As surely as cancer rots away the individual body, there are malignant forms of social cancer that sicken and eat away at the social world of human beings. Some forms are fast, violent, and deadly. Other forms of cancer rot away at the collective body, year in, year out. The host becomes progressively ill and eventually, it dies.
There is no way to spend one billion dollars in one lifetime. Yet, the now infamous one percenters have become so addicted to accumulating wealth, they can't seem to stop. A billion isn't enough. Like a virulent virus, like a pernicious addiction, their habit becomes pathological. They will do anything in their grasp to fill the gaping needs of the affliction. Nothing is beyond them. Ethics and morality are not factors. They will wage war, they will destroy communities, they will stop at nothing. Only one thing counts and that thing is profit. They cannot stop. They are utter evil and they are our enemy.
Caterpillar
450 workers in London, Ontario, have just been evicted from their means of living by their employer, Caterpillar Inc. This follows months of negotiations, if that’s what you call it when one side is told; Take a 50% wage cut or you're finished.
Canadian Autoworkers President, Ken Lewenza, said, "We were never in the ring here in a meaningful way." That's understating the obvious to say the least.
Pat Byrne, the managing director heading management consulting at AlixPartners LLP in New York, said labour unions in Canada need to show more willingness to adjust. That is code for: You are serfs. Take it or take nothing. And shut up.
He said, "The labour unions - I'm not sure they really get it in terms of globalization."
He speaks for the ugly capitalist class. He speaks for the Donald Trumps and the Mitt Romneys. The terms of exploitation must be reduced to the lowest possible denominator.
We are well on our way to the world Charles Dickens wrote about in 19th century London. A social cancer has set in and we are in deep trouble. We are in financial and social crisis. And it will get much worse.
As Thomas Walkom points out in the Toronto Star, regarding the abuse of the Caterpillar workers in London:
On Wednesday, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a so-called right-to-work bill making his state the first in the U.S. industrial north to directly take on private-sector unions.
Two days later, Caterpillar — which is based in next-door Illinois — closed its unionized London plant.
Since it locked out 460 Canadian workers in January, the giant U.S. firm had made little secret of its intent to move their jobs to Muncie, Indiana.
All it was waiting for, apparently, was a signal that the state government there was serious about crippling trade unions.
The London plant closing is not an isolated event. It is part of a coordinated attack across North America on unions and wages.
As Walkom points out in the article, there is a coordinated attack on labour across North America. And it is not only North America. It's global. The current Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, is positioned to help coordinate these attacks on the middle class/working class. Harper doesn't just side with employers in labour disputes. He rubs salt in the wounds as he does it. He, like many right wing ideologues like him is not only callous. He is cruel. His treatment of workers in past disputes with employers display his cruelty in spades.
Class War
This isn't new. It has started in earnest in the 1980s under the reign of Brian Mulroney, Maggie Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan. Their neo liberal voo doo economics has since resulted in the devastation of the middle classes in Europe and North America. They were merely in the employ of the same finance capitalists that Bush, Obama, and the Europeans are currently bowing and scraping toward. It is all about ushering in a new era of financial feudalism. The wages, the pensions, the benefits that have provided a decent standard of living for workers and small business is all but dead.
On deck are civil servants and public sector unions. They too will be and are under accelerating attack from the capitalist class. And the capitalist class can justify the attack. They cite record high deficits and bankrupt governments that cannot pay the bills. And the reason they cannot pay the bills is because the wages of auto workers, miners, construction workers and public sector workers had been paying, and now they can't.
And when they are finished with evaporating public sector wages to a pittance, wages that had been demanding goods and services, wages that had been paying taxes to build roads and schools, another shock to our collective system will impact each and every one of us; one way or another.
We are in a protracted class war, a war that is well under way, and we are only now waking up to the fact that the war is on.
The time to fight is here. We cannot continue to tolerate this ongoing abuse of workers and their families. In the past our fight was a fight for wages, for benefits, for decent working conditions. Now the stakes are much higher.
As the workers in London Ontario go home, devastated, with no future. With little hope of retuning to a job with decent pay, business owners in London and their employees will also suffer. Local suppliers of goods and services to Caterpillar will suffer. And so will their families. And when they suffer, the local Tim Hortons, the local pubs - everybody hurts.
London will endure increased violence in homes, alcohol and drug consumption, crime, and those factors will in turn increase crime, drug addiction and so on. It's a downward spiral to purgatory for some, hell for others.
Capitalism, like sugar, cigarettes, gambling and alcohol is an addiction. It is an addiction that sickens and kills the collective body. It is an addiction that has turned to social cancer. A cancer that is promoted and facilitated by the likes of Stephen Harper and his subservient peers. And we have all become dependent on it.
And under capitalism, it is only when the host dies that the cancer dies.
It's about time we work on a better cure than that.
This blog is an archive of articles I've published in MWC News, Indymedia, and on Newsgroups.
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
The People vs. The United Nations
The United Nations is empowered, under Article 1 of its Charter, to: "maintain international peace and security", to "develop friendly relations among nations", "to achieve international co-operation", and "to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends."
Article 2 states that its members, "shall act in accordance with the following principles":
-The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members.
-All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
-All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
-All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The United States of America assumes the role of international arbiter and the role of policing the planet. A role rightfully granted to the United Nations. It is widely and implicitly assumed the USA carries this burden and this assumption is rarely challenged.
The World Court was established by the UN as the body to enforce international law, to ensure that no nation or leader(s) can infringe upon the sovereignty of others. It was established after World War 2 to ensure no nation or body of nations can violate elemental principles of statehood and human rights. Germany did aim to take over control of the world through terror and their own brand of exceptionalism.
The UN and the World Court operate to ensure that basic rational principles governing relations between nations are not violated. The UN is careful to ensure the it does not infringe upon the sovereignty of nations and at the same time, ensure that human beings are protected, however minimally, against war crimes and belligerent states aimed at controlling others.
The United Nations did rule against the United States in 1986 during its war against the government and people of Nicaragua. The American war was in response to the FSLN ouster of dictator Anistosia Samoza in 1979. The World Court ruled that the United States violated International Law. The United States refused to recognize the World Court ruling and broke with UN regulations. From that point on, the United States adopted a policy where it will only accept the Court's jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis or, in less diplomatic language, according to their own interests and whims.
Before and increasingly since that ruling, the United States has violated and continues to violate International Law and generally accepted norms in favour of what it terms its national security or, national interests. It operates arbitrarily and is often outrageously belligerent and aggressive to the enemy du jour.
The time has come for the United Nations to stand up to the United States of America. It is a nation that, similarly to Germany in the last century, aims to take the role of overseer of all nations.
Rogue State Extraordinaire
The USA appears to be under the control of madmen. Barack Obama speaks and appears to be reasonable and even progressive. But his actions indicate that he may be quite mad and or/dull. It appears that he is neither. It appears he is under the control of very wealthy and powerful banks and corporations. His role as President has turned this apparently sensitive and intelligent man into a war criminal. Although he is well educated in Constitutional Law and was a Senior Lecturer on the subject at the University of Chicago Law School, as President, he signed away fundamental Constitutional and habeas corpus rights in favour of political expediency.
Something's amiss.
The problem is not madmen or criminals per se. It is much worse than that. It is systemic. It is a virus. A virus spreading throughout systems the world over. A virus programmed to turn hosts toward funnelling money to finance capitalists. A virus programmed to rule nations, and the world, through violence and fear.
It manifests most noticeably vigorously through the American state. It demands the state assume control of every corner of the world, as if it’s the American state's inalieable right. It renders the UN a servile body existing only to serve its national interests.
If we were to concede that view, that the United States has the moral high ground to police the world, we could take the notion seriously. For instance, if the USA did promote human rights (as it claims), if their interventions were not based in psychopathic designs, and if there was consensus the USA assume the role of the UN as arbiter of international conflicts, doing so would give one nation control of people that have had no choice in its leaders or decisions. Doing so would be patently undemocratic.
Mission Accomplished
No reasonable person could make such arguments. American 'missions' are being carried out all over the world. One such mission has left Iraq critically unstable. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was a paradise compared to the current mess left behind by the Americans. Carnage and volatility continue in Afghanistan. Drone slaughters in Pakistan are starting up again after a brief hiatus. In short, everything the Empire touches turns to hell on earth. As bystanders, we get the impression this nation, the most heavily armed nation on the planet, should not be trusted to run with scissors.
Their pathetic accomplices like Canada, France, the United Kingdom etc. are no better. After NATO’s intervention, Libya is strained, unstable, and civil war is likely. Gaddafi loyalists and the Libyan people will not turn a blind eye to the loss of the most generous social programs and standard of living in Africa. A standard of living that easily surpassed anything millions of disenfranchised Americans or Canadians could dream of.
NATO, this 'axis of evil', is splattering blood all over the Muslim world and there isn’t much to suggest it’s going to stop.
Criminal Stupidity
Presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are trying to out-do each other in their hawkish posturing. To the shock of anybody listening, they have uttered threats on Cuba and specifically, Castro, who has retired from politics. This doesn’t matter. The American narrative in no more sophisticated than a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Castro is ‘a bad guy’ and as such, is in real mortal danger. If Obama manages to ‘take him out’, it will play large to the mentally dull and extremely violent American audiences they aim to please.
Western nations (includes Israel/ not Venezuela or Cuba in this cartoon) are apparently okay with anything and everything that oozes out of the American insane asylum. Money and power rule, reason and diplomacy are not taken seriously. And now, at Israel's pleasure, Iran appears to be on deck. There promises to be plenty of war and excitement. And once again, politicians mouth dim rationalizations; Iran may produce weapons of mass destruction, they violate human rights, they support terrorism and so on. And in the meantime, the USA and its quisling lapdogs are more guilty of what they accuse ‘the bad guys’ (Iran) of possibly doing sometime in the future - maybe. The 'good guys' in this cartoon terrorize like nobody else. They actually drop bombs on populations, they spit on habeas corpus, they have the most and the largest weapons of mass destruction. And they use them!
The absurdity of all this is whispered behind closed doors. Politicians in Latin America, in Asia, in Russia, in the Middle East and in Africa cautiously discuss the alarming nature of this madness. They are at a loss of possible ways to respond. Obviously, they don't want to be labelled 'a bad guy'. The consequences are dire. Over the past few years, America’s enemies; Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Mohammar Gaddafi, Anwar al-Awlaki and his son and many others that are not so famous have been murdered by the President of the United States or proxies.
The man America and the world believed would be sane and reasonable, Barack Obama, has just delivered a State of the Union speech where he bragged about the bravery of the American military as they successfully carried out the murder of a sick old man in Pakistan. This was quickly followed up with GOP politicians trying to out-do each other, playing to Florida voters, promising to kill another old man. America has gone completely insane. It is a nation out of control.
The genesis of the United Nations was in response to a world hurting after Germany had gone completely mad. The UN was created to respond to this kind of developing climate. The uncomfortable and possibly dangerous task of standing up to these bullies must be done. The same weather patterns are become clear with each passing month. It is time to stop being polite and diplomatic to a nation that is anything but diplomatic and polite. It is time to make the madmen uncomfortable. The people of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela are under imminent threat. In reality, the people of all nations, including the United States and Israel, are under the very same threat.
Supporting the UN
To restore sanity and to end the arbitrary and dangerous power held by rogue states (such as the current configuration in the United States) we must make our voices heard through protests and through activism. We must work in concert with the voices of reason at the UN. And they must work with us. The United Nations is far from homogeneous. There are voices for peace, reason, and rule of law that are being drowned out by the psychopath element. Their efforts are stonewalled. We must help them through increasing the level of discomfort for those that aim to wage war.
At this point the people of Iran are in grave danger. We, the people of the United States, Israel, Canada, the UK - and all nations, must stand up and demand that we will not accept war on Iran. We must empowered the voices of reason at the UN to enforce its Charter and demand that this drive to endless war be stopped. We need to develop connections in solidarity with each other and with politicians we may disagree with on many issues but remain committed to rule of law and reason. We may disagree with Ron Paul on the right and President Chavez on the left, but as long as they are committed to rule of law and reason, they are allies. Like them or hate them, they stand on principles and against the madness and irrationality of war and Empire.
Should the UN cower to the designs of the madmen of corporate America and nationalist Israel and sanction war against the people of Iran; if it allows the United States to continue to police the world in 'its' own interests, and if it continues to turn a blind eye to the excessive human rights abuses carried out against men, woman, and children; most notably, the dropping of bombs on them, we must then ask ourselves - and the UN must ask itself, what is the point of existing at all?
Article 2 states that its members, "shall act in accordance with the following principles":
-The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members.
-All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
-All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
-All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The United States of America assumes the role of international arbiter and the role of policing the planet. A role rightfully granted to the United Nations. It is widely and implicitly assumed the USA carries this burden and this assumption is rarely challenged.
The World Court was established by the UN as the body to enforce international law, to ensure that no nation or leader(s) can infringe upon the sovereignty of others. It was established after World War 2 to ensure no nation or body of nations can violate elemental principles of statehood and human rights. Germany did aim to take over control of the world through terror and their own brand of exceptionalism.
The UN and the World Court operate to ensure that basic rational principles governing relations between nations are not violated. The UN is careful to ensure the it does not infringe upon the sovereignty of nations and at the same time, ensure that human beings are protected, however minimally, against war crimes and belligerent states aimed at controlling others.
The United Nations did rule against the United States in 1986 during its war against the government and people of Nicaragua. The American war was in response to the FSLN ouster of dictator Anistosia Samoza in 1979. The World Court ruled that the United States violated International Law. The United States refused to recognize the World Court ruling and broke with UN regulations. From that point on, the United States adopted a policy where it will only accept the Court's jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis or, in less diplomatic language, according to their own interests and whims.
Before and increasingly since that ruling, the United States has violated and continues to violate International Law and generally accepted norms in favour of what it terms its national security or, national interests. It operates arbitrarily and is often outrageously belligerent and aggressive to the enemy du jour.
The time has come for the United Nations to stand up to the United States of America. It is a nation that, similarly to Germany in the last century, aims to take the role of overseer of all nations.
Rogue State Extraordinaire
The USA appears to be under the control of madmen. Barack Obama speaks and appears to be reasonable and even progressive. But his actions indicate that he may be quite mad and or/dull. It appears that he is neither. It appears he is under the control of very wealthy and powerful banks and corporations. His role as President has turned this apparently sensitive and intelligent man into a war criminal. Although he is well educated in Constitutional Law and was a Senior Lecturer on the subject at the University of Chicago Law School, as President, he signed away fundamental Constitutional and habeas corpus rights in favour of political expediency.
Something's amiss.
The problem is not madmen or criminals per se. It is much worse than that. It is systemic. It is a virus. A virus spreading throughout systems the world over. A virus programmed to turn hosts toward funnelling money to finance capitalists. A virus programmed to rule nations, and the world, through violence and fear.
It manifests most noticeably vigorously through the American state. It demands the state assume control of every corner of the world, as if it’s the American state's inalieable right. It renders the UN a servile body existing only to serve its national interests.
If we were to concede that view, that the United States has the moral high ground to police the world, we could take the notion seriously. For instance, if the USA did promote human rights (as it claims), if their interventions were not based in psychopathic designs, and if there was consensus the USA assume the role of the UN as arbiter of international conflicts, doing so would give one nation control of people that have had no choice in its leaders or decisions. Doing so would be patently undemocratic.
Mission Accomplished
No reasonable person could make such arguments. American 'missions' are being carried out all over the world. One such mission has left Iraq critically unstable. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was a paradise compared to the current mess left behind by the Americans. Carnage and volatility continue in Afghanistan. Drone slaughters in Pakistan are starting up again after a brief hiatus. In short, everything the Empire touches turns to hell on earth. As bystanders, we get the impression this nation, the most heavily armed nation on the planet, should not be trusted to run with scissors.
Their pathetic accomplices like Canada, France, the United Kingdom etc. are no better. After NATO’s intervention, Libya is strained, unstable, and civil war is likely. Gaddafi loyalists and the Libyan people will not turn a blind eye to the loss of the most generous social programs and standard of living in Africa. A standard of living that easily surpassed anything millions of disenfranchised Americans or Canadians could dream of.
NATO, this 'axis of evil', is splattering blood all over the Muslim world and there isn’t much to suggest it’s going to stop.
Criminal Stupidity
Presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are trying to out-do each other in their hawkish posturing. To the shock of anybody listening, they have uttered threats on Cuba and specifically, Castro, who has retired from politics. This doesn’t matter. The American narrative in no more sophisticated than a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Castro is ‘a bad guy’ and as such, is in real mortal danger. If Obama manages to ‘take him out’, it will play large to the mentally dull and extremely violent American audiences they aim to please.
Western nations (includes Israel/ not Venezuela or Cuba in this cartoon) are apparently okay with anything and everything that oozes out of the American insane asylum. Money and power rule, reason and diplomacy are not taken seriously. And now, at Israel's pleasure, Iran appears to be on deck. There promises to be plenty of war and excitement. And once again, politicians mouth dim rationalizations; Iran may produce weapons of mass destruction, they violate human rights, they support terrorism and so on. And in the meantime, the USA and its quisling lapdogs are more guilty of what they accuse ‘the bad guys’ (Iran) of possibly doing sometime in the future - maybe. The 'good guys' in this cartoon terrorize like nobody else. They actually drop bombs on populations, they spit on habeas corpus, they have the most and the largest weapons of mass destruction. And they use them!
The absurdity of all this is whispered behind closed doors. Politicians in Latin America, in Asia, in Russia, in the Middle East and in Africa cautiously discuss the alarming nature of this madness. They are at a loss of possible ways to respond. Obviously, they don't want to be labelled 'a bad guy'. The consequences are dire. Over the past few years, America’s enemies; Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Mohammar Gaddafi, Anwar al-Awlaki and his son and many others that are not so famous have been murdered by the President of the United States or proxies.
The man America and the world believed would be sane and reasonable, Barack Obama, has just delivered a State of the Union speech where he bragged about the bravery of the American military as they successfully carried out the murder of a sick old man in Pakistan. This was quickly followed up with GOP politicians trying to out-do each other, playing to Florida voters, promising to kill another old man. America has gone completely insane. It is a nation out of control.
