Making History
Sections within this article:
Even in the face of nearly unprecedented corporate and government corruption, the American public remains woefully apathetic. Perhaps this is because most Americans believe they are safe with in the comforts of “middle-class”, thus largely insulated from the horrors they see other humans suffering around the world, even within their own local communities. Perhaps this behavior is akin to the legendary flaw of frogs which can be boiled alive, without a struggle, IF the water they are in is brought slowly to a boil.
History, at least what most people are taught about history, is an intricate dance between the historian, his/her patron, and the propagandist spin-masters also serving that patron. “Facts” of history are created as much by the perspective of the story-tellers as they are by the actual events, usually even more so. That is why we have the old adage, “History is written by the winners”. Further, George Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Sobering, even chilling, reminders.
What if it turns out that most everything Americans believe about the U.S. and its history is untrue? What if we believe in a fairy tale fiction? What if our nation’s history, its goals, and its actions were driven NOT by a common commitment to the stated ideals of freedom, peace, justice, opportunity and democracy, but instead by a relatively small number of greedy and power-hungry people fighting for ever-greater wealth and control? What if our nation is not really even a democracy, but a clever propaganda masquerade which fools most of the people most of the time? As you read this paragraph, can you even allow yourself to conceive of such possibilities? If not, why not?
In the personal realm, irrationally clinging to ideas which are not true, especially in spite of demonstrable evidence that those ideas are untrue, is labeled “delusion”, and in severe cases it is considered psychotic. Psychologists tend to view our need for minor forms of self-delusion as coping mechanisms evoked to minimize the psychic pain that could result from the conscious realization that our father does not love us, or that we drink too much alcohol, or that our apathy prevents us from achieving our goals. Nevertheless, if we wish to achieve proper mental and emotional health we must try to look at our lives objectively, see reality for what it is, then end our delusions (rationalizations, etc.) so we can understand and resolve the problems confronting us.
Ask yourself this: If mother never told us the truth about Santa Claus, would we still believe? Why or why not? Should we be any less skeptical about anything that someone else asks us to believe, especially without reasonable proof? Are there some things that we would prefer to believe in spite of our suspicions that they are not true?
There is a separate term for delusions purposefully created on a grand public scale, namely Indoctrination, “to imbue with beliefs”. Successful indoctrination is incredible for its captivating powers: To outsiders, indoctrinated people appear as entranced, unable to see the obvious, unaware of stark contradictions between their beliefs and the contrary evidence all around them; To the indoctrinated, outsiders lack understanding, and must have some ulterior motives for attempting to “tear down” the righteously held beliefs of the faithful. For indoctrination to be successful, it seems, we need only a purposeful and plausible storyline, plus a degree of flattery and self-interest for the target audience. Some such schisms are famed for how ridiculous the indoctrinated appear to later (more objective) observers. Examples include hundreds of years of “flat, earth-centric” Ptolemaics forestalling the Copernican Revolution (because the populace preferred to believe that they were the special center of God’s design), Hitler’s “Master Race” (because the populace preferred to believe they were inherently superior beings), and even several generations of psychiatric professionals seduced by Freud’s depraved notions of ego development (because it gave so many an excuse to openly think and talk about sex, especially in contrast with uptight Victorian-era standards of the day). Unfortunately, once people embrace a belief, even if it is patently and demonstrably false, they cling to it dearly.
At the risk of sounding as loony and heretical as Galileo in the sixteenth century, here is alternative view of the “facts” of U.S. / Western history. Its publication and reading is a test of both our stated “freedom of speech” ideology and our commitment to the open-minded search for truth to which mankind has paid lip service since the Renaissance. The implications of such an alternative view of our history and our modern reality (if true) are earth-shaking for everyone who cares about freedom, democracy and the human condition.
