Gino Palmeri runs a small organic orchard, works as a bus driver, and serves on his local conservation commission.
PUTNEY-If you’re confused about how the world has gotten so hostile, if you’re wondering what happened to sustainability, if you’re angry that our country is fighting yet another Middle East war — one which overnight could easily turn nuclear:
Understand that the underlying cause is largely economic. It’s greed.
It’s far easier for the ruling class to get even richer on extracting and selling us oil and gas than, say, selling us solar panels. So just as in Kuwait, Iraq, and Venezuela (fortunately, not at war yet) the unfolding Iran situation is very much a grab for fossil fuels.
Modern warfare, the cause of so much direct human suffering, is also the greatest user of fossil fuels ever invented.
Working people worldwide are struggling to afford enough food, medicine, and shelter to survive. Yet we are failing to end our deadly addiction to oil, gas, and coal. We never will succeed, as long as powerful “petro-states” exist.
The United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela — and their fossil fuel companies — demand a return on their oil and gas holdings. The money interests of the rich guarantee failure in our combating human-caused climate change.
Understand, also, that Donald Trump desperately needs a fresh new war to distract the American people from his Epstein files coverup.
Understand, lastly, that another cause of our newest wars is religious fanaticism. In Israel, Iran, and the U.S., the rulers were elected or installed by the most religious factions of their respective populations. Those in charge are on a mission from God.
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Trump and Netanyahu, larger than life as they are, are merely symptoms; they are not the cause. The religious zealots who use their holy books as a weapon are the real culprits. Throughout history we see countless examples of zealots dehumanizing other groups in order to lead their followers to war.
Powerful religious zealots in Israel are the far-right racist expansionists like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamir Ben-Gavir. In the United States, our zealots are the Christo-fascist charmers like Charlie Kirk, Jerry Falwell Jr., and countless other white evangelical preachers. Some claim a direct line to God.
This so-called Christianity they follow is racist, misogynist, and conveniently apocalyptic. They don’t believe that continued life on Earth is part of “God’s plan,” but fighting for Israel is. Eventually, they will go to heaven in a rapture; you and I will go to hell.
Moreover, we mustn’t forget that techno-fascists like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Curtis Yarvin are religious zealots as well — but of a different sort! They have tens of millions convinced that they will be saved by whatever techno future they are peddling.
Trump, Netanyahu, and Putin wouldn’t be in power if they weren’t financed by, and the voters weren’t egged on by, the lies of powerful billionaire class zealots.
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Imagine, instead, a different world, one that is long overdue: In place of the obsolete and toothless United Nations, could the majority of people on the Earth somehow design something better?
Imagine the U.N. as a union of world governments that is not helplessly dominated by the richest and most powerful nations.
Imagine if dehumanization of others became a crime. That any religion or ethnic group which believes itself to confer superiority over other religions or nations would be unacceptable in a rewritten U.N. charter. In this imaginary future, fanatical sects of Muslims, Christians, Jews, or any group whose god has “chosen” to dominate others, would not be allowed in the family of nations.
Imagine if child abusers, no matter how wealthy, could finally be sent to prison with due process.
Somehow, imagine that nuclear and other inhumane weapons not only were banned by treaty but such agreements would have teeth — i.e., they could be enforced by other nation-states. The same could be true for the practice of torture, landmines, and other such weapons and behaviors.
Maybe those in power could finally stop the mass human suffering dealt by war.
Maybe, with no more apocalyptic theology promoting this highly polluting militarism, fossil-fuel dependency could be ramped down at last.
Maybe then, and only then, the diverse members of the human race could together fight disease, injustice, and extinction — and dream, somehow, of saving our only planet.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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