'America is run by gangsters,' he said

Hello Joe,

Greetings from Sydney, Australia. I heard your interview on our ABC radio a while back and finally bought your book, Deer Hunting with Jesus. Nearly finished it and I can't agree more with your sentiments.

I have been over to the USA four times and travelled around the back blocks a bit, including your area. I feel a sadness for the average citizen there. They haven't got a clue as to what's going on. I feel the USA has become a giant military camp to protect world capitalism and the citizens are not aware they have been conscripted. I have also travelled around Asia a bit. I've had deeper conversations about world affairs with Indonesian fishermen, Thai taxi drivers and even Tibetan peasants in far western China than I could get out many of the "middle class, educated" people I have met in the USA.

It is pretty humbling when a fellow in Laos running a small tourism venture can talk about world and local politics, exchange rates, government policies (including European and American) and how this will affect his plans, and, he can do it in at least three languages -- Lao, French and pretty good English. It is tme to shut up and listen. The Thai taxi driver in Chiang Mai just about spat out the window on US policies and politics. "America is run by gangsters," he said.

I have a habit of finding myself in drinking situations when I travel and was particularly taken with your "learning through drinking" program. In Thailand on the banks of the Mekong River I found myself talking with a bunch of motor-tricycle drivers at their local "depot", or garage. My father had a few garages and I am a motor mechanic by trade and have had motorbikes all my life so we had plenty in common, except our language but with the help of a few bottles of whisky and someone's sister who was learning English at school, we solved many of the worlds pressing problems.

At a road house in Oregon (USA) I met a local fellow who was an American native. He was big on hunting and fishing and had canoed all over his area all his life (he thought he was about 70 and that is another story). His pet gripe was the authorities telling him he had to start wearing a life jacket and crash helmet when he went on the water. This opened a can of worms (and another beer) and he said how pissed off he was that the governments had the time to come down on his lifestyle which hurt no one but himself if he had some misfortune and yet the rest of the country and the big issues were all too hard. He too wondered why the best land was being taken over and had many of the same ideas and concerns you put forward.

We have a local learning through drinking college here. The tutorials are held in various sheds and back or front yards. The front yard is the best place because you can often recruit fellow students who may be walking past.

My observation is that most of the grassroots people on earth have the same concerns and aspirations and really do not want much at all. Where it seems to go wrong is when the greed and acquisitivenss is nurtured by our system and we forget what is most important, and that comes back to a social system that encourages interaction and mutual support, at all levels, which is the very thing that is being, and must be, wiped out for the success of our new world capitalism.

A few decades ago a visiting McDonalds executive was complaining that not enough business people in Australia wanted to invest the capital in a franchise so they could become really wealthy. He said the trouble was that Australians who had that sort of money already thought they were millionaires and quite content. I must say I was quite proud of that at the time but since then of course we have had a huge expansion in the fast food industry with all the same associated problems that come with it.

Sorry mate. I only meant to say hi and have got carried away. The one thing that I do appreciate about America is that there are people like you who keep doing things because they are good. Some have sacrificed their lives to stand up and speak up for the underdog. The writings and observations you make are needed. In some ways our system in Australia is more vulnerable to abuse. We do not have many of the laws you have to ensure competition in the market. What we Australians do have is a blacker more cynical view of any authority be they govenments, politicians, bosses or officers in the military.

A generalisation: The objective here is to have your "get fucked money". That is the amount that is required so when you are put upon by any of those who would run our lives for their advantage only, you smile and nod up to a point, and then, if pushed that bit too far, you can say "get fucked, I'm not doing it". It is a good feeling.

For this to happen you need to work hard, save your acorns and limit your purchases of useless stuff and view all purchases as an investment that will retain it's value or best of all increase in value. Certain goods such as beer are exempt from the equation. This is a tough objective and more easily achieved by those of us lucky enough not to be living under far right or far left regimes.

Lastly, I just finished a book called Justinian's Flea by William Rosen, an American, by the way. It is about the Roman Empire in the time of Justinian around 540AD and traces strands of history in that time including the processes of the law and the legal codes that had developed from the Greeks. What I love is the fact that mankind has been involved in argument about right and wrong and the concept of fairness for thousands of years. On page 123 is a citation by a jurist of the time, Ulpian, who said, "The commandments of the law are these: live honourably, harm nobody and give everyone his due.

I believe you have some Buddhist ideals so you might get some comfort in seeing yourself on the wheel of history and knowing you are just as important and just as insignificant as anyone else.

I quite like the feeling myself.

Highest regards,

Tony

P.S. I am not sure who often you check your email or if you reply. I am going walkabout for the next few weeks and so out of contact. One day, I would love to have a beer (or two) with you.

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Tony,

You have said it all. And so neatly and concisely in a single letter, too!

I cannot add to such insight, except to say that such encounters with the average working folks of the world always increases my belief in the possibility of universalism in humanity. It has been my experience that the world's "little people," the folks who live and work "where the rubber meets the road," are far more likely to have a core understanding of the underpinnings of political truth which comes down simply to power and money. Not necessarily knowledge of the machinations of politics or government, but the driving force and sole purpose of governments -- to control people (which is of course necessary for any cohesive property-based, monetized society to exist). To what end a government may do so depends upon the operating principles of the particular government -- which increasingly is global corporatism. But we can be assured that in the end, the control will expand and tighten, and extract material value from the masses. This includes the Asian rickshaw driver and the American school teacher, the Australian computer technician and the miserable oppressed Chinese factory worker who makes the parts for the computer.

We little guys of the world can feel it. The tightening, I mean. And when we honestly talk about it between us, we become an implied threat to power. And if we take action, then of course we become "terrorists." That's because the property of those with the most property is always more valuable than the lives of those with less or none. In the big picture of human civilization, this is true everywhere in the world, even Australia.

I'm no super fan of Derek Jensen, though I agree with nearly everything he writes. To quote Jensen:

"It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control -- in everyday language, to make money -- by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called production. If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice."

That's the brutal on-the-ground truth about human civilization, governments and money. And it's getting worse as the world's population increases and resources diminish. Most people around the world understand this at least at some gut level. We in the so-called "developed countries" don't kick up much sand about it because in the larger picture, we are on the receiving end of most of the goods and materials (however unsustainable that may be.)

Fortunately -- even though resistance to, and destruction of, this system is necessary inevitable and will cause much more misery, in my opinion a good and more meaningful life can still be, and often is, lived. Even among the poorest of the earth.

Thus my lifelong interest in Buddhism. Not as a religion or a system of thought, but as practical daily action, however small.

If there is to be so much more misery in the world, I'd rather be among those alleviating it than causing it. We all make choices. There's no high fallutin' moral stuff involved in such a choice. All things considered, it's just easier in the long run to help our fellow man than to fuck him over.

Which proves, at least in my case, there is some moral advantage to being lazy.

In art and labor,

Joe