What an Archeological Dig in Kenya and Bernie Sanders Have in Common

There were two stories in our news last week that bear notice. One was the discovery of a mass grave in Kenya in which the bodies date back 12,000 years. It was clear that these people met their demise in a war; most had their skulls smashed in by clubs or hatchets.

What’s most important here was the date. It is commonly recognized in the world of anthropology that human beings didn’t migrate from their status as nomadic hunter-gatherers into our current social paradigm of staying in a place, and building communities around growing crops in a stable location until about 8,000 years ago. Until this week, it was believed that until this event came along, and people for the first time had something of real value to protect, they were uninterested in warring with one another. This is a disturbing finding, in that it suggests that there may be something innate in the human species that leads us to violence.

Elsewhere this week, senator Bernie Sanders did a live broadcast solely to the members of the roughly 2000 groups that have spontaneously organized to promote his presidential candidacy.  Of course, we here at 2GreenEnergy are particularly aligned to Sanders’ progressive views on energy and the environment, and his ferocious attack against the big money from the Koch brothers and the oil companies that so gruesomely corrupts our law-making processes.  As long as these folks own our Congress, we’ll be hard-put to make the migration to renewable energy and deal with things like climate change, ocean acidification, and loss of biodiversity.

But any other interest that concerns humanitarianism and decency is equally a part of the promise of Bernie Sanders as president.  From this article:

Sanders’ democratic socialism means reducing the political influence of the super rich and big corporations, increasing taxes of the wealthy to help pay for expanded public services like child care, public transit, and higher education, reducing barriers to voting, and strengthening regulations of business to require them to be more socially responsible in terms of their employees, consumers and the environment. That means a higher minimum wage, paid sick days and paid vacations, and safer workplaces.

These ideas are common sense, not Communist. Most Americans embrace them. For example, 74% of Americans think corporations have too much influence; 73% favor tougher regulation of Wall Street; 60% believe that “our economic system unfairly favors the wealthy;” 85% want an overhaul of our campaign finance system to reduce the influence of money in politics; 58% support breaking up big banks; 79% think the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes; 85% favor paid family leave; 80% of Democrats and half the public support single-payer Medicare for all; 75% of Americans (including 53% of Republicans) support an increase in the federal minimum wage to $12.50, while 63% favor a $15 minimum wage; well over 70% support workers’ rights to unionize; and 92% want a society with far less income disparity.

What hasn’t arisen to any great degree is a discussion of international relations, and, in particular, America’s tradition of using its military might to do whatever it believes may further enhance its economic interests around the globe.  Under sane and honest leadership, what will become of our stupid and immoral habits re: supporting brutal fascist dictators?  Of destabilizing the Middle East, resulting in a power vacuum that gives rise to the Islamic State and the world’s other most infamous terrorists?

What exactly would a president Bernie Sanders do vis-à-vis foreign policy and the use of the U.S. military in particular?  While there is no solid answer to that question, it is clear that he would take a far more contemplative and far-sighted view of world matters before sending in the American war machine.

Sanders is a man of peace, of honor, of intelligence—things that have been in short supply these last 12,000 years.