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Paul Craig Roberts: Democracy Has Departed The West
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
Before the West spreads democracy abroad maybe it could get some for itself. The US is an oligarchy in which government is answerable to six powerful private interest groups. In Europe governments are answerable to the EU, Washington, and private bankers and not to their peoples. In the UK the military brass has declared its hold on the reins of power.
Jeremy Corbyn is the first Labourite to lead the Labour Party in a long time. Considering the stupidity and immorality of the Tories, Corbyn could become prime minister of Britain. Should this occur, Corbyn would shift the budget priorities away from supporting Washington’s wars toward refurbishing the social welfare state that made life for ordinary Britishers more secure and less stressful.
A senior serving general of the British army said that the army would not allow the people to “put a maverick in charge of the country’s security. The Army just wouldn’t stand for it and would use whatever means possible, fair or foul, to prevent that.”
In other words, a democratic outcome unacceptable to the English military will be overthrown. Just like in Egypt.
Here we have the incongruity of Washington and London bringing democracy to others through what Vladimir Putin calls “airstrike democracy,” while tolerating a democracy deficit themselves. The safest conclusion is that democracy is a cloak for an aggressive agenda, not a value in itself to the US and UK elites, who rule and who intend to continue to rule these countries for their personal benefit.
Jonathan Cook reports that the use of “whatever means possible, fair or foul,” against Labour prime ministers who actually stood for the people rather than for the elites is not unique to Corbyn. Labour Prime Minister Harald Wilson faced similar pressure and resigned.
As far as I can tell, not only has democracy departed the Western world, but also compassion, empathy for others, morality, integrity, respect for truth, justice, faithfulness, and self-respect. Western civilization has become a hollow shell. There is nothing left but greed and coercion and the threat of coercion. When I read—hopefully incorrect reports—that Russia’s President Putin desires to be a partner of the West, I wonder why such a powerful country, which has emerged into light out of darkness, wants to be Satan’s partner. I assume that the reports are untrue or that Putin is acting in the interest of humankind to defuse the dangerous situation created by Washington and its NATO sock puppets.
Russia should not forget the courageous speech that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave to the UN on September 20, 2006. Standing at the podium, Chavez said that on the previous day George W. Bush stood here, “Satan himself, speaking as if he owned the world. You can still smell the sulfur.” The purpose of America, Chavez said, is “to preserve the pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.”
Chavez’s words were too much truth for US politicians. Nancy Pelosi, the multimillionaire Speaker of the US House of Representatives, said that such a speech was to be expected from an “everyday thug.”
Elsewhere the response was different. Rafael Correa, currently President of Ecuador, said that Chavez had insulted Satan, because although Satan is evil like Washington, he is al least intelligent, and Washington is completely stupid.
The Western World is on its last legs. Unemployment is horrendous for European and American youth—primarily for the educated. Young American women, driven by student debt, advertise on Internet sites for “sugar daddies” to whom they will supply sex for financial support. The easy answer—“education is the solution”— is a lie. Ph.Ds cannot get jobs, because university budgets are cut in order to save money for wars and bank bailouts and 75% of the remaining budget is used by administrations to pay themselves large salaries and perks. NYU, for example, provides its higher administrative personnel with expensive summer homes. University presidents in America have multimillion dollar incomes, while the students drown in debt.
The Wall Street Mentality—unlimited Greed—has taken over American life, and this greed has been exported to Europe, which had achieved a sharing relationship between labor and capital. Today Europe, like the US, is an opportunity wasteland for the young. Greece has been sacrificed for the private bankers, and Italy, Spain, and Portugal are waiting in the wings. In the place of independent European countries, a fascist centralized authority is rising.
As millions of refugees from Washington and its NATO enablers’ wars seek refuge in Europe, budgets for social welfare are further pressed.
In recent years we have witnessed that private bankers acting through the EU were able to appoint the governments of the allegedly democratic governments of Greece and Italy.