Begin the Beguine
The history of the United States of America begins, of course, in Europe. A convenient starting point for our highly abbreviated revisionism is 1273, when Rudolf IV was crowned “King of Germany” marking the Habsburg family’s accent to emperor within the Holy Roman Empire (notice that his moniker was “IV”, poignantly underscoring his family’s noble rank among the European elite well before 1273). The Habsburg Empire (the family and its array of allied nobles) overtly dominated Europe and the West for the next 600 years, through World War 1 (1914). That fact bears further emphasis: The Habsburgs extended family overtly dominated Western societies through one third of the Middle Ages, through the entire Renaissance, through the entire Age of Kings, through the entire Age of Revolution, and through much the Industrial Revolution. This amazing and unparalleled longevity is a great testament to the creativity, flexibility, cleverness and even deviousness of determined elites, and their ability to morph themselves as social contexts demanded to always retain positions of power and privilege. This is also the central theme of our revisionist history: The old-line European elite have NEVER faded away, but have instead learned to control much of the world today in covert fashion, largely through the art of financial indenture, behind a propagandist facade of democracy.
We must pause here to stress two very important points:
1. In the interest of brevity, we shall use the term “Habsburgs” to mean all of the various elite families of Europe whose lands, stocks, notes and power have enjoyed continuous existence for the past 500 – 700 years. We shall largely ignore the influences of Middle Eastern and Asian dynastic families although they too continue to vie for their own places at the table of New World Order domination.
2. This alternative view of U.S./Western history is specifically NOT a theory of conspiracy. It IS a theory of effective domination by a relatively small number of elites who fight continuously amongst themselves for wealth and power, but who also have similarly aligned interests vis-a-vis the common populace (namely, control of resources, subjugation of labor, desire and ability to affect legislation to their own benefit, etc.). Thus, the power structure is more akin to a board game (such as Chess or Monopoly) where the players learn to maximize their positions according to the rules of that game, so it is NOT surprising to find players adopting similar strategies. When the rules of the game also permit leading players to create new rules in their favor (such as in many drinking games popular with college crowds) a two-tier player structure quickly evolves, including tacit cooperation among the early winners who then form the rule-making elite. While explicit conspiracy does occur within these structures, it is not necessary, nor is it even common, since the elite are simultaneously aligned in their general goals and in competition as to specifics. Indeed, Adam Smith, whose seminal work, The Wealth of Nations, is often cited as the basis for Capitalism, described the power of such a properly constructed sets of rules to cause its players to act in sympathy “as if guided by an invisible hand”. Thus, this revisionist history is largely based on the predictable events of Game Theory rather than the improbable and paranoid musings derived from any Conspiracy Theory.
In contrast to Europe’s Habsburgs, the strategy of Britain’s ruling family (NEVER under Habsburg control) has been more overt yet equally as cunning. Instead of a continuing insistence on absolute rulership by Divine Right (which bred murderous revolutions across Europe) in the face of the evolving popular notions of liberty and human rights, or going largely underground like many threatened Habsburg rulers, the British monarchy cut a public deal with the wealthiest of its subjects. The family (and many of its nobles) would retain their titles and figure-head status, plus an absolutely massive amount of wealth (including half of all the real estate in London), while avoiding all or most forms of taxation, yet enjoying all of the ongoing military and security protections of its persons and interests that the monarchy’s taxpaying subjects could afford. That was and is quite a negotiating coup for England’s elite who still rank among the richest and most powerful players in the world (think of the original Lloyds of London).
It is noteworthy that even British royalty formed a coalition with the Habsburgs (thrice, in 1792, 1799 and 1804) to beat back the democratic forces of the French Revolution, whose idealists were encouraged by the unique success of the American Revolution. Indeed, it was the French commoners’ recurring battle for independence from Europe’s elite, and specifically the need to raise money to fight the English-Habsburg alliance, which forced Napoleon Bonaparte (a democratic revolutionary general turned delusional autocratic emperor) to offer the massive Louisiana Territory to the U.S. at the fire sale price of just $15 million.
It is also worth noting that the Habsburgs, and well as the British aristocracy, have power and wealth today which is far beyond the celebrated “richest man” misnomer accorded to Microsoft’s Bill Gates. There are three reasons for the routine misinformation released comparing the wealth of the world’s supposedly richest men: First, old money wealth is largely untraceable, hidden across an array of corporations, trusts, partnerships, pseudonyms and other devices meant to shield the owners from taxation and liability; Second, old money elite understand that publicity only breeds the scorn and contempt of the masses, making the elite targets of extortionists, opportunists and revolutionaries, so they go to great lengths to remain anonymous and unprovocative, preferring to leave the dirty details of daily empire to well-paid attorneys and accountants; Third, if the definition were changed to “world’s richest families” instead of conveniently limited to the holding of a single individual a much more accurate picture would emerge. Therefore, the public fixates on the tens of billions held by technology and oil magnates, and various other nouveau-riche, while the scandalous wealth (hundreds of billions to trillions!) of old money families goes unnoticed, allowing the elite to quietly and effectively execute their intentions for directing the next 100 years of social “progress”.