The genesis of the United Nations was in response to a world hurting after Germany had gone completely mad. The UN was created to respond to this kind of developing climate. The uncomfortable and possibly dangerous task of standing up to these bullies must be done. The same weather patterns are become clear with each passing month. It is time to stop being polite and diplomatic to a nation that is anything but diplomatic and polite. It is time to make the madmen uncomfortable. The people of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela are under imminent threat. In reality, the people of all nations, including the United States and Israel, are under the very same threat.
Supporting the UN
To restore sanity and to end the arbitrary and dangerous power held by rogue states (such as the current configuration in the United States) we must make our voices heard through protests and through activism. We must work in concert with the voices of reason at the UN. And they must work with us. The United Nations is far from homogeneous. There are voices for peace, reason, and rule of law that are being drowned out by the psychopath element. Their efforts are stonewalled. We must help them through increasing the level of discomfort for those that aim to wage war.
At this point the people of Iran are in grave danger. We, the people of the United States, Israel, Canada, the UK - and all nations, must stand up and demand that we will not accept war on Iran. We must empowered the voices of reason at the UN to enforce its Charter and demand that this drive to endless war be stopped. We need to develop connections in solidarity with each other and with politicians we may disagree with on many issues but remain committed to rule of law and reason. We may disagree with Ron Paul on the right and President Chavez on the left, but as long as they are committed to rule of law and reason, they are allies. Like them or hate them, they stand on principles and against the madness and irrationality of war and Empire.
Should the UN cower to the designs of the madmen of corporate America and nationalist Israel and sanction war against the people of Iran; if it allows the United States to continue to police the world in 'its' own interests, and if it continues to turn a blind eye to the excessive human rights abuses carried out against men, woman, and children; most notably, the dropping of bombs on them, we must then ask ourselves - and the UN must ask itself, what is the point of existing at all?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Reform or Revolution: Facing Into the Abyss - Part Two
The possibility of reformation of the economic system to a degree where citizens may enjoy a standard of living similar to the 'middle classes' in the 20th century may not exist (as implied in the previous article). This article will make the argument that even if reformation was possible, doing so is not desirable. But, that is debatable.
Reformation aims to maintain the existing institutions, tweaking them to suit our needs. Revolution on the other hand, aims to take control of the institutions that dominate our lives. It aims to place control of them into the hands of those that have made them work in the first place. It aims to remove control from those that have a goal in mind and one goal only. To serve themselves to the detriment of everybody else. Instead, the aim should be to abolish or change institutions that do not serve the public good.
Fundamentally, the plight of the general population is the same now as it was for hundreds of years under feudalism. Under feudalism, wealth was created on the ground and made its way, forcibly, to the lords and monarchs. The serfs, slaves, of yesterday and wages slaves today have little control of the whims of power that control our lives. Under feudalism, power was exercised through violent repression. Whatever arbitrary whim His majesty may entertain, at His pleasure, would be adhered to. Under capitalism, it is not a matter of arbitrary decisions made by some personality with power but rather, the fluctuations of global capital dictate life on the ground.
These fluctuations and processes affect us and our response is far from homogeneous. On the one hand citizens swallow the notion that we have but two choices; free market capitalism (so called) or, communist totalitarianism. They will naturally gravitate toward reform (if they can muster any tolerance of change at all). The second strain will see a myriad of choices about how we can produce and distribute goods and services. Unfortunately for the former group, there has never been any system and probably never will be as radical and shape shifting as capitalism. Especially now. Instability and insecurity are two features the system will never shake. Just when we get used to certain ways of doing things, more efficient and innovative means are invented. The results can be both good and bad.
In times of great upset and insecurity, as are occurring now, more radical overall changes are demanded by citizens, many of whom are now out of work and without income. They become less reform minded and demand revolutionary change. We are entering these times. The days of relative stability and security are behind us.
The Current Context
Over the past three decades the so-called 1% have declared, through institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, and their runners (politicians), that government is the enemy and particularly, wealth redistribution. They have called for alarming reductions in government influence and control of financial and non financial matters. And as we have seen, they have ensured that government programs and institutions that serve the 99% are reduced or abolished but have made sure that the 1% is protected through bailouts and vast sums spent on their collective bodyguard, the military. As has been observed, it is a system of socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
The upper classes, the 1%, are fast becoming explicit controllers of states. They are tossing political baggage such as Berlusconi and Papandreaou out into the street. Governments have been put into the hands of economists in the service of his majesty's pleasure. They demand, through the IMF and other sock puppets that governments follow the neo liberal line to the letter. This always means; privatize and control everything that can be bought and sold and to slash and burn anything and everything that looks like wealth distribution. The infrastructure that large portions of the population relied upon can't be scrapped quick enough for them. We are entering a bizarre and frightening twilight zone.
In response to all this, citizens are voicing outrage and disaffection with the capitalist system itself. Mainstream media and wealthy capital gamblers repeat endlessly the lie that the protesters do not articulate their anger. And in the meantime, the protesters repeat, over and over and over again that the top 1% have everything and are taking more and they (we), the general population, have little and are getting less. Implicit in this complaint is a call to end the capitalist system altogether. Perhaps the ruling class can't hear it out of disbelief; they may be in a state of shock and awe.
Protests like this are not altogether new. Prior to the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, anti-capitalist protests were large and angry. The most memorable occurred in Seattle and in Quebec City. They were spreading and becoming a force to be reckoned with. After 9 11, the protests disappeared, the mood changed.
Anti capitalist protests had been absent in the heart of the hegemony prior the Seattle/Quebec City uprisings. Protests themselves however, are nothing new. We have become accustomed to single issue protests that are implicitly reformist in nature. There were civil rights protests, women's rights, gay rights, environmental protests, and protests for many various issues. They all had in common the underlying desire to tweak the system, to make the plight of a certain segment of the population better.
Protests against capitalism itself are a direct result of the excesses of modern monopoly capitalism. This is a result of neo liberal policies that have been shoved down our collective throats. This is a result of the policies of governments that have been at the beck and call of the ruling class. These statements would be viewed as excessively radical and unrealistic only a few short years ago. Now, they are hardly controversial.
Organizing A Substantial Movement
The breadth and depth of this organic movement is truly revolutionary. This movement is both radical and widespread. These are the conditions that make capitalist monarchs shudder, and with good reason. These are conditions that are revolutionary. The capitalist world is pregnant with revolution.
Thus far however, the comfortable minority have little to fear. So far, it is a protest movement and that's all it is. This movement is simply a reaction to excessive money hoarding and Imperial brutality. To take it a step farther would require organization.
Taking that step requires vision. An alternative to the status quo needs to be articulated. What would that society look like? How do we get there?
For the most part, much of our collective mentality is mired in traditional reformist mode. Reformation is all about redistributing wealth and tinkering and modifying the current system. At this point, there isn't much stomach for it either in the halls of parliament or on the ground. There certainly is not any ideas about redistribution of wealth amongst the rulers of us all. It's not that they don't want to. They couldn't, even if they did want to. The reasons for that are discussed in the previous article (Reform or Revolution: Facing Into the Abyss).
We are collectively in a bit of a pickle, so to speak. Do nothing and we are going to lose jobs, homes, and many of our vital needs. We need to do something but we are utterly unorganized. We can continue to protest. We can complain and make noise. But so what?
Our first step is to bring the debate out into the open. We need to reach some consensus as to where we go from here and we need consensus on broad goals. Will we aim to reform the crippled capitalist system? Can we? These questions need debate. If we can, and if we want to, let's get at it. Let's work together and make sure it happens. If we agree that we cannot, we have a lot of work to do.
At this point we need to sustain the protest movement. And as it develops, we will need to build solidarity and alliances. We need to develop broad goals and specific tactics. Secondly, we need to formalize alliances between individual organizers, writers, news outlets, and organizations. We need to call on past reformist groups; women's rights, gay rights, unions, anti-poverty activists, greens, and reds. We also need socialists, communists, social democratic parties, anarchists and we need to communicate in a genuine way. We need to accommodate and compromise within this movement and we need to develop a vision; a grand goal.
There will be distrust and conflict within the movement but that cannot deter us. There will be great efforts to fracture and splinter the movement. There will be fights among broad sections and there will be groups aimed at controlling and commandeering it. In response, we accept nothing less than democracy. If the majority want reform, we reform. If the majority want revolutionary changes, we aim for that. If the majority want to live off the avails of crass capitalism, so be it. It is vital to listen to others and to be willing to change our minds.
Let the best, and hopefully the most democratic and rational arguments carry the day. Now is no time to be rigid. The time for energetic, honest, and fearless debate has arrived.
One thing is clear. Reform occurs only when the threat of revolution is real.
Reformation aims to maintain the existing institutions, tweaking them to suit our needs. Revolution on the other hand, aims to take control of the institutions that dominate our lives. It aims to place control of them into the hands of those that have made them work in the first place. It aims to remove control from those that have a goal in mind and one goal only. To serve themselves to the detriment of everybody else. Instead, the aim should be to abolish or change institutions that do not serve the public good.
Fundamentally, the plight of the general population is the same now as it was for hundreds of years under feudalism. Under feudalism, wealth was created on the ground and made its way, forcibly, to the lords and monarchs. The serfs, slaves, of yesterday and wages slaves today have little control of the whims of power that control our lives. Under feudalism, power was exercised through violent repression. Whatever arbitrary whim His majesty may entertain, at His pleasure, would be adhered to. Under capitalism, it is not a matter of arbitrary decisions made by some personality with power but rather, the fluctuations of global capital dictate life on the ground.
These fluctuations and processes affect us and our response is far from homogeneous. On the one hand citizens swallow the notion that we have but two choices; free market capitalism (so called) or, communist totalitarianism. They will naturally gravitate toward reform (if they can muster any tolerance of change at all). The second strain will see a myriad of choices about how we can produce and distribute goods and services. Unfortunately for the former group, there has never been any system and probably never will be as radical and shape shifting as capitalism. Especially now. Instability and insecurity are two features the system will never shake. Just when we get used to certain ways of doing things, more efficient and innovative means are invented. The results can be both good and bad.
In times of great upset and insecurity, as are occurring now, more radical overall changes are demanded by citizens, many of whom are now out of work and without income. They become less reform minded and demand revolutionary change. We are entering these times. The days of relative stability and security are behind us.
The Current Context
Over the past three decades the so-called 1% have declared, through institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, and their runners (politicians), that government is the enemy and particularly, wealth redistribution. They have called for alarming reductions in government influence and control of financial and non financial matters. And as we have seen, they have ensured that government programs and institutions that serve the 99% are reduced or abolished but have made sure that the 1% is protected through bailouts and vast sums spent on their collective bodyguard, the military. As has been observed, it is a system of socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
The upper classes, the 1%, are fast becoming explicit controllers of states. They are tossing political baggage such as Berlusconi and Papandreaou out into the street. Governments have been put into the hands of economists in the service of his majesty's pleasure. They demand, through the IMF and other sock puppets that governments follow the neo liberal line to the letter. This always means; privatize and control everything that can be bought and sold and to slash and burn anything and everything that looks like wealth distribution. The infrastructure that large portions of the population relied upon can't be scrapped quick enough for them. We are entering a bizarre and frightening twilight zone.
In response to all this, citizens are voicing outrage and disaffection with the capitalist system itself. Mainstream media and wealthy capital gamblers repeat endlessly the lie that the protesters do not articulate their anger. And in the meantime, the protesters repeat, over and over and over again that the top 1% have everything and are taking more and they (we), the general population, have little and are getting less. Implicit in this complaint is a call to end the capitalist system altogether. Perhaps the ruling class can't hear it out of disbelief; they may be in a state of shock and awe.
Protests like this are not altogether new. Prior to the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, anti-capitalist protests were large and angry. The most memorable occurred in Seattle and in Quebec City. They were spreading and becoming a force to be reckoned with. After 9 11, the protests disappeared, the mood changed.
Anti capitalist protests had been absent in the heart of the hegemony prior the Seattle/Quebec City uprisings. Protests themselves however, are nothing new. We have become accustomed to single issue protests that are implicitly reformist in nature. There were civil rights protests, women's rights, gay rights, environmental protests, and protests for many various issues. They all had in common the underlying desire to tweak the system, to make the plight of a certain segment of the population better.
Protests against capitalism itself are a direct result of the excesses of modern monopoly capitalism. This is a result of neo liberal policies that have been shoved down our collective throats. This is a result of the policies of governments that have been at the beck and call of the ruling class. These statements would be viewed as excessively radical and unrealistic only a few short years ago. Now, they are hardly controversial.
Organizing A Substantial Movement
The breadth and depth of this organic movement is truly revolutionary. This movement is both radical and widespread. These are the conditions that make capitalist monarchs shudder, and with good reason. These are conditions that are revolutionary. The capitalist world is pregnant with revolution.
Thus far however, the comfortable minority have little to fear. So far, it is a protest movement and that's all it is. This movement is simply a reaction to excessive money hoarding and Imperial brutality. To take it a step farther would require organization.
Taking that step requires vision. An alternative to the status quo needs to be articulated. What would that society look like? How do we get there?
For the most part, much of our collective mentality is mired in traditional reformist mode. Reformation is all about redistributing wealth and tinkering and modifying the current system. At this point, there isn't much stomach for it either in the halls of parliament or on the ground. There certainly is not any ideas about redistribution of wealth amongst the rulers of us all. It's not that they don't want to. They couldn't, even if they did want to. The reasons for that are discussed in the previous article (Reform or Revolution: Facing Into the Abyss).
We are collectively in a bit of a pickle, so to speak. Do nothing and we are going to lose jobs, homes, and many of our vital needs. We need to do something but we are utterly unorganized. We can continue to protest. We can complain and make noise. But so what?
Our first step is to bring the debate out into the open. We need to reach some consensus as to where we go from here and we need consensus on broad goals. Will we aim to reform the crippled capitalist system? Can we? These questions need debate. If we can, and if we want to, let's get at it. Let's work together and make sure it happens. If we agree that we cannot, we have a lot of work to do.
At this point we need to sustain the protest movement. And as it develops, we will need to build solidarity and alliances. We need to develop broad goals and specific tactics. Secondly, we need to formalize alliances between individual organizers, writers, news outlets, and organizations. We need to call on past reformist groups; women's rights, gay rights, unions, anti-poverty activists, greens, and reds. We also need socialists, communists, social democratic parties, anarchists and we need to communicate in a genuine way. We need to accommodate and compromise within this movement and we need to develop a vision; a grand goal.
There will be distrust and conflict within the movement but that cannot deter us. There will be great efforts to fracture and splinter the movement. There will be fights among broad sections and there will be groups aimed at controlling and commandeering it. In response, we accept nothing less than democracy. If the majority want reform, we reform. If the majority want revolutionary changes, we aim for that. If the majority want to live off the avails of crass capitalism, so be it. It is vital to listen to others and to be willing to change our minds.
Let the best, and hopefully the most democratic and rational arguments carry the day. Now is no time to be rigid. The time for energetic, honest, and fearless debate has arrived.
One thing is clear. Reform occurs only when the threat of revolution is real.
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Reform or Revolution: Facing Into the Abyss
The gravity of the current economic situation appears to be sinking in. Day by day, week by week, and month by month, we are waking out of our docile slumber. People are hitting the streets. This is not the handiwork of some dissident group with an ideological agenda. It is the natural outpouring of citizens anger, frustration, and hopelessness. The nature of the problem; capitalism, corporate greed, and careerist politicians has been expressed and expressed very well in many different forums. There seems to be some general consensus that we are in deep trouble.
Solidarity is crucial. We need to stick together and work together. The 1% will aim to fracture this new organic movement. We need to ensure that we don't do their dirty work for them. And no doubt, we will have enormous disagreements. Reformers will argue with revolutionaries, liberals will argue with socialists and so on. We need to use those differences of opinion to strengthen ourselves. The crux of the problem needs to be assessed and thoroughly analysed.
What is crucial is that we don't get mired in 'my opinion' or 'my ideology' and that we listen to each other. Debate is important and it is healthy. That is how we learn and grow. It is vital that you look at what I say and that I look at your analysis. After all, we all want the same things. We want stability, peace, and we want governance 'by, for, and of the people'. We want our kids and our neighbours to be able to eat. We are bound together by common goals. How we get there will need to be worked out.
What is presented here is a view, an opinion. You may not agree with it but please, take a minute to read it. If it is correct, our collective response then must take on a particular shape. If it is wrong, then we will need to point that out. We need to develop an assessment. We need to uncover the crux of the problem. If we can find some agreement on the nature of the problem, and we can, we may then develop a plan of action to correct it.
This then is an assessment of the current problem.
Analysis
The following analysis may describe the nature and scope of the problem. And if this analysis is correct, there is no easy way out. The upshot of this analysis is that capitalism itself has outlived its usefulness. Further to this, it has become financially toxic to all but those on the top of the heap. And the longer we depend on it, the worse the situation will become.
This view suggests that capitalism, due precisely to its efficiency and energy, has become antithetical to human needs. While the profit motive has served the majority in the developed world well, it will no longer do so. It will render the lot of us serfs without lords, slaves with no master. It will impoverish us and it will kill us. It will steal our vital needs or prohibit them from ever being produced.
The efficiency aspect, while impressive, is turning on us all. The wizard technology we've become used to has rendered many occupations obsolete. It can manufacture all we need with very little labour input. And, given time, it may be able to produce all we need with the push of a few buttons. While that may sound good, this condition does not suit capitalism. In fact, capitalism cannot survive this condition. It is impossible.
While capitalism may spit employees out onto the street, it needs consumers. Unfortunately for capitalism, an individual needs to be a worker before he or she is a consumer. The worker and consumer inhabit the same physical body.
The Diminishing Rate of Profit
As capitalism matures, the rate of profit from a given unit of labour diminishes. That is, it becomes more difficult to squeeze a dime of profit from an hour of labour. To make matters worse, global competition has rendered the old formula where firms were subsided by the state to pay decent wages, dead. Workers are now competing with the most oppressive terms of exploitation on the planet. The old (so called) 'American dream' is finished. It's time to wake up.
Individual firms are under constant strain from two sources; competition from other firms and ongoing costs such as maintaining payment of wages to employees.
Firms aim to increase productivity as much as possible. This is accomplished through improving technology and through squeezing as much work from a worker as is manageable. It is in their interests to get workers to work as hard as possible for as little pay as possible. On both counts, they are doing very well.
It is vital to out-compete other firms; to drive costs down. This allows the firm to lower prices. Efficiency and low prices are the objective. Profit is the goal.
