Apocalypse
"The Nuremberg Trial of the German war criminals was tacitly based on the recognition of the principle: criminal actions cannot be excused if committed on government orders; conscience supersedes the authority of the law of the state." Einstein on Politics, Rowe and Schulmann.
Arundhati Roy - Come September (video)
Republicans seem determined to make their vision of apocalypse for the planet a reality. So far they have chosen a number of strategies for accomplishing it:
Nuclear War - We withdrew from the ABM treaty, embarked on a breathtakingly stupid Ballistic Missile Defense program, and provoked a new arms race that threatens us from a proliferation of nuclear countries.
Over Population - Republicans don't believe in family planning, birth control, gay marriage, or other population limiting options for anyone. They are quite willing to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us. Even if it means apocalypse. After all, they are expecting it and it validates their deepest beliefs.
Global Warming - Although oil companies and their paid minions still argue that global warming is not an issue, massive forest fires, strong storms, melting ice caps, collapsing fisheries, pollution and other environmental threats are persuasive. There is no doubt in the science community.
Disease - militarization of biological agents has taken precedence over public health. Simple techniques to monitor public health go unfunded.
Massive health problems are likely. Public health agencies have been undermined even as a large part of the population goes without coverage. Republicans worked strenuously to break (privatize) Social Security. Your children will have virtually no social supports except the "faith based" ones so well described in Angela’s Ashes.
Energy - The Republican approach to energy is characterized by maximum pumping. The world has probably reached peak oil production as predicted.
The trickle-up economy has been propelled partly by forcing wages and benefits down, but also by tax cuts, union busting, corruption, corporate friendly legislation, and deregulation. Deregulation, as Republicans fashioned it, caused a sharp decline of democracy, a surge to plutocracy, a carnival of corporate corruption, and there is no end in sight for it.
We need to relearn the lessons of the great depression.
Environmental safeguards are not being heeded. The mendacious Bush administration massively attacked environmental legislation. Increasingly concentrated media assures people that they are destroying the earth for good moral reasons. There is a fire sale on the earth.
Religion can motivate people to destroy themselves for the promise of the afterlife. An apocalypse will validate Republicans religious views, so they are perfectly willing for it to happen. Religion, like media, can deny science and make it appear that business as usual is fine.
Education is an important part of media, and must be controlled to make sure that theocracy can trump science. Don't complain about sub-standard education, Republican ideologues assured that real science will not be taught in U.S. schools.
Elections have been rigged without causing public outcry. The President’s father was head of the CIA. The CIA has experience rigging elections worldwide, we should have expected it sooner or later here. Control of the media is an essential part of election rigging and it is necessary to sell war.
Bibliography
Ignoring the Apocalypse: David Howard Davis