Nuclear Experimentation – Collectivism Over Common Sense
Ethan Indigo Smith, Contributor
Waking Times
Fascism: “Any program for setting up a centralized autocratic national regime with severely nationalistic policies, exercising regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance, rigid censorship and forcible suppression of opposition.” ~ New Collegiate Dictionary, 1956.
With so many disastrous failures defining its history, the nuclear industry is little more than an experiment, conducted for the benefit of national regimes at the expense of free information, technological innovation, our health and environment, and all life on Earth. Despite the calls of its proponents, such nuclear experimentation and industrial institutionalization is a formation of fascism to the letter, and worse. It is comparable to no other that has ever been, and perhaps, to none that ever will be. It is biological oligarchical collectivism to the extreme, which threatens to turn out world into a netherworld dystopia.
Power and Defense
Nuclear experimentation is presented by the military industrial complex as a modality of self-defense and low-cost power generation. In actuality, however, nuclear experimentation provides the opposite.
Firstly, it removes the ability for all beings and nations to defend themselves. Although governments claim that the notion of Mutually Assured Destruction protects nuclear nations, in the case of all out war, it is an illusion to think that nuclear facilities (both power and military) are not going to be targets of war. They are military targets just waiting to happen, just as fossil power plants have been clear and effective targets in previous wars. The difference is, if a nuclear plant goes up in smoke, most everything and everyone in a hundred miles goes up with it. No-one wins a nuclear war, regardless who strikes first.
Further, it is impossible to “defend” oneself with weaponry so toxic and destructive that it permanently disrupts the very ground we ourselves walk on, poisoning the water we drink and the air we breathe. The industry is unable to properly manage nuclear waste or the contamination created by its nuclear power and weapons development programs (which are inherently entwined), other than to bury solid waste material in the ground, put up a warning sign and leave it for our children’s children to deal with — and that’s when the industry operates to plan. The National Academy of Sciences concluded over a decade ago that most of the sites on which the US government has built nuclear bombs will never be cleaned up enough to allow public access to the land.
Moreover, an analysis regarding the financial cost of nuclear energy shows that nuclear energy, touted as a “cheap” energy solution, is actually more expensive for consumers than other energy sources. U.S. states that use nuclear power to generate electricity pay an average 25 percent more for electricity than states that do not, because nuclear plants are more costly to build, operate and maintain than other forms of power, and are heavily dependent on taxpayer handouts to survive. Nuclear power experimentation is not only an unsustainable risk, it is also an unsustainable business model. Contrast this with nations like Denmark, which generates 140% of its electricity needs from clean wind power, and we see how unnecessary nuclear energy experimentation truly is.
With so many other genuinely-sustainable energy technologies in existence, and more being developed, the continuation of the nuclear experiment is an oligarchical madman’s dream — and a nightmare to the rest of us who are stuck with degraded and altered elements in our biosphere and our bodies.
Ultimately, nuclear experimentation continues to be about military armament and annihilation, just as it was when these programs were founded. As former-US government nuclear scientist Dr. Andreas Toupadakis explains in the article, “Cancer, Coverups and Contamination: The Real Cost of Nuclear Energy”:
“In the United States, it is the Department of Energy finances and manages the nation’s nuclear weapons programs. In reality the Department of Energy is basically the Department of Weapons. The nuclear weapons programs need nuclear materials to make the bombs. Who provides them? The Department of Energy does. The building of nuclear power plants in the U.S. began in 1943 to produce atomic bombs — it was not until 1957 that plants began to produce electricity, providing a continuous supply of plutonium to the nuclear weapons programs.” ~ Andreas Toupadakis, Ph.D
Now, only 72 years into a million year nuclear waste cycle, we are no closer to solving the problem of mounting nuclear waste and no closer to the promise (propaganda) of “too cheap to meter” power. What we are, however, is arming the military industrial complex with nuclear weaponry at an unprecedented rate, and moving ever-closer to the ultimate in oligarchical madness: nuclear war.
Oligarchy vs. Individualism
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ~ Albert Einstein
As is always the case, when oligarchies rule, imperialism is the goal. Monopolization is instituted, manipulation applied and powers unduly expanded — that is the defining nature of empire. The difference today is the deadly nuclear element. With nuclear experimentation so perilously dangerous to all life on earth, the energy sector so fraught with failures and coverups, the industry so geared toward weaponry, and the US government so determined to deploy them in its “humanitarian” war on the world, a little legitimate research inevitably brings us to one conclusion: it quickly spawns feelings of helplessness and inevitable doom, both literal and existential.