It is against this backdrop that we can now explore the history of the Western world since the creation of the United States of America.
Revolution?
Even before the revolution, European settlers in the Americas were a hypocritical lot. Claiming they were fleeing religious persecution, they immediately began to mock the spiritual belief of the indigenous peoples they met, seeking converts by force where necessary. Disgusted with the treacherous politics of European nobles, they immediately undertook their own intrigues, breaking nearly every promise they made to those indigenous people who so kindly allowed them to share these “new” lands. Through deception and slaughter, the European settlers shoved their way into the Americas, rationalizing their actions at every step. Now cleansed by time and legend-building, school children are taught that “American history begins with brave (not ‘desperate’), generous (not ‘greedy’), and peaceful (not ‘war-like’) families who fled religious persecution (not ‘landless poverty’). The settlers befriended (not ‘used’) the Indians who, being heathens (not ‘peaceful and ancestrally stable families’) needed to be converted to proper religions (not ‘Christian dogmas’) where possible, or sometimes killed in self-defense (not ‘because they were defending their own lands and livelihoods against the European invaders’).” It is similarly enlightening to realize that while approved U.S. history texts applaud the lawless behavior of colonists at the Boston Tea Party, modern authorities might denounce a similar act today by outraged taxpayers (say, dumping a load of highly-taxed weapons, fuel, tobacco or alcohol) as treasonist acts of terrorism just as the British monarchist did.
By the time of The American Revolution (circa 1770’s), European elites were beginning their own end-game battle for imperialist control of colonies in Africa, South America, and North America, and battle which would accelerate for the next 100 years. Colonial lands were resource-rich and provided important outlets for population pressures. They were also easy targets, occupied by readily-conquered natives (mostly disorganized and peaceful tribes of indigenous peoples without war technologies) who were unfamiliar with the political and interpersonal treachery of Europeans hardened by 1,000 years of nearly constant war. They also provided new goods and new markets for expanding the trade profits of each European principality. Thus, the Spanish, Dutch and French (largely Habsburg-controlled territories) all had an interest in seeing Britain lose its prize colonies in North America. The French elite, in particular, had just lost much of their Upper North American territory through war with the British (who were NEVER Habsburgs), and were therefore particularly keen to aid the American revolutionaries in their quest to fracture the navally-superior British Empire. Of course, war also provides wonderful opportunities for profit, and the Habsburgs made the most of the American Revolution, collectively becoming the 13 colonies’ major trading partners and well as their major lender. It is important to remember that the leaders of the United States revolution were themselves rich men, mostly from old money families, and their “All Men Are Created Equal” slogan was clearly NOT meant to include women, people of color or indigenous origins, or even non-land owning white men. Truth be told, the American Revolution was a battle for economic and political control of a resource-rich land, by and between various elites, and its success would have been impossible if not for the support and self-interest of Europe’s Habsburg elites. It was NOT really a battle for democracy and equality, although some well-intentioned revolutionaries certainly embraced Rousseau’s recently published notions of The Social Contract, but social justice WAS the sales pitch used to enlist the support of the peasants/soldiers.
Previously published arguments (“Citizens’ Action Network”, Alter-Nation Viewpoint, November 2002, “Checks & Balances” Issue) are again relevant here:
“Even as the U.S. Constitution was being debated and created, the richest and most powerful dynasties in Europe were vying for positions of influence and profit within the resource-rich Americas. Thus, international bankers and financiers, who had loaned moneys to the American revolutionaries and otherwise helped to topple England as the world’s superpower, relied on so-called revolutionaries like Alexander Hamilton to protect their elite interests during the formation of the new U.S. government.
“While the common man lives crop-to-crop and hand-to-mouth, the elite can afford to bide their time. Why risk exacerbating revolutionary tendencies by pushing the elitist agenda too early in the life of a young republic? Why risk beheading and asset seizures (such as those conspicuously suffered by French royalty, e.g., Marie Antoinette) when you can slowly reassert business as usual through time honored practices of taxation and usury? Indeed, Hamilton graces the $100 dollar bill as homage to his role in retaining private capital’s privileged position within the newly independent economies of the 13 now united states of America.
