True to old concepts of the cold war, society at large is still mainly ruled by constructed fears of common enemies (Terrorists, Third World countries, etc…) in mass media propaganda. Political philosophers starting from Sartre (“Freedom can only be achieved by violent revolutions”) to the Neo-cons (“Freedom means free market economy”) provide no answers for the current meltdown of the capitalist system. The meltdown is a long anticipated phenomenon, rooted in grossly inflated numbers (Wall Street and corporate bookkeeping) and statistics (government agencies) of growth and wealth, similar to the last phase of the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Capitalism has only survived communism by 20 years and seems to face the same brutal decline. And again, the common individual will be made to foot the bill.
Questions regarding the general nature of human beings and the most effective social structures come to mind: how much control – and how much freedom – does the individual need – and how much can a society afford in order to guaranty maximum survival. But is survival in maximum numbers really the ultimate goal and index for successful governance? Currently, Americans seem to survive just fine, despite heavy controls. So do pigs in massive sties, cheaply-fed and exploited. Never mind the idea of humanity gets lost in the shuffle.
At this point the question seems legit as to what constitutes the value of a human life in the first place. Since the beginning of the patriarchic society (about 4000 years ago), there has never been any “absolute value” assigned to human life. In the true spirit of a male-dominated hunter and warrior society, killings and human sacrifices have been a natural part of political strategy. If the patriarchs would finally come forth with their view that killing and warfare is necessary to shore up the system they created, there would at least be a certain honesty that could be respected. But unfortunately their actions have been in sharp contrast to their rhetoric of peace, freedom, justice and equality. To bring this lie out in the open and to come clean with their actual values, the Western patriarchic societies will have to reexamine their actions in past warfare, where millions of humans died as mere pawns for economical gain.
It has been clearly established that the value of (human) life is far less than the value of capital gain. If the value of (human) life were to truly preside over the value of money, a government would be expected to guarantee basic needs like food, housing, education and health care to each individual. The social-democracies in Europe grant these needs. A free market economy like in America (that allows for an elderly, handicapped and helpless humans to die in the street) is considered totally immoral by European standards. Hitler’s principle of reckless strength and euthanasia of “unworthy life” taught Europeans where disregard for human life will lead. But WWII holds an entirely different lesson for Americans: WWII was an American success story. For the first time, it put America in charge. It taught them that violence leads to victory. No wonder that by American standards, an individual living in the street is considered a “failure” and therefore unworthy to be part of society in the first place. Clearly, Hitler’s lessons didn’t register here the same way. It is my opinion that this is the reason why reckless capitalism with no regard for human rights was possible here.
As capitalism in crisis repeatedly turns to socialistic means (in forms of government bailouts) to prop up the collapsing economy, the Milton Friedman theory of free market economy as the best possible system has long been proven wrong. Meanwhile, these bailouts have not been offered to the hurting population. As in the case of Russia which was faced with total economic collapse during Jeltzin’s reign, we have learnt that if faced with hunger and violence, people chose safety and food over freedom. Russians welcomed Putin’s centralized, tough government as it guaranteed certain basic securities to the inhabitants.
Observing these developments, the need of government to stabilize a failing economy AND social structures that guarantee basic human needs is obviously much larger than admitted so far. As most political rhetoric still focuses on empty phrases of freedom and democracy, I notice that politics and economy in the U.S. has been pragmatic at best and devoid of any human values at worst. In order to understand to what cruelty the U.S government is actually capable, its population needs to wake up from their comatose sleep and realize what its government has really done with its taxpayers money abroad.
We have all been fed the propaganda line that the U.S. wants to “bring freedom and democracy” to Third World countries. I’ve seen it resulting in horrible poverty and chaos through warfare with my own eyes, while working as a TV-war correspondent. In my opinion, geopolitical strategy of Western countries has been driven by purely monetary, pragmatic goals. The pretext of political agendas like “fighting communism”, “ending genocide” or “bringing democracy” is a cynical joke. Since when does the self-proclaimed capitalist U.S. act as a huge non-profit charity organization?
One important question comes to mind as I focus on the destruction and suffering the West has created in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, among others: if those populations were truly as dangerous as we are being told in our media, why are we in the West still so safe? How come there are not more large-scale terror attacks in the U.S.? Investigating these issues for years has led me to conclude that much of the violence and “insurgences” in Third World countries are instigated by Western forces. If the Middle Eastern resistance would be as effective and organized as claimed in U.S. news, they would have found ways to make the U.S. unsafe to live in since many years. Instead, the unrelenting chaos in those countries has enabled U.S. corporations to generate huge profits.
Speculating about the future is always interesting and risky business. I do it after extensive research – hoping that I am all wrong:
I believe the U.S. housing and job market will further collapse to a point where the economy comes to a grinding halt – especially since the government coffers have been raided by banks, insurances and other criminal institutions for their CEO’s personal gain. I expect a phase of upheaval, leading to an even worse police state, probably even a phase of outright fascism. As people are usually much smarter and more responsible than we give ourselves credit for, small communities will form and self-regulate for a transitional period. Eventually, the leveling of worldwide currencies and job markets/economies will lead to a reduced standard of living in the Western countries and a relatively higher standard in Third World countries.
Depending on how suddenly the U.S. economy will crumble – and how much military action they can still afford, America will attack other countries in Endgame-like war-scenarios, to deflect focus from the very fact that they are bankrupt: financially, but even more so, morally. Attacks on likely targets like Iran, Yemen and North Korea are likely to draw the big players out in the open: China, Russia, Europe. Their emerging economic pacts will leave the U.S. isolated. America has wrecked havoc on many crisis-ridden countries with their Worldbank/IMF structural adjustment schemes and brought them to their knees economically while claiming to aid them. Let’s hope the powers that will prevail will find it in their own interest not to administer the same brutal treatment to the U.S.
On a Personal Note:
I do believe that I will see the destruction of the U.S. hegemony and empire within the next 15 years. I intend to document the social changes as much as I can for our successors and people in other countries. Also, I plan to make movies and publish books that instill hope in alternative forms of lifestyles, societies and governments (more egalitarian, participant-model social democracies). Future generations will find it hard to understand why and how we allowed this violence, destruction and chaos to happen. From today’s point of view, all I have to offer are not political explanations but a philosophical one: the global human mass consciousness created this upheaval to rebalances itself, to free itself from the stranglehold of an unbalanced, patriarchic, economic ownership system that has gotten in the way of evolution. The evolution of our consciousness – which I consider the ultimate task on this planet of all that materializes. The mass consciousness of life forms on earth is ready to move on – quite a few power trippers are in for a crude awakening.