In the Western World the aristocracy of wealth is being re-established. If Russia and China join this “partnership,” then billions of peoples will be ruled by a handful of mega-rich elites.
The world is on the knife edge. The West is lost. Russia and China could go down with the West, because both Russia and China suffered tyranny and look to the West for the paths to freedom and liberty. But Western paths lead to “domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.”
Will Russia and China participate in the pillage, or will they resist it, standing firm for humanity?
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"It (the Civil War) has been indeed a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by / working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before even in the midst of the war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
- Abraham Lincoln
That is Lincoln's way of saying, I started this (profiteering off of war) and I hope what I have done does not do what I see it doing.
Okay, so he admitted he screwed up.
I've actually done that myself when I forgot to take my arrogant pills.
Lincoln was obsesed with technology to advance his own goals, I agree that money creation should be removed from the hands of bankers and put into the hands of congress, just not right now.
Put it from one group of Satanists into another and expect better results; brilliant!
Lincoln was a murderer who started a civil war because he did not want to loose control of the nation from which he profited. History we read is always from the side that "won" on paper and lost on moral rounds. Why do you think Obama calls Lincoln a mentor, while he renames Mt. McKinley after himself. (Denali - "Great One")
Democracy is one nasty form of slavery. But otherwise, Paul Craig Roberts does describe the predators-that-be fairly well. Keep up the writing PCR.
Capitalism requires a balance between the rich and the rest.
When they take too much they destroy their own system.
Look at commodity prices around the world.
The raw materials that drive the real economy.
They are no longer in demand as the greedy rich are killing the system as consumers cannot afford its products.
Yep, greed at the top of the food chain eventually kills the geese at the bottom that lay the eggs. What could be done?
a) the geese could try to change the laws (and tax the rich...) ? BAHAHAHAHA
b) get out of their system (via PMs, possibly bitcoin, hard assets) wether the storm/crash and hope that you come out more or less whole on the other side ? That might work, but it will not work for the masses that will only watch the PM rocket to elysium
c) some sort of revolution / civil war(s) associated with the reset, either before or the ignition of the ultimate collapse...
d) nothing and the status quo just continues till the end of times ? Highly unlikely.
e) WW3 or global (nuclear or otherwise) holocaust to wipe out ++90% of humans ? That's possible...
f) ...something entirely unexpected...
g) other suggestions... ?
Several of these senarios are non-exclusive, although it is my believe that many of the now power/wealth elites will still lurk the planet after whatever will happen in the next months / years / decade (at the most). They know how to retain power and wealth and have done it for centuries.
Good luck to all, we will all need it.
Marx’s class struggle plays out.
1920s - high inequality, high banker pay, low taxes on the wealthy (bourgeoisie in the ascendency)
1970s – low inequality, worker and union power, high taxes on the wealthy (proletariat in the ascendency)
2000s – high inequality, high banker pay, low taxes on the wealthy (bourgeoisie in the ascendency)
2015 - the re-emergence of the Left (Bernie Sanders US, Jeremy Corbyn UK)
Excessive power in the hands of the Proleteriat or Bourgoisie allows them to become dangerous and they destroy themselves through their own greed and lust for power.
Due to the limited power of the Proleteriat they are less dangerous.
Global recessions follow the ascendancy of the Bourgeoisie and Wall Street crashes (1929/2008).
Look familiar?
1920s/2000s - high inequality, high banker pay, low regulation, low taxes for the wealthy, robber barons (CEOs), reckless bankers, globalisation phase
1929/2008 - Wall Street crash
1930s/2010s - Global recession, currency wars, rising nationalism and extremism
1940s/? - Global war
We are nearly there with the Middle East on fire and the two nuclear super-powers at each other’s throats.
The bankers have a global banking system this time so they can do even more damage but they are still as stupid as their 1920s predecessors.
"We did stocks last time in the 1920s, what bubble shall we blow this time?"
