One Life to Live

Phil Polizatto,WWH – No, I am not a soap opera! But my knees scream every time I have to climb a few stairs. My back is twisted and I can only walk a few blocks before it starts to berate me. I could continue with my litany of ailments, but don’t want your sympathy and don’t want you to “change channels.” What I want is the solar powered gyrocopter promised to me by Popular Science. I will settle for a hybrid hovercraft. Hell, I will settle for an easily accessible rapid transit system that will whisk me away to the nearest spontaneous protest that didn’t bother to get a permit so law enforcement had the time to prepare for its “containment.” I want the country that would have seriously taken to heart the dangers of the military-industrial establishment of which Eisenhower warned us and a country which would have prevented the overthrow of representative democracy by plutocrats.

Eisenhower’s warnings went unheeded. Now, we have a country in which the cancerous tentacles of global corporations have choked our political system into compliance with everything they need to become more profitable. These corporations are institutions as is the military. Institutions are very difficult to dismantle, especially now, when everything is interdependent and intertwined.

A study of the development of a civilization proves time and time again, that what started out as an “instrument” to solve a problem, but continues to exist long after the problem is solved, becomes an “institution.” I can’t think of one example where those in power recognized their institutions no longer worked and voluntarily reinvented them through new instruments. They only serve their vested interests and will attack anyone who tries to tear them down. But tear them down, we must!

An “instrument” must meet three criteria. It must create an incentive to invent, it must create a surplus, and that surplus must be used to create more instruments. To avoid being too esoteric, let me give you an example from Dr. Carroll Quigley’s “The Evolution of Civilizations.” I paraphrase:

Imagine a solitary savage in a corner of some jungle who lives by hunting. He hurls rocks at game from dawn to dusk and averages one rabbit a day. The diet of one rabbit a day is just enough to keep him alive until the next day. This gives him the incentive to invent. In his mind he invents a bow and arrow but it would take ten days’ work. One day he throws a rock and kills a deer large enough to keep him alive for 12 days. He uses that time, not to lie in a hammock, but to make the bow and arrow he has conceived. His “surplus” (the deer) has been transformed into a weapon that can now provide him with the ability to kill three rabbits a day. Of those three rabbits he keeps one for himself and can support two other savages with the remaining rabbits. In return for such support these other two can be required to build a hut, make additional arrows, etc. The bow and arrow has now made it possible to raise the standards of living for all three.

This is, of course, an oversimplification of how a civilization grows, thrives, and expands. Create an incentive to invent something which provides a surplus of goods or “capital.” Invest that surplus to create innovative instruments in an ever expanding cycle that benefits everyone.

Or… he can keep his “wealth” and dole out rabbits only to those who will guard the willow trees and his stockpile of flint and fibers from which the weapon is made. He is now in a position to force others to do his bidding for a measly rabbit. He has become an “institution” because his influence continues to exist long after the instrument he created solved the original problem. He passes his “wealth” on to his children. They also do not use the surplus wealth to reinvest in new “instruments” thereby becoming more institutionalized. One of three things will eventually happen.

1.The tribe will find another source of food as their staple or move to another part of the jungle (circumvention.)
2.The “inheritors” of wealth will realize they have become an institution and invest in innovation… incentives to invent new technologies, new processes, and new ways to organize the tribe (reform.)
3.The tribe will revolt and take the savage’s bows and arrows, the surplus food, flint, the forest, and more than likely, his life (reaction.)

It is ironic considering our pre-Constitution dissidents attempted to create an “instrument” that could foil this tendency to become an institution. It is evident today we are slaves to institutions which seem unwilling to reinvest its surpluses to create incentives to invent. It is evident that our political system is an institution, unwilling or unable to adopt new processes or new ways of social organization. It is evident that the military is an institution which has long outlived its usefulness as a defender of the homeland, but embarks on imperialistic wars to keep our economy alive, especially that of weapons manufacturers and oil companies. It is evident that global corporations have become institutions, unwilling to take their huge surpluses of wealth and reinvest it to provide incentives for new instruments of expansion that would benefit all people.

We can circumvent these institutions to some degree by living off the grid, growing our own food, weaving our own cloth, and living a life similar to that in the outback of early America or the “back to the land” movement of hippiedom.

We may eventually get “mad as hell” and rise up and overthrow the government or let it collapse under its own weight. This option would be bloody and leave people of differing ideologies warring against each other, probably only to be left with more institutions. I do not like this option. I believe we are not there yet, but neither is it an inconceivable outcome.

The most reasonable tactic is reform. But it is unlikely these institutions will reform themselves. Recently Tavis Smiley said, “Great presidents are not born, they are made… by the pressure of their constituents.” (Would LBJ have been a great President without Martin Luther King and the anti-war movement? Lincoln without Frederick Douglass?) We have a charismatic President but he does not know how to lead. He compromises by starting out with a compromise! He should take a quick tutorial in how to bargain. (You start with a demand more outrageous than your opponent’s and when they counter, you ask for something even more outrageous before you begin to “compromise”!) With the exception of a handful of truly progressive legislators, the rest are all beholden to corporate interests. So we may as well just forget both parties. They will say what we want to hear (depending on their audience) and then will just do what they are told to by the plutocracy. They are useless.

Have I fallen into hopelessness? No. But reform has to occur at every level, from city and county to state and national. Day by day, I become more aware of activist groups working at one or more of these levels. Locally in the Northwest, we have Physicians for National Health Care, the Backbone Campaign (“happily serious activists”) who offer week-long workshops in creative activism on land and sea, United Workers, Portland’s Rising Tide, Ruckus, and the most local activist group I know, the 65th Street Gang, a neighborhood organization. I am also very pleased to see a quickly growing youth movement who are speaking with one voice… and loudly!

There are viable third parties like the Green Party and a strong effort underway to find someone who will challenge Obama in the Democratic primary. If that challenger steps forth and doesn’t win, at least he or she will have been able to contest the long list of Obama’s misguided policies and move the debate forward.

Take the time to investigate what is happening locally in your neck of the woods. Get involved. Work to elect progressive state legislatures. Start initiatives to make ballot access laws less restrictive and lobby your Senators and Representatives in Congress to propose a Constitutional Amendment that would reverse Citizens United. There are so many things to be done!

I don’t believe in reincarnation, unless it happens over long periods of time… geologic time! For those of you say,” Just meditate and vibrate love,” well please vibrate a lot! You can vibrate while you activate! I only have one life to live and I would like the remainder of it to be one of love, peace, equality and respect for the earth. You and your children only have one life to live. I hope you make the most of it for the most people possible. Namaste!

To contact Phil or find out more: check out his website and blog For a copy of HUNGA DUNGA
Phil Polizatto – Worldwide Hippies Bureau Chief – West Coast USA, is a graduate of The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He was a feature writer for the overseas division of UPI, a copywriter for CBS, and an award-winning corporate film producer. Mr. Polizatto is a published poet and a regular contributor to Worldwide Hippies as well as a variety of other arts and literary journals. Hunga Dunga is his first published novel. He resides in the Pacific Northwest.