While the world seems to be spinning out of control toward a nuclear disaster, we wonder how this can be happening to us? If we could find the cause perhaps we could pull back in time. I would like to suggest that we ask ourselves whether an economic system which encourages greed and which relies on competition as a corrective is appropriate in a world of diminishing resources. Are we not getting the kind of leadership such a system requires

The beneficiaries of this system, the winners, are in positions of power. They are determining our economic/military policies. For them, the system has created a freedom and life-style beyond the dreams of any people in human history, so we shouldn’t be surprised at their reluctance to give it up. The victims, the losers in the competitive game, are blamed for whatever is going wrong. And things have been going very wrong lately. From the unemployed steel worker of the Iron Range to the people who are forced to sleep in church basements, to the peasants of Central America, we see victims who are assumed to be the problem. Besides taking the blame, these victims are compelled to compete with each other for the leftover crumbs.

None of this is new. What is new is that in this nuclear age everyone is at risk. Even powerful policy-makers can be nuked. And as the self-destruct economic policy works its way to ultimate bankruptcy, even banks and corporations are pulled under by the nations they are feeding on. Yet experiments in alternative systems like Nicaragua’s are opposed with propaganda, military and economic weapons in an effort to prevent the emergence of anything new. This is indeed madness.

In the midst of all this we face another election and few real alternatives to the present madness. There is little that’s new or provocative or visionary. On November 2nd most politicians’ jobs are on the line. We haven’t seen the perfect candidate yet – nor will we ever. Some are better than others, though, and this is one of our chances to say so. We hope everyone in WAMM will be voting for or against someone.

by Mary Shepard