Free will is not Free

“I’m not one of these people who says force has no place in international affairs.” —retired General Wesley Clark, in conversation with Amy Goodman

Force has no place in international affairs. The question is, how can we create the world in which this proposition is a safe one to hold not only in principle, but act on as policy. There are those who will immediately label this as hopeless idealism, but I answer it is the ultimate in realism. We cannot contemplate our own security to the exclusion of others without creating enemies, against whom we must then arm ourselves. We have armed ourselves with the ability to destroy the Earth several times over, and still do not feel safe from enemies. In fact, we see them everywhere, even where they do not yet exist. Shall we destroy the world, today, because one day it will turn against us? Apparently.

There are those who say we cannot have freedom without the freedom to trade. Trade means markets, and markets require empire—by any other name, whether by occupation, or foreign military bases, 737 of them currently (not counting many more undeclared) around the world, from which to project power and influence.

In answer, whom does it benefit when we make the world safe for global traders but unsafe for human beings? The lack of consideration afforded to human beings by the rules set forth for global trade fits hand and glove with atrocities committed by use of military force throughout the globe. The two are inextricably linked. Global changes arising from unbridled avarice has resulted in the deaths of millions, pushed many life forms off the planet already, and has humanity poised on the brink of extinction.

The alternative, the only rational alternative, is to work together for collective benefit, considering the Earth as a whole, because it is. This is not dictated by the triumph of an ideology, be it communist or capitalist. This is dictated for our mutual survival. It will not mean the end of trade, but it will mean the end of exploitation, both of human beings and of the Earth. We must come to recognize the ultimate limitations to individual liberty, both social and natural.

The Indigenous and the scientist, the priests, rabbis and imams, the mythmakers and the people, we must all join to chart our course. Some traditions may guide us. Others, it must be recognized, have brought us to the edge of the abyss, and must be abandoned.

The point is not negotiable. Our very survival depends upon it. The Earth will let us know if we succeed.