The
Tower Of Wealth
Without A Foundation
By Siv O'Neall
08 December, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Imperial arrogance – the road to chaos
The
two mainstays of the neoconservative and neoliberal agenda can be reduced
to the accumulation of more wealth for the tiny upper clique of the
American population and to assuring the ever-lasting continuation of
the U.S. empire. The rest of the world is simply of no consequence to
the neocon way of thinking and that's where they make the huge mistake
that is one day going to be their downfall. Willful shortsightedness
has always been their hallmark and every day now it is looking ever
more likely that their undoing is imminent. When the base caves in,
the tower will come tumbling down.
U.S. imperial arrogance has
had no bounds since they began to see themselves as an invincible power
already in the 19th century. That's when they began to strike out in
Latin America to consolidate their empire in the western hemisphere
and the Philippines. The geopolitical situation in the world has recently
led Washington to assume preposterous rights to single-handedly reshape
the world to their liking and the long-term goal is clearly to become
the rulers of the planet. But it now looks increasingly as if the roof
is going to fall in on the whole pack of wolves and one day soon the
now astronomically rich will find themselves left out in the cold with
nothing but worthless paper in their portfolios.[1]
Don't credit the neocons
with any deep ideological thinking in their way of going about conquering
the world. The United States must obviously be an empire, its military
must be invincible and the country must continue to be by far the wealthiest
country in the world. Of course we are the most powerful and the world
has to see it clearly and tremble with awe and fear. We are also the
moral beacon to the world; we alone know what has to be done to save
our moral values, our high-minded law and order high priests read the
gospel of righteousness to the world.
Certainly some neocons believe
that God has given them the right or even the duty to defy anyone who
threatens U.S. hegemony and that therefore they have every right to
run roughshod over international law and conventions. The plenipotentiary
powers of the pre-revolutionary European kings is their model. Napoleon
and Hitler are their forerunners.
They invaded Iraq, not to
get rid of Saddam Hussein. What did they care? They had cooperated most
warmly with him for decades before. Of course they thought they would
take over the running of that part of the world, Iraq, then Iran, then
Syria. No big deal. That whole part of the world was going to become
a U.S. protectorate. The American military is invincible (as the warm-up
exercises in Central America, Panama and Grenada had proved to Ronald
Reagan) and now that they had the American people scared out of their
wits after 9/11 (Well done Cheney, Rummy and Karl Rove!), they were
absolutely free to go on with their plans to conquer the world. A hyped-up
global war on terror was just what it would take to get the Congress
to play into the conspiracy game. [2]
Profit, eternal war
and one lone superpower
How did this conspiracy play
out? Well, first we destroy Iraq as completely as possible (with the
exception of the Oil Ministry) so that American companies could be used
to reconstruct the country and lay their hands on all the profit that
would come from oil and from the rebuilding activities. And let's not
forget the liberalizing of the market. State owned utilities and companies
were privatized and U.S. corporations bought them up and wreaked all
the profit, openly or underhandedly. Billions disappeared into vast
holes. The Iraqi people are suffering from conditions immensely worse
than under the wicked Saddam Hussein, but who cares. Within the Green
Zone, everything is hunky dory.
Don't believe that the neocons
had any long-time plans for how to run the world, any deeply thought
out geopolitical plans. There was really just one thing that truly mattered
to the people who cared not a wit for reality. Instant profit. Make
the wealth grow for the top one percent of Americans. Other nations
didn't matter; one superpower is the goal. The means? – Eternal
war, which in neocon newspeak is called global peace.
The parody is that Canada,
Europe and Australia thought they were into the game, and so they slavishly
followed suit. They obediently adopted the free market agenda and started
cutting down on social services, fearing that they might be left behind
in a neoliberal world. Money must move towards the top from the bottom
(forget the trickle down theory – it's nothing but a phrase to
put a respectable face on an inhuman way of moving the wealth around
from those who produce it to those who enjoy the fruits of it), such
is the gospel now all over the world and workers fight hopeless fights
in countries where unions believe they still have a say. The free market
has become a gospel that no single country dares turn their backs on,
even though there are actually some countries in Latin America who seem
to have seen the deceptive light inside the neoliberal bubble.
How long can this
go on?
Now, what is going to happen
when the production forces dry up, when the true makers of the wealth
of the earth stop producing? People starve to death, get incurably sick
from lack of health care, get strung out on drugs since there's no more
future left for them, they flaunt the laws and get thrown in jail because
they don't care any more what is going to happen to them. Hope has died.
What do the wealthy people
do when the morale is totally gone from the working slaves, when the
anger and despair rise to such a level that they cannot be contained
any more. When their anger spills over and the slaves go on a rampage.
And what do the wealthy people do when the poor people run out of buying
power, when the masses can just barely feed themselves and their children.
Nobody seems to care a wit about the fact that no economy can function
if money only circulates inside a tiny bubble at the top of the tower.
Tiffany is making bigger profits than any time in recorded history.
Fine for Tiffany but where does it take the rest of the population?
[3]
Who cares?
And I haven't even begun
to mention humane considerations. The top one percent of the American
population have no idea what
it means to be bereft of all dignity, nor do they care.
The people at the top of
the tower of wealth don't know anything about human suffering. It's
not their problem. They have their billions and who cares if the people
out in the streets are furious and desperate? The people in the tower
buy $50,000 yellow diamonds for their wives and girlfriends and they
have no idea of what is outside of their bubble. The link to the world
of reality is broken.
Where does this lead
us?
This state of things is of
course untenable. Our society is falling apart because of hardship and
what follows in the wake of it, crimes, drugs, listlessness and the
lack of focus on life-saving tools, above all high-quality education
and the motivation to build a good life that can come from having a
meaningful and secure job, from being afforded common human dignity.
Indifference to our lives and to where we end up in spite of all the
hardship is the inevitable result of too much suffering. And the bubble
can't go on sparkling up in the sky while the world is falling apart
down below. The tower of wealth without a foundation is bound to topple,
sooner rather than later.
However, as we see more and
more, education and social services, essential for the well-being of
the people, have been put on the backburner, if not completely extinguished.
People are supposed to stay ignorant. So goes a regressive code of reasoning.
Fundamentalist religion is considered healthy for the people, but good
education breeds people who demand their share in the wealth and we
can't have that. There may be some planning behind the 'starving of
the beast', but, above all, the neocons are ruining the U.S. educational
system because they don't care. Education for the masses is too costly
and as long as the upper class children get a good education, nothing
else matters. The military industry comes first and of course the tax
breaks for the wealthy.
There is simply no planning,
no real thinking, just let the very few accumulate colossal fortunes
and the rest will take care of themselves – or they'll die. Who
cares? Forget what W promised in his first election campaign. Words
without the slightest meaning, nor were they supposed to have any meaning.
As long as he got elected to serve as the smirking facade for the neocons
who saw him as a pliable tool for their ends, the end which was and
will forever be, making the rich richer. Ideology is a respectable word.
There is nothing respectable in the present administration and its policies.
[1] Patrick Bond: 'Global capital still volatile, uneven, destructive'
– "Two years ago, in a ZNet commentary - 'Crunch time for
US capitalism?' - I opened by suggesting that 'the prospect of the US
economic empire stumbling, tripping, and maybe even crashing is welcome
indeed.' There's really no reason to adjust the diagnosis, although
Washington's crisis-management techniques have kept its empire from
deteriorating as fast as desired."
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-12/24bond.cfm
[2] Anthony Arnove: 'The
U.S. occupation of Iraq: Act III of a tragedy in many parts'
"They are staying to
save face for a U.S. political elite that cares nothing for the lives
of Iraqis or U.S. soldiers; […] to maintain the legitimacy of
U.S. imperialism, which needs the pretext of a global war on terror
to justify further military intervention, expanded military budgets,
concentration of executive power, and restrictions on civil liberties."
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-12/21arnove.cfm
[3] Heather Burke:'Demand
soars for 'extremely high-end' gifts'
"Expensive gifts are
flying off the shelves as securities firms prepare to award bonuses
to workers in New York that will total a record $23.9 billion, according
to Alan Hevesi, the state comptroller."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/20/bloomberg/bxbonus.php
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