America today is pro-war, pro-capitalist, pro-empire and in retrograde!

By: Michael_T_Bucci

I quickly rented a car to meet an emergency medical appointment. Enterprise, the rental agency, sent its 30-something driver who I've known for years. In conversation, Pam (pseudonym), a conservative and Evangelical Christian, called me an "old Democrat". I hoped by "old" she didn't mean elderly, though I am. I hope she didn't mean a Clinton Democrat or a Carter or a LBJ Democrat either (which I wasn't). If she meant a "JFK" one she was close to correct. Thusly, I am a very, very old Democrat, in fact an FDR Dem born two years after he gave up the ghost and passed the atomic bomb to the then "warrior president" Democrat Harry Truman. So I am a child of the Bomb, born and adopted in the year of Roswell.

I was a member of "The Class of 1965". Some educators felt a "sea change" in that student body; a book was written about them; others hoped they would offer real change for the world; most graduates went on to majors in science and the humanities, few to business and finance. A 1963 assassination preceded them but was eclipsed later by two assassinations in 1968. Events at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago saw protestors chant "the whole world is watching" but the American voter responded by electing Richard M. Nixon that November. The Vietnam "conflict" consumed tens of thousands of American lives (TV Network news showed daily death tolls from both sides) and, as the fiscally-minded would additionally emphasize, the war cost billions.

The American today is as pro-war, pro-capitalist, pro-empire, and pro-materialist as it was then, but is facing a threat it can no more defeat than "terrorism": total economic, political and social FAILURE; and from that failure, collapse. Because America has been the preeminent world power financially, militarily and politically since 1945, it refuses compromise; nor can it surrender one front to save another; nor can it admit defeat; nor can it accept global competitiveness; nor can it honor international law; nor does it want to honor the social contract with its own people; nor can it accept dissent or protest without state-sponsored suppression conducted by militarized police forces; nor can it accept freedom of thought and action without expanding its totalitarian spying and surveillance methods; nor can it stop the anarchic algorithms on Wall Street from sucking blood out of the nation and into the hands of market parasites, insiders, vigilantes and CEOs; nor can it stop the Generals in the Pentagon and in Brussels from constructing new exorbitantly expensive weapon systems, provoking Cold Wars with Russia and China, invading and occupying tiny resource-rich nations to control the world's energy and flows, boastfully assassinating sovereign leaders and citizens, and now threatening anyone anywhere with murder or indefinite detention without trial or jury; nor can America stop the world from seeking to unseat USD as the reserve currency (one key motive to most of the above).

Nor can America stop the world from HATING The United States of America.

In consequence of this supreme arrogance, self-righteousness, God ordained hegemony, and the stupidities therein, America is about to lose EVERYTHING - at once! (Hubris and gambling are not confined to Wall Street, they are national traits.)

The question remains: When will it all stop and how will it stop?

* * *

From Pam (the Enterprise driver) thinking me an "old Democrat", I felt the sting of being considered "irrelevant", over-the-hill, a dinosaur and antediluvian raised from the graveyard where discredited heroes are buried and I am left alone to sing their praises and be ignored, just like any madman ought to be treated. Yet, I will claim the same for today's right-wingers with their parade of Tea Party rebels and anarcho-capitalists: they are just dinosaurs raised from the graveyard of old Goldwaterites, Birchers, McCarthyites and Taft Republicans. There once was a time for the old Democrat but today is their time. The world revolves. The sun is setting in the West and rising in the East. The heavens rotate, which no political party or US-NATO nuclear arsenal can alter.

But into what future is America being led if not into retrograde?

In 1969, during a fusion period when the extreme Right and extreme Left found common ground in their disparate fights against the establishment, the writer and activist Karl Hess said: "The New Left is what we used to call the old Right. Robert Taft would feel very comfortable in the New Left". While the New Left never sustained itself as a national movement forty years ago, the extreme Right today has, even with (and because of) a so-called Democrat in the White House (who is showing how to impose the right-wing agenda while appearing to be in the middle). Contrary to everything you hear on GOP radio and TV, there is no Left in America. The whole political spectrum lies in right field.

