the lands now known as the U.S. and China. These are but temporary designations, rented names on rented "property" in the span of time.

Still, we who occupy these temporary possessions must threaten and overcome those who occupy the competing temporary possession. It is what we must do. We're humans.

And so it goes. I worked for many years for a company that imported most of its products from "China." The company used to make its own goods , but they were  gradually "outsourced" to vendors in other countries, mostly China. When customers complained we would tell them it was due to "competitive pressures," meaning that everyone else was doing it, so we had to in order to stay in business. Prices would be much higher if our goods were made in the "U.S.," so tough luck American workers and manufacturers. We didn’t like it, but we liked having our jobs and cheap products. 

Now China has become too powerful, too successful at undercutting American businesses and workers, and is flexing its muscles around the planet. We must defeat them.

Duh. What would "defeat" them mean? Is it worth the risk, the expense, the death and destruction, and the opportunity cost of everything else we could do to make this planet a better place to live on? Our infinite-growth economies are both unsustainable and doomed, so why bother with being enemies? Even if our infinite-growth systems weren't doomed, we would need each other as producers and consumers of each other's goods and services.

There's an easy answer to that. We don't know any better. Changing human presence on this planet to a system of sharing and respect would be asking for too much. Competition is all we know, or at least it’s all we know as systems. Complex systems – governments, economies, corporations, populations – all behave as competing entities. We will kill each other if that is what it takes to be on top. If it means we all get killed in order to kill everyone else, so be it.

Maybe we can try something else. It isn’t likely, any more than it is likely that we will put the climate ahead of infinite-growth. We are on a mutual destruction trajectory. Neither assumed "country" will stop.

There is a bright side. It would be of no help to just write about doom and gloom. The times are depressing enough. We don’t need to encourage despair. It is a bit complicated, though. It may take generations. If human systems are going to fail, and necessity is the mother of invention, then we will invent new systems. The old systems will be dead and gone, just as old systems throughout history that died are no longer around.

What will it be like? Who knows? One thing for sure, though, is that there won’t be any "countries." With no countries, no wars. No wars, no need for nuclear weapons. No corporations either. With no corporations, no "competitive pressures." 

This is the one overriding and reliable observation and prediction made by Karl Marx in his monumental book Capital, or Das Kapital: Capitalism contains the seeds of its own ruin. "China" is not a "communist" country, except in name. Its system is as doomed as is ours. We can start now to prepare for the next system. It won’t be easy, but at least we will know what not to do.
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For a great synopsis of our looming conflict with "China," click here. 

There is some doubt about the threat from China.

Here’s a song. Here's another. Doris Day. Bob Dylan. Another from Bob Dylan. Barry McGuire. The Grateful Dead. Peter Tosh. This song is for Capitalism, which contains the seeds of its own ruin.

This interview covers the phony debt-ceiling crisis and how slavery was the inspiration for American Capitalism.

"China" is having some problems securing absolute control over its own people, so maybe its quest for absolute control elsewhere is facing terrestrial limits.