Freedom Is(n’t) Free, Ecological Terrorism Is Pervasive

Freedom Is(n’t) Free, Ecological Terrorism Is 

Pervasive

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet

Enduring occasional acts of random terror is the cost of living in a free society. Giving up civil liberties does not provide security, but rather enslaves you in a state of pervasive terror. The human family is threatened by systematized eco-terrorism and other assaults by the elite upon the poor far more than by infrequent criminal acts which the courts can and should handle.



Terrorism is the act of inspiring terror in others by harming presumed innocents. For many, unjust postmodern life on a dying planet is full of PERVASIVE TERROR. The term terrorism has been usurped by the nanny military state to mean only politically motivated violence that targets the public. While such murder is never justified, in fact it occurs rarely and is not a high-profile threat to most. It is one of the manageable costs of being free.

Infrequent criminal acts, of the sort that recently occurred in Boston and occur much more frequently around the world, are tragic but best handled by the criminal justice system. America has become such a drama-queen nation that it continues to incautiously react to such dastardly acts with endless pundit pontificating, needlessly giving up hard-earned revolutionary civil liberties, and lashing out militarily in a counterproductive manner. Doing so breeds the next generation of criminal terrorists and ensures further blowback.

America is not special. In fact, many acts of terror occur around the ecologically and socially collapsing Earth for which America is responsible. The far greater threat issues from systematic targeting of the poor and of nature by America’s and other nations’ privileged elite. The rich and their corporations, police, and military routinely practice systematic terrorism that is much grander in scale, with devastating impact. 

To name but a few: two billion people live on less than $2 a day, at least 3,000 kids die daily from bad water, and millions of innocents fear random drone attacks. Where are the outrage and the manhunts to bring those responsible for these preventable tragedies to justice? Their terror is no less heartfelt than that of the pampered elite.

Imagine the terror of an indigenous tribe suddenly finding a logging, mining, or oil company entering their ancestral land, where they have lived from time immemorial, telling them it does not belong to them. Instead, their forests will be cut, they must go to the cities, and their women are whores to service their needs. Or please consider the heartfelt terror of innocent communities hearing the incessant buzz of drones over their heads, not knowing when or whether they will be targeted as “collateral” damage – meaning murder victims. Or feel the everyday terror of the working poor, serving as slaves to the elite and then going home to unfed families and uneducated children, devoid of hope. What of the terror felt by kindred wildlife species as their habitat is razed and their young slaughtered in the name of “progress”?

Such systematic terror arising from pervasive inequity, lack of human rights, militarism, and other injustices have been endured for far too long. Many acts of criminal terror result from these social ills, and we will not achieve a lasting reduction of violence until they are addressed. Working to resolve the terror pervasive in our social and economic structures may well be the only way that an unlikely, albeit possible, large scale act of biological or nuclear criminal terrorism can be avoided. Further stripping our civil liberties, establishing a police surveillance state, and waging perma-war certainly won’t do so.

TIME of GREAT DYING

Earth's ecosystems are collapsing and dying as all life and the biosphere are murdered for industrial economic growth. Just like a cancer cell, exhibiting profound personal and societal sickness, humanity is systematically destroying billions of years of naturally evolved ecosystems for a few generations of excessive consumption for some, to be followed by biosphere collapse and unimaginable terror for all.

A time of great suffering and dying is upon us as global ecosystems – water, land, oceans, air, and food – are routinely destroyed by the industrial growth machine. Everywhere on Earth species, ecosystems, economies, communities, climate, and our one shared biosphere are being liquidated. 

Drone perma-war, tar sands and coal, old-growth logging, inequity, ecocide, lack of justice, poverty, and human rights abuses are all terrorism and need to end.

These acts of ecocidal and genocidal terror are waged upon Earth and her ecosystems every day by the industrial growth machine and by our unfair consumption. Ecosystems and their life – that together power Earth's biosphere – are being methodically plundered by this growth-at-all-costs mentality, which can only end in ecological collapse and the end of being for most or all life. As ecological thresholds are surpassed and climate and ecosystems are in the process of collapsing, this means continued economic growth without destroying the biosphere is not possible, and the continuation of an economic system that tries is itself an act of unspeakable terrorism upon all being.

It is time to passionately love all life and end the burning, cutting, and pillaging. Out-of-control human growth in industry, economies, and population is steadily stripping Earth of its ecosystems – meaning the end is near unless we stop.