Large scale production has become impressive in its efficiency. To lower costs firms utilize lateral acquisition of resources that are required goods and services that go into production or, they contract out to sources that will fetch the product at lower prices than anyone else. Generally speaking, the pressure to cut costs also cuts the rate of profit.
Suppose the rate of profit were to remain constant. In that case profit would expand according to what was invested in stocks. If the rate is falling however, profit is naturally more difficult to achieve. And when this occurs, the incentive to invest in manufacturing diminishes. As investing in stocks grows more risky, the growth of capital in stocks falls. The rot of the integrity of the value of liquid capital spreads. Capital itself loses its integrity and value. And as long as they depend on worker's wages to pay the bills when in reality they can't, the crisis related to the value of money is magnified.
Additionally, the ensuing lack of wages results in not only lack of demand but in an evaporation of the tax base. Workers that depend on the tax base such as civil servants and teachers are thrown out of work as a result, further eroding the diminishing tax base. This exacerbates the problem by driving down demand for goods and services which in turn forces more firms out of business and workers onto the streets. We are entering an economic black hole, a period of crisis.
This crisis is fundamentally different than cyclical fluctuations (recessions) which may be remedied in various ways such as investing in public works with tax dollars and borrowing until the ship is righted again. Similar crisis occurred in the periods 1873 to 1893 and from 1929 to 1941.
In its heyday, the capitalist system saw increased real wages in western economies. From 1947 to 1967 real wages grew in the United States by approximately 50%. Unemployment was not an issue, and deficits were miniscule. The so-called Western world was the base of manufacturing and consumption. But, as Professor Ismael Hossein-Zadeh points out in a recent article: "By the late 1960s and early 1970s ... both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates."
As the rate of capital accumulation decelerates, and capital, like a shark, needs to continually eat and grow, or die, the shark itself becomes more aggressive and ruthless. It will squeeze an extra dime from any unit of labour it can and, when that dries up, it will look elsewhere.
Since the 1980s capitalists and politicians have been kicking the can down the road. This mess has been coming at us for some time. Avoidance was helped by real growth due to the building of high tech infrastructure, which in turn has helped crucify the employee. The infrastructure, once built, will not need to be built again. And it's maintenance is not going to save us.
Various bubbles (like the dot com bubble) had put the reality of our collective abyss out of view. Some bubbles were based in widespread criminal behaviour on the part of large corporations, bodies like the Federal Reserve in the United States, and scores of politicians. They have propped up the illusion (with the help of mainstream media and whores that have degrees in economics) that all is well - for three decades. In the meantime, the rot of the capitalist system has been eating away at our real security. We have continued to depend on something we can no longer depend on.
John Maynard Keynes is Dead
In the coming months and years there will be sincere and intelligent arguments from the left to return to Keynesian economic policies. After all, this formula has worked, arguably, better than anything else in history to provide a decent standard of living for the most people. The good ship Fabian appears to have sailed however. As Professor Hossein-Zadeh points out:
"The US capitalist class pursued the Keynesian-type policies in the immediate post-war period as long as political forces and economic conditions, both nationally and internationally, rendered those policies effective. Top among those conditions, as mentioned earlier, were nearly unlimited demand for US manufactures, both at home and abroad, and the lack of competition for both US capital and labor, which allowed US workers to demand decent wages and benefits while at the same time enjoying higher rate of employment.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates.
More than anything else, it was these important changes in the actual conditions of production and the realignment of global markets that precipitated the gradual abandoning of Keynesian economics. Contrary to the repeated claims of the liberal/Keynesian partisans, it was not Ronald Reagan’s ideas or schemes that lay behind the plans of dismantling the New Deal reforms in fact, steps to hammer away at those reforms had been taken long before Reagan arrived in the White House). Rather, it was the globalization, first, of capital and, then, of labor that rendered Keynesian or New Deal-type economic policies no longer attractive to capitalist profitability, and brought forth Ronald Reagan and Neoliberal austerity economics."
Let's not get caught up in the notion that the capitalist class and their paws (politicians) had decided to be kind to working classes or middle classes. Each and every benefit, including decent wages, social security, free medical care (except the USA), in developed countries were won through hard and sometimes deadly struggle. It was the threat of revolution and the preservation of the privileged class that compelled Keynes himself to distribute wealth.
We are about to witness a period unlike anything we have seen before. The tension on global capital, the increasing and continuing falling rate of profit, and the ensuing hunger of capital itself will reduce or eliminate your wages, your pension, social security, and it will find the change under the cushions of your sofa.
As we become increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo, as our kids lose hope for a decent future, as homeless people stand alongside burning barrels next to empty and foreclosed homes, we will hit the streets. Predictably, we will aim, at first, to resurrect John Maynard Keynes. We will discover, eventually, that Mr. Keynes is as dead as a doornail. Perhaps it is best to let him rest in peace.
Solidarity is crucial. We need to stick together and work together. The 1% will aim to fracture this new organic movement. We need to ensure that we don't do their dirty work for them. And no doubt, we will have enormous disagreements. Reformers will argue with revolutionaries, liberals will argue with socialists and so on. We need to use those differences of opinion to strengthen ourselves. The crux of the problem needs to be assessed and thoroughly analysed.
What is crucial is that we don't get mired in 'my opinion' or 'my ideology' and that we listen to each other. Debate is important and it is healthy. That is how we learn and grow. It is vital that you look at what I say and that I look at your analysis. After all, we all want the same things. We want stability, peace, and we want governance 'by, for, and of the people'. We want our kids and our neighbours to be able to eat. We are bound together by common goals. How we get there will need to be worked out.
What is presented here is a view, an opinion. You may not agree with it but please, take a minute to read it. If it is correct, our collective response then must take on a particular shape. If it is wrong, then we will need to point that out. We need to develop an assessment. We need to uncover the crux of the problem. If we can find some agreement on the nature of the problem, and we can, we may then develop a plan of action to correct it.
This then is an assessment of the current problem.
Analysis
The following analysis may describe the nature and scope of the problem. And if this analysis is correct, there is no easy way out. The upshot of this analysis is that capitalism itself has outlived its usefulness. Further to this, it has become financially toxic to all but those on the top of the heap. And the longer we depend on it, the worse the situation will become.
This view suggests that capitalism, due precisely to its efficiency and energy, has become antithetical to human needs. While the profit motive has served the majority in the developed world well, it will no longer do so. It will render the lot of us serfs without lords, slaves with no master. It will impoverish us and it will kill us. It will steal our vital needs or prohibit them from ever being produced.
The efficiency aspect, while impressive, is turning on us all. The wizard technology we've become used to has rendered many occupations obsolete. It can manufacture all we need with very little labour input. And, given time, it may be able to produce all we need with the push of a few buttons. While that may sound good, this condition does not suit capitalism. In fact, capitalism cannot survive this condition. It is impossible.
While capitalism may spit employees out onto the street, it needs consumers. Unfortunately for capitalism, an individual needs to be a worker before he or she is a consumer. The worker and consumer inhabit the same physical body.
The Diminishing Rate of Profit
As capitalism matures, the rate of profit from a given unit of labour diminishes. That is, it becomes more difficult to squeeze a dime of profit from an hour of labour. To make matters worse, global competition has rendered the old formula where firms were subsided by the state to pay decent wages, dead. Workers are now competing with the most oppressive terms of exploitation on the planet. The old (so called) 'American dream' is finished. It's time to wake up.
Individual firms are under constant strain from two sources; competition from other firms and ongoing costs such as maintaining payment of wages to employees.
Firms aim to increase productivity as much as possible. This is accomplished through improving technology and through squeezing as much work from a worker as is manageable. It is in their interests to get workers to work as hard as possible for as little pay as possible. On both counts, they are doing very well.
It is vital to out-compete other firms; to drive costs down. This allows the firm to lower prices. Efficiency and low prices are the objective. Profit is the goal.
Large scale production has become impressive in its efficiency. To lower costs firms utilize lateral acquisition of resources that are required goods and services that go into production or, they contract out to sources that will fetch the product at lower prices than anyone else. Generally speaking, the pressure to cut costs also cuts the rate of profit.
Suppose the rate of profit were to remain constant. In that case profit would expand according to what was invested in stocks. If the rate is falling however, profit is naturally more difficult to achieve. And when this occurs, the incentive to invest in manufacturing diminishes. As investing in stocks grows more risky, the growth of capital in stocks falls. The rot of the integrity of the value of liquid capital spreads. Capital itself loses its integrity and value. And as long as they depend on worker's wages to pay the bills when in reality they can't, the crisis related to the value of money is magnified.
Additionally, the ensuing lack of wages results in not only lack of demand but in an evaporation of the tax base. Workers that depend on the tax base such as civil servants and teachers are thrown out of work as a result, further eroding the diminishing tax base. This exacerbates the problem by driving down demand for goods and services which in turn forces more firms out of business and workers onto the streets. We are entering an economic black hole, a period of crisis.
This crisis is fundamentally different than cyclical fluctuations (recessions) which may be remedied in various ways such as investing in public works with tax dollars and borrowing until the ship is righted again. Similar crisis occurred in the periods 1873 to 1893 and from 1929 to 1941.
In its heyday, the capitalist system saw increased real wages in western economies. From 1947 to 1967 real wages grew in the United States by approximately 50%. Unemployment was not an issue, and deficits were miniscule. The so-called Western world was the base of manufacturing and consumption. But, as Professor Ismael Hossein-Zadeh points out in a recent article: "By the late 1960s and early 1970s ... both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates."
As the rate of capital accumulation decelerates, and capital, like a shark, needs to continually eat and grow, or die, the shark itself becomes more aggressive and ruthless. It will squeeze an extra dime from any unit of labour it can and, when that dries up, it will look elsewhere.
Since the 1980s capitalists and politicians have been kicking the can down the road. This mess has been coming at us for some time. Avoidance was helped by real growth due to the building of high tech infrastructure, which in turn has helped crucify the employee. The infrastructure, once built, will not need to be built again. And it's maintenance is not going to save us.
Various bubbles (like the dot com bubble) had put the reality of our collective abyss out of view. Some bubbles were based in widespread criminal behaviour on the part of large corporations, bodies like the Federal Reserve in the United States, and scores of politicians. They have propped up the illusion (with the help of mainstream media and whores that have degrees in economics) that all is well - for three decades. In the meantime, the rot of the capitalist system has been eating away at our real security. We have continued to depend on something we can no longer depend on.
John Maynard Keynes is Dead
In the coming months and years there will be sincere and intelligent arguments from the left to return to Keynesian economic policies. After all, this formula has worked, arguably, better than anything else in history to provide a decent standard of living for the most people. The good ship Fabian appears to have sailed however. As Professor Hossein-Zadeh points out:
"The US capitalist class pursued the Keynesian-type policies in the immediate post-war period as long as political forces and economic conditions, both nationally and internationally, rendered those policies effective. Top among those conditions, as mentioned earlier, were nearly unlimited demand for US manufactures, both at home and abroad, and the lack of competition for both US capital and labor, which allowed US workers to demand decent wages and benefits while at the same time enjoying higher rate of employment.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, both US capital and labor were no longer unrivaled in global markets. Furthermore, during the long cycle of the immediate post-war expansion US manufacturers had invested so much in fixed capital, or capacity building, that by the late 1960s their profit rates had begun to decline as the capital-labor ratio of their operations had become too high. In other words, the enormous amounts of the so-called “sunk costs,” mainly in the form of fixed capital, or plant and equipment, had significantly eroded their profit rates.
More than anything else, it was these important changes in the actual conditions of production and the realignment of global markets that precipitated the gradual abandoning of Keynesian economics. Contrary to the repeated claims of the liberal/Keynesian partisans, it was not Ronald Reagan’s ideas or schemes that lay behind the plans of dismantling the New Deal reforms in fact, steps to hammer away at those reforms had been taken long before Reagan arrived in the White House). Rather, it was the globalization, first, of capital and, then, of labor that rendered Keynesian or New Deal-type economic policies no longer attractive to capitalist profitability, and brought forth Ronald Reagan and Neoliberal austerity economics."
Let's not get caught up in the notion that the capitalist class and their paws (politicians) had decided to be kind to working classes or middle classes. Each and every benefit, including decent wages, social security, free medical care (except the USA), in developed countries were won through hard and sometimes deadly struggle. It was the threat of revolution and the preservation of the privileged class that compelled Keynes himself to distribute wealth.
We are about to witness a period unlike anything we have seen before. The tension on global capital, the increasing and continuing falling rate of profit, and the ensuing hunger of capital itself will reduce or eliminate your wages, your pension, social security, and it will find the change under the cushions of your sofa.
As we become increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo, as our kids lose hope for a decent future, as homeless people stand alongside burning barrels next to empty and foreclosed homes, we will hit the streets. Predictably, we will aim, at first, to resurrect John Maynard Keynes. We will discover, eventually, that Mr. Keynes is as dead as a doornail. Perhaps it is best to let him rest in peace.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Occupy All Streets
Although stirrings of discontent are increasing and are world-wide, we still need to recognize the gravity of the situation. We are in real trouble and it's going to take more than taxing Wall Street to get out of it. We need to recognize that we have become dependent on a way of carrying out the business of surviving that we can no longer depend on. We need to recognize that we are under the imperial rule of the corporation; an entity that is far more toxic and dangerous than terrorists or psychopaths. It is not only toxic but its basis is utterly ethereal. It is ether that is based in straightforward exploitation. It is a system of incredible absurdities and contradictions.
There was a time not so long ago when it was generally believed that eventually, capitalism will get to all or most of the problems of deprivation. The trajectory was positive. No serious economist worth his or her salt would make that argument however. Serious economists will say that capitalism is not responsible for feeding the hungry or housing the poor. And they are correct.
We then must ask the question: Do we, as a society, let babies, children, mothers, the elderly, the disabled and so on suffer and even die due to material deprivation?
Like children in the 30s walking bare foot past closed shoe factories, factories sit idle in rust while millions are looking for work. Homes sit empty as millions of evicted homeowners no longer have a place to live. If an enterprise or activity can’t fortify investors wealth, it can’t happen. To suggest that this process is rational reflects a logic of stupefying myopia. To take it for granted smacks of hyper-dependency or addiction.
Our Collective Addiction
We have become dependent on capital derived from surplus value to survive and we are at its mercy. We are at the mercy of a simple formula (buy or make for x - sell for y), a formula that, like all formulas, has no mercy. It also has no substance. But we cannot seem to survive without it. The bad news is, we have to. The good news is, we can.
The fact that we have developed a mentality of dependence on surplus value capital as the only viable catalyst to get us out to work, to trade, to start an enterprise or to repair a bridge is a very serious problem.
We need to take responsibility for ourselves, our communities, and our nations. We have been relying on residual capital from underdeveloped hungry ghosts (investors) to feed us, clothe us, and house us. We have been reliant on an abstraction (surplus value) that, even in its glorious heyday, was heavily reliant on the plunder of the hinterland for resources and sweet Keynesian deals in the homeland. In other words, it never worked. And, even in its heyday, capitalism has been highly unstable. That is the nature of the beast and again, no economist will make the argument that liberal and unfettered capitalism is or can be a stable system of financial governance.
Like any addiction, the way to health is by first admitting that it is an addiction. To do so, we need to contemplate and discuss our dependence on capital. We need to ask ourselves tough questions:
-Can we open a factory without excess capital?
-Can we trade without it?
-Can we provide services to others without capital derived from taxes?
-Have our elected representatives, the politicians, been utterly subservient to the owners and controllers of surplus value?
- Are we so weak that we need to beg capitalists to invest in ways that will help us survive?
The Value of Work
We could have opened that factory and we could have let those children wear shoes. We can not only move into existing houses, we can build houses for everybody. We can provide medicine and food for every person that needs it. It is us that have been doing it all along and it has been the greed of HMOs and other vultures that have been wilfully killing people for profit. Capitalists don't make useful and necessary things that we need to survive. We do.
Our dependence is on a glorified middleman with zero social conscience. This middleman’s relations to the production process is not innate. If the middleman can make profit without the bother of employing human beings that fall ill, complain, need ‘benefits’ and so on, he or she will certainly do it as you or I would do it. And he is doing it all over the world. Playing and gambling with finance capital is far more exhilarating and profitable than running a grimy factory. As capitalism matures, and the possibility of squeezing a dime from a unit of human labour diminishes, the connection between capitalism and providing goods and services becomes more remote and untenable.
When we consider the unstable and illusory nature of capitalism and the fact that the actual provision of services is provided by us, the workers. And that each and every item we use, computers, cars, food and drugs, have been mined, shipped, manufactured, and delivered by us, the workers, we can see that the future is not only possible, it is fantastic. The possibilities are endless.
Each and every capitalist dollar can be traced back to its genesis; work. And all the wealth that exists and will exist is rightfully ours. Best of all, we can make as much as we want. We just need to get over our illusion of dependence on speculators, gamblers, and thieves.
Our Wealth is Our Work
Economists and politicians behave and speak as if wealth somehow emanates from the wealthy and makes its way down to the rest of us. In reality, everything we see and use begins in the ground and is made into useful products either by human hands or by natural processes. Exchange value (profit) is a simple matter of exploiting and taking ownership of that process. In fact, wealth flows from the bottom and is vacuumed to the upper echelons with increasingly efficient means.
The notion that marketing and profit grabbing will produce what is best for society is a precise and specific point we need to contemplate. For example, a given society may need more cancer research or health care or housing. The market suggests however that more profit can be made by producing cigarettes or guns. Very serious meetings decisions will be made to research and develop the production and sale of cigarettes and guns. Capitalism is very good at producing trinkets, shiny toys, and killer hamburgers.
Basic human needs are considered a nuisance from the point of view of investors and their governors; even when there’s a profit to be made. It is the self serving child with ‘getting the most stuff’ as his life’s goal that we have become dependent on. No wonder we are in serious trouble.
When we consider what can be done with labour power in terms of developing goods and services, we may then consider possibilities beyond the poor and short sighted rationality of the marginalists, popularly known today as neo-liberals. We might abandon the superstitious nonsense that the expansion and theft of the money value that is produced by labour as an indispensable ingredient to financial security and progress. In other words, we can afford to abandon the notion that exploitation, war, and theft are necessary evils for societies to function well. At that point, we may go beyond the tyranny of psychopathic greed and develop a sane, stable, and humane world.
When we really examine the situation, the capitalist class (and it is no exaggeration to label them the ruling class) can be seen to function merely as parasites. They don't even manage businesses. They simply play the grand casino and hire workers to manage it for them. Managers are not them; managers are us. As dispensable functionaries, they stand on the same precipice we all do. While a firm may replace an individual manager, the function itself is essential.
