After 30-plus years of social engineering instigated and funded by the federal government and private foundations, the latest headline reads: “Libby adversaries finally reach the right conclusion to sit down and work toward agreement.” (Nov. 2 Beacon guest column by Pat Williams)
Are you getting a nagging sensation of deja vu like I am? What many people fail to realize, however, is that this familiar story line is totally fabricated and false. That’s right, the whole collaborative narrative, from day one, has been misleading and fake.
Several false narratives are at work here, each one plays a role in a “long con”
False narrative #1: After decades of trying to satisfy the logging industry and environmentalists, long-time adversaries finally come together. Collaborators from both sides find agreement designed to increase logging and protect de-facto wilderness. Those declining to accept compromise represent an extremist minority.
Long-con reality #1: For decades the logging industry, agents of the federal government and Montana’s congressional delegation have worked in tandem on behalf of billionaire oligarchs to seize control of – privatize – our public forests and enslave Montana’s hard-working people. They will, of course, never admit that the purpose of social engineering is the same in Montana as it is globally.
False narrative #2: Local collaboration can – and has in the past – produced, simultaneously, more logging and more wilderness protection. If locals would just sit down together and agree on a locally negotiated timber/wilderness deal it’s possible to have more wilderness and a thriving, sustainable, commodity-export economy.
Long-con reality #2: Increased logging can never produce more wilderness. Logging never produces more wildlife habitat, more wild trout habitat or better water quality. Clearcuts and logging roads are a direct threat to the continued existence of grizzly bears, lynx, goshawks, most big game species and rural towns dependent on private finance and federal timber subsidies.
Today, some environmental groups accept assigned roles as professional collaborators, in the same way characters are assigned in theatre productions, movies and puppet shows. The theft and destruction of public forests, water and wildlife populations is scripted, staged, and acted out, year in and year out, by a handful of paid actor/agents selected by the federal government and industry for their loyalty and neuro-linguistic programming skills. When entrenched power wants something that doesn’t belong to them there’s never any real “give and take.”
Wilderness areas, national parks, and wild and scenic rivers produce diverse economies better equipped to survive when “boom” leads abruptly to “bust.”
Sadly, little has changed since the 19th century. Wall Street banks, the railroads and U.S. Army, working in collaboration, stole most of the land we now call “The West” at gunpoint. Indigenous people were rounded up like cattle and enslaved on reservations. Collaborator/actors helped sell worthless treaties to the victims of corporatism’s relentless, violent aggression. We have reached a point where it’s time to recognize the limits of the dangerous combination created by charismatic leadership and corporatism.
The unwillingness of most Montana grassroots environmentalists to accept the corporatist, collaborative agenda is a blessing, not a curse. These activists battle on the front lines to save what’s left of nature, now. These are the people trying to throw off the yoke of tyrannical oligarchs. We all must remain strong for as long as it takes to restore individual sovereignty, protect working families and communities, and our most valued gift of all, our natural surroundings.
Collaboration is the engineering method employed to hoodwink our fellow citizens. The goal of oligarchs never changes.
We will not participate in self-destructive, fake collaborative group-think processes. We stand in opposition to authoritarian systems that threaten to “break-up” everything most Montanans hold dear. Our organized, grassroots resistance against theft of our public lands and slavery for Montana workers is rooted in love of wilderness, freedom and non-violent dissent. There is no better kind of obstruction against the long-con.
Steve Kelly, co-founder
Alliance for the Wild Rockies