Post Apocalyptic Present – by Dan Baker

Hello Comrades! Revolutionary greetings and regards.

I’m writing because I feel moved by readings, thoughts and memories. Often all of us can realize something extremely valuable, but we don’t write and share it because we underestimate ourselves and it is our own thought. I want to improve as a person, a writer and a member of the world community, so I push  myself to communicate the highest truths I know. I encourage all of you to do the same/ Please offer me criticisms and I will offer self criticisms. For example, my writings are often disorganized, disjointed and confusing, so I offer this as a self criticism and I will strive to improve my communication skills.

I have traveled around the United $tates and around the world. I have seen so much suffering that I feel deeply moved to action. In the United $tates a popular form of fiction is “post apocalyptic society”. The irony is that this has already arrived. Amerikkkans make a big show of standing on patriotic pride and referring to “third world” countries as less than themselves. But all over Amerikkka people are starving, homeless, unemployed, living in poverty, while sincerely believing that they are temporarily embarrassed millionaires. They have fully bought in to the idea that one day they will make it big and hoard enough resources, by hook or by crook, to live a stable life. The Amerikkkan dream involves a large house with a large yard, heteronormative family with several crotch gremlins, several vehicles, brand name clothes, soap, food and medical insurance for all emergencies. Only a tiny minority of people actually manage to live this way, and they get there by inheritance or by a life of crime.

I have travelled to The Dominican Republic/Haiti, The UK, Ireland, France, Germany, The United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria, Rojava and Germany. In all of these places I saw the same human conditions, and despite the superiority complex expressed by capitalist states there exists poverty, hunger, crime, war, violence and despotism in Europe, The Middle East and the Americas. So called developing countries are kept in a state of constant conflict, being used as the worlds military playground and testing site for new weapons and war technology. These places are still members of our community, no matter how much rich people bleach their hair and skin, whiten their teeth, consume vitamin rich, organic foods, we all bleed red.

We share a moral obligation to humanity to take responsibility for the suffering of the poor in all territories as a world community. It is delusional to think that the world is not already in a state of apocalyptic disarray. We have been surviving on the streets all around the globe, living on emergency foods, living nomadic lifestyles, not by choice but by necessity. Many who live that way like to portray themselves as lifestyle travelers, but the fact is that we do not have the resources to settle down in any place because of the concept of private property. This exclusive land principle keeps homeless people homeless. We have been adapting to emergency rations for so long that we no longer consider canned and powdered foods to be emergency food – it is what we buy from the grocery store for our daily meals, because we cannot grow our own food anymore – that would be illegal in Amerikkka. We have become accustomed to trauma and unhealthy relationships with our community which encourages isolation and selfish sense gratification at the expense of our neighbors.

SO I hope that we can all slow down and look around us. Here in prison they have us putting up Christmas decorations, as if this were a normal way to live. In keeping with the hollow spirit of capitalist modernity our decorations include a fake tree, synthetic wreaths and empty presents wrapped in shiny paper with bows and ribbons. Of course there are Disney decorations. I was deeply amused when I saw that someone set the Christmas tree on fire in New York City. In prison many of the people here call their cells their “house”. This is not a home, and there is nothing that I can learn in prison which I could not have learned in a healthy, functional society, a wholesome community, which capitalist Amerikkka is not.

Every day we can identify these mental gymnastic which our fast paced lives take for granted, and we can push ourselves to overcome unhealthy conditioning. That is our personal responsibility, no one else can do it for us. Once we each discover the ways that we have been fooled and ripped off we can then take direct actions to improve our community by helping our neighbors. This requires more than simply wishing them well – people need companionship, food, shelter, medicine, mental stimulation, education and transportation. They may also need protection and to be defended or trained to defend themselves. This involves putting ourselves at risk. So please consider looking closely at the world around and deciding whether you really want to do something about it, or if you have been appearing to want to do something about it. No amount of prayer, meditation or discussion can compare to one daily direct act of mutual aid.

With love and rage,
Aliser
(Alishare)

Dan Baker 25765-509

FCI Memphis

PO Box 34550

Memphis, TN 38184