We are all in this together and we are the ones that make this world work. We can afford to rely on each other and we can afford to have confidence in ourselves. The ethereal monarch can take its rightful seat in the history of social and economic development and we may salute them all. But their time and usefulness has passed.
Creating Wealth
The semi socialist system of production (capitalism) and distribution (Keynesianism) has worked reasonably well in some situations. It is possible but not probable that we can return to Keynesian formulas to rescue our deteriorating standard of living. Social safety nets are being ripped to shreds because the diminishing rate of profit is forcing capitalists to squeeze wealth from every nook and cranny. They are in no mood to throw us any crumbs whatsoever. On the contrary.
We are getting to a point where we must take matters into our own hands. There are some elemental social and economic conditions and standards we need to adhere to. We cannot tolerate a condition where an individual's body may die due to deprivation. We certainly cannot tolerate conditions where whole collectives of individuals may die due to material deprivation. This condition is silent violence and it is class war. It is ongoing and it is getting worse.
To push back, to take back what is rightfully ours, we need to become politically alive. We need to not ask, but demand, a vast expansion of our public infrastructure. We need it to include service to the vital needs of each and every individual. And we, not them, can make that happen and make that work.
As towns and cities infrastructure is neglected and falling apart, we need to recognize that we, and not them, need to fix it. It is ours and it is our children's inheritance. Money does not fix bridges and roads, even if you believe deep down inside that it does, it is in fact real, tangible work that does it. Money is merely a catalyst. We can build it as elaborately and as beautifully as we wish. But it will not happen as long as politicians are in the pockets of corporations. And they certainly are.
We have enormous volumes of capital and latent capital (labour). We need a new catalyst.
At the end of the day we can blame capitalists and capitalism for the social and financial ills plaguing increasing numbers of individuals, communities, and nations. It isn't their fault. The ultra wealthy have merely secured themselves and their families in a system, a context, where they could conceivably fall into destitution. With enough wealth, they can rest assured they will be okay.
It is not a matter of blaming individuals, the problem is systemic and that is what needs to change.
Rather than blaming any individual or individuals, we can take responsibility for ourselves, our homes, and our communities and we can roll up our sleeves and get to work.
But before we can do that, we need to take control of our political and financial systems.
Ay. There's the rub.
There was a time not so long ago when it was generally believed that eventually, capitalism will get to all or most of the problems of deprivation. The trajectory was positive. No serious economist worth his or her salt would make that argument however. Serious economists will say that capitalism is not responsible for feeding the hungry or housing the poor. And they are correct.
We then must ask the question: Do we, as a society, let babies, children, mothers, the elderly, the disabled and so on suffer and even die due to material deprivation?
Like children in the 30s walking bare foot past closed shoe factories, factories sit idle in rust while millions are looking for work. Homes sit empty as millions of evicted homeowners no longer have a place to live. If an enterprise or activity can’t fortify investors wealth, it can’t happen. To suggest that this process is rational reflects a logic of stupefying myopia. To take it for granted smacks of hyper-dependency or addiction.
Our Collective Addiction
We have become dependent on capital derived from surplus value to survive and we are at its mercy. We are at the mercy of a simple formula (buy or make for x - sell for y), a formula that, like all formulas, has no mercy. It also has no substance. But we cannot seem to survive without it. The bad news is, we have to. The good news is, we can.
The fact that we have developed a mentality of dependence on surplus value capital as the only viable catalyst to get us out to work, to trade, to start an enterprise or to repair a bridge is a very serious problem.
We need to take responsibility for ourselves, our communities, and our nations. We have been relying on residual capital from underdeveloped hungry ghosts (investors) to feed us, clothe us, and house us. We have been reliant on an abstraction (surplus value) that, even in its glorious heyday, was heavily reliant on the plunder of the hinterland for resources and sweet Keynesian deals in the homeland. In other words, it never worked. And, even in its heyday, capitalism has been highly unstable. That is the nature of the beast and again, no economist will make the argument that liberal and unfettered capitalism is or can be a stable system of financial governance.
Like any addiction, the way to health is by first admitting that it is an addiction. To do so, we need to contemplate and discuss our dependence on capital. We need to ask ourselves tough questions:
-Can we open a factory without excess capital?
-Can we trade without it?
-Can we provide services to others without capital derived from taxes?
-Have our elected representatives, the politicians, been utterly subservient to the owners and controllers of surplus value?
- Are we so weak that we need to beg capitalists to invest in ways that will help us survive?
The Value of Work
We could have opened that factory and we could have let those children wear shoes. We can not only move into existing houses, we can build houses for everybody. We can provide medicine and food for every person that needs it. It is us that have been doing it all along and it has been the greed of HMOs and other vultures that have been wilfully killing people for profit. Capitalists don't make useful and necessary things that we need to survive. We do.
Our dependence is on a glorified middleman with zero social conscience. This middleman’s relations to the production process is not innate. If the middleman can make profit without the bother of employing human beings that fall ill, complain, need ‘benefits’ and so on, he or she will certainly do it as you or I would do it. And he is doing it all over the world. Playing and gambling with finance capital is far more exhilarating and profitable than running a grimy factory. As capitalism matures, and the possibility of squeezing a dime from a unit of human labour diminishes, the connection between capitalism and providing goods and services becomes more remote and untenable.
When we consider the unstable and illusory nature of capitalism and the fact that the actual provision of services is provided by us, the workers. And that each and every item we use, computers, cars, food and drugs, have been mined, shipped, manufactured, and delivered by us, the workers, we can see that the future is not only possible, it is fantastic. The possibilities are endless.
Each and every capitalist dollar can be traced back to its genesis; work. And all the wealth that exists and will exist is rightfully ours. Best of all, we can make as much as we want. We just need to get over our illusion of dependence on speculators, gamblers, and thieves.
Our Wealth is Our Work
Economists and politicians behave and speak as if wealth somehow emanates from the wealthy and makes its way down to the rest of us. In reality, everything we see and use begins in the ground and is made into useful products either by human hands or by natural processes. Exchange value (profit) is a simple matter of exploiting and taking ownership of that process. In fact, wealth flows from the bottom and is vacuumed to the upper echelons with increasingly efficient means.
The notion that marketing and profit grabbing will produce what is best for society is a precise and specific point we need to contemplate. For example, a given society may need more cancer research or health care or housing. The market suggests however that more profit can be made by producing cigarettes or guns. Very serious meetings decisions will be made to research and develop the production and sale of cigarettes and guns. Capitalism is very good at producing trinkets, shiny toys, and killer hamburgers.
Basic human needs are considered a nuisance from the point of view of investors and their governors; even when there’s a profit to be made. It is the self serving child with ‘getting the most stuff’ as his life’s goal that we have become dependent on. No wonder we are in serious trouble.
When we consider what can be done with labour power in terms of developing goods and services, we may then consider possibilities beyond the poor and short sighted rationality of the marginalists, popularly known today as neo-liberals. We might abandon the superstitious nonsense that the expansion and theft of the money value that is produced by labour as an indispensable ingredient to financial security and progress. In other words, we can afford to abandon the notion that exploitation, war, and theft are necessary evils for societies to function well. At that point, we may go beyond the tyranny of psychopathic greed and develop a sane, stable, and humane world.
When we really examine the situation, the capitalist class (and it is no exaggeration to label them the ruling class) can be seen to function merely as parasites. They don't even manage businesses. They simply play the grand casino and hire workers to manage it for them. Managers are not them; managers are us. As dispensable functionaries, they stand on the same precipice we all do. While a firm may replace an individual manager, the function itself is essential.
We are all in this together and we are the ones that make this world work. We can afford to rely on each other and we can afford to have confidence in ourselves. The ethereal monarch can take its rightful seat in the history of social and economic development and we may salute them all. But their time and usefulness has passed.
Creating Wealth
The semi socialist system of production (capitalism) and distribution (Keynesianism) has worked reasonably well in some situations. It is possible but not probable that we can return to Keynesian formulas to rescue our deteriorating standard of living. Social safety nets are being ripped to shreds because the diminishing rate of profit is forcing capitalists to squeeze wealth from every nook and cranny. They are in no mood to throw us any crumbs whatsoever. On the contrary.
We are getting to a point where we must take matters into our own hands. There are some elemental social and economic conditions and standards we need to adhere to. We cannot tolerate a condition where an individual's body may die due to deprivation. We certainly cannot tolerate conditions where whole collectives of individuals may die due to material deprivation. This condition is silent violence and it is class war. It is ongoing and it is getting worse.
To push back, to take back what is rightfully ours, we need to become politically alive. We need to not ask, but demand, a vast expansion of our public infrastructure. We need it to include service to the vital needs of each and every individual. And we, not them, can make that happen and make that work.
As towns and cities infrastructure is neglected and falling apart, we need to recognize that we, and not them, need to fix it. It is ours and it is our children's inheritance. Money does not fix bridges and roads, even if you believe deep down inside that it does, it is in fact real, tangible work that does it. Money is merely a catalyst. We can build it as elaborately and as beautifully as we wish. But it will not happen as long as politicians are in the pockets of corporations. And they certainly are.
We have enormous volumes of capital and latent capital (labour). We need a new catalyst.
At the end of the day we can blame capitalists and capitalism for the social and financial ills plaguing increasing numbers of individuals, communities, and nations. It isn't their fault. The ultra wealthy have merely secured themselves and their families in a system, a context, where they could conceivably fall into destitution. With enough wealth, they can rest assured they will be okay.
It is not a matter of blaming individuals, the problem is systemic and that is what needs to change.
Rather than blaming any individual or individuals, we can take responsibility for ourselves, our homes, and our communities and we can roll up our sleeves and get to work.
But before we can do that, we need to take control of our political and financial systems.
Ay. There's the rub.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Syntax of Fascism
The canaries are dropping dead. The rats are running for the surface. Something's amiss. The Western world has become highly unbalanced. And just beneath the surface is the unmistakable smell of fascism. Turn over a station, click the mouse, open a magazine and there it is. It is the language of fascism. Ostensibly, the language looks more or less innocuous. But then, the whiff grabs us.
The syntax of fascism isn’t about fascism proper. It is about the attitude of fascism. We must be careful we don’t lose sight of the broad strokes as authors of the syntax of fascism demand that we pay close attention to the details. They will say, this is not fascism or that is not fascism because it doesn’t meet this or that criteria. In the meantime, the caravan moves along and we, the little dogs bark with little or no effect.
It is a language, a way of defining the situation that normalizes public executions, torture, and the dropping of bombs on populations. It is this use of language and means of prioritizing and valuing that is the pernicious cancer that rots away at the principles of human rights, democracy, and freedom. The syntax of fascism is common and is contained within the archaic structures of feudalism. In its simplicity it states unequivocally that might makes right. The feudal world was built on yesterday’s equivalent of street gangs or mafia. Whoever was the most violent, whoever evokes the most fear, was he who was in power.
The Language of Enlightenment
The language of the enlightenment empowered reason as the arbiter of principles and laws. And it is this language that the United States of America is founded upon. It is the language of Thomas Paine, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Kant observed that the enlightenment would put an end to Monarchic and clerical arbitrary power. An informed and thinking population will demand that reason and principles are placed above the morbid and vicious rule of the dark regions of human emotion. Kant said of the enlightenment that it is the freedom for the individual to use his or her own intelligence. More broadly, it demanded rule of law. No longer would human beings be ruled by cruel and capricious whims of revenge, insecurity, fear, hatred, or xenophobia. Laws, societies, and individuals would stand on a foundation of rational principles. No individual or body would rise above rule of law.
The enlightenment was thought of as humanity moving forward, away from the horror and terror of the cowardice and immaturity of the feudal past toward true justice and equality before the law. It's primary ideological antithesis would be the Divine Right of Kings.
Enlightenment ideas had fit nicely with the emerging and growing hunger of capitalism. And capitalism would provide high octane, energizing and propelling the language of the enlightenment into legislation and into our homes. The emerging bourgeois classes had tangible and pragmatic reasons to cast aside the oppressive weight of superstition and tradition. Contractual rights as opposed to traditional or arbitrary power would feed into the increasing power of the capitalist classes and correspondingly reduce the right of Kings. The enlightenment was a key element to the capitalist revolution.
The general thrust was nothing new. Initiatives aimed at the establishment of free and egalitarian societies are as old as civilization. Prior to the enlightenment there have been countless dead-end revolutions whose goal it was to establish freedom, democracy, and egalitarian principles. Almost all have no legacy. These kind of movements were deemed terrorist or anti-monarch and ruthlessly obliterated.
The general thread of thinking known as the enlightenment were preceded by two principles that are foundational to the rational rule of law have survived and, similarly to enlightenment ideas, are vital to maintain the principles of a free and rational civilization. They are the "Great Writ" (habeas corpus) and the Magna Charta.
Habeas corpus empowers the courts to direct any authority that holds an individual in custody to show cause to the court why the individual's liberty is denied within a reasonable amount of time. If no substantial reason is provided, the individual must be set free. It is a fundamental guarantee of liberty and any free society should have no difficulty with anything as basic as habeas corpus.
The Magna Charta, written in 1215, also ensures that 'no free man shall be taken or imprisoned... except by judgement of his peers or by the law of the land'. It ensures that no man is above the law - including monarchs.
An Altered Trajectory
In the past decade or so, the United States and its subjects under NATO have skilfully changed the political syntax of the modern world. They are passing the boundary that separates free countries from autocracies and oligarchies in the dead of night. They do not deny that they are doing it; on the contrary. They do it while they scream at us to shut up; terrorists are about to strike. In fact, they use terrorist acts to justify the introduction of the language of fascism. Hitler did precisely the same thing with the fire at the Reichstag. The fire at the Reichstag was crucial to the establishment of Nazi Germany.
The latest example of this is Obama’s openly sneaking past the 60 day deadline that is required, by law, to obtain congressional approval for war with Libya. Amid Ron Paul’s protests, Obama walked silently by the deadline where his actions in Libya would have gained the legal seal of approval. Obama is breaking the law intentionally and showing open contempt for the rule of law. This, along with a pattern that has started in GW Bush’s Presidency, is an intentional policy and the goal is to change the overall definition of the state's power over rule of law. Its aim - to lift the state above the rule of law. It is easily done against larger than life terrorists, extremists, insurgents, and so on and the terms 'terrorist', 'extremist', and 'insurgent' and examples of the language of fascism.
Previous to the war against Libya, Obama has openly called for the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen (Al Awlaki) without the benefit of trial or charges or any sort of legal process. Obama made an attempt at assassinating him (killing two Yemeni citizens) one week after carrying out the extra judicial killing of Osama bin Laden. Political assassinations are currently auditioning for general acceptance. Gaddafi appears to be next in line. In each and every case the state carries out its transgression through a politically popular directive or operation. If there are complaints, they are easily ignored. After all, these people are terrorists and the state is making us safe from terrorism. The question that needs to be asked is; Who is making us safe from the state?
Prior to this, there has been whispered acknowledgment that the state may torture, utilize collective punishment, spy on citizens and generally ignore the fundamental precepts that have been the basis of modern common law and civil law. And from these bases the constitutional principles of all legal frameworks in the developed West find their footing. Without that footing, without that principled base, we have no logical basis of protection against arbitrary state power.
It is openly acknowledged and generally accepted that the President of the United States and the United States has a role in global governance. The United States may invade where it sees fit, ostensibly to correct a human rights violation or to install democracy. This acknowledgement must be observed through the lens that acknowledges the United States as a tool utilized for imperial and corporate conquest. The notion that the United States or any other nation has power over nation's sovereignty part and parcel of the syntax of fascism. To ruling elites, national sovereignty is treated with the same contempt as is the rule of law.
Children of Feudal Power
While rule of law and individual freedom are adhered to within the formal structures of the state, residual feudalism maintains some currency within the scope of social norms. Traditional ideas about women, gays, the church and so on maintain traditional adherents and followers. The counter culture revolution of the 60s and the mass movement of individuals from rural to urban centres have been devastating blows to traditional ideas. The cultural syntax of residual feudalism however, impacts everything from casual conversations to high level policy decisions in the most developed and modern societies. This syntax typically manifests from the right wing and as a general rule, the further to the right, the healthier the demon is. And it is this language, with all its assumptions, values, and beliefs that will be the fertilizer that will promote a flourishing and dangerous new display of fascistic rule.
Donald Trump in his recent scare (to run for President of the United States) openly stated that the United States should bomb them and take the oil. Who 'them' is, is not important. By 'them' he means anybody. And his suggestion would be repeated in barbershops around the country. The widespread acceptance of this very dangerous and violent mentality is similar to attitudes in Germany after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
We have evolved from feudal power where it was openly acknowledged that might makes right. Naked reliance on violence and fear is what legitimized the power of monarchs. The state was an openly violent and oppressive institution. Power rested in the hands of Kings that could make arbitrary decisions based on His own highly charged emotions like revenge, fear, or greed.
The Divine Right of Kings gave way to the power of parliament and the people. It empowered reason and we could all rest well knowing that reason, and not arbitrary violence, guarded our rights as human beings. Political action has been utilized, with rational law as a legitimizing base, to render many static feudal attitudes archaic. Thus, the liberal West has led the way in liberating women, gay people, and visible minorities from state oppression. And, in the West, social attitudes have been catching up to legislation that is based in rational law. The trajectory has been increasingly directed toward laws, followed by common attitudes, becoming increasingly rational. That basis has made us all sleep well at night knowing that the world has improved and has become far less violent and will continue to do so.
The Elephant in the Room
The power of language maintains much of its power by its 'hidden in plain sight' yet subconscious assimilation of implicit meaning, valuing, and perspective. It has the power to change our minds while we are unaware of the overarching syntax and structural context. It is language that can deepen our collective acceptance of state power.
The genius that has plied you to buy Sham Wow or New and Improved Tide pales in comparison to the maestros that tell you what to think about and how to think about it. The syntax of fascism is bombarding you with 'enhanced interrogation', 'collateral damage', or 'extrajudicial killing'. The context of this is Tony Blair loudly proclaiming that 'radical Islam' is the greatest threat facing the world today. It is President Obama openly killing people that he deems enemies in cold blood without trial or due process. This is the backdrop to the Anders Brevik murders in Norway. These murders were encouraged by the climate of fear and xenophobia that has emerged, mostly against Muslims, since 9 11. He is, in effect, an expression of the American State Department. He is a parrot and a harbinger of things to come. It is written in the language. It is the language of patriotism, security, and xenophobia. It is the language of power, violence, and war. The menacing Jew of the 1930s has been replaced with today's radical Muslim.
