I’m not outraged at the government shutdown. Actually, I think it might be one more important step in the meltdown of the entire system which does not represent the people. In my opinion, it can’t come soon enough!

For as long as anyone can remember, Congress and the White House have been co-opted by Wall St, corporations, and the military industrial complex. Since the Wall St. bailout, income disparity between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of us is the largest since the 1920’s. The middle class is disappearing, and the ranks of the poor are expanding. The unemployed and under-employed are struggling and will never catch up in this environment.

The people in Washington, and that includes all the lobbyists and special interests groups, have kept the focus on greed and deception. They’ve succeeded in dividing Americans on everything from guns and immigration, and from healthcare to voting rights, all the while ignoring the most serious problems facing the U.S. and the planet.

So, while the planet continues to warm at a pace that will make life as we know it unsustainable in the next fifty years; while we do nothing to rid the planet of fossil fuels much less invest in renewable energy; while our educational system lags far behind the rest of the world; while college education is unaffordable; while our infrastructure is in disrepair; while states and municipalities are strapped and unable to provide basic services; and while those people in Washington continue to spend $1 Trillion a year on the business and export of war, they shut down the entire system that should be focusing on everything but Obamacare.

In two weeks, Washington will again play this ugly game of brinkmanship over raising the debt ceiling which will throw the entire U.S. and world economies into chaos, and will really put the hurt on everyone, including the 1% who risk losing their fortunes. Not even the greedy plutocrats want to see that happen. Maybe that would be a good thing. Maybe the order of the world would be transformed.

The answer to all of this is quite simple in my mind. A fundamental change is taking place, a natural, evolutionary demise of “the great American Way of Life” is underway. Claims of “exceptionalism” ring hollow. The belief that unlimited power and full-spectrum dominance can create a Pax Americana is falling apart. Perpetual war and an ever-increasing War Department budget not only has bankrupt the country economically, but morally.

The country that invented the atomic bomb, used it twice and continues to use it as a weapon of domination is on a march to destroy the planet either by its use, or by its inability to convert those war dollars into saving the planet.

With just $1 Trillion spent on the war machine every year, just about every problem in the world could be solved: poverty, hunger, clean water, clean renewable energy for everyone, education for everyone….Naive? I think it is naive to believe that Washington can solve any of these or do anything that is good for America and mankind. So, maybe, just maybe this meltdown is a good thing. From my point of view, that’s optimistic. Thinking that the present cast of thieves in Washington can do any good provides little hope for anything but more of the same.