“The U.S. Constitution was and is a consciously designed dream. For its true believers, it embodies the collective dreams of humanity through the ages: Freedom, peace, security, opportunity, justice. For the cynical elitists it is simply a wonderful smoke-screen of propaganda; a quasi-religious facade behind which they can re-take the historical high-ground of power, privilege, control, hegemony, non-accountability; a document engineered to become obsolete, just like the widgets and gizmos produced by their factories.”
The real question is whether there ever really WAS a true revolution in America? Or did Americans throw off the yoke of overt English monarchy only to run into the willing arms of a far more subtle and powerful form of domination: Habsburg-engineered indentured servitude?
Indentured Servitude
Even since biblical times humanity’s best and brightest have understood the dirty truth of usury (that is, interest charged on loaned money): “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender”. The charging of interest for money leant (as opposed to the equity shares granted for invested money) creates a division of motives among the participants instead of a mutual cooperation. Specifically, the borrower has every incentive to take as much value as possible out of the venture each year, while the lender maximizes his gains if he collects his interest each month until the business is just firmly established and is then able to take it over completely through some untimely default by the borrower. This means cash flow conflicts are inevitable, with the lender holding the upper hand, and class problems follow closely behind. Thus Christ threw the money changers out of the temple and usury was decried in the teachings (but not the practice) of Christianity.
The Habsburgs (et al), however, embraced usury as their primary means of retaining a position of power and privilege in spite of popular revolutions for freedom and democracy. Of course, as this strategy’s success has became apparent, every other elite on the planet has jumped into the game. Within the trappings of state-supported Capitalism, the moneyed elite can use their tremendous wealth not only for equity investments and lending (especially to governments and corporations which they control or hope to control) but also to ensure that they control legislation and policies which dovetail with their goals.
In the 1800’s, the new American citizenry was forced to fight the War of 1812 (now overtly a trade war, again with Britain, ending in 1814), the U.S. Civil War (another trade war, which brought the issue of slavery as the South’s labor force into sharp focus), and yet another long series of wars of domination in the name of Manifest Destiny, mostly against a reluctant “Indian Resistance” (1860-1890), as the U.S. eventually seized control of all contiguous lands which now form its 48 “continental states”. The entire Western half of the U.S. was forcibly seized from both Indians and the Spanish missionaries, especially after Gold was discovered in California. The nouveau-riche of the emerging U.S. industrial revolution, including families (such as Rockefeller, Morgan, etc.) who dominated the newly emerging markets for America’s resources (oil, ores, timber, land) and related services (railroads, shipping, construction, even finance), were attempting to muscle their way into the privileged realm of Europe’s old money.
During this period, European elite had to contend with an array of challenges on their own home front, both power grabs from among its own ranks and new popular democratic revolutions. In 1848, the same year the Communist Manifesto was published, wars of independence raged all across the continent, including what is now France, Austria, Hungary, Prussia, Italy, Denmark, Romania, Switzerland and even the Turkish-controlled Balkans. Further, the revolutionary havoc in Europe provided an unparalleled opportunity for independence movements in European colonies worldwide. Indeed, with so many old money families forced to fight popular uprisings on so many fronts simultaneously, the mid- to late-1800’s provided the greatest period of hope history has ever held for true democracy and freedom. Without this respite, it is doubtful that the U.S. (and its nouveau-riche) would have been allowed to gain the level of success and power it enjoyed by the end of the 19th century. But the Habsburgs had not survived 600 years accidently, so even as they patiently regained peace and control in each European territory they planned their new conquests of America and the Western world. It is not surprising that this same period brought unprecedented European efforts for imperialism, especially across Africa and Asia.
Emerging toward the end of the 19th century were shrewdly reconstructed British and European elites, now acting in tacit alliance with new American moguls. Each player formed a unique strategy aimed at maximizing his own position, while the collective interests of the elite also became increasingly aligned: Find a way to loan money to the U.S. government in the name of its taxpayers; find a way to invest in and loan money to U.S. owners of resources and key manufacturing capabilities; find a way to influence U.S. domestic and foreign policies to suit and bolster one’s various investments; find ways to win the complicity and support of the European and U.S. populations to avoid more popular uprisings; use constant and well-controlled wars to vie amongst ourselves and dominate our populations.