ECO-TERRORISM

The real, worst sorts of terrorists are eco-terrorists, the corporate elite and their minions ravaging ecosystems and climate. Every day, eco-terrorism by the industrial growth machine and nanny government is waged against Earth's ecosystems and all species, killing billions (including humans) and destroying the biosphere as habitats essential to life are weakened and killed. 

Because the ruling oligarchy holds the wealth, power, and guns, such terror is nonsensically called progress and rarely questioned. Yet the terror of ecocide is unmatched in human history.

Postmodern humanity shows utter contempt for other species – terrorizing all other life forms before murdering them – as we cut down and burn our own and all life's ecosystem habitats, filling them with waste and perversely calling it development. Earth’s ecosystems are being scoured of life to "develop" as if air, land, water, oceans, and other species are worthless. Animals certainly are terrified as their habitat is cleared and their young massacred. 

Eco-terrorism is the oil oligarchy and corporate elite ravaging ecosystems and climate, destroying our one shared biosphere and all life’s well-being, for a bit more growth in stuff for a while; what will follow are apocalyptic collapse and the end of being. Where are the outrage and government resources to stop this preventable corporate terrorism? Oh wait, that’s right, they aren’t affluent Americans so they don’t matter. 

If you train yourself to listen, you can hear Earth wailing in pain, speaking of and mourning her and all life's death as ecosystems are lost.

TERRORISM is TERRORISM WHEREVER it OCCURS

It is time for President Barack Obama and America, after triumphing over the horrific Boston Marathon terrorism, to stop terrorizing and murdering other innocents with drone-based perma-war worldwide. Terrorism is terrorism, whenever innocents are killed, whoever pulls the trigger. After an estimated million revenge killings, how many more must be murdered to avenge 9/11?

Exaggerated fear of criminal acts of violence continues to be used as a straw man – in a misconstrued “war on terror” (though no longer referred to as such, remains nonsensical against a tactic) – in order to enslave us, and wage eco-terrorism upon the planet and the poor.

The amount spent on “defense” and “homeland security” by America is obscene. A one-time expenditure of twenty billion dollars could provide clean water for the world and save a million children a year from a preventable and terrible death. Yet America spends 30 times as much yearly to dominate the world and continue to extract an unfair share of everyone’s resources.

Again, giving up freedom does not make you secure. I sense from the Boston Marathon tragedy an America slowing becoming recommitted to justice and freedom, rather than cowering in fear and lashing out. Terrorism is a criminal act and not well addressed through military force. America must never give up its freedoms because of terrorists – and its very soul and well-being depend upon again committing to justice, freedom, sustainability, and the rule of law.

Billions of people overconsume every day, as billions of others are in excruciating pain and suffer with unmet basic needs. Each in their own way – through a combination of sheer numbers and inequity – are destroying the ecosystems necessary for life. There is no surviving such exponential industrial growth that feeds upon itself. The overdeveloped world must stop being so self-absorbed and face the daily terror borne by much of the world.

STOP the LIES: WE ARE ONE

Going forth we must base our actions upon ecology truth. We are one human family utterly dependent upon ecosystems, climate, and kindred species for life. Nations, gods, and economic growth are passing fables; only billions of years of natural evolution reflected in life-giving ecosystems, their species, and the biosphere in sum are real and truly indispensable.

Wake up, you foolish and deluded (you know who you are). Without ecosystems there can be no economy. Global ecosystems are collapsing. The end of being draws nigh because we won't stop burning fossil fuels and destroying natural ecosystems. When we kill the planet, all other issues will be null and void. 

Love Earth, humanity, and all species like close family and friends; and together we will end the terror and sustain Earth and well-being for all life. 

It is time for a radical political center to come together globally and in each of our communities with answers to threats including climate, poverty, abuse, war, denied human rights, and ecosystem collapse.

Global ecosystems and all life’s one shared biosphere are collapsing and dying under the strain of the insatiable and ecocidal human industrial growth machine. Human well-being is inseparable from the health of land, air, and water, yet we devastate ecosystems for throwaway junk. To survive, let alone thrive, humanity must immediately power down fossil fuels, protect and restore natural ecosystems, and embrace justice, equity, and peace.

Abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse are a global ecological emergency. Resistance to ecocide is self-defense yet must NEVER target innocents. The answer lies in loving life and using all possible other just means to achieve and maintain green liberty.

It is clearly time for global Earth Revolution to sustain land, water, and air and to achieve universal human rights and economic fairness. Let’s make it so together, firmly denouncing all forms of terrorism while clearly understanding that all other forms of resistance are legitimate when used to avoid global ecosystem collapse and end systematic terrorism upon the poor and nature. 

