"The Department of State is reviewing the details of a Presidential permit which will be required to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, through the U.S., to the Gulf of Mexico. The President is currently burdened with the task of of approving or disapproving the Keystone XL project by deciding if the pipeline is “in the national interest.” Environmentalists are calling for its disapproval, of course. The President, in my humble opinion, will ultimately decide in favor of going forward with the 13 billion-dollar pipeline. Let us be clear that under the law this decision is not in the hands of Congress but rests solely on the shoulders of the President.

Why do I think President Obama, who is awesome, will approve of a project that goes against any pledges toward a greener economy? For this article, I’ll cite two reasons: 1. It’s the system; 2. It’s in the national interest.

The “system” I speak of is the carbon economy. The carbon economy is a product and a continuing necessity of the modern Western/American Empire. Capitalism, the corporate-western carbon-dominated model based on the fiat money system, is an extremely brilliant trick that compels us to participate “in the system.” To gain any measure of material existence we are prodded to keep going to work to provide food, clothing, shelter, water, and energy for our families. Capitalism, the kind which is succeeding because of the fallible and greedy nature of the two-legged, abstracts its subjects from daily meaningful interaction with the universe; this is accomplished without most even knowing it. We are separated from our labor, which was meaningful and even spiritual in the buffalo economy, for instance."

Get the Story:
Chase Iron Eyes: Keystone XL is Part of Our National Interest (Indian Country Today 9/28)

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