Thursday, April 24, 2014

Imperial Delusions

Bill Bonner is a “literary economist”. I admire his ability as a writer. He has some sensible things to say about economics too.

I have just started reading a complimentary copy of his book, The New Empire of Debt, written with his mate Addison Wiggin. This is what he says about empires.

At the peak, the imperial people come to believe that their system is superior, that their values are universal and that their way of life will inevitably dominate the entire world (New Empire p.10).
I have seen some great examples coming out of the Whitehouse recently.

Joe Carney condemning the planned presidential election in Syria.
A presidential referendum is a parody of democracy. It would nave not credibility or legitimacy inside Syria or outside Syria.
What about the presidential election being run in Afghanistan under the guns of 60,000 US troops. Is it legitimate, because two warlords from the northern alliance are standing.

Joe Biden sent to Ukraine to scare the Russians.
No nation should stoke instability in its neighbouring country. We call on Russia to stop supporting men hiding behind mask in unmarked uniforms sowing unrest in Eastern Ukraine.
Has he forgotten that neocon Victoria Nulands spend $5 billion dollars trying to change the government in Ukraine, then selected the new president. What is the CIA doing all over the world, not to mention Blackwater (Xe).

John Kerry on Ukraine.
You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext in order to assert your interests.
Has he forgotten about Iraq, or Afghanistan.

Looking from the outside these comments seem like a joke, but inside the empire they make sense.
Things that are evil when you do them, are good when we do them.
Here is another imperial delusion
Imperial people believe that their society is so superior, that the rest of the world longs to be just like them, or is inevitably drawn to become like them whether they like it or not.
Bill Bonner gives an example.
The invasion of Iraq was based on the same sort of thinking: that even the grubby desert tribes want to be just like us. All we had to do was get the get the dictator off their banks and the men would start building shopping malls and the women would all start dressing like Britney Spears (New Empire p.10).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Then there was the election in Palestine in '05--orderly and legitimate--but it didn't produce the result the US wanted, so we slapped economic sanctions on Palestine. This only increased the instability in the region. No one appeared to care that a great many Christians had voted for Hamas because Hamas was more honest than Fatah. And the assumption is always that people in other countries want what we want; few things are more amusing than an American feminist discovering that her "sisters" in Muslim countries don't want what she wants. I recall the shock when Solzhenitsyn, released from Soviet bondage at last, told us how Godless we were instead of how wonderful we were. The US is in much the same position Athens was in with the Delian League, the NATO of its day, originally designed to resist Persia but eventually an Athenian cash-cow. The Athenians thought they were really the Business, and they ended up being the Ruins.