Let's be clear. There is one nation leading the chorus and directing the speech of cowardice, hatred, and intolerance. And that nation is the United States of America. Throughout their political ranks and throughout their media, the over the top nationalism and patriotism has the rest of the world on edge. It is getting frightening.
In the name of their 'national security' they have increasingly used the language of fascism. The United States have reacted to their own fire at the Reichstag with utter contempt for their own Constitution. Instead of showing determination to not let a terrorist act change them, as they appear to be doing in Norway, the United States has shown, shamefully, all the bravado of a cornered rat. This is not America's finest hour.
A New Normal
One propaganda term that has been thrown around in recent years is ' the new normal'. It is designed to have us accept that things will be different from now on. The point is, we don't have to accept it.
The collapse of the robust American economy has been coming for some time now. The collapse of manufacturing has been intentional and planned. In the 1980s people began talking about free trade, about competing in the global marketplace, becoming lean and mean, about globalization. A new glossary was opened and we had to become accustomed to a myriad of new gimmick-like Orwellian terms. And there was significant 'blowback' culminating in the 'battle in Seattle'. The riots and protests in Seattle were not the manageable single issue protests authorities were used to. They were anti-capitalist protests. This was a major red flag in ruling circles.
The attacks on 9 11 seems to have changed that developing protest movement. Suddenly, somebody burned down the Reighstag. People were now suspect, especially Muslims. Everything became a threat to national security. It became dangerous to be anti-American, especially in America.
And since that time, the new normal has been a precipitous erosion of rights and freedoms in the Western world. Wedges are continually driven between the world we have become accustomed to; a world shaped through hundreds of years of wars, protests, and courageous politicians and citizens, a world that is the child of the enlightenment, and the world of arbitrary state power.
And as America demands more control and say over how other nations do our business, we need to consider to some extent we are all in the same boat. It isn't just a problem for American citizens. Canadian, Australian, British governments all toe the line as do the governments of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.
In the United States, while they wrestle with the mind boggling debt, they maintain over 800 military bases all over the world and the Department of Homeland Security has provided "$31 billion in grants since 2003 to state and local governments for homeland security and to improve their ability to find and protect against terrorists, including $3.8 billion in 2010. "
There is an old saying. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Or, just because a lot of crackpots thrive on conspiracy theories doesn't mean conspiracies don't exist.
The propaganda machine has been working overtime of late. We must maintain our capacity for critical reflection and thinking. We are entering uncharted waters. The last time they wore brown shirts, jackboots, and displayed swastikas. They spewed a specific kind of rhetoric. They appealed to certain kinds of fears.
This time it will not bear the exact signature of Mussolini or Adolph Hitler. In fact, it will be consciously displayed with different colours. But the fundamentals will remain. And those fundamentals are: state power over the rule of law, extreme nationalism, xenophobia, imperialism, systematic propaganda, state and corporate collusion, and endless war.
Throughout history there have been types and sub types of fascism ruling most of us. Monarchical power is a form of fascism. And the cancer has not been eradicated. It has been in remission. But there are some bad signs.
And let us not forget that those that perpetuate it are not necessarily bad people. They are merely speaking their mother tongue. They are still developing through feudal darkness. But our drive to freedom, justice, democracy, and equality has always prevented tyrants from fully exhaling. It is because you and me, like the generations of people that have lived and died before us, will always speak in the syntax of our mother tongue.
The syntax of fascism isn’t about fascism proper. It is about the attitude of fascism. We must be careful we don’t lose sight of the broad strokes as authors of the syntax of fascism demand that we pay close attention to the details. They will say, this is not fascism or that is not fascism because it doesn’t meet this or that criteria. In the meantime, the caravan moves along and we, the little dogs bark with little or no effect.
It is a language, a way of defining the situation that normalizes public executions, torture, and the dropping of bombs on populations. It is this use of language and means of prioritizing and valuing that is the pernicious cancer that rots away at the principles of human rights, democracy, and freedom. The syntax of fascism is common and is contained within the archaic structures of feudalism. In its simplicity it states unequivocally that might makes right. The feudal world was built on yesterday’s equivalent of street gangs or mafia. Whoever was the most violent, whoever evokes the most fear, was he who was in power.
The Language of Enlightenment
The language of the enlightenment empowered reason as the arbiter of principles and laws. And it is this language that the United States of America is founded upon. It is the language of Thomas Paine, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Kant observed that the enlightenment would put an end to Monarchic and clerical arbitrary power. An informed and thinking population will demand that reason and principles are placed above the morbid and vicious rule of the dark regions of human emotion. Kant said of the enlightenment that it is the freedom for the individual to use his or her own intelligence. More broadly, it demanded rule of law. No longer would human beings be ruled by cruel and capricious whims of revenge, insecurity, fear, hatred, or xenophobia. Laws, societies, and individuals would stand on a foundation of rational principles. No individual or body would rise above rule of law.
The enlightenment was thought of as humanity moving forward, away from the horror and terror of the cowardice and immaturity of the feudal past toward true justice and equality before the law. It's primary ideological antithesis would be the Divine Right of Kings.
Enlightenment ideas had fit nicely with the emerging and growing hunger of capitalism. And capitalism would provide high octane, energizing and propelling the language of the enlightenment into legislation and into our homes. The emerging bourgeois classes had tangible and pragmatic reasons to cast aside the oppressive weight of superstition and tradition. Contractual rights as opposed to traditional or arbitrary power would feed into the increasing power of the capitalist classes and correspondingly reduce the right of Kings. The enlightenment was a key element to the capitalist revolution.
The general thrust was nothing new. Initiatives aimed at the establishment of free and egalitarian societies are as old as civilization. Prior to the enlightenment there have been countless dead-end revolutions whose goal it was to establish freedom, democracy, and egalitarian principles. Almost all have no legacy. These kind of movements were deemed terrorist or anti-monarch and ruthlessly obliterated.
The general thread of thinking known as the enlightenment were preceded by two principles that are foundational to the rational rule of law have survived and, similarly to enlightenment ideas, are vital to maintain the principles of a free and rational civilization. They are the "Great Writ" (habeas corpus) and the Magna Charta.
Habeas corpus empowers the courts to direct any authority that holds an individual in custody to show cause to the court why the individual's liberty is denied within a reasonable amount of time. If no substantial reason is provided, the individual must be set free. It is a fundamental guarantee of liberty and any free society should have no difficulty with anything as basic as habeas corpus.
The Magna Charta, written in 1215, also ensures that 'no free man shall be taken or imprisoned... except by judgement of his peers or by the law of the land'. It ensures that no man is above the law - including monarchs.
An Altered Trajectory
In the past decade or so, the United States and its subjects under NATO have skilfully changed the political syntax of the modern world. They are passing the boundary that separates free countries from autocracies and oligarchies in the dead of night. They do not deny that they are doing it; on the contrary. They do it while they scream at us to shut up; terrorists are about to strike. In fact, they use terrorist acts to justify the introduction of the language of fascism. Hitler did precisely the same thing with the fire at the Reichstag. The fire at the Reichstag was crucial to the establishment of Nazi Germany.
The latest example of this is Obama’s openly sneaking past the 60 day deadline that is required, by law, to obtain congressional approval for war with Libya. Amid Ron Paul’s protests, Obama walked silently by the deadline where his actions in Libya would have gained the legal seal of approval. Obama is breaking the law intentionally and showing open contempt for the rule of law. This, along with a pattern that has started in GW Bush’s Presidency, is an intentional policy and the goal is to change the overall definition of the state's power over rule of law. Its aim - to lift the state above the rule of law. It is easily done against larger than life terrorists, extremists, insurgents, and so on and the terms 'terrorist', 'extremist', and 'insurgent' and examples of the language of fascism.
Previous to the war against Libya, Obama has openly called for the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen (Al Awlaki) without the benefit of trial or charges or any sort of legal process. Obama made an attempt at assassinating him (killing two Yemeni citizens) one week after carrying out the extra judicial killing of Osama bin Laden. Political assassinations are currently auditioning for general acceptance. Gaddafi appears to be next in line. In each and every case the state carries out its transgression through a politically popular directive or operation. If there are complaints, they are easily ignored. After all, these people are terrorists and the state is making us safe from terrorism. The question that needs to be asked is; Who is making us safe from the state?
Prior to this, there has been whispered acknowledgment that the state may torture, utilize collective punishment, spy on citizens and generally ignore the fundamental precepts that have been the basis of modern common law and civil law. And from these bases the constitutional principles of all legal frameworks in the developed West find their footing. Without that footing, without that principled base, we have no logical basis of protection against arbitrary state power.
It is openly acknowledged and generally accepted that the President of the United States and the United States has a role in global governance. The United States may invade where it sees fit, ostensibly to correct a human rights violation or to install democracy. This acknowledgement must be observed through the lens that acknowledges the United States as a tool utilized for imperial and corporate conquest. The notion that the United States or any other nation has power over nation's sovereignty part and parcel of the syntax of fascism. To ruling elites, national sovereignty is treated with the same contempt as is the rule of law.
Children of Feudal Power
While rule of law and individual freedom are adhered to within the formal structures of the state, residual feudalism maintains some currency within the scope of social norms. Traditional ideas about women, gays, the church and so on maintain traditional adherents and followers. The counter culture revolution of the 60s and the mass movement of individuals from rural to urban centres have been devastating blows to traditional ideas. The cultural syntax of residual feudalism however, impacts everything from casual conversations to high level policy decisions in the most developed and modern societies. This syntax typically manifests from the right wing and as a general rule, the further to the right, the healthier the demon is. And it is this language, with all its assumptions, values, and beliefs that will be the fertilizer that will promote a flourishing and dangerous new display of fascistic rule.
Donald Trump in his recent scare (to run for President of the United States) openly stated that the United States should bomb them and take the oil. Who 'them' is, is not important. By 'them' he means anybody. And his suggestion would be repeated in barbershops around the country. The widespread acceptance of this very dangerous and violent mentality is similar to attitudes in Germany after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
We have evolved from feudal power where it was openly acknowledged that might makes right. Naked reliance on violence and fear is what legitimized the power of monarchs. The state was an openly violent and oppressive institution. Power rested in the hands of Kings that could make arbitrary decisions based on His own highly charged emotions like revenge, fear, or greed.
The Divine Right of Kings gave way to the power of parliament and the people. It empowered reason and we could all rest well knowing that reason, and not arbitrary violence, guarded our rights as human beings. Political action has been utilized, with rational law as a legitimizing base, to render many static feudal attitudes archaic. Thus, the liberal West has led the way in liberating women, gay people, and visible minorities from state oppression. And, in the West, social attitudes have been catching up to legislation that is based in rational law. The trajectory has been increasingly directed toward laws, followed by common attitudes, becoming increasingly rational. That basis has made us all sleep well at night knowing that the world has improved and has become far less violent and will continue to do so.
The Elephant in the Room
The power of language maintains much of its power by its 'hidden in plain sight' yet subconscious assimilation of implicit meaning, valuing, and perspective. It has the power to change our minds while we are unaware of the overarching syntax and structural context. It is language that can deepen our collective acceptance of state power.
The genius that has plied you to buy Sham Wow or New and Improved Tide pales in comparison to the maestros that tell you what to think about and how to think about it. The syntax of fascism is bombarding you with 'enhanced interrogation', 'collateral damage', or 'extrajudicial killing'. The context of this is Tony Blair loudly proclaiming that 'radical Islam' is the greatest threat facing the world today. It is President Obama openly killing people that he deems enemies in cold blood without trial or due process. This is the backdrop to the Anders Brevik murders in Norway. These murders were encouraged by the climate of fear and xenophobia that has emerged, mostly against Muslims, since 9 11. He is, in effect, an expression of the American State Department. He is a parrot and a harbinger of things to come. It is written in the language. It is the language of patriotism, security, and xenophobia. It is the language of power, violence, and war. The menacing Jew of the 1930s has been replaced with today's radical Muslim.
Let's be clear. There is one nation leading the chorus and directing the speech of cowardice, hatred, and intolerance. And that nation is the United States of America. Throughout their political ranks and throughout their media, the over the top nationalism and patriotism has the rest of the world on edge. It is getting frightening.
In the name of their 'national security' they have increasingly used the language of fascism. The United States have reacted to their own fire at the Reichstag with utter contempt for their own Constitution. Instead of showing determination to not let a terrorist act change them, as they appear to be doing in Norway, the United States has shown, shamefully, all the bravado of a cornered rat. This is not America's finest hour.
A New Normal
One propaganda term that has been thrown around in recent years is ' the new normal'. It is designed to have us accept that things will be different from now on. The point is, we don't have to accept it.
The collapse of the robust American economy has been coming for some time now. The collapse of manufacturing has been intentional and planned. In the 1980s people began talking about free trade, about competing in the global marketplace, becoming lean and mean, about globalization. A new glossary was opened and we had to become accustomed to a myriad of new gimmick-like Orwellian terms. And there was significant 'blowback' culminating in the 'battle in Seattle'. The riots and protests in Seattle were not the manageable single issue protests authorities were used to. They were anti-capitalist protests. This was a major red flag in ruling circles.
The attacks on 9 11 seems to have changed that developing protest movement. Suddenly, somebody burned down the Reighstag. People were now suspect, especially Muslims. Everything became a threat to national security. It became dangerous to be anti-American, especially in America.
And since that time, the new normal has been a precipitous erosion of rights and freedoms in the Western world. Wedges are continually driven between the world we have become accustomed to; a world shaped through hundreds of years of wars, protests, and courageous politicians and citizens, a world that is the child of the enlightenment, and the world of arbitrary state power.
And as America demands more control and say over how other nations do our business, we need to consider to some extent we are all in the same boat. It isn't just a problem for American citizens. Canadian, Australian, British governments all toe the line as do the governments of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.
In the United States, while they wrestle with the mind boggling debt, they maintain over 800 military bases all over the world and the Department of Homeland Security has provided "$31 billion in grants since 2003 to state and local governments for homeland security and to improve their ability to find and protect against terrorists, including $3.8 billion in 2010. "
There is an old saying. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Or, just because a lot of crackpots thrive on conspiracy theories doesn't mean conspiracies don't exist.
The propaganda machine has been working overtime of late. We must maintain our capacity for critical reflection and thinking. We are entering uncharted waters. The last time they wore brown shirts, jackboots, and displayed swastikas. They spewed a specific kind of rhetoric. They appealed to certain kinds of fears.
This time it will not bear the exact signature of Mussolini or Adolph Hitler. In fact, it will be consciously displayed with different colours. But the fundamentals will remain. And those fundamentals are: state power over the rule of law, extreme nationalism, xenophobia, imperialism, systematic propaganda, state and corporate collusion, and endless war.
Throughout history there have been types and sub types of fascism ruling most of us. Monarchical power is a form of fascism. And the cancer has not been eradicated. It has been in remission. But there are some bad signs.
And let us not forget that those that perpetuate it are not necessarily bad people. They are merely speaking their mother tongue. They are still developing through feudal darkness. But our drive to freedom, justice, democracy, and equality has always prevented tyrants from fully exhaling. It is because you and me, like the generations of people that have lived and died before us, will always speak in the syntax of our mother tongue.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Workers of the World Unite...
'The more things change, the more they remain the same'. This rather hokey expression seems almost prophetic nowadays. In the past few decades homes have been equipped with technology that would be inconceivable a generation ago. It has illuminated and connected every corner of the globe. And yet, there are 18 million empty homes in the United States of America while 3.5 million are homeless. That works out to about 5 empty homes for every homeless person. Manufacturing plants rust as millions remain unemployed. The stock market is soaring, billionaires are making billions, and there isn't enough money to pay teachers.
The analysis of Karl Marx, believed archaic and irrelevant only a few short years ago, have again become highly relevant. Our social and economic conditions, for all the bluster and noise of the 20th century, are fundamentally unchanged from where they were in the 1800s.
The 20th century was a time of optimism. The American dream was validated. The radicalism of the previous century was forgotten after World War 2. Radicals like Karl Marx were proven to be wrong. Since 2008 however, the jury has reconvened. And in that jury box we come cannot help but be impressed. Consider, for an example, these two quotes from the Communist Manifesto, written 1848:
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.
And...
Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes.
If Marx were alive today, if he were witness to the struggles through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and America he would not be surprised. He saw it coming. He saw it coming because he understood the nature of capitalism.
While we may not want to run out and join our local band of communists, we may want to reconsider many of the observations that were relevant in the 19th century not only from Marx, but from others. Strangely enough, for all the progress we have made over the past century, we seem to be back, more or less, where we started from.
Social Democracy
Through the latter part of the 20th century, the belief that we were on the right track was widespread. It seemed the sky was the limit. That the energy of private capitalism would eventually float all boats. This success depended greatly on the influence of Fabian Socialism.
In Canada, progressive voters tend to vote for the New Democratic Party. In the UK, they vote Labour and in the USA, they vote Democrat. Fabian principles represented by social democratic policies pushed for universal medical care, state pensions, adequate social assistance and so on. Tremendous gains have been made and unions helped ensure that workers were paid decent wages. This all contributed to vastly increased demand for goods and services and in turn, manufacturing firms thrived.
Since the 1980s small business owners would parrot the ideological madness of right wing predators, unwittingly taking part in their own demise. Globalization, cuts to social services, cuts in union wages were all initiatives they supported. Used like useful idiots, they too fell victim to the ravages of monopoly capitalism and its concomitant neo-liberal ideology. They didn't know it, but the social democrats (aka socialists) they decried were their collective meal ticket. The attack has been especially virulent in the USA where the term 'socialism' has become unequivocally pejorative.
Austerity budgets are turning social progress back to 1930s levels, rendering the gains made by unions and progressive social democrats over the decades, void. Three decades of cries to 'get lean and mean' in the New World Order's race to the bottom has resulted in the middle class getting lean and the billionaire class meaner than ever.
Utterly Powerless
We now live in a time of ruthless, predatory capitalism. It takes no prisoners and when it does, it tortures them. Since the 1980s workers have faced stark choices. Threats to move manufacturing abroad have actually been promises. Unions have become crippled and powerless.
