On my mind in the wee hours:

How can humanity avert the looming ecocide – the collapse of the very systems that allow us to feed ourselves? Without the ability to produce food at a global scale, we are doomed. This is only one leading sign of the crises at hand.

The main possibility that I can see is to unite in a global collective revolution against the ruling class. Creating an international partnership of both secular and religious visionaries for world transformation.

It is in that context that I think about the US political cycle, the defeat of the near left in Britain & Greece, the global rise of Islam, the election of right-wing demagogues to western governments, and the continuing impotence of the Marxist and Anarchist movements.

It is no secret that I number myself a partisan of the anti-capitalist far left.

I awoke this morning around 6:16 am central and my mind quickly focused on this reality.

In this framing, I don’t put my hope in the possible, but still unlikely, election of a social democrat to the US presidency.

I think of the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, when the far left faction of the socialist movement, with help from anarchists, ousted the more moderate and weak Socialist Revolutionary Party regime. The SRP and its allies had forced the Tsarist regime from power in February 1917. But, right-wing factions within the new regime were able to undermine the leftists and continue the almost certainly suicidal Russian involvement in World War 1. This untenable situation enabled the Bolsheviks to seize power in November.

The current U.S. regime is still mired in Afghanistan, supports reactionary forces in Latin America, is provoking Iran, is treating undocumented immigrants barbarically, and frustrates any efforts at reversing fossil fuel consumption.

We may not be fighting World War 3 just yet, but all the elements are in play.

Almost 10 years ago, I decided to resume my education and begin a new career as a political theorist and revolutionary academic. I completed all the major requirements of a long-delayed undergraduate political science degree.

But in the midst of that process, I had my most visceral religious experiences in over 20 years.

In the midst of engaging with Marxists online, I had a rebirth of my long-dormant commitment to Jesus of Nazareth.

From the pages of the gospels I was called into action by this revolutionary prophet, the most powerful one in all human history.

Jesus proclaimed that a new universal social order was manifesting itself within the world.

His vision was nothing less than a Communism of Love.

He saw this vision in the midst of the brutalities of the Roman Empire and its occupation of his Jewish homeland.

After Jesus was executed as a rebel king, his followers created the Jerusalem Commune that included thousands of Jewish people in a public encampment on the doorstep of the Temple.

That encampment was crushed by the Roman authorities, in a manner not unlike how Zuccoti Park was cleared in the Wall Street District.

We live in apocalyptic times. Nobody, most especially me, has a crystal ball. Maybe a Bernie Sanders presidency could be the spark to ignite a global movement to defeat the collapsing ruling order. But, even so, those who dream of a new global order of freedom and justice cannot take anything for granted.

We are facing an unprecedented moment in history. May we find our courage and compassion, our passionate love and boldest outrage.

There is a world to win.

#CommiePreacher