Europe’s elite did have an Achille’s Heal of which they were especially fearful (and so explicitly united against): Popular revolutions aimed at replacing the newly functioning “Money Ueber Alles” socio-economic systems of Capitalism with the “Community Ueber Alles” socio-economic concepts of Socialist Democracy. Having witnessed the fate of the Czars in Eastern Europe during the Bolshevik revolutions (many of which were Habsburg families), the Habsburgs correctly calculated that there was little room for them to hide their wealth within Socialist systems, thus on this issue there could be no compromise. So, by the late 1800’s, except for the “communist threat”, the elite were again properly positioned across Europe and the U.S. to enjoy secure positions atop an economic and political pyramid. This time, however, they would rule not by divine right, overt slavery, or feudal lordship, but through the indentured servitude of “free men” who would ultimately toll their lives away willingly for little more than the money needed to pay for sustenance and taxes, and the dream that they too might someday be rich.
Within this paradigm, we can see clearly that the European money lenders, not novelist George Orwell, invented the ironic system wherein “War is Peace”, Ignorance is Strength” and “Freedom is Slavery”.
The Round-Up
Romanticists have waxed eloquently about the American cowboys who turned their cattle loose on the open frontier to feed and fatten, eventually riding the range to round ’em up and drive ’em off to market. This iconic image of America is also poetically correct from the perspective of the Habsburgs, where the cattle represent the fattened assets of the early 20th century U.S., and the cowboys are the professionals in the service of the gentlemen ranchers (the moneyed elite). Although the picture would not be as romantic, the ‘sheep lead to the slaughter’ cliche might be a more accurate metaphor.
Round-up in the U.S. began just after the turn of the century. During Europe’s Age of Revolution, the U.S. cattle were free to roam. But the elite are relentless, with insatiable needs, and they certainly are not naive enough to allow their progeny to grow more powerful than themselves. Circa 1910, the Habsburg Empire, as such, was in serious disarray, thereby tempting its many component families to further fan nationalistic tendency in self-serving bids for greater individual domination. World War I is most correctly characterized as a trade war fought to reshuffle power among Europe’s elite, initiated by the peripheral Habsburg heirs against the Austria-Hungarian-Germanic core. To use a modern analogy, the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914 was akin to the murder of a capo de capo New York mob boss: Immediately the various family heads begin to vie for control, markets and territory. Eventually a stalemate is reached once all sides realize that a protracted war will cost each of them more than they stand to gain, then a peace is negotiated and assets are divided among the parties according to the remaining threat they each then bring to the table.
It is extremely interesting to note that the U.S. Congress and President Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Reserve system in 1913 (which ceded control of currency and lending to appointed private bankers in direct opposition to Constitutional prohibitions and Thomas Jefferson’s well-known warnings), as well as an array of bond acts, just prior to the outbreak of Europe’s inter-Habsburg war. Rather than coincidence, this timely legislation, more than any other single act, marks the beginning of the end of any political and economic autonomy America may have enjoyed since the nation’s revolution. Brilliantly, if deviously, the elites of Britain, France, Italy (and various other threatened continental families) enlisted the support of America’s nouveau-riche business elites. The deal was this: America will borrow lots of money from the elites (American and European) in order to buy weapons produced in U.S. factories (such as those new assembly lines recently invented by Henry Ford); then weapons and men will be shipped from the U.S. to Europe to intervene on behalf of the European backers of this plan. We know this was a scam from the beginning since the U.S. was NOT granted control of territories in Europe which would have been expected by any other historical participant, nor even repayment of America’s mercenary war expenses. While American families gave the lives of their young men and their hard-earned tax dollars, the ONLY pay-off for participation in the war to anyone in the U.S. was the profits that flowed to the factory owners. The European elite, meanwhile, ended up not only with victory, housecleaning and consolidated control of their territories and economies, but loads of interest-bearing bonds for the wealth they had parked safely in the U.S. during the war. There is only one explanation for this strangely inequitable arrangement: European elites had formed economic alliance with America’s nouveau-riche.