"How about sub-prime"
"OK, let's go"
Uncle Sham has no good intentions any-more, that’s why he can only speak lies. They help no one except their crony friends. Our government is one big lie. Our government is the problem, it is not the solution. Get it? I couldn’t agree more with this article. They provide themselves with the best of benefits at the tax payers expense, although not sure what they do for it? They are the drag on the economy. I can see them for the scum they are, the question is can you? It should be about time to eradicate the scum. Without control of our politicians money would not be in control.
They are such a great group of politicians they bailed the banks out and gave them all your money, then let the banks boot you out of your house? For the people and by the people? I dont think so. Next time someone thinks its OK to take your home, make them take it with force. The whole thing has been engineered. That is my opinion. You always know a liar because they hate gold.
If a person has "politician" in their title it simply means they are a liar. Wake up people our politicians choose to save the banks before they chose to save families homes? How much worse does it have to get? It is about as Un-American as it gets. If we let families stay in their homes and let the banks fail we would not be here today. Time to wake up DIPSHITS.
Progress these days is looking in the rear view mirror and seeing a family's home rot? If its not time to fight back when will it be? Are we really pushovers? How much will it take? The U.S. Government a.k.a. Uncle Sham is at war with the family unit. Think about it. I can think of no lower form of life than a U.S. Politician.
"Britishers" really?
No one in their right mind would vote for Corbyn, the Britishers have suffered enough socialism under Blair and Brown.
Dear PCR, Russia, India and China are stacking PMs sky high at the pace just to not blow the system, yet. They have the West by the balls. There is your answer.
In the Western World the aristocracy of wealth is being re-established.
When did it ever go away?
There is a reason for this and there is a reson why it won't get any better. Enjoy this clip:
Paul Harvey - 1965 speech
Another west bashing article - where they written? From North Korea? Or worth - from Russia?
America Sucks LessWelcome to the Progressive Utopia!
Not many constitutional conservatives around, is there?
This is a progressive owned shit show. And progressive is just another word for criminal. You know it is.
Sooooo----Embrace the progressive suck!
And never forget, the progressive stupid, it burns!
Grimaldus
The form of government matters not; it is the moral values of a society that produce the leadership, used loosely, that we have in authority over us. The US has abandoned its fixed moral values and substituted them for relative moral values. It is why we can debate over abortion is murder or not, when the simple reality is if you are pregnant it is a baby and to terminate that is the worse kind of murder and everyone knows that, but with relative morality we add our moral own guidance/values and mix in some emotion and dress it as rational thinking. Ignore the ways of God, given for our good, and we abandon the anchor that keeps the ship from sinking in a the most violent of storms.
With an exception here and there, the west is bankrupt in every way.This is why Islam is growing, and will eventually succeed in it's mission to take the world. The global elites thought they could use Islam as a pawn in it's game of globalization. They were under the delusion that they could control them. They are wrong in that assumption, and it is already too late to halt their advance. Go out and buy either a grave or a prayer rug.
Looks like Russia and China want to escape the corrupt domination of the dollar or at least not get sucked down in the wirlpool when it sinks.
Russia's rejection of GMO food and their rejection of Rothschild central bankers is an indication of rebellion and China's central bank has no Rothschild agents.
Both Russia and China could back their currencies with gold but don't want their government spending to be contrained by gold. Particularly China overpopulated with 1.3B.
China and Russia are dumping their Treasury Bonds in anticipation of a debt crisis in the West and many observers are expecting a collapse of confidence in
the fiat currencies of the dollar, euro and yen with more money printing. Something's got to give you would think.
The West and its minions are light-years ahead of the rest of the world in: Odious Governance....Yes, the West has become a real shithole for the 99.9% of us...
Using Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa as authorities doesn't exactly bolster PCR's argument.
HIT THE GOD DAMN RESET BUTTON ALREADY!!!!
Democracy and Communism rely on the same type of people. Both forms of society require people willing to work and do their part for the society. The Free Shit Army is the death of both forms. Once a portion of the