COASTAL POST
(415)868 1600 FAX (415) 868 0502
P.O. Box 31
Bolinas CA 94924
http://www.coastalpost.com
email: [log in to unmask]
June,2001
New World Disorder
Only a few years ago , the syntax shattering Bush-One spoke of a New
World Order, with the USA as lone super power, making the planet a
better place for corporate capital. This was to benefit everyone,
except those we killed in foreign countries . Market forces, much
beloved among politicos who suffer intelectual disabilities, were to
bring us the highest living standard in history. Sure.
Now his tongue twisting son, Bush-Two, may be presiding over a New
World Disorder .
Remember the claims that everyone would soon be employed, thanks to
the “new” economy? Well, we recently suffered the biggest decline in
jobs in ten years, and not only in manufacturing, but in the invincible
service sector, loved by investors for its low salaries , lower benefits
and lowest job security.
The endless economic boom has become an eternally fizzling firecracker.
As its financial and moral values fall down to earth, millions of
people go down as well.
Fed-meister Greenspan, once labeled a genius by market morons, has had
his IQ lowered by reality. Nearly in panic, he’s dropped interest rates
several times to revive an economy threatening to go into a coma. He
obsesses over controlling inflation for his leisure class patrons, but
hardly notices the working majority paying increased prices for
essentials like gasoline, energy and housing.
In truth, this economy is still totally dependent on consumers piling up
ever more financial obligations. Like the national debt, the over six
trillion dollar private debt burden carried by Americans will never be
paid; in fact, if political organization ever develops around the idea
of canceling personal as well as public debt, a revolution may be near.
As awareness grows that this “new” economy is not only old and tired,
but increasingly dangerous as well, our global status is declining.
At the United Nations, usually a rubber stamp for U.S. policies, we were
recently dropped from the Human Rights Commission, and also lost our
post on an international drug control board. Our petulant congress
threatens to continue reneging on our bills to that international body,
but our collective hissy-fit doesn’t seem to matter.
Lecturing other nations on human rights isn’t effective when they
consider, say, the number of unarmed black men who have been killed by
American police. But it’s even worse when they ponder the tens of
thousands we have killed in Iraq, Serbia and Columbia, to name only a
few places where our foreign and domestic policies strike the same notes
of ugly dissonance.
Our irrational war on illegal drugs kills, imprisons, and wreaks
havoc on natural and social environments. This, while we nurture the
legal dope peddlers in major pharmaceutical corporations, who buy , rent
or lease our government and are untouched by regulation. This
hypocritical policy makes us the laughing stock of the world, although
it is not humorous to those who suffer our dreadful stupidity.
We tell people how to live and set examples by showing little
awareness of anything but how corporate capital can further tighten its
grip on humanity.The world seems to have grown tired of our arrogance,
and is beginning to act as though it has had enough .
We use the rhetoric of peace and cooperation to cover the actions of
violence and coercion. A quarter of a million American military
personnel are stationed in more than 100 countries, and almost all of
them are deeply resented. We are moving towards warfare in space, with
an incredibly expensive and more incredibly stupid proposal for a
missile defense system, years after the supposed soviet threat has
vanished.
Our biggest military threat is the empty space between the ears of our
Washington warheads. This bad science fiction scheme is opposed by
everyone but the serial killers in our munitions industry , who will
fill their wallets by emptying those of our taxpayers.
The world is responding to the neoliberal years of market fascism that
have meant great prosperity for some, but more poverty, suffering,
environmental destruction and bloodshed than the people or the planet
can tolerate. We are seeing the backlash, from all forms of nature.
As the UN begins to “just say no” to the imperial rogue nation, nature
seems in open rebellion against its continued mistreatment. The earth
is regurgitating the filth and waste it accumulates from this economy,
and environmental pollution is growing world wide. The serious problem
of global warming is called a myth by some corporate lap dogs, but it is
a reality to most reputable scientists.
And international capital is under attack, by people interested in
human rights, democracy and breaking the bio-genetic food chain which
has been applied to their stomachs and minds. They oppose industries
that produce more food , but feed less people, and make more money, to
profit fewer people. And all this, while poisoning the foundations of
life.
The USA is still the baddest gangster in the global community, but the
neighbors are becoming tired of its protection racket and strong arm
tactics. And even its mob members and hired hands are starting to act
up, whether in demos against corporate power or in speaking dangerous
thoughts about doing things differently in the future than they have
been done in the past.
Sometimes it takes calamity to bring on change, though we cannot afford
many more natural or unnatural disasters. But the signs of breakdown in
the imperial class are encouraging. Bush-Two’s born-again conservatism
has awakened many slumbering citizens, and the movement against the
brutality and hypocrisy of corporate capitalism has a large and growing
membership. Under circumstances of a diseased form of order, good
health and progress demand a positive form of disorder. Good news: It
seems to be at hand.
Copyright (c) 2001 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
.
frank scott
email: [log in to unmask]
225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415 fax(415)457 4791
|