With World War 1 serving as such a successful trial run for this new trans-Atlantic arrangement, American would henceforth serve as safe haven factory and war-base for protecting the interests of the elite. In an ominous demonstration of the shape of things to come, support for this overseas war within the American population was whipped-up by flattering common Americans as missionaries of freedom and democracy, and appealing to the ethnic pride of recent immigrants (Irish, Scottish, English, French, Italian), not to mention their own near-term financial interests during the then sluggish economy. In the end, of course, the U.S. government also added conscription to their list of recruitment tools. This is how the United States began down that slippery slope of Jefferson’s dire warning (which is NEVER quoted in our history texts): “If the American people ever private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
After pumping so much cash into the U.S. during World War 1, the economy was predictably overheated, causing an inflationary spiral which devalues the real value of long term bond holdings (the backbone of elite finances). The only thing a wise elite investor can do at that point is push for deflationary policies which will cool down the economy, dry up cash flow, and bring down the price of assets, thus allowing the elite to more heavily (and cheaply) invest in those war winning manufacturing firms which proved to be long term survivors. By 1929, the over-speculated stock market bubble burst as less-moneyed pretenders were caught with their margins down, commencing a long and painful depression suffered by those same families who sent their boys to save Europe only a dozen years earlier. The elite have no loyalty but to themselves.
If elites are anything, they are opportunistic. So, while Hitler posed a very real threat to Europe, he also provided the elite with a way to perfected its new arrangement with America. World War II was Germany’s nationalistic revenge for its World War 1 defeat AND its attempt to finally throw-off the “Jewish bankers” it blamed for its rapid economic ruin (it is said that, due to banker-driven hyper-inflation, a wheelbarrow of German currency was required to buy a loaf of bread just prior to World War 2). It is important to remember that Hitler was NOT a member of the moneyed elite, but was instead a populist leader with no interest or inclination to respect the status quo of the Western elite. That made him public enemy number one of the trans-Atlantic allied elite, regardless of his distasteful anti-Semitic or Master Race philosophies (which the elite would surely overlook if their financial interests were so aligned). It was Hilter’s ego and disrespect for history which led him to also attack (rather than ally with) Russia since this dual-front war drained German resources and ultimately allowed the Western elites to prevail.
Once again, economic despair and a well-oiled propaganda machine drew American boys, weapons and tax dollars into a war waged to protect the interests of Europe’s elite. Once again massive doses of old money were dumped into the U.S. as interest-bearing bond investments for the elite, saddling U.S. taxpayers with debts. Once again the U.S. factories provided secure weapons manufacture thousands of miles from the fighting. Once again, elite industrialists pocketed fantastic profits from war. Once again, Americans would be told that they were the beacons of freedom and democracy (not ‘gullible dupes fighting to keep the elite in power’). Once again, Americans would receive NOTHING but debts and dead bodies for their good intentions, mercenary acts, and victorious methods. The novel twist in this story, of course, was the miscalculated move by Japan’s own elite attempting to enlarge their own empire in Asia and the Pacific while America was committed in Europe. The atomic bomb was originally built as a desperate weapon of last resort to use against the Third Reich if England was overrun and the Allied war effort seemed unwinnable (because Europe’s elite certainly did NOT want to irradiate their own territories). Pity the poor factory workers of Hiroshima and Nagasake who never knew what might hit them. Instantly, World War 2 ended and there was a new sheriff in town with a deadly new gun.
Once World War 2 was over, and in recognition of the most awesome machine of death history had ever seen, the elite could finally turn their attentions to the task of defeating the greatest historical threat to their rule: insurgency by popular forces of socialist democracy. Almost as soon as the warm-blooded battles had ended, a new “Cold War” was launched. “Godless Communism” was denounced relentlessly by the propaganda machine, now more efficiently than ever through mass media devices such as radio and television. Congressmen sponsored witch hunts to enhance their own fame and power while vilifying anyone who even suggested that love of Capital should not be the primary mantra of life and politics. To fight the unseen enemies of State Capitalism, and to simultaneously to ensure firm entrenchment of profits gleaned from the now refined Military-Industrial complex (which even General Eisenhower warned Americans to resist), the elites directed their political lapdogs to support budgets and bills designed to project U.S. military power around the globe. It is no coincidence that U.S. “national interests” are precisely the same as the interests of the largest corporations, not those of the common citizenry. It is also no coincidence that U.S. budgets are nearly always in deficits, nor that those quarterly government bond sales always have ample numbers of buyers. Further, it is not a coincidence that bankrupting the isolated economies of the Soviet block was precisely the strategy of the Capitalist elite, who would profit just as handsomely by playing the game as they would in winning it as they challenged the Eastern bloc to a potentially catastrophic nuclear arms race.