The influence of social democratic idealism has been relegated to non economic issues. For example, social democrats may still make progress in terms of women's and minority rights or other types of soft liberal legislation but when it comes to anything related to money, the soft left is powerless. While the Governor of Wisconsin rapes the workers, and while workers are under attack in every corner of the Western world, the elites maintain and increase their wealth and power. The stock market thrives while the people on the street suffer. And the war on the working class is just beginning.
The two pillars of working class strength, strong unions and public spending, have been reduced to ineffective shadows of their former selves. The social democratic response is limited to asking for more, for a larger piece of the pie. That is because the fundamental ideology of social democratic movements and parties are reformist. The aim is to reform capitalism; to redistribute wealth. In the past this objective has been met in some places more so than in others. And if we learn anything from history, we know that you don't 'ask' the billionaire class for anything. You demand and you are prepared to back your demands, or stay home.
Today, unions are powerless because the bosses have become radical and right wing to the extreme. The only principles they adhere to beyond cold pragmaticism are cold and calculating neo liberal policies, policies that boldly proclaim, it's every man for himself. Sink or swim. They would rather ship jobs away or close shop than negotiate. Social democratic political parties merely parrot the wishes and policies of the private sector. If social democrats want to strengthen the safety net, a powerful assault from the right, from bond rating agencies and even the IMF will efficiently put them down.
The Growth of Monopolism
The ideology that best serves the monstrosity that is monopolism is neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism was proclaimed the New World Order by disciples such as Reagan, Thatcher, the Bushes, and fascists like Pinochet in Chile. And it has been followed to the letter by 'new labour' and other so called moderate Western governments.
Neo-liberalism isn't in fact neo (or new). It is essentially the doctrine of laissez faire economics; the doctrine that suggests that the market is self correcting if governments would stop meddling. It abhors social programs and public infrastructure. It is rehashed classical economics. It is worth noting that when the crisis of 2008 occurred, those same neo liberal ideologues that caused the crises in the first place saw nothing wrong with socialism for the ultra wealthy.
Neo liberal policies have been devastating for developing countries. Enforced by the IMF and the World Bank, they ensure easy pickings for the vultures. Loans are conditional on the recipient nations adherence to widespread privatization, further impoverishing those that need aid.
There is nothing stable about capitalism. To survive, it needs constant growth. It is a virus and a virulent one at that. It has exploited the post industrial world and is no longer satisfied with the terms of exploitation. It has naturally gone where it can get the most bang for its buck.
The old and cozy arrangement where business would invest to the satisfaction of local politicians and in turn receive favourable treatment in terms of taxes, standards, regulations, and subsidies isn't enough. Now they are coming for the social safety net. They will scour the meat from every bone before they are through with us. They are salivating at the profits that could be made if they could privatize Canadian and European public health care. They will privatize those programs, it is only a matter of time.
Class War
The fight back is just beginning. The people of Wisconsin, North Africa and the Middle East have been the first to stand up in this immense struggle; a struggle we cannot afford to lose. We are locked in and there is no turning back. The virus is pernicious and can't be reformed. That ship has sailed. Who or whatever within that system is humane or soft will perish. A CEO that may decide to increase wages or offer better benefits will be thrown to the wolves and with good reason. If they don't, a more ruthless and efficient enterprise will destroy us.
We live in interesting times. Whether we want to or not, we are in a fight for our lives. We need to be clear about that and we need to understand, the enemy does not respect weakness. They have not a wisp of fear. They believe we are powerless. And that will be their fatal mistake.
The time has come to organize general strikes from Beijing to Mumbai, from Al Jubayl to Tel Aviv, from Wisconsin to Lima and from London to Moscow.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
The analysis of Karl Marx, believed archaic and irrelevant only a few short years ago, have again become highly relevant. Our social and economic conditions, for all the bluster and noise of the 20th century, are fundamentally unchanged from where they were in the 1800s.
The 20th century was a time of optimism. The American dream was validated. The radicalism of the previous century was forgotten after World War 2. Radicals like Karl Marx were proven to be wrong. Since 2008 however, the jury has reconvened. And in that jury box we come cannot help but be impressed. Consider, for an example, these two quotes from the Communist Manifesto, written 1848:
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.
And...
Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes.
If Marx were alive today, if he were witness to the struggles through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and America he would not be surprised. He saw it coming. He saw it coming because he understood the nature of capitalism.
While we may not want to run out and join our local band of communists, we may want to reconsider many of the observations that were relevant in the 19th century not only from Marx, but from others. Strangely enough, for all the progress we have made over the past century, we seem to be back, more or less, where we started from.
Social Democracy
Through the latter part of the 20th century, the belief that we were on the right track was widespread. It seemed the sky was the limit. That the energy of private capitalism would eventually float all boats. This success depended greatly on the influence of Fabian Socialism.
In Canada, progressive voters tend to vote for the New Democratic Party. In the UK, they vote Labour and in the USA, they vote Democrat. Fabian principles represented by social democratic policies pushed for universal medical care, state pensions, adequate social assistance and so on. Tremendous gains have been made and unions helped ensure that workers were paid decent wages. This all contributed to vastly increased demand for goods and services and in turn, manufacturing firms thrived.
Since the 1980s small business owners would parrot the ideological madness of right wing predators, unwittingly taking part in their own demise. Globalization, cuts to social services, cuts in union wages were all initiatives they supported. Used like useful idiots, they too fell victim to the ravages of monopoly capitalism and its concomitant neo-liberal ideology. They didn't know it, but the social democrats (aka socialists) they decried were their collective meal ticket. The attack has been especially virulent in the USA where the term 'socialism' has become unequivocally pejorative.
Austerity budgets are turning social progress back to 1930s levels, rendering the gains made by unions and progressive social democrats over the decades, void. Three decades of cries to 'get lean and mean' in the New World Order's race to the bottom has resulted in the middle class getting lean and the billionaire class meaner than ever.
Utterly Powerless
We now live in a time of ruthless, predatory capitalism. It takes no prisoners and when it does, it tortures them. Since the 1980s workers have faced stark choices. Threats to move manufacturing abroad have actually been promises. Unions have become crippled and powerless.
The influence of social democratic idealism has been relegated to non economic issues. For example, social democrats may still make progress in terms of women's and minority rights or other types of soft liberal legislation but when it comes to anything related to money, the soft left is powerless. While the Governor of Wisconsin rapes the workers, and while workers are under attack in every corner of the Western world, the elites maintain and increase their wealth and power. The stock market thrives while the people on the street suffer. And the war on the working class is just beginning.
The two pillars of working class strength, strong unions and public spending, have been reduced to ineffective shadows of their former selves. The social democratic response is limited to asking for more, for a larger piece of the pie. That is because the fundamental ideology of social democratic movements and parties are reformist. The aim is to reform capitalism; to redistribute wealth. In the past this objective has been met in some places more so than in others. And if we learn anything from history, we know that you don't 'ask' the billionaire class for anything. You demand and you are prepared to back your demands, or stay home.
Today, unions are powerless because the bosses have become radical and right wing to the extreme. The only principles they adhere to beyond cold pragmaticism are cold and calculating neo liberal policies, policies that boldly proclaim, it's every man
The Growth of Monopolism
The ideology that best serves the monstrosity that is monopolism is neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism was proclaimed the New World Order by disciples such as Reagan, Thatcher, the Bushes, and fascists like Pinochet in Chile. And it has been followed to the letter by 'new labour' and other so called moderate Western governments.
Neo-liberalism isn't in fact neo (or new). It is essentially the doctrine of laissez faire economics; the doctrine that suggests that the market is self correcting if governments would stop meddling. It abhors social programs and public infrastructure. It is rehashed classical economics. It is worth noting that when the crisis of 2008 occurred, those same neo liberal ideologues that caused the crises in the first place saw nothing wrong with socialism for the ultra wealthy.
Neo liberal policies have been devastating for developing countries. Enforced by the IMF and the World Bank, they ensure easy pickings for the vultures. Loans are conditional on the recipient nations adherence to widespread privatization, further impoverishing those that need aid.
There is nothing stable about capitalism. To survive, it needs constant growth. It is a virus and a virulent one at that. It has exploited the post industrial world and is no longer satisfied with the terms of exploitation. It has naturally gone where it can get the most bang for its buck.
The old and cozy arrangement where business would invest to the satisfaction of local politicians and in turn receive favourable treatment in terms of taxes, standards, regulations, and subsidies isn't enough. Now they are coming for the social safety net. They will scour the meat from every bone before they are through with us. They are salivating at the profits that could be made if they could privatize Canadian and European public health care. They will privatize those programs, it is only a matter of time.
Class War
The fight back is just beginning. The people of Wisconsin, North Africa and the Middle East have been the first to stand up in this immense struggle; a struggle we cannot afford to lose. We are locked in and there is no turning back. The virus is pernicious and can't be reformed. That ship has sailed. Who or whatever within that system is humane or soft will perish. A CEO that may decide to increase wages or offer better benefits will be thrown to the wolves and with good reason. If they don't, a more ruthless and efficient enterprise will destroy us.
We live in interesting times. Whether we want to or not, we are in a fight for our lives. We need to be clear about that and we need to understand, the enemy does not respect weakness. They have not a wisp of fear. They believe we are powerless. And that will be their fatal mistake.
The time has come to organize general strikes from Beijing to Mumbai, from Al Jubayl to Tel Aviv, from Wisconsin to Lima and from London to Moscow.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Social Mutations and Global Strain
There is nothing natural about much of the social and economic realities we struggle with. We can't conflate what is natural with what we have gotten used to. The social and economic order has been artificially altered for centuries for the convenience and pleasure of his majesty. Currently 'his majesty' is Barack Obama, the figurehead leading the Empire. Artificial contortions can only be maintained so long and eventually, something's got to give.
We are witnessing numerous fractures due to ongoing conditions of artificial social tension. North Africa and Middle Eastern States that have been carved up, artificially, by Western powers, whose populations have long been repressed are now demanding an end to the contrived dictatorships that have held them down. They want nothing more than a modicum of normalcy. They want their kids to be happy.
Western powers have a long history of creating conditions of arbitrary boundaries, malevolent alliances, and methods of turning local populations against each other. It is hard to think of a place, including places in close proximity to the core of empires that have not been victims of quite arbitrary social gerrymandering based on nothing more than cultural or religious differences. Even within national boundaries of the empire, people have been artificially pitted against each other. This was enforced and wilful favouritism to one group over another enhanced acrimonious relations. In most places on the globe, divide and conquer strategies ignited conflicts between people that had previously got along living in close proximity to each other.
What is happening today has been happening for a long, long time.
Class Strain
Historically, empires have favoured their own home team. They have been swayed by notions of patriotism and loyalty to some extent. Those of us that have lived within the belly of the beast, inside the Empire's hegemony have received favoured treatment until quite recently. To some extent, we have been a privileged class even if we were poor and unemployed. To be unemployed and poor north of the Rio Grande is nothing like being poor south of the Rio Grande. That is but one of many divisions that have set working class populations apart from each other. As a whole, we have turned a blind eye to the murderous rampages unleashed by politicians with the odd exception; like Vietnam. Generally, we gave the ruling classes a wide berth. The general consensus was, they know what they're doing and whatever it is they do, we're getting something out of it. Our standard of living legitimized them no matter how cruel and treacherous they were to people in the so called, third world.
But then came globalization and now that consensus is rapidly changing. The ruling classes and their political henchmen began to flirt with the Chinese, the Mexicans, and other third world populations. Those of us that read Marx knew they would. Like thieves in the night they silently and efficiently dismantled the manufacturing plants and stole them from under us. They took them to places where they could manufacture for less money. If we didn't see working class people in the third world as brothers and sisters before, we will now. Let's hope they forgive us.
We might want to look at the glass as half full. We might think for a moment, 'globalization will bring the people in the third world up to the standard of living we have become accustomed to'. A glimpse of our current situation shows that in fact, the glass really is half empty. Its only 'half full' for the banksters and corporations. Our current trajectory has non aboriginal North Americans entering, for the first time, the third world. It's a class thing. The original inhabitants of North America currently live in third world conditions in many areas.
If you had considered the ruling elites to be loyal to Americans, Canadians, or any other 'White country', a look at history shows that our standard of living was not as much a gift from the ruling elites as it was the result of long and hard struggles against them. It was also a conspiracy of sorts to dampen revolutionary sentiments. It was a very real fear. John Maynard Keynes exposed that fear when he spoke of the possibility of revolution within the heart of the Empire and the need to subvert it with redistribution mechanisms. Keynes was vehemently anti-communist. He said, "the class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie". He understood that the artificial social and financial strain that is a necessary condition to maintain wealth and power for the privileged few could give way to the citizenry taking control of the both the wealth of the land and the state. He worried, as did others, of the outcome that could result if this were to occur. To alleviate it, it was necessary to spend in order to develop healthy public infrastructure, especially when the going got rough. Keynes polices were a pressure relief valve. Between Keynesianism and intense unions battles, our standard of living had become the envy of the world and the reality of tension between the classes was out of sight - out of mind.
Building Tension
Since the 1980s, politicians, the media, and various collaborators with the ruling elites have managed to hide the increasing and latent enmity between the classes within the Empire's hegemony. They continue to do this as the strain increases to alarming proportions.
In the 1980s they began to dismantle manufacturing plants to send them abroad. That is when the politicians and mainstream media beat the free trade drum the hardest. The neo liberal economists said, in unison, America had been protectionist long enough, it's time to compete globally, to expand global markets. While the Empire's domestic leftists were screaming bloody murder, investors were making a killing.
As the capacity to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour diminished, the manufacturing heart of the Empire was contracted out . The catch phrase, 'what's good for GM is good for America' turned out to be a lie. Neither GM nor any other corporation has a patriotic bone in its ethereal body. Corporations are simple money making machines. It doesn't care how or where it does it. Those most loyal to the whole American dream must feel betrayed.
The whole thing was an artificial situation in the first place. There never was anything natural about the vast gap between the people of Tijuana and the people of San Diego. It was simply one more spurious division between people of what is in reality, the same working class. The fact that we were favoured by the hegemonic rulers does not change the reality that we all have far more in common with each other than we do with members of the ruling class. However, our realities are substantially different. It needs to be acknowledged that we have historically turned away from the plight of our brothers and sisters in the periphery of the American hegemony. Life for workers is very different, depending on what side of the Rio Grande you live on. But that is changing and it is changing fast. It is a matter of time when we all live in the same miserable circumstances.
The Empire has abandoned us after all the wars we fought for them, after all the wealth we created for them and after all the apologies we voiced on their behalf. In many ways, we had it coming. We should learn to be careful about the kind of scum we crawl in bed with.
While financial bubbles maintained an artificial economy, they only managed to hide the underlying rot beneath it. The bubble burst and the rot was exposed. And in spite of the fact that shocking and utterly soulless criminal behaviour was exposed, the criminals themselves were granted huge financial gifts from future taxpayers. The fact that the tax base has evaporated seems beside the point.
Currently, we hear the fantastic news that cars sales are up; which seems a mystery since jobs and decent wages have disappeared. Underneath the good news, again, we see they continue to try to maintain artificial economics and in so doing, they defy reality and increase strain. They can't keep kicking the can down the road forever. Subprime lending, quantitative easing and all the magic tricks and illusions they can come up with cannot defy reality. It's all over the place. And even though they continue, they can't change reality. Their latest magic trick is yet one more sub-prime scam. The same bubble strategy that caused the 2008 shock, is back. This time they are financing auto sales. The same slippery machinations are used to bury the risky credit and to repackage it as bonds.
In the USA, the jobs picture is improving, the recovery is taking hold, you might argue. The good news is that in February of 2011, 192,000 new jobs were created.
Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and past editor for the Wall Street Journal, points out:
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 152,000 of the jobs or 79% are in private services, consisting of: 11,700 jobs in wholesale trade, 22,000 in transportation and warehousing, 36,400 in administration and waste services (of which 15,500 are temporary help services), and 36,200 in ambulatory health care services and nursing and residential care facilities. Entertainment, waitresses and bartenders accounted for 20,000. Repair and maintenance, laundry services, and membership associations accounted for 14,000."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23541
Roberts goes on to suggest that not only are the calculations way off but according to statistician, John Williams, "the reported gain was overstated by about 230,000 jobs. In other words, about 38,000 jobs were lost in February."
The Empire
The Empire is constantly trying to create and maintain artificial social and economic mutations, straining her resources to the breaking point. Empires have historically put out enormous resources into plundering the periphery through the use of military or manipulative techniques. The USA is no exception and as Empires go, America outdoes all previous empires in its scope and greed. The United States of America outspends all other nations on the planet on its military, it's so called national security interests. (In fact it is class security they worry about.) They have over 700 military bases around the globe and have their fingers in the business in every country on the planet, including those that don't want them, like Cuba.
There was a time when we, the working classes within the hegemony, could turn a blind eye to all the harm the Empire had been doing, all over the planet. But now they have slotted the lot of us in the third world category. It is now more appropriate for us to refer to ourselves as 'working class' as opposed to, middle class. We need to make friends with reality.
They will try turn our attention to immigrants. They will do their utmost to have us wage war on each other. It is in their interests for us not to recognize them as the enemy. History shows this strategy works. Today however, we have the internet. We are getting quite familiar with each other. We cannot allow this tension to be reduced to mindless chauvinism and xenophobia. It is class war. That is reality.
And in reality, it is the labour of workers that has build their empires and wealth. Each and every dime the banksters own has either come from either the past toil of workers or the promise of future labour. We hold all the cards and we simply don't realise it. The war party and the capitalists that direct the politicians are nothing more than parasites. They owe us everything and give us nothing.
It is clear that the time has come for us to recognize that the working class is one. That whether we are workers in Iraq, Palestine, Israel, China or Wisconsin, we are all in this together. To quote anonymous wisdom on a famous poster, "Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you're on. Class analysis is figuring out who is there with you".
We are witnessing numerous fractures due to ongoing conditions of artificial social tension. North Africa and Middle Eastern States that have been carved up, artificially, by Western powers, whose populations have long been repressed are now demanding an end to the contrived dictatorships that have held them down. They want nothing more than a modicum of normalcy. They want their kids to be happy.
Western powers have a long history of creating conditions of arbitrary boundaries, malevolent alliances, and methods of turning local populations against each other. It is hard to think of a place, including places in close proximity to the core of empires that have not been victims of quite arbitrary social gerrymandering based on nothing more than cultural or religious differences. Even within national boundaries of the empire, people have been artificially pitted against each other. This was enforced and wilful favouritism to one group over another enhanced acrimonious relations. In most places on the globe, divide and conquer strategies ignited conflicts between people that had previously got along living in close proximity to each other.