The Fascist State of America

…Free nations don't spy on and murder their citizens. Democracies don't terrorize sovereign nations and their peoples with torture, false imprisonment, and drone-based perma-war. It is time to stand up against the oil oligarchy’s police state that is stifling social change required to achieve universal human rights, justice, equity, and global ecological sustainability.

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

– Benjamin Franklin

“If living unfreely but comfortably is something you are willing to accept… it is going to get worse with the next generation… The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The greatest fear I have for the outcome of these disclosures is that nothing will change… [that people] won’t be willing to stand up and take the risks to fight. I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made.”

– Edward Snowden

“The Bush administration "puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide."

 – Candidate Barack Obama 2007

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

– George Orwell

“With American spying and drone perma-war we are witnessing the end of democracy, the failure of a fragile experiment that governments are derived from the people.”

– Dr. Glen Barry

“We the People" are not enemies of the state and deserve and need to know what our government is doing. The truth matters – particularly when human freedom is at stake, and our shared environment is collapsing, with both at risk of being lost forever. America’s civil liberties have been trampled on, and sadly, most don’t seem to care, failing to understand the full implications of big brother’s ascendancy. Defending freedom from government tyranny is not a left-or-right, conservative-or-liberal matter; it is the difference between right and wrong, truth and lies, liberty and enslavement, life and death.

Edward Snowden has revealed the extent to which America has become a total surveillance police state – with wholesale spying upon its own citizens – adding to revelations since 9/11 of the murder of U.S. citizens as well as torture, indefinite detention, and pursuit of drone perma-war, terrorizing entire nations. All of these acts are occurring upon the basis of suspicion alone – without due legal process, violating international law and the U.S. Constitution – in an unprecedented expansion of government powers in the name of a war on terror, when in fact they are being used to control dissent and access oil.

President Barack Obama is a profound epic failure, in many ways worse than Über-fascist Bush, just a new black face on the American oil oligarchy’s long history of tyranny and warmongering. What a feeble, sellout, murdering, cynical disappointment Barack Obama has turned out to be. After killing a million Arabs and Muslims, Bush policies continued with vigor under Obama, has the U.S. avenged 9/11 yet? Or does America need to spy, torture, falsely imprison, and wage perma-war for years longer? Perhaps forever?

America is poised upon the precipice of becoming a totalitarian police state overseeing final global environmental collapse. As America is at risk of becoming a third-rate police state, all lovers of liberty – from the Tea Party to progressives – must come together to resist oppression, remain free, embrace justice and equity for all, and sustain our shared global environment. One can feel a libertarian–progressive alliance building to stop big nanny government from enslaving us while destroying our environment. A commitment to Green Liberty is the human family’s only path to sustained well-being.

What has America become? It is well past time for the U.S. to reexamine its incautious, militaristic and totalitarian response to 9/11 and re-embrace liberty, justice, and freedom. The U.S. corporate-owned government threatens global liberty and human rights, making global equity, justice, and sustainability impossible. Big nanny government is in bed with the oil oligarchy and corporate elite to threaten American and global liberty and ecosystems. 

What other unethical, illegal, violent and unauthorized acts have the U.S. government carried out in secret to keep us "safe"? 9/11 trauma does NOT justify spying, torture, murder, and perma-war – along with corporate rule, the textbook definition of fascism. Real Americans who honor the Constitution and American values understand that withstanding occasional acts of random terror and minimizing their frequency is the price of freedom.

America folded like a wet towel after the 9/11 crimes – lashing out militaristically and murdering hundreds of thousands of innocents – as it needlessly gave up Yankee liberties acquired over hundreds of years in what had been the biggest expansion of personal and political freedoms ever. Instead, the United States should be engaging with the world to address justified grievances, weaning itself from its oil addiction, demobilizing the military and police state, and strengthening international criminal courts to charge and imprison terrorists.

Do we want the executive branch of government to know every detail of each citizen’s life? Never has a government been granted powers that don’t end up being expanded and misused. The slippery slope of good intentions guarantees that spying as a shortcut for security means dissidents, oddballs, artists, and ordinary citizens who resist the political and economic elite will be targeted next. The military-industrial-Congressional complex has morphed to include the National Security Agency and Homeland Security’s fascist state of perma-war and spying.

What Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama have done to roll back civil liberties may not at first sight seem so terrible, but what will subsequent Presidents do with these powers to spy, torture, imprison, and murder at will? What further will be lost the next time criminal terrorists strike? President Barack Obama took our hunger for hope and change and gave us a totalitarian police state in what can only be characterized as an epic failure, a grand bait and switch, which is the most recent fascist coup waged upon American liberty.

A truly great nation refuses to falsely trade liberty for security, which assures neither and only enslaves people in pervasive terror.

With torture, spying, murder, and perma-war, all three branches of the U.S. government – the President, Congress, and courts – have abused the Constitution and lost all legitimacy. From this point forward, it is only a hop, skip, and jump to an iron-fisted authoritarian dictatorship. The entire American citizenry – and soon global humanity – is now assumed to be guilty and data-mined for evidence, on the presumption that everyone is a terrorist until proven innocent.

Something has gone terribly wrong with the American project – the greatest expansion of liberty and well-being in history (although it always existed upon a shaky economic and ecological basis). Meaningless American political rhetoric’s reference to liberty, exceptionalism, and equality are at odds with the reality of spying and murdering in the name of security. 

Edward Snowden is an American patriot who has further revealed the extent to which America has become a fascist police state that systematically violates civil liberties to keep us "safe." His observation that “the government has granted itself power it is not entitled [to]” is spot-on. Whistleblowers against militarism, civil liberty abuses, and ecocide are global heroes – and acting upon their courageous disclosures provides humanity’s last chance for a just, free, equitable and sustainable future.

A technological security state has been established that fundamentally threatens civil liberties and environmental sustainability. The protest and regime change necessary to address fossil fuel addiction and abrupt climate change – and other social changes necessary to bring about a just, equitable, sustainable, and universally free world – are being violently suppressed by the police state, as social change of any sort that threatens the oppressive and unjust status quo is labeled terrorism.

Who protects us from the government? America has become a two-party fascist state. President Obama's message of progressive hope has collapsed into a totalitarian nightmare – as the government he leads spies on and murders its own citizens; while torturing, falsely imprisoning, and waging drone based perma-war terrorizing innocents. Critics are harassed by the IRS, as the media are bullied into silence. This failed Presidency has further laid the groundwork for final collapse of U.S. liberty under the guise of security, while ignoring immediate threats posed by abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse. 

President Barack Obama's drone perma-war is terrorism, traumatizing innocent populations, murdering thousands to keep the oil flowing and America overconsuming its unfair share of global resources. The absence of major terrorist attacks since 9/11 is due more to the small number and weakness of terrorist wackos than the incautious American military and antidemocratic response.

Now that President Obama has set the precedent of murdering U.S. citizens without trial, what can we expect from successors? Given the steady erosion of civil liberties by Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, how long until drones circle U.S. cities murdering citizens on suspicion alone? It's not as unlikely as it once seemed.

Social media and the Internet in general fundamentally threaten the system of coercion and misinformation upon which the ruling oligarchy depend to stifle dissent so that they may continue to plunder the planet. That is why President Obama and many other dictators seek to monitor and control it.

Until now the Chinese government has set the standard for repressive, tyrannical, and ecocidal regimes. Now it is clear that when President Obama and Chinese President Xi next meet, they can compare and share citizen spying and repression tools, ways to avoid cutting emissions to urgently limit abrupt climate change, and how best to control and murder opponents of their police states.

Collapsing ecosystems and the inability of the perpetual growth paradigm to meet ever-growing population’s consumption demands are leading to fascism to prop up the system. A surveillance-free Internet is key to humanity's chance to remain free, achieve equity and justice, and avoid global ecosystem collapse. In an age of democratic police states – where speaking freely and calling for regime change are thought crimes – it is hard to imagine a way to full spectrum sustainability sufficient to avoid ecosystem collapse.

There is NEVER any justification in a democratic society to spy on, torture, murder, or wage perma-war upon citizens and sovereign nations to keep us “safe.” Free speech and privacy are human rights that must be made universal and defended at all cost. Without the liberty required for the people to change governments as necessary, there is no path to avoid global ecosystem collapse.

The United States must repeal the Patriot Act and other post-9/11 rollbacks of civil liberties, dismantle the nascent police state including the NSA, stop spying upon and murdering citizens, end the state of perma-war terrorizing the world while killing innocents, and address abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse, the real and immediate security threat to us all. Otherwise there is going to be a revolution.

America and the world must never give up its hard-fought freedom because of terrorists, inside or outside of government. It is time for the U.S. and the world to recommit to justice, liberty, peace, equity, ecological sustainability, and the rule of law.