(As an enlightening aside, who do you think has the money to buy HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars of U.S. Treasury bond each quarter, or to hold TRILLIONS of dollars in long term bonds in their portfolios? Current U.S. Federal debt of $5 Trillion equates to $16,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S., more than $60,000 for the typical family. How many U.S. families could afford such an investment, much less actually have such? Since the U.S. is the third most populace nation on the planet, and the richest, what common citizens of which other nations might be the lenders of all this debt? Remember, these figures do NOT include the bond debts of states, counties, cities, municipal districts, school districts, corporations or individuals in the U.S., much less the debt of all the other countries and people of the world, including their corporations and citizens. Who, then, are the lenders of all those sums? Careful contemplation of these questions helps us to understand the magnitude of the wealth controlled by the elite 0.1% of the planet’s population. Remember, the above questions only relate to sums for outstanding loans, and do NOT even consider the elite’s ownership of stocks, real estate equities and other tangible and intangible assets!)
With the death of State Communism (circa 1989), the machine of war and domination needed to be redirected. At first, “The War on Drugs” provided the public relations rationalization for continuing the massive military and prison budgets of profit, debt and domination. Then the opportunistic elite got “lucky” when Muslim fanatics played right into their hands. September 11, 2001, provided all the American fervor that will be needed (for at least a generation or two) in the elite’s bid to finally control the world’s major oil reserves, while justifying even larger and less scrutinized military budgets, and even curtailing civil liberties in all allied nation-states. The 100 year history of Middle-East oil politics could fill volumes, but it suffices to summarize it here as such: Arab-Jew conflicts are purposely exacerbated in a divide-and-conquer strategy meant to drive nervous sheiks into the arms of Western weapons suppliers, while compliant oil kingdoms are simultaneously supported regardless of their lack of democracy, respect for human rights, or commitment to the American dream. If anyone thinks this is a damnably unpatriotic view, consider that U.S. President Bush and his pro-corporate Congressional lackies (both Republicans and Democrats) signed new legislation (November 2002) which not only creates a federal Department of Homeland Security (thus proving that the “Defense” department really has little to do with our nation’s defense) and limits Americans’ civil rights but also provides government-guaranteed reimbursements up to $100 billion dollars to insurance companies who suffer losses related to terrorist acts. Notice that the bill does NOT grant reimbursement to families who suffer such losses, nor does ANY homeowners’ or automobile policy allow coverage for “acts of war or terrorism”. Thus, the U.S. government’s response to the terrorism brought on by its roles as worldwide corporate enforcer is to further shield corporations (especially financial corporations) from losses which neither the government nor those corporation would ever grant to the citizens who are footing the bill for all of these items. True patriots should be throwing both major parties out of every public office instead of overwhelmingly re-electing them in a confused sleepwalk.
Today, the elite’s system is almost fashion, so finely crafted. The modern vehicle of control is not a religion led by a pope, nor a monarchy led by a king, nor a nation-state led by a dictator (much less a “president”). Today, the transnational corporation is the preferred vehicle for autonomous control. Like the premier or president of every country, the corporation’s CEO is largely a figure-head. The real power rests with those few stockholders who control meaningful blocks of equity, those in a position to elect or fire members of the board of directors. Sitting comfortably behind the corporate shield, insulated from personal liability, the moneyed elites can pressure their hired hands to invade that nation, or illegally dump those chemicals, to cover-up this unsavory act, or pay-off that corrupt politicians, or anything else we all know greedy and power-hungry people are capable of doing. Money, labor, even entire production facilities can be (and are!) quickly moved to whichever nation-state offers the lowest wages, minimal workers’ rights, minimal environmental regulations, or even the largest taxpayer subsidies. Further, in our modern world the elite rarely need to soil their hands with such dirty work since there are always ambitious and soulless lieutenants who know what needs to be done and who eager to do that and more in return for tasty scraps from the masters’ tables.