What is happening today has been happening for a long, long time.
Class Strain
Historically, empires have favoured their own home team. They have been swayed by notions of patriotism and loyalty to some extent. Those of us that have lived within the belly of the beast, inside the Empire's hegemony have received favoured treatment until quite recently. To some extent, we have been a privileged class even if we were poor and unemployed. To be unemployed and poor north of the Rio Grande is nothing like being poor south of the Rio Grande. That is but one of many divisions that have set working class populations apart from each other. As a whole, we have turned a blind eye to the murderous rampages unleashed by politicians with the odd exception; like Vietnam. Generally, we gave the ruling classes a wide berth. The general consensus was, they know what they're doing and whatever it is they do, we're getting something out of it. Our standard of living legitimized them no matter how cruel and treacherous they were to people in the so called, third world.
But then came globalization and now that consensus is rapidly changing. The ruling classes and their political henchmen began to flirt with the Chinese, the Mexicans, and other third world populations. Those of us that read Marx knew they would. Like thieves in the night they silently and efficiently dismantled the manufacturing plants and stole them from under us. They took them to places where they could manufacture for less money. If we didn't see working class people in the third world as brothers and sisters before, we will now. Let's hope they forgive us.
We might want to look at the glass as half full. We might think for a moment, 'globalization will bring the people in the third world up to the standard of living we have become accustomed to'. A glimpse of our current situation shows that in fact, the glass really is half empty. Its only 'half full' for the banksters and corporations. Our current trajectory has non aboriginal North Americans entering, for the first time, the third world. It's a class thing. The original inhabitants of North America currently live in third world conditions in many areas.
If you had considered the ruling elites to be loyal to Americans, Canadians, or any other 'White country', a look at history shows that our standard of living was not as much a gift from the ruling elites as it was the result of long and hard struggles against them. It was also a conspiracy of sorts to dampen revolutionary sentiments. It was a very real fear. John Maynard Keynes exposed that fear when he spoke of the possibility of revolution within the heart of the Empire and the need to subvert it with redistribution mechanisms. Keynes was vehemently anti-communist. He said, "the class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie". He understood that the artificial social and financial strain that is a necessary condition to maintain wealth and power for the privileged few could give way to the citizenry taking control of the both the wealth of the land and the state. He worried, as did others, of the outcome that could result if this were to occur. To alleviate it, it was necessary to spend in order to develop healthy public infrastructure, especially when the going got rough. Keynes polices were a pressure relief valve. Between Keynesianism and intense unions battles, our standard of living had become the envy of the world and the reality of tension between the classes was out of sight - out of mind.
Building Tension
Since the 1980s, politicians, the media, and various collaborators with the ruling elites have managed to hide the increasing and latent enmity between the classes within the Empire's hegemony. They continue to do this as the strain increases to alarming proportions.
In the 1980s they began to dismantle manufacturing plants to send them abroad. That is when the politicians and mainstream media beat the free trade drum the hardest. The neo liberal economists said, in unison, America had been protectionist long enough, it's time to compete globally, to expand global markets. While the Empire's domestic leftists were screaming bloody murder, investors were making a killing.
As the capacity to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour diminished, the manufacturing heart of the Empire was contracted out . The catch phrase, 'what's good for GM is good for America' turned out to be a lie. Neither GM nor any other corporation has a patriotic bone in its ethereal body. Corporations are simple money making machines. It doesn't care how or where it does it. Those most loyal to the whole American dream must feel betrayed.
The whole thing was an artificial situation in the first place. There never was anything natural about the vast gap between the people of Tijuana and the people of San Diego. It was simply one more spurious division between people of what is in reality, the same working class. The fact that we were favoured by the hegemonic rulers does not change the reality that we all have far more in common with each other than we do with members of the ruling class. However, our realities are substantially different. It needs to be acknowledged that we have historically turned away from the plight of our brothers and sisters in the periphery of the American hegemony. Life for workers is very different, depending on what side of the Rio Grande you live on. But that is changing and it is changing fast. It is a matter of time when we all live in the same miserable circumstances.
The Empire has abandoned us after all the wars we fought for them, after all the wealth we created for them and after all the apologies we voiced on their behalf. In many ways, we had it coming. We should learn to be careful about the kind of scum we crawl in bed with.
While financial bubbles maintained an artificial economy, they only managed to hide the underlying rot beneath it. The bubble burst and the rot was exposed. And in spite of the fact that shocking and utterly soulless criminal behaviour was exposed, the criminals themselves were granted huge financial gifts from future taxpayers. The fact that the tax base has evaporated seems beside the point.
Currently, we hear the fantastic news that cars sales are up; which seems a mystery since jobs and decent wages have disappeared. Underneath the good news, again, we see they continue to try to maintain artificial economics and in so doing, they defy reality and increase strain. They can't keep kicking the can down the road forever. Subprime lending, quantitative easing and all the magic tricks and illusions they can come up with cannot defy reality. It's all over the place. And even though they continue, they can't change reality. Their latest magic trick is yet one more sub-prime scam. The same bubble strategy that caused the 2008 shock, is back. This time they are financing auto sales. The same slippery machinations are used to bury the risky credit and to repackage it as bonds.
In the USA, the jobs picture is improving, the recovery is taking hold, you might argue. The good news is that in February of 2011, 192,000 new jobs were created.
Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and past editor for the Wall Street Journal, points out:
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 152,000 of the jobs or 79% are in private services, consisting of: 11,700 jobs in wholesale trade, 22,000 in transportation and warehousing, 36,400 in administration and waste services (of which 15,500 are temporary help services), and 36,200 in ambulatory health care services and nursing and residential care facilities. Entertainment, waitresses and bartenders accounted for 20,000. Repair and maintenance, laundry services, and membership associations accounted for 14,000."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23541
Roberts goes on to suggest that not only are the calculations way off but according to statistician, John Williams, "the reported gain was overstated by about 230,000 jobs. In other words, about 38,000 jobs were lost in February."
The Empire
The Empire is constantly trying to create and maintain artificial social and economic mutations, straining her resources to the breaking point. Empires have historically put out enormous resources into plundering the periphery through the use of military or manipulative techniques. The USA is no exception and as Empires go, America outdoes all previous empires in its scope and greed. The United States of America outspends all other nations on the planet on its military, it's so called national security interests. (In fact it is class security they worry about.) They have over 700 military bases around the globe and have their fingers in the business in every country on the planet, including those that don't want them, like Cuba.
There was a time when we, the working classes within the hegemony, could turn a blind eye to all the harm the Empire had been doing, all over the planet. But now they have slotted the lot of us in the third world category. It is now more appropriate for us to refer to ourselves as 'working class' as opposed to, middle class. We need to make friends with reality.
They will try turn our attention to immigrants. They will do their utmost to have us wage war on each other. It is in their interests for us not to recognize them as the enemy. History shows this strategy works. Today however, we have the internet. We are getting quite familiar with each other. We cannot allow this tension to be reduced to mindless chauvinism and xenophobia. It is class war. That is reality.
And in reality, it is the labour of workers that has build their empires and wealth. Each and every dime the banksters own has either come from either the past toil of workers or the promise of future labour. We hold all the cards and we simply don't realise it. The war party and the capitalists that direct the politicians are nothing more than parasites. They owe us everything and give us nothing.
It is clear that the time has come for us to recognize that the working class is one. That whether we are workers in Iraq, Palestine, Israel, China or Wisconsin, we are all in this together. To quote anonymous wisdom on a famous poster, "Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you're on. Class analysis is figuring out who is there with you".
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
The Real Wikileaks Exposé
The reaction to Julian Assange and Wikileaks by the American Empire and its cowardly minions may say more about the true nature of the Empire than what will be revealed in the leaked cables. They have managed to succeed in conveniently arresting Aassange on spurious allegations. They are calling for censorship and they are literally calling for Assange’s head. They are showing their hidden fascistic nature.
The problem with Assange from the point of view of the Empire is that he isn’t controlled. And worse, he is disobedient. Assange however hasn’t done anything that the Guardian and scores of other news outlets have done. They have reported what Assange has gathered and reported to them. The actions of Assange and the Guardian et al are essentially the same.
The reaction to Assange’s willingness to act without permission or approval is more telling than the leaks themselves. For some unknown reason, the Swedish state, Pay Pal, Amazon and many entities including governments, private companies, and individuals, have acted to strangle Assange and Wikileaks. It would be perfect irony if somebody managed to leak the communications between the American state and these servile organizations.
The psychological, social, and financial stranglehold on Assange is not only abusive to Assange and Wikileaks but it is a message to everybody else. It is the same message that is conveyed through acts of collective punishment against Palestinian, Iraqi, and Afghan populations. And that message is; don’t disobey the Empire.
The Real Crime
Assange has been derided in media all over the planet as a rapist. This is a charge that will taint his character for the rest of his days. And what is his alleged crime? He is alleged to have had sex without a condom. And for that INTERPOL has placed Assange on its list of ‘Most Wanted’. This is clearly a matter of abusing legal frameworks for political purposes. The incident has diminished INTERPOL and the Swedish state.
According to Melbourne barrister James D. Catlin, who acted for Julian Assange in London in October, over three quarters of media articles about Assange are about rape. Today, that percentage is likely higher. And according to Catlin, "There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for."
And according to Catlin, "Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity."
The Swedish state took aim at Assange first for his publication of the Collateral Murder video in April. They are undoubtedly talking direction from the angry Americans that are salivating for his blood.
Assange is being harassed and defamed for his Wikileaks activity. Nobody doubts this. Even the most naive apologist for the American state knows it. There are those on the political right that openly opine that this brutal behaviour by the state is a positive development. In the heat of the moment they are in a panic. They are attacking free speech and freedom of the press. When the dust settles on this fiasco, those calling for Assange's head will be ridiculed and diminished. They will know how Assange is feeling today; or maybe that is too generous an assessment of the political and psychological health of the Empire's servants.
The Quislings
If there was any doubt that mainstream media operate as propaganda tools for the Empire, their reactions to this episode should put them to rest. And this episode informs us who does and who does not believe in governments being accountable. Many have shown that they believe the state should have the freedom to act arbitrarily and with impunity. These are very dangerous sentiments and they go against the principles of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
The fact that the legal process of any country is used as a convenient political tool by the Empire should ring alarm bells. And the spectacle of mainstream media panicking because somebody has the courage to do the job they should be doing (exposing the crimes of a murderous Empire) is a more significant story that the leaks. The servile marching to the Empire's beat we witness from the Swedish state, Amazon, PayPal, and many others may tell us more about the Empire than the leaks themselves. These bizarre and surreal reactions to Wikileaks and Assange have exposed the cowards of the Empire for what they are.
What the state deems secret or classified are very often actions that either border on criminality or actions that are criminal. There is no doubt as to why they want, for instance, the Collateral Murder video kept under wraps.
As many of us cringe, the cheerleaders for the state behave no differently that the quislings that have supported fascistic types of state rule throughout history. These people and the state are clearly our enemies.
What is truly frightening is the obvious power the American state has in controlling nations, companies, and individuals.
The cloak of rational law, free speech, freedom of the press, and democracy has fallen to the ground.
The problem with Assange from the point of view of the Empire is that he isn’t controlled. And worse, he is disobedient. Assange however hasn’t done anything that the Guardian and scores of other news outlets have done. They have reported what Assange has gathered and reported to them. The actions of Assange and the Guardian et al are essentially the same.
The reaction to Assange’s willingness to act without permission or approval is more telling than the leaks themselves. For some unknown reason, the Swedish state, Pay Pal, Amazon and many entities including governments, private companies, and individuals, have acted to strangle Assange and Wikileaks. It would be perfect irony if somebody managed to leak the communications between the American state and these servile organizations.
The psychological, social, and financial stranglehold on Assange is not only abusive to Assange and Wikileaks but it is a message to everybody else. It is the same message that is conveyed through acts of collective punishment against Palestinian, Iraqi, and Afghan populations. And that message is; don’t disobey the Empire.
The Real Crime
Assange has been derided in media all over the planet as a rapist. This is a charge that will taint his character for the rest of his days. And what is his alleged crime? He is alleged to have had sex without a condom. And for that INTERPOL has placed Assange on its list of ‘Most Wanted’. This is clearly a matter of abusing legal frameworks for political purposes. The incident has diminished INTERPOL and the Swedish state.
According to Melbourne barrister James D. Catlin, who acted for Julian Assange in London in October, over three quarters of media articles about Assange are about rape. Today, that percentage is likely higher. And according to Catlin, "There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for."
And according to Catlin, "Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity."
The Swedish state took aim at Assange first for his publication of the Collateral Murder video in April. They are undoubtedly talking direction from the angry Americans that are salivating for his blood.
Assange is being harassed and defamed for his Wikileaks activity. Nobody doubts this. Even the most naive apologist for the American state knows it. There are those on the political right that openly opine that this brutal behaviour by the state is a positive development. In the heat of the moment they are in a panic. They are attacking free speech and freedom of the press. When the dust settles on this fiasco, those calling for Assange's head will be ridiculed and diminished. They will know how Assange is feeling today; or maybe that is too generous an assessment of the political and psychological health of the Empire's servants.
The Quislings
If there was any doubt that mainstream media operate as propaganda tools for the Empire, their reactions to this episode should put them to rest. And this episode informs us who does and who does not believe in governments being accountable. Many have shown that they believe the state should have the freedom to act arbitrarily and with impunity. These are very dangerous sentiments and they go against the principles of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
The fact that the legal process of any country is used as a convenient political tool by the Empire should ring alarm bells. And the spectacle of mainstream media panicking because somebody has the courage to do the job they should be doing (exposing the crimes of a murderous Empire) is a more significant story that the leaks. The servile marching to the Empire's beat we witness from the Swedish state, Amazon, PayPal, and many others may tell us more about the Empire than the leaks themselves. These bizarre and surreal reactions to Wikileaks and Assange have exposed the cowards of the Empire for what they are.
What the state deems secret or classified are very often actions that either border on criminality or actions that are criminal. There is no doubt as to why they want, for instance, the Collateral Murder video kept under wraps.
As many of us cringe, the cheerleaders for the state behave no differently that the quislings that have supported fascistic types of state rule throughout history. These people and the state are clearly our enemies.
What is truly frightening is the obvious power the American state has in controlling nations, companies, and individuals.
The cloak of rational law, free speech, freedom of the press, and democracy has fallen to the ground.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Collateral Damage: The Children of Iraq
We are generally cognizant of the impact that war has on soldiers. We know of old veterans of World War 2, the Korean war, the war in Vietnam and so on. They used to be 'shell shocked', now they suffer the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Veterans deal with the horrors of war in many cases until the day they die. War is hell!
But what about the children that have been invaded? They lived through the horror. If soldiers are traumatized for the rest of their lives from taking part in the initiative to wage war, what about those that have war come to them, inside their town, neighbourhood, and home? Children, utterly helpless and trembling in fear; What about them?
According to a Washington Post article by Sudarsan Raghavan, "Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 4 million Iraqis have fled their homes, half of them children, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Many are being killed inside their sanctuaries -- at playgrounds, on soccer fields and in schools. Criminals are routinely kidnapping children for ransom as lawlessness goes unchecked. Violence has orphaned tens of thousands."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501952.html
"UNICEF officials estimate that tens of thousands children lost one or both parents to the conflict in the past year. If trends continue, they expect the numbers to rise this year, said Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokesperson in Amman, Jordan."
This is one of a myriad of the consequences of war. Children suffering the agony of losing parents may not gather a lot of sympathy, especially in the West. But, like many of the effects of violence, they do not bleed and they do not explode; they may not be salient to us. The effects of war on children however, are not only crippling to the children, the legacy may come home to roost for generations to come.
Consider for a moment, the psychological impact that the war/occupation has and will continue to have on the children of Iraq.
Attachment Theory
As the Raghaven article states, many thousands of Iraqi children have been orphaned by war.
In the 1950s, John Bowlby developed the study into the subject of human attachment. Bowlby found that the quality of attachment to a primary caregiver to be a profound element in healthy human development. His studies and the groundbreaking work of Mary Ainsworth, who developed the famous "strange situation" studies have enlightened our understanding of the importance of attachment. Previous to this, many professional and learned doctors held beliefs that would suggest that coddling babies may be detrimental to them. We now know this to be not only erroneous, but that loving contact is vital to healthy development.
Since Bowlby's time, attachment research has been key in our understanding of human needs. Attachment research has focused on healthy parenting practices, on the pathological aspects of poor attachment including the connection between profoundly disrupted attachment and psychopathology. Attachment research has also shed light on adult relationship patterns, spousal violence dynamics, and many other related areas. Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of attachment research is the effects of attachment on brain development.
According to DJ Seigel in an article entitled "The Developing Mind: How relationships and the Brain interact to shape who we are" (New York: Guilford Press): "In childhood, particularly the first two years of life, attachment relationships help the immature brain use the mature functions of the parent’s brain to develop important capacities related to interpersonal functioning. The infant’s relationship with his/her attachment figures facilitates experience-dependent neural pathways to develop, particularly in the frontal lobes where the aforementioned capacities are wired into the developing brain."
Optimal development of these neural pathways is crucial. Children that are affected by insecure attachment may suffer from poor affect regulation, poor capacity for empathy, control issues, a propensity to violence, abnormal speech patterns, cognitive dysfunction, poor impulse control, a low capacity for future attachment, poor social skills, lack of conscience, inadequate verbal intelligence development, and a general incapacity to develop anything but superficial relations with others. Attachment disordered individuals may be more prone to developing addiction problems, mental health problems, and they may be more prone to deviant behaviour and consequently, criminal behaviour.
The outcomes for children that are taken into the protective services of the state in developed countries are not good in many cases. Attachment disorders and other social and psychological problems may have a lasting and undesirable result for many of the children in this unfortunate situation. Children in foster homes do normally have a primary attachment figure they can bond with however and in many cases the outcomes are positive. Their plight pales in comparison to children that are taken into orphanages where the logistics and practicality of attaching to a primary caregiver are remote. Most of these children that have been orphaned in Iraq, do not have a bright future.
The reality of having no adult to care for them is only part of their story. What may be even more significant is the effects of growing up in constant and sporadic violence.
Effects of War on the Brain
Violence has a profound impact on the human brain and particularly, the developing human brain. Brain development runs sequentially, from primitive regulation at the brainstem (which develop first) to highly complex functions in the frontal cortex.