President Obama is riding high in the belief that he can continue to out-GOP the GOP! After winning his "Warrior President" title from a gushing New York Times, he's sunk to attack ads that Mitt Romney, a Mormon, would not countenance for his own campaign. Meanwhile, Ron Paul's "Paulites" mean business and are making waves at state GOP conventions. If Tampa Bay '12 proves to be another Chicago '68, with raucous in-fighting between Romney and Paul forces (no "police riots" though, these are Republicans please!) bordering on chaos (or what one GOP county chair called "anarchy"), it will guarantee the re-election of Barack Obama.

A neighbor said her Methodist congregation has reduced in number to about nine or ten people each Sunday, "but after 9/11, the church was packed!" She liked that. I called it her "moral justification of war". What is Obama's (not that many care to think morally today)? Also, what are the moral justifications for dissolving Security, Medicare and Medicaid? Are younger Libertarians going to tell their aging parents to seek private charities instead of nursing homes when the measure of the nation's charity already has been proven negative by its actions in tearing-up the social contract, eviscerating safety nets, blaming the poor and workers for excesses and illegalities of its money centers, taxing the 99% and untaxing the 1%, demonizing all public expenditures for human services as "unConstitutional"? Should the right-wing youth of this movement tell their aging parents to get themselves out the wheelchair, take "personal responsibility" and get a job as a greeter at Walmart? If so, they should first tell all "liberty loving" seniors to send back their monthly Social Security checks before calling themselves Paulites or Libertarians. Otherwise, they risk being called hypocrites. And private sector benefactors of government funds ought to do likewise.

As the political charades and deceptions begin again in the U.S., the EU sits and waits, and readers field conflicting prognostications on the Greek tragedy. The last voices to be heard and reported are, of course, those of the Greek masses. As it stands, the government (now a caretaker one) is sandwiched between the German boot from above and revolution from below. Berlin, Frankfort and Brussels know the outcome of the standoff will serve as a message and template for all remaining eurozone nations.

Merkollande is testing a courtship, not yet an engagement let alone a marriage. The "growth component" is a carrot to pull the weak further into the austerity fires. The German temperament throughout has been firm, fixed and inflexible like a scolding parent treats a recalcitrant child. The markets are "nervous", "scared", "unsure". We know more about the "feelings" of an abstract, faceless, non-human, artificial entity called "the markets" than we know about the starvation levels of present day Greeks in their third inning of austerity. The U.S. would be most pleased seeing a failed euro no longer in competition with the dollar. Europe would like to disconnect with the London money-centers that have controlled their currency and markets, and eventually to an arms length relationship (only) with NATO. Prime Minister Cameron will protect the City at all costs. Meanwhile, China grows (though slower), India contemplates its allegiances, NATO plans to erect its missile defense shield (against China? No. Against Iran and North Korea, dummy), Putin reviews his chess moves, Obama puts "all options (for war) on the table (including nuclear)", the U.N. has exhausted its credibility for peace-making.

But I am told the Greek story is more important than Obama's, Romney's, Paul's, old Left or new Right because it is the opening chapter to the book ahead, and it might become your story; that is if you live in the West and are neither wealthy nor rich:

As the monetary-doctors portray it, the toxic austerity medicine given to Greeks remains the only cure for a stubborn and recalcitrant patient, and they will continue to swallow it in the end. But the game is not over until it is over. This one is in the third inning and others will begin throughout Europe, UK and US and last for many years ahead. What the investment class doesn’t believe, or fully realize, is that people who are starved eventually will fight to their death, for they have little more to lose. Such might be the outcome from financial capitalism’s ultimatum (call to arms) against Greece today and all EU countries tomorrow.

In short, the ultimatum reads:

“You can choose to let us starve you, or you can choose to starve yourself. Either way, the markets must eat!”—Troika

If conditions in Greece necessitate martial law or a return to military dictatorship, I do not blame the people. If enough people continue to starve to satisfy bankers and the markets, I will call it a form of genocide. There are many paths today leading to World War III, and Greece must be viewed as one of them.

By Michael T Bucci

Michael T Bucci is a retired public relations executive from New Jersey presently residing in New England. His essays have appeared at The Market Oracle. He is the author of nine books on practical spirituality including White Book: Cerithous.

© 2011 Copyright Michael T Bucci - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

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