And yet, however common it may be, this conclusion is a premature one. When we understand that oligarchy and the systems that support it depend on our ongoing collective consent, those feelings of helplessness are surpassed by the realization that the only way to solve the problem of nuclear experimentation (and the broader problem of prioritizing imperial and commercial interests over humanitarian and spiritual ones) is for everyday folks to begin activating and formalizing the opposite of oligarchy — by uniting the brotherhood of humanity. In order to move beyond the fear, helplessness and idleness of the impending nuclear threat, we must unite to create Mutual Agreed Peace instead of Mutually Assured Destruction.
It begins with changing our war ways, which is complex, but possible. But more than that, it is now necessary — to our future and our survival. Until humanity unites as individuals instead of being divided as institutions, we will continue to fall victim to the oligarchical systems that are tailored to benefit those who already control them at the expense of all else — including our most basic common sense. And we will continue to be divided by the “us and them” mentality of war — the psychological glue holding this oligarchical war world together, which upholds a perception of threat and inhumanity in those we are consistently told are our enemies.
To create peace, we must acknowledge that there is only “us”, and there is no “them”. And I don’t just mean this in terms of the inherent brotherhood of humanity, I mean it in practical terms too. It is no secret that during The Cold War, the USA and the USSR worked together on various high level military engineering and space technology programs. This fact alone confirms that, at least in part war, The Cold War and the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction it heralded was created by mutual design, by “opposing sides” collaborating on technological programs — all seemingly part of a greater war on human consciousness which, to this day, serves to maintain the oligarchical power structure on two major sides of modern geopolitical conflict.
Despite the rhetoric of the oligarchies, the way to global peace is not paved with war. Such thinking is designed only to protect institutions and to rally and collectivize a society’s thinking. The war mentality encourages separation and dependence on institutions, peace encourages respect for our interconnection and common humanity. To create true peace, human rights, free thinking and the co-operation of individuals must become the order of the day for each of us. We need to open our hearts and minds to individuals — to each other — and close our minds to institutions.
We must question and confront the energy systems and social structures where the deck is clearly stacked against us. We must acknowledge that any political “leader” threatening and espousing war stands on the side of oligarchical institutions, not humanity, and therefore poses a threat to humanity regardless of which “side” they’re on. We must deconstruct the mechanisms of propaganda (such as mainstream news) that work to perpetuate the psychology of war within us on behalf of those institutions. We must give peace all our energy, both politically and personally, and, through the power of our will and the weight of our numbers, remove from government any individual who mandates war.
In closing
Initiating change is actually quite easy for individuals, it is the fear of change we find most difficult. But, in order to truly develop the collective consciousness of humanity, we have to unite and surpass our fears and the manipulations of our adversaries — those institutions of the military industrial complex that keep us thinking and feeling adversarial and disempowered, perpetuate the war mentality, and hinder our path toward genuinely sustainable development.
Below is a brief list of contrasting points of divergence, which illustrates some of the ways our society has been steered toward oligarchical thinking and structures, rather than toward options that would benefit all individuals. They also illustrate the potential ease of change, highlighting areas where one system or option can easily be substituted for another.
About the Author
Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity and humanity, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful, blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique sense of humour.
Ethan’s publications include:
- The Geometry of Energy: How to Meditate, explores meditation and meditative energies through the four dimensions of geometry.
- The Complete Patriot’s Guide to Oligarchical Collectivism, an insightful exploration of history, philosophy and contemporary politics.
- Tibetan Fusion a book of simple meditative practices and movements that can help you access and balance your energy.
- The Little Green Book of Revolution an inspirational book based on ideas of peaceful revolution, historical activism and caring for the Earth like Native Americans.
- The Matrix of Four, The Philosophy of the Duality of Polarity on the subject of the development of individual consciousness.
- 108 Steps to Be in The Zone a set of 108 meditative practices and steps toward self discovery and individual betterment, including techniques to develop balance, transmute sexual energy and better the self.
- Terra-ist Letters, a controversial work that humorously contrasts the very serious issues of global nuclear experimentation promotion and global marijuana prohibition.
For more information, visit Ethan on Facebook.
This article (Nuclear Experimentation – Collectivism Over Common Sense) was originally created and published by Ethan Indigo Smith and is re-posted here with permission.