Tending the gardens we were given

“What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?”

–Antonio Machado

The crisis in the United States is not all about Trump.

First, all crises are about something “dying” while something else is trying to be born. Birthing children is a great example of this. So is the birth of new societies. Trump is a tool in making sure the present overarching and overwhelming economic, political, and social crisis keeps what is trying to die alive by “going back” in the guise of going forward.

The crisis is really about the rotting of the capitalist system. The very system that is not in the Constitution but has been touted as “sacred.” Capitalism is in the acute final stages of existence. Society then is divided between those who want to “return” to an earlier period of the capitalist system and those who want to envision and establish a new social system of relationships.

Yes, Trump and MAGA are at war with migrants, people of color, Queer/Trans, “the left and woke.” This is mostly subterfuge. The real war is about a new world trying to be born within the ruinous folds of the old that won’t let go.

That’s why today all institutions are in crisis: political parties, religions, ideologies, governments, and basic relationships. Everything is being thrown up in the air, which feels destabilizing and uncertain.

The architects of the MAGA movement have a plan for a “final solution.” They are waging “Cultural Wars” around major issues in their drive for total control of the government and society. One is to bring back and prop up the patriarchy. You see this in the rise of the “manosphere” on the Internet and other media outlets. It’s women’s subjugation, including control of their bodies, but it’s also tied to anti-Queer/Trans issues. Next is white supremacy where white people (or certain white people) remain in control, including stopping their “replacement” by non-white people forced to migrate and populate former colonial powers in Europe and in the United States. But they also don’t care for white people who don’t buy into this. Then there’s the overemphasis of the nation state–”America First”--keeping different nations and peoples separate enough to continue wars (from trade wars to military wars).

War by any means is most profitable.

Finally, they are about going back to an earlier time when capitalism was the most powerful engine for production (especially wealth production) through the early stages of industrial manufacturing (what some call “laissaz-faire”) without regulation or guardrails.

Laissez-faire in this context means having commercial enterprises unburdened by government, people, or even moral integrity. The main law is maximizing profits, no matter the costs.

The apologists for this, including Steve Bannon in a recent interview with The Economist magazine, are using “divine providence” and a distorted Christianity to back them up. This is so they can claim the ultimate authority is on their side: God. This also charges them with immense energy because “God is behind me; I can’t lose,” despite no evidence for any of this. It’s a fantasy made flesh. A lie made to be the overriding truth of the movement.

They don’t need facts, evidence, or even history. They just need authoritarian and highly determined “leaders” to demolish their way through. And a mythology to frame the whole endeavor. Follow the leaders (in Germany, this word is “fuhrer”). God has “chosen them” to do His bidding.” They don’t need the Bible or a Constitution. These are just paper they use or discard when it serves their purposes. You just have to “believe,” which is how con men manipulate their victims. Belief is pliable and controllable. Belief has the word “lie” in it. This is what’s now causing more mistrust and hate in the world: Beliefs and borders.

Both of which are made-up and fetishized.

To add to this, Trump’s “crises” are largely manufactured. Within the parameters of U.S. indicators, there was no big immigration crisis, or health crisis, or trade crisis, etc. until Trump came along. Yes, there were huge problems with all of these. His “solutions” have made them worse.

Only destruction in his wake.

Trump’s destroyed the East Wing of the White House like he’s bombed unarmed boats in the Caribbean or invaded “Blue” cities with federal agents and military equipment. Nothing good is being added, just taken away (including the so-called administrative state).

It’s time for another vision.

Any new society has its roots in the very crisis. The message is in the pain. Whatever capitalism has destroyed or distorted is what needs to be freed. It’s not commercial/financial enterprises that must be liberated, but the whole planet. If capitalism is contrived scarcity, with losers and winners, and dominance of one sex, class, or “race,” then the new world should be about the opposite: shared abundance, everyone safe and healthy, no dominant classes, races, nations, sexes, etc.

Capitalism primarily benefits a wealthy and powerful social class the rest of us become beholden to. Yet it’s the working class that makes the world go around, produces the surplus value behind all profits, and that holds the key to unchain everything for everybody.

We live in a society that can’t feed, house, or keep everyone autonomous. Most have to suffer so a few can prosper. Capitalism is the greatest wealth producing social system, but it has immense gaps because of who owns the producing and mineral-rich land, means of manufacturing, and major social institutions. Ownership that should never be theirs to begin with.

A person’s value is then judged by superficial aspects, including how much of a consumer you can be molded into. It’s not based on worth just for being born and having a pulse.

Your “value” therefore is determined by what capitalism needs, not on what you need.

A new society is trying to free itself from the current social constraints into one that makes sure you are thriving from birth to death. Where there’s a better world for us now as well as our progeny.

No matter how you slice it, capitalism can never do this. Instead it forces us to have illusions to make up for its empties.

This is when we should free our imaginations. Our minds/hearts (what we see and feel) reflect the social conditions. Our imaginations can therefore see what the new birth is and where it must go.

We need a full imagination and then a full realization, not illusions.

This is why we should also go back, but further back than the beginnings of capitalism. Go back to the original thinkers, teachers, artists, and storytellers of this land. Go back to the original instructions: Take care of this earth and it will take care of you.

Teachings that demonstrate nature and people are one. That spirit and us are one. Everywhere. Accessible. That all is sacred so what we do, say, and create is in accord with this understanding. It’s hard to call this “society” or even a means of “governing.” It’s really about the most important thing human beings must procure and nurture: Relationships.

So to free ourselves as persons, as the species of human beings, as nature, we must have a society aligned to these instructions and teachings. Where medicine is everywhere even in poison times, even in times of crisis. Where mythology is not to frame the wrong narrative but to hold the multiplicity of narratives that address all possibilities (stories as “storehouse” of knowledge and wisdom). Quantum truths. Not lies masked as truths.

Remember the gardens (earth, families, the gifts in every person) we were entrusted with. What did we do with these?