Friends,
Have you ever had the experience of postponing a letter to a
friend? The longer you postpone, then the more pressure to
write a "really good" letter. Which causes stress and
encourages further postponement. That describes my gap in
posting. I've got something to share here, but I don't know
if it measures up to the wait.
Someone wrote in with some comments, and this particular
question helped me to express some ideas that have been
shifting around in my head for the past few months, in the
wake of the Iraq episode...
> Neoliberalism is like fascism (is a brand of fascism)
because it steals history - recall the posing of Hitler
beside the bust of Nietzsche.
Neoliberalism is a closer cousin that that to fascism!
Fascism, according to Mussolini, is really 'corporatism' --
the merger of State and Corporate power. Neoliberalism is
accomplishing that on a global scale. Neoliberalism IS
fascism -- in its clearest expression.
The other aspects we associate with fascism are secondary /
symptomatic. In order to implement the corporate agenda,
tactics are chosen pragmatically depending on the
requirements of the situation. Distorting history,
introducing slave-labor camps, demonizing minorities,
burning down Reichstags, lying to the public, suspending
civil liberties -- these and others are available as control
tactics but they need not all occur, nor always in the same
degrees.
The acute symptoms of fascism flare up when dramatic actions
are required by the corporate agenda, and when those actions
are strongly opposed by a significant segment of the
population. Dissent must then be suppressed; public
support must be created; the agenda must proceed. The
familiar tools of fascism are well-suited to the job.
In Germany, the corporate agenda for German economic
recovery was the subjugation of the Slavic states,
(memorialized in Mein Kampf). This conquest was a
monumental undertaking, and everything Hitler did was in
pursuit of this agenda. The Jews, in the Aryan German mind,
were associated with Russia and Communism. Their
persecution sated German hatreds and aided the agenda at the
same time. Hitler had no desire to fight in Europe, but
there was no way the other Western powers were going to
permit Germany to control the vast Soviet realms. He was
forced to deal with them before turning East.
Today, the corporate agenda is once again dictated by the
need to achieve rapid & significant economic growth. The
global economy is in the midst of a dangerous no-growth
crisis. Something must be done quickly to avoid a major &
long-lasting collapse. The New American Century -- as a
means of achieving economic growth -- is the resulting elite
agenda, and its technocrat authors are now running the US
government. Their actions -- 9-11, the Patriot Act, the
destabilization of the UN, the various conquests, the
ravaging of the environment -- all make sense in terms of
this ambitious agenda.
Permit me to share a perspective on the New American
Century. Consider the dates: 1945, 1980, 2001 -- in the
context of US elites and their alliances.
---
The Postwar Era (1945-1980) represented an alliance between
three parties: US Elites, Western Populations, and Western
Powers. Together they shared prosperity, entitlements, and
mutual benefits -- in the postwar imperialist boom.
But the US elite reserved certain prerogatives for itself.
Domestically, the Taft-Hartley Act ensured that organized
labor could not act as an effective counter-force to the
elite economic agenda. Globally, the US insisted on being
the sole military enforcer of imperialist order. The Suez
Crisis was the test that cemented acquiescence to Pax
Americana.
These prerogatives were reserved for strategic reasons.
They ensured that the ultimate power in the three-way
relationship would stay with US elites. They had gained a
decisively dominant position in the immediate aftermath of
Word War II, and their postwar agenda guaranteed that they
would not lose that advantage.
In the 1970's the postwar boom began to run out, and a
strategic adjustment was called for. The US elite sought
to assure that its own share of the pie would keep growing
-- and decided that someone else's share would need to be
confiscated. That would be achievable because of the
retained power prerogatives.
---
The Neoliberal Era (1980-2001) was characterized by the
betrayal of one of the alliance partners: the Western
Populations. With Labor strategically defanged, Reagan &
Thatcher were able to lead full-scale assaults on Unions,
entitlements, and national budgets. The populations of the
US and Britain -- and the institutions that served
democratic functions -- were systematically disenfranchised
and betrayed by the neoliberal agenda. Treasuries and
industries were looted, and financial control was
transferred to international markets beyond the reach of
national governments.
Globalization was the US-elite's program to extend
neoliberalism globally. They now offered an alliance to
only a single other party: Western elites. By betraying
their own populations, and national sovereignty, these
elites were offered a way to ensure that their own share of
the economic pie would keep growing, for a while at least.
Western elites were thus drawn into a program which
separated them from their traditional basis of power: the
sovereign and economically-strong nation state.
Once again, the maneuverings of US elites are focused around
strategic power considerations. Under the globalization
program, the global economy becomes anarchistic -- from the
perspective of nations. But at the same time it becomes
hierarchical -- from the perspective of global capitalism.
This tips power still further toward US elites -- since the
US has the largest economy, the US $ is the leading reserve
currency, US corporations are among the largest, and the IMF
and WTO are dominated by US corporate representatives. As
corporate power grows, the relative power of US elites vis a
vis other elites grows with it. And all the while the US
holds unchallenged military supremacy.
In the 1990's, the globalization boom began to slow down.
Once again a strategic adjustment was called for, and once
again the (enhanced) power prerogatives of US elites were
decisive in enabling them to achieve an adjustment favorable
to their share of the pie.
---
The Era of The American Century (2001 - ?) is characterized
by the betrayal of the remaining alliance partner -- Western
elites. They allowed themselves to be led down the garden
path, and now they'll pay the consequences. They'll play a
distinctly second-echelon power role, through a disempowered
UN. Their corporations will find the playing field more and
more tilted toward US-based corporations, and their national
budgets will be in disarray as they pay for increasingly
expensive petrol in US dollars only. The US will enjoy
artificial prosperity from the US $ scam and relatively less
expensive petrol, and US corporations will benefit from
sweetheart contracts -- particularly in the energy arena --
as we see already in Iraq.
To some extent, we've returned to the era of nation-based
imperialism, with the US in a dominant role as was Britain
before. But there are critical differences. The old
imperialist era was unstable, with constantly shifting
alliances. By careful use of a carrot and stick, US elites
are now seeking to achieve a more stable kind of hegemony.
Never before did one power enjoy unilateral military
supremacy -- that's the stick. And the US isn't running a
completely closed shop, the global economy is still an open
(albeit slanted) playing field -- that's the carrot. As
long as there's some fat on the carrot, and the stick
remains mighty, all parties would seem to do best by playing
along.
---
Our political context -- the global regime -- is now a
combination of fascism and gangsterism. It is fascist in
the sense that political power is now wielded by corporate
elites, and we are seeing fascism entering its acute stage
since 9-11. Meanwhile, 'gangsterism' aptly characterizes
the operations of the global economy. With the US and
other Western elites, we can see the standard hierarchical
gang 'family', with the supreme 'don' at the top. Death
squads, the drug trade, the arms trade, military
interventions, covert terrorism, torture, assassination,
threats -- these are all routine tools used to create and
maintain the conditions 'on the ground' demanded by
corporate elites to ensure profitable operations and ongoing
growth. These are the tactics of Mafia gangs, only on a
grander scale.
---
don't blame me, I'm just the messenger,
rkm
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