Now that Communism is now longer a threat to the steady march of the elite’s system of transnational corporate hegemony, the world will witness a steady deconstruction of the large Western middle class which was, after all, artificially constructed (and effectively bribed into complicity) by the elite during the last 100 years. With each passing year the elite will continue to find ways to make the populace believe that the interests of the masses are aligned with the elites’ own interests, even while taking back so many cherished middle-class perks. Eliminating defined-benefit pensions saved the corporations billions (so what if those companies had to renege on promises made for a lifetime of loyalty employee service) while pushing workers to plow their own 401K savings into the elite-dominated casino of the stock markets. This, in turn, creates artificially high price-to-earning ratios making routine bursts of the stock market bubble quite expected (by everyone in the elite class, that is). Meanwhile, even as additional hundreds of billions are allocated to the war machine, education budgets are cut through the bone and student tuition is driven through the roof: The middle-class dream of equal education is already becoming a fuzzy memory. Thirty-percent of Americans have no health care coverage, many more must make monthly decisions between medicine and food, and the situation only grows worse with each passing year. Through de-regulation, corporations, even foreign corporations, are gaining control of American utilities, most alarmingly municipal water supplies, then immediately issuing massive rate increases: What household will choose to go without water? The genome of staple crops are being modified and patented by transnational corporations who intend to charge an annual fee for seed even if farmers harvest and process the seed themselves and even if the new genes were accidently inserted into farmers’ crops by wind pollination rather than through agreed contract. Every single one of these cited facts is verifiable if readers care to do a little checking. A word to the wise: The water temperature is rising, and you can bet that frogs’ legs are on the Chateau’s menu.
Meanwhile, citizens are encouraged to vote (except in Florida), and express their opinion, and go to work each day, and consume their way into debt, and pay their bills on time, and get deeply involved in sport or entertainment industry gossip or internet porn, and enjoy all of the other meaningless distractions available to them. Do anything, that is, EXCEPT question the power structure or heed Jefferson’s call for a cleansing revolution once per generation. Any thoughtful look around will reveal deeply-seated corruption and an obvious decline in both our expectations and our likely future. That is one sad legacy to leave to our future generations. But never mind these depressing topics: Let’s distract ourselves by playing make-believe with history, then we can consider ourselves noble without introspection.
Summary & Conclusions
Despite the comforting fantasies we like to repeat to ourselves, America’s history (like that of every nation on Earth) is littered with unsavory acts, and our role in the modern world is more like ‘thug enforcer for the interests of the elite’ than ‘beacon of freedom and democracy’. While it may be true that “there is no better political system in the world”, it is certainly more true that an even better system is possible. Thus, the common citizens of America need to wake up to the stark truth of what is going on around them, and in their name, and then commit themselves to a peaceful revolution centered on humanity rather than capital.
No less an authority than fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (circa 1940) said it best: “Fascism should really be called Corporatism since it stems from the merger of interests between corporations and governments.” True American patriots, and true humanitarians worldwide, must wake up to the reality of the evil caused by the unholy marriage of corporations and governments… and we must make every effort to dissolve those bonds as quickly as possible.
As the Russian people so bravely demonstrated in the 1980’s, peaceful revolution is possible. Sadly, however, the Russian citizens failed to throw off their authoritarian (mis-)leaders until their economy and infrastructure was in a shambles. Thus, they are now simply the latest victims of elitist wolves engaged in an opportunistic feeding frenzy, and are being sold down the river by their own mafia of power-hungry pretenders to the throne. The lesson here is that a nation of people who wish to Change The System must first engage in a lively discussion regarding what they wish to change INTO. Without such a vision, and a deep commitment to succeed, stirring the pot will only create a mess.
Alter-Nation proposes that humanitarians from America and around the world should join forces to demand substantial systematic change to a sustainable social structure based upon the philosophy of Liberty & Responsibility. We believe that such a course is the next logical step along humanity’s path toward social and spiritual transcendence. Or perhaps we are just as crazy as a 16th century astronomer who swears that the planets do not really engage in retrograde motion inspite of what everyone else “knows” is “true”.
Thank you for your attention, interest and concern.