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Reflections on Technology & Culture at my Half-Century Mark

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

1969 penny

1969 penny [photo by author]

Today—if a document from a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, is to believed—is my 50th birthday.

Some people say age is just a number. Of course in many ways that’s totally true. As far as I’ve seen, anyway, length of time on this planet has no bearing on intelligence, maturity, creativity, sensitivity or perspicacity. My whole life I have kept company with people across a broad age range and I’ve known a good many older people who were clueless, puerile and undiscerning and a good many younger ones who were sharp, capable and clear. (I’ve met nearly no one who could be described as “wise,” but then I haven’t gotten out of the US much.)

Nonetheless, I have remained intrigued about age as it relates to history. So, I value the experiences of people ten to twenty years older than me who have clear memories of the Sixties and early Seventies, and I am interested in the views of those twenty to thirty years younger who never knew the world without the internet.

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Forgiving Debt to Invest in Environmental Healing

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Fir seedling, in author's hand [photo by author]

Fir seedling, in author’s hand [photo by author]

“I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is.” —Greta Thunberg

The US economy is awash in debt.

  • As of the fourth quarter of 2018, household debt in the US totaled $13.54 trillion. The largest portion of this is mortgage debt, which totalled $9.12 trillion. [source]
  • As of March 2019, total credit card debt is $1.057 trillion, which is an average of $8,286 per household. The average debt per card-holding adult is $5,839. Much of it is incurred to pay healthcare costs. [source]
  • As of February 2019, student loan debt is $1.56 trillion. This is held by 44.7 million people, with an average debt of $29,800 and average monthly payment of $393. $101 billion of it is in default. [source]
  • In the first quarter of 2019, auto loans totaled $1.28 trillion. About 6.5% of these loans were 90 days or more delinquent in February of this year. That’s around 7 million people. [source]

This explosion in personal debt is not normal or healthy and is hobbling an increasing number of people. A state of de facto peonage is emerging. The levels of inequality in the US today are literally medieval (though peasants had it better when it came to days off: “Altogether there were about 80 days of complete rest with over 70 partial holidays, that is, about three months of rest spread over the year” [source]).

More and more people are struggling financially. According to National Payroll Week’s 2018 “Getting Paid in America” survey, 38% of respondents would find it “very difficult” to “meet [their] current financial obligations if [their] next paycheck were delayed for a week” and 31% would find it “somewhat difficult.” Those who answered “not very” or “not at all” difficult totaled 28 1/2% together. If this situation is not yet “dire,” it sure is headed in that direction.

When securing necessities becomes so arduous, then stress, anger and depression result, and from these, conflict, violence and self-harm.

Just at a time when we need to come together and work collectively for change, more and more of us are distracted by mere survival and, failing at even that, are sliding into addiction, disease and dysfunction. At some point, society reaches a breaking point, and under such circumstances is unlikely to instantly evolve into, say, an enlightened socialist utopia. Not without first passing through a brutal period of ramped-up state authoritarianism, anyway, and I, for one, ain’t gonna wish for that.

The pressure needs to be released. Space must be made for something new. One thing we have to do is to forgive all the debts.
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The Myth of the USA’s “greatness” – A conversation with Margaret Kimberley

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Margaret Kimberley

Margaret Kimberley [photo courtesy of Ms. Kimberley]

In mid-August, I enjoyed the great pleasure of meeting Margaret Kimberley for lunch in midtown Manhattan. Ms. Kimberley is an Editor and Senior Columnist for Black Agenda Report, a member of Administration Committee for United National Antiwar Coalition, and a member of the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace. Her work is also published in other venues, including Counterpunch. I have been an admirer of Ms. Kimberley and her writing for a number of years so it was a thrill to sit across a table from her. Our discussion ranged among many topics, including politics and media, technology and social change, and history and the future. What follows is a transcription, edited for length and clarity.

Trump, racism and immigration

Kollibri terre Sonnenblume: How do you react when people are like – as some political scientists recently said – that Trump is the, quote, “worst president ever.”

Margaret Kimberley: It means they don’t like him. That’s all it means. “Worst” based on what? Did he invade another country? I mean, look at what they’ve done. How they’ve rehabilitated George Bush. Depending on which number you believe, he killed a minimum of half a million people in Iraq. Maybe one million. But Trump is worse? Now maybe before he leaves office he’ll do something equally as horrible, but he’s certainly not worst right now.

KtS: Not yet. It seems to me that it shows very little –

MK: It shows you they’re biased. They don’t even dislike him for the reasons they should dislike him. Trump was dangerous to them and they were spying on him during the campaign because he talked about ending the neoliberal consensus. Now, he’s not a peace candidate, but for him to even say we should have a better relationship with Russia, or, “I wouldn’t have gone into Syria,” or “These trade deals are bad” – he’s upending everything that they depend on. It doesn’t make him good, but it makes him dangerous to them, and that’s why they don’t like him. They don’t even dislike him because he’s a racist.  
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