Within the context of this ongoing development, the more a general neural system is activated, the more the brain develops a neural representation to the environment. Through this process, the well developed higher functions of the cortical system increases capacity to moderate frustration, impulsivity, and aggressive urges. Loss of function of higher brain activity of cortical function from an accident or a stroke may result in the victim being unable to regulate frustration, impulsivity, and aggression.
As the brain grows, poor development of lower area brain functions in the brain stem and the mid-brain areas will compromise optimal development of the higher functions of the cortex. Without this internalized adult (cortical functions) achieving full development, the victim will be at the mercy of his or her primitive urges. The ratio of activity between the lower functioning part of the brain and the, impulse mediating higher part, dictates the brains ability to curb anti-social impulses.
In a research article entitled "Incubated in terror: Neurodevelopmental Factors in the Cycle of Violence"
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0FEdy77QtvwJ:www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org/INCUBATED_IN_TERROR.doc+perry+%2Bincubated+in+terror&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
Bruce Perry states, "In the developing brain, undifferentiated neural systems are critically dependent upon sets of environmental and micro-environmental cues (eg. neurotransmitters, cellular adhesion molecules, neurohormones, amino acids, ions) in order for them to appropriately organize from their undifferentiated, immature forms. Lack, or disruption of these critical cues can result in abnormal neuronal division...". These molecular cues depend on the experiences of the developing child. If that child happens to be growing up in a war, that will obviously impact this development.
Some stages of this development of the growing brain are more critical than others. According to Perry, "Disruptions of experience dependent neurochemical signals during these periods may lead to major abnormalities or deficits in neurodevelopment, some of which may not be reversible. " Disruptions of critical cues may result from "extremes of experience". Experiences that affect the development of the lower areas (brainstem and mid-brain) "...necessarily alter the development of limbic and cortical areas because critical signals these areas depend on for normal organization originate in these lower brain areas."
Early childhood development is key to a healthy and promising future. Children's vulnerabilities need to be protected and events that disrupt this development (domestic violence, war) need to be removed from the child or the child needs to be removed from the violence. The age of the child is a key consideration. For instance, a 12 year old can easily go several weeks without a hug. For an infant, this would have a profound and lasting impact. The developmental needs of children need to be considered when we assess the impact of war and violence on its victims.
Overdevelopment of the stress response apparatus in the brain, as a result of continual state of hyper-vigilance, "will result in an altered cortical modulation ratio and a predisposition to act in an aggressive, impulsive, behavioural reactive fashion." (Perry)
Children growing in an environment like this will develop a consistent focus on non verbal cues. In all cases, children take cues from their primary caregiver. In Iraq and Afghanistan, parents are often enduring horror as well. Their fear penetrates the psyche of their children. Moreover, their children know that this means that they cannot be protected; that death may come at any moment. They live with the reality of bombs exploding, gun shots, screams and so on. A child born into this situation will be affected one way or another.
Children born into violence "are characterized by persistent physiological hyper arousal and hyperactivity. They are observed to have increased muscle tone, frequently a low-grade increase in temperature, an increase startle response, profound sleep disturbances, affect regulation problems, and generalized anxiety." (Perry)
Children exposed to chronic neuro-developmental trauma are often diagnosed to have ADHD due to their constant state of hyper-vigilance. The effects may be mitigated when the episodes of violence are predictable. When that condition is in place, the children do not have to be constantly hyper-vigilant. For instance, if they know the bombs will drop every Friday afternoon and no other time, they can relax to some extent on the other days. But if the violence is sporadic, then they are in a constant state of hyper-arousal. And in that state, their brain is affected by the constant release of cortisol, a hormone that will calm you or I in a stressful situation. Cortisol on an ongoing basis however, in a developing brain, may contribute to further poor development.
A study led by Dr. Michael DeBellis, Director of the Developmental Traumatology Labratory at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center of children with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (part 1 in the May 15, 1999, issue of Biological Psychiatry) suggests that chemical changes in the brain of hyper-vigilant children disrupt or alter developmental processes.
Eighteen abused children with PTSD were compared with 10 children with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 24 controls. Fifteen of the PTSD group had been sexually abused, and 11 of those children had also witnessed domestic violence. The average age of onset for sexual abuse was 4 years, with an average duration of two years. The average onset for witnessing domestic violence was 2 years, with an average duration of five years before disclosure, according to DeBellis.
The PTSD group had higher levels of the catecholamine neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine, and epinephrine than the group with GAD and higher levels of cortisol than healthy controls.
The longer duration of abuse corresponded with increased levels of the catecholamine neurotransmitters and cortisol in the PTSD group and severity of PTSD symptoms, according to DeBellis. "Symptoms of hyperarousal, intrusive thoughts, and avoidance were associated with increased levels of norepinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol, according to the study."
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/37/1/23.full
“Results of animal studies suggested that higher levels of catecholamines and cortisol may adversely affect brain development through accelerated loss of neurons, delays in myelination, or abnormalities in developmentally appropriate pruning of neurons,” said DeBellis.
Mission Accomplished
Iraq has been destroyed and continues to be destroyed in America's efforts to secure control of the sea of oil that lies beneath the ground. One of the many pretexts to sell the war was that getting rid of Saddam was worth it. Another sales pitch was that bringing the Iraqi people into the warm bosom of democracy and Western life makes war worth the effort. Not even the most naive war hawk makes these arguments any more. It was about oil and the geo chessboard that America needs to control.
Iraq is a destroyed nation. The people of Iraq have endured eight years of war and ten years of crippling sanctions before that. Sanctions that did not touch Saddam Hussein but killed and injured many thousands of Iraqis. During the war the people have endured terror by American forces. They have also endured the terror of sectarian violence that have swept Iraq since the American invasion. They continue to endure massive social upheaval and unemployment, the crippling of utilities and sources of vital needs such as water, electricity, and medicine. Families have experienced night raids, unpredictable and frequent explosions of violence, arbitrary imprisonment and torture of Iraqis.
The infrastructure is destroyed. It can be fixed, replaced, and rebuilt. America however, has destroyed the people of Iraq. That cannot be fixed or replaced. There is nothing America can do to fix what they have broken. And the effects of this war will live on for years, decades, and generations. There will be ongoing violence and Iraqis will be the perpetrators. They will be blamed for their violence as individuals who are violent. Nobody will trace a line back to the war. Children will do poorly in school. The child will be deemed 'slow' and nobody will trace it back to the war. Young men will strap suicide vests on their bodies and blow Westerners to bits. They will be called terrorists.
How much of the vast oil wealth of that nation will be utilized to help the people that continue to suffer from this terror unleashed on them by the United States of America?
And in the USA, tears flow on the anniversary of 9 11. It is presented as the most devastating act of terror or war in living memory. Families have lost loved ones and those loved ones cannot be replaced. However, the people of New York and Washington can recover. Most of their daily reality is unaffected by the attacks. The attacks came and they ended.
How much attention do we place on Iraq's 9 11? An ongoing terrorist attack that lasted eight years and continues to kill, maim, and terrorize. An attack that killed many thousands of Iraqis and has adversely affected the lives of millions. An attack that will be endured by the people of Iraq for generations.
A thorough analysis of the impact war has had on the people of Iraq needs to be carried out. It will only be then when the American government can make reparations to that country. The people of the United States of America, and specifically, the American government owe the people of Iraq far more than they can ever pay, but one way or another, they will pay. These things have a way of coming home to roost.
But what about the children that have been invaded? They lived through the horror. If soldiers are traumatized for the rest of their lives from taking part in the initiative to wage war, what about those that have war come to them, inside their town, neighbourhood, and home? Children, utterly helpless and trembling in fear; What about them?
According to a Washington Post article by Sudarsan Raghavan, "Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 4 million Iraqis have fled their homes, half of them children, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Many are being killed inside their sanctuaries -- at playgrounds, on soccer fields and in schools. Criminals are routinely kidnapping children for ransom as lawlessness goes unchecked. Violence has orphaned tens of thousands."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501952.html
"UNICEF officials estimate that tens of thousands children lost one or both parents to the conflict in the past year. If trends continue, they expect the numbers to rise this year, said Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokesperson in Amman, Jordan."
This is one of a myriad of the consequences of war. Children suffering the agony of losing parents may not gather a lot of sympathy, especially in the West. But, like many of the effects of violence, they do not bleed and they do not explode; they may not be salient to us. The effects of war on children however, are not only crippling to the children, the legacy may come home to roost for generations to come.
Consider for a moment, the psychological impact that the war/occupation has and will continue to have on the children of Iraq.
Attachment Theory
As the Raghaven article states, many thousands of Iraqi children have been orphaned by war.
In the 1950s, John Bowlby developed the study into the subject of human attachment. Bowlby found that the quality of attachment to a primary caregiver to be a profound element in healthy human development. His studies and the groundbreaking work of Mary Ainsworth, who developed the famous "strange situation" studies have enlightened our understanding of the importance of attachment. Previous to this, many professional and learned doctors held beliefs that would suggest that coddling babies may be detrimental to them. We now know this to be not only erroneous, but that loving contact is vital to healthy development.
Since Bowlby's time, attachment research has been key in our understanding of human needs. Attachment research has focused on healthy parenting practices, on the pathological aspects of poor attachment including the connection between profoundly disrupted attachment and psychopathology. Attachment research has also shed light on adult relationship patterns, spousal violence dynamics, and many other related areas. Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of attachment research is the effects of attachment on brain development.
According to DJ Seigel in an article entitled "The Developing Mind: How relationships and the Brain interact to shape who we are" (New York: Guilford Press): "In childhood, particularly the first two years of life, attachment relationships help the immature brain use the mature functions of the parent’s brain to develop important capacities related to interpersonal functioning. The infant’s relationship with his/her attachment figures facilitates experience-dependent neural pathways to develop, particularly in the frontal lobes where the aforementioned capacities are wired into the developing brain."
Optimal development of these neural pathways is crucial. Children that are affected by insecure attachment may suffer from poor affect regulation, poor capacity for empathy, control issues, a propensity to violence, abnormal speech patterns, cognitive dysfunction, poor impulse control, a low capacity for future attachment, poor social skills, lack of conscience, inadequate verbal intelligence development, and a general incapacity to develop anything but superficial relations with others. Attachment disordered individuals may be more prone to developing addiction problems, mental health problems, and they may be more prone to deviant behaviour and consequently, criminal behaviour.
The outcomes for children that are taken into the protective services of the state in developed countries are not good in many cases. Attachment disorders and other social and psychological problems may have a lasting and undesirable result for many of the children in this unfortunate situation. Children in foster homes do normally have a primary attachment figure they can bond with however and in many cases the outcomes are positive. Their plight pales in comparison to children that are taken into orphanages where the logistics and practicality of attaching to a primary caregiver are remote. Most of these children that have been orphaned in Iraq, do not have a bright future.
The reality of having no adult to care for them is only part of their story. What may be even more significant is the effects of growing up in constant and sporadic violence.
Effects of War on the Brain
Violence has a profound impact on the human brain and particularly, the developing human brain. Brain development runs sequentially, from primitive regulation at the brainstem (which develop first) to highly complex functions in the frontal cortex.
Within the context of this ongoing development, the more a general neural system is activated, the more the brain develops a neural representation to the environment. Through this process, the well developed higher functions of the cortical system increases capacity to moderate frustration, impulsivity, and aggressive urges. Loss of function of higher brain activity of cortical function from an accident or a stroke may result in the victim being unable to regulate frustration, impulsivity, and aggression.
As the brain grows, poor development of lower area brain functions in the brain stem and the mid-brain areas will compromise optimal development of the higher functions of the cortex. Without this internalized adult (cortical functions) achieving full development, the victim will be at the mercy of his or her primitive urges. The ratio of activity between the lower functioning part of the brain and the, impulse mediating higher part, dictates the brains ability to curb anti-social impulses.
In a research article entitled "Incubated in terror: Neurodevelopmental Factors in the Cycle of Violence"
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0FEdy77QtvwJ:www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org/INCUBATED_IN_TERROR.doc+perry+%2Bincubated+in+terror&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
Bruce Perry states, "In the developing brain, undifferentiated neural systems are critically dependent upon sets of environmental and micro-environmental cues (eg. neurotransmitters, cellular adhesion molecules, neurohormones, amino acids, ions) in order for them to appropriately organize from their undifferentiated, immature forms. Lack, or disruption of these critical cues can result in abnormal neuronal division...". These molecular cues depend on the experiences of the developing child. If that child happens to be growing up in a war, that will obviously impact this development.
Some stages of this development of the growing brain are more critical than others. According to Perry, "Disruptions of experience dependent neurochemical signals during these periods may lead to major abnormalities or deficits in neurodevelopment, some of which may not be reversible. " Disruptions of critical cues may result from "extremes of experience". Experiences that affect the development of the lower areas (brainstem and mid-brain) "...necessarily alter the development of limbic and cortical areas because critical signals these areas depend on for normal organization originate in these lower brain areas."
Early childhood development is key to a healthy and promising future. Children's vulnerabilities need to be protected and events that disrupt this development (domestic violence, war) need to be removed from the child or the child needs to be removed from the violence. The age of the child is a key consideration. For instance, a 12 year old can easily go several weeks without a hug. For an infant, this would have a profound and lasting impact. The developmental needs of children need to be considered when we assess the impact of war and violence on its victims.
Overdevelopment of the stress response apparatus in the brain, as a result of continual state of hyper-vigilance, "will result in an altered cortical modulation ratio and a predisposition to act in an aggressive, impulsive, behavioural reactive fashion." (Perry)
Children growing in an environment like this will develop a consistent focus on non verbal cues. In all cases, children take cues from their primary caregiver. In Iraq and Afghanistan, parents are often enduring horror as well. Their fear penetrates the psyche of their children. Moreover, their children know that this means that they cannot be protected; that death may come at any moment. They live with the reality of bombs exploding, gun shots, screams and so on. A child born into this situation will be affected one way or another.
Children born into violence "are characterized by persistent physiological hyper arousal and hyperactivity. They are observed to have increased muscle tone, frequently a low-grade increase in temperature, an increase startle response, profound sleep disturbances, affect regulation problems, and generalized anxiety." (Perry)
Children exposed to chronic neuro-developmental trauma are often diagnosed to have ADHD due to their constant state of hyper-vigilance. The effects may be mitigated when the episodes of violence are predictable. When that condition is in place, the children do not have to be constantly hyper-vigilant. For instance, if they know the bombs will drop every Friday afternoon and no other time, they can relax to some extent on the other days. But if the violence is sporadic, then they are in a constant state of hyper-arousal. And in that state, their brain is affected by the constant release of cortisol, a hormone that will calm you or I in a stressful situation. Cortisol on an ongoing basis however, in a developing brain, may contribute to further poor development.
A study led by Dr. Michael DeBellis, Director of the Developmental Traumatology Labratory at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center of children with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (part 1 in the May 15, 1999, issue of Biological Psychiatry) suggests that chemical changes in the brain of hyper-vigilant children disrupt or alter developmental processes.
Eighteen abused children with PTSD were compared with 10 children with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 24 controls. Fifteen of the PTSD group had been sexually abused, and 11 of those children had also witnessed domestic violence. The average age of onset for sexual abuse was 4 years, with an average duration of two years. The average onset for witnessing domestic violence was 2 years, with an average duration of five years before disclosure, according to DeBellis.
The PTSD group had higher levels of the catecholamine neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine, and epinephrine than the group with GAD and higher levels of cortisol than healthy controls.
The longer duration of abuse corresponded with increased levels of the catecholamine neurotransmitters and cortisol in the PTSD group and severity of PTSD symptoms, according to DeBellis. "Symptoms of hyperarousal, intrusive thoughts, and avoidance were associated with increased levels of norepinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol, according to the study."
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/37/1/23.full
“Results of animal studies suggested that higher levels of catecholamines and cortisol may adversely affect brain development through accelerated loss of neurons, delays in myelination, or abnormalities in developmentally appropriate pruning of neurons,” said DeBellis.
Mission Accomplished
Iraq has been destroyed and continues to be destroyed in America's efforts to secure control of the sea of oil that lies beneath the ground. One of the many pretexts to sell the war was that getting rid of Saddam was worth it. Another sales pitch was that bringing the Iraqi people into the warm bosom of democracy and Western life makes war worth the effort. Not even the most naive war hawk makes these arguments any more. It was about oil and the geo chessboard that America needs to control.
Iraq is a destroyed nation. The people of Iraq have endured eight years of war and ten years of crippling sanctions before that. Sanctions that did not touch Saddam Hussein but killed and injured many thousands of Iraqis. During the war the people have endured terror by American forces. They have also endured the terror of sectarian violence that have swept Iraq since the American invasion. They continue to endure massive social upheaval and unemployment, the crippling of utilities and sources of vital needs such as water, electricity, and medicine. Families have experienced night raids, unpredictable and frequent explosions of violence, arbitrary imprisonment and torture of Iraqis.
The infrastructure is destroyed. It can be fixed, replaced, and rebuilt. America however, has destroyed the people of Iraq. That cannot be fixed or replaced. There is nothing America can do to fix what they have broken. And the effects of this war will live on for years, decades, and generations. There will be ongoing violence and Iraqis will be the perpetrators. They will be blamed for their violence as individuals who are violent. Nobody will trace a line back to the war. Children will do poorly in school. The child will be deemed 'slow' and nobody will trace it back to the war. Young men will strap suicide vests on their bodies and blow Westerners to bits. They will be called terrorists.
How much of the vast oil wealth of that nation will be utilized to help the people that continue to suffer from this terror unleashed on them by the United States of America?
And in the USA, tears flow on the anniversary of 9 11. It is presented as the most devastating act of terror or war in living memory. Families have lost loved ones and those loved ones cannot be replaced. However, the people of New York and Washington can recover. Most of their daily reality is unaffected by the attacks. The attacks came and they ended.
How much attention do we place on Iraq's 9 11? An ongoing terrorist attack that lasted eight years and continues to kill, maim, and terrorize. An attack that killed many thousands of Iraqis and has adversely affected the lives of millions. An attack that will be endured by the people of Iraq for generations.
A thorough analysis of the impact war has had on the people of Iraq needs to be carried out. It will only be then when the American government can make reparations to that country. The people of the United States of America, and specifically, the American government owe the people of Iraq far more than they can ever pay, but one way or another, they will pay. These things have a way of coming home to roost.
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