The Big Con Game
By Siv O'Neall
28 January, 2009
Countercurrents.org
Milton Friedman's Chicago school [1] of deranged predators who wanted, and nearly managed as well, to completely distort the economic system on a global scale was born out of a creed that everything could be gained by a tiny minority. There has been a total lack of concern for everything but those very few who were the profiteers. What was destroyed in the process didn't bother them in the least. Irreversible damage to the environment was of no consequence. The billions of people on the planet who wanted just to live and be left in peace had no importance whatsoever. They were destined to be cannon fodder and slaves for the gung-ho swindlers who were out to own the world.
Because owning the world, all its resources and all of its production was the ultimate goal for the strangely modeled minds of a select group of economists who were going to be known as the Chicago boys, Milton Friedman's gang, the squires of Death and Destruction who rode in golden chariots across the continents to rob one country after the other of their resources, always leaving corpses and destruction behind after the deadly deed had been done.
They then happily moved on to the next victim to be raped and plundered. Always with the pie-in-the-sky promise of saving the country from internal collapse or – oh horror – a socialist takeover. Which was of course bound to produce financial mayhem. Or so say the Chicago boys. We had seen how the Soviet Union economy had imploded gradually but surely – proof enough that socialism can never work.
If it had not been for the convenient example of the Soviet bankruptcy, the neoliberal (as they were to be coined) fantasists would never have had what they considered proof that a socialist system is unworkable. The world since the beginning of the cold war had become black and white. After the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, the contrasts deepened ever more and the mere suggestion of an economic model with a slightly socialist bend became anathema, to the economists in the first place and, through rabid propaganda, also to the broad masses of the United States citizens. Capitalist = good. Socialist = bad. Does that ring a bell? Four feet good – two feet bad.[2] Sure. Why not let the pigs run the world?
To reach this state of things, they needed to set afoot a gigantic con game of buying up one country after the other, by any means possible. Greed was the natural instinct that was the driving force behind a world economy. No other human quality ought to have the slightest impact on the economic system. 'Greed is good' and we must cultivate it to the very end. The world had been prepared for the takeover of big powers ever since colonial days and so people in the so-called developing countries were used to being victimized and conned out of their natural rights and their natural wealth.
The twin brother of 'Greed is good' is 'War is good'. Peace is bad War is necessary to keep the economy humming. In fact, there is an essential triangle that is necessary to stimulate the economy of the profiteers. Greed, war and consumerism.
However, since one of the major stays that hold up neoliberalism is consumerism, it's amazing to realize that there is an obvious incompatibility between the steady lowering of living standards of the working people and the need for buying power – in order to make the wealthy wealthier. How could Milton Friedman not see that by ruining the economy of a country, such as Argentina in the nineties, Bolivia in the eighties, etc., people would simply have no money left for buying, in many cases not even the bare necessities? The predators are so intent on making their billions, by any means possible, that they fail to see how they are busy tying their own noose.
There is, generally speaking, such a complete lack of a realistic view of the world and its people that it amounts to sheer blindness to reality. Are they not even aware of the fact that the tower of wealth is going to topple because of the manufactured weakness of the base?
The neocon plan was a take-over of the world, country by country. Europe was going to become an ally and be made to live and think and behave like Americans. That is: propagandized, non-thinking, gullible, patriotic U.S.-like citizens who with a knee-jerk reaction stand at attention, literally or symbolically, whenever they see the American flag, whenever they hear the words 'War on Terror'. Other countries were either going to be conquered or made to be obedient pawns in the service of the U.S. Empire.
Anything goes, as long as the War on Terror is on. And it would be on for ever, since everybody knew that it was unwinnable. If, as is to be expected now, the new President has seen the transparency of the illusion of the 'War on terror', as long as this system continues, there will be other wars to take its place and to assure the continuation and the obscene profits of the corporations that are the actual leaders of the world.
The economic meltdown that has gripped the world in a very visible manner during the past few months may have changed some of the presumed power of unfettered capitalism. The crisis has certainly eaten away at the general faith in the neoliberal system. Millions of people have awakened to the truth of the game and to the fact that they have been had, in a grand manner.
But has the current crisis really changed the faith in unfettered capitalism of the top 1% of the world population in the system that brought them their billions, that brought them to power? As soon as this crisis is over, even though it may take many years or even decades, the predators will be getting out of their hideouts and begin the game all over again. In order to prevent this, a system of strict regulations is required for the handling of money and an adherence to the U.S. Constitution, however inadequate it may be.
The founding fathers were no raving liberals, but with the important amendments that have been added in later years to this document it is nevertheless a beginning for a certain degree of democracy in the country. Over the past few decades and especially over the past eight years, the U.S. has wildly gone astray from any kind of democratic principles in its arrogance and its eagerness to own the world. The plutocratic beginnings of this nation have to be replaced by concern for all people.
For any economic system to function, we can not have masters and slaves. Enlightenment has dawned upon the earth and it's not just money that makes the world go round. It's a fair system of cooperation by everybody that is needed now, not the deregulated power of huge corporations and wildcat speculation leading to obscene fortunes that don't produce anything, that do nothing but deprive the working masses of their just share and make a decent life for the average family a long-gone dream.
What the world is expecting at this time from President Obama is not just that he put an end to the war under false flag in Afghanistan and Iraq but that he change the role of the United States altogether to one of cooperation with the rest of the members of the world community.
The United States is just one of a multitude of nations on this planet and with the meltdown of the deregulated capitalist system it can be hoped that the new world order that is going to emerge from the ashes will be one where the interests of all people will be taken into account. We want an end to the exploitation of poor and rich countries. We want a world where every individual can live in dignity, to eat, have good health and get a good education. We want an end to aggressive wars under mendacious pretexts for the profit of the very few. We want a world where progress is not measured in numbers of GDP but in the quality of life of all people. We want an end to hypocrisy and narrow self-interest.
It is time for the United States to step down from its fake throne and to stop acting as the Master over all the rest of the billions of people on the earth who are treated like slaves with no rights and no voice.
Goodbye to the United States Empire and good morning to a new world of responsibility and equality
Notes:
[1] Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006 ) is the economist who has the most inspired the neoliberal revolution of economics, which has become known as the Chicago School of economics. His first on-the-ground experiment, after having worked on his free-market ideas since the fifties, was in Chile where he helped stage the coup against Salvador Allende in 1973 – with disastrous consequences. The 'Chicago boys' have, since then, 'come to the rescue' of one country after the other, always leaving the country in a more serious financial crisis than the one they were in at the beginning.
[2] Reference to George Orwell: 'The Animal Farm' (Secker and Warburg August 1945) where the pigs take over the running of the farm.
Siv O'Neall is an Axis of Logic columnist, based in France. She can be reached at [email protected]
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