It is quite disturbing to see the trend in the USA for what the media and politicians and the law term “extremists” or even “terrorists,” black communities already armed mobilising against those who refuse to listen to their concerns and treat them as equals.
But this is not a new process. It is a historic progression. We have seen more of it in more countries this century than any other. But who really are the aggressors?
On one hand we have indigenous populations the world over who lose out to aggressive and violent industrial development and a history of forced appropriation of their territories and assets, including slave labour. On the other, predominantly white privileged colonialists who flout respect for life and law to gain that control then sustain it.
So are current political powers, especially those we call ‘democratic,’ representatives of the people or enemies of the people?
The abuses and misdirection of tax-payers money, decimation of infrastructure and depletion in labour and working rights, as well as the insane political policies, outrageous and immoral rhetoric of fear and division and the gross lack of accountability for the loss of millions of lives in an almost psychopathic disregard, is surely premeditated. It is simply the age-old strategy of divide and conquer.
But to get away with the infringements upon one’s OWN civil population, (when you rely upon a minority of approval to retain power), you must set them against each other and confuse them so they feel conflicted and dis-empowered – simply because you can legally get away with it. But you cannot do so by outright opposition as in other regimes. In democracies you pitch it in snappy three-tier slogans made to sound upright, or under the framework of making “AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” or “BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN” in purely colonialist sentimentality and spin, re-employing all the abuses and base prejudices that formed empire and have been staunchly fought against since: racism; class distinction; sexism; hostile take over; insurgency into foreign territories and affairs, politically and through covert carnal warfare, through trade embargoes and arms deals – whilst disintegrating the very principles of human rights and care and sharing that actually made western democracies great after rejecting those conquests and making movements towards reparations and welcoming cultural diversity, establishing laws of equality etc. This was an on-going journey, for sure, until ultra-conservatives took power over the transatlantic union and dominates the political landscape, under the umbrella term and trend of ‘protectionism.’
Whenever any premier perceives their looming demise, they reach for the big guns, to rally the patriots. Thatcher, Blaire, GW Bush, but now for Donald Johnson and Boris Trump it is about minimising opposition to ignorant and prejudicial domestic policies. Simple projection, as many spineless people practice. Make the general public the cause, the bigots, the ignorant. They load the bullets for others to shoot. Trump had no gripe with the security of the electoral process last time around.
More insidiously, it is because competitiveness in a global economy – not in trade but accumulation of wealth, which affords power – no longer relies upon indigenous community. Something the sitting pretty are all too aware of and makes them actually ENEMIES of the people under a facade of patriotism and conformity to protectionist rhetoric.
This is the natural progression of neoliberalism. Indigenous populations (not races) are no longer required to generate and sustain the wealth of their nations. This is the biggest lie used as a political tool of misdirection upon the tax-paying public. Financialization long since made labour and the means of production minimal in importance to trade, which is now simply a manipulation tool to control access to consumerism and to control and marginalise populations.
State has become the elites’ arbiter of systematic civil disintegration.
Hence the flouting of international laws and human rights infringements; rise in poverty and all the un-policed and sometimes sanctioned abuses connected with it; undermining of civil access to legal representation; co-option and undermining of charities, NGOs and welfare rights organisations; exploitation and profiteering during crises – and why during nearly a year of the Covid-19 pandemic NO INTERNATIONAL ACCORD OF ACTION; SLOW AND LIMITED ACCESS TO INADEQUATE TESTING, TRACKING AND TRACING; NO MASS PRODUCTION OF PPE; MANIPULATION OF INFORMATION AND SUPPRESSION OF TRANSPARENT AND ACCURATE RECORDING OF CASES AND FATALITIES.
If, as some claim, “SOCIETY IS BROKEN” it is not society (who carry on regardless, plugging the gaping holes and usually at cost to themselves) that have broken it. It is time to call to account the perpetrators. But how?
By taking control of a new civil economy that functions without dependency upon money, reducing money’s controlling power and relevance.
Contrary to immediate capitalist assumptions, this will not constitute ANY civil disobedience or the slightest conflict with capitalism. It will actually save it and eliminate any need for political, commercial or international competition, simply as a bi-product. It will relieve any government from dependency upon elite capitalists and their economic agendas, rendering them champions of society.
Its main productivity will be the economic empowerment of every individual of any circumstance living now and into the future. It empowers them to come together to rebuild what they have been tactically deprived of. To form civil bodies of cooperation that bi-pass the political and financial manipulations, dissolving its influence over their activities. There are successful examples in our recent history and pathways that we are already familiar with. So this is merely appropriation of existing agencies and methods to benefit from what neoliberals have already misappropriated to maximise exorbitant profits.
But this can never come about using money or moral agendas. It can only replace money by unilateral civic cooperation, which then forges global accord by the very nature of what the non-monetary economy enables. What the vast majority of people want in common and all too often share, regardless of race, political and cultural persuasion and often in the face of economic hardship. Once one country takes it up, no matter how small, it will snowball across the globe. Imagine Lebanon, Belarus, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Haiti, Bangladesh, Syria, Myanmar, Darfur or the Philippines forming their own civil State and reconstructing infrastructure without needing money or generating conflict with existing monetised ‘authorities.’ The parallel non-monetary economy never threatens monetary capitalism. When it offers people in conflict for their beliefs better options for self-fulfilment and enrichment, it dissolves some of the very issues that brought about that conflict or at least gives them opportunities that needn’t threaten their lives or those of others. It can do this with domestic and international conflicts. When people see it work before their very eyes, even monetary capitalists will not be able to resist what the 99% offer them.
How do we get this and how does it work? This is explored robustly in ‘A Chance For Everyone: The Parallel Non-Monetary Economy.’ Kendal Eaton
(download versions available for FREE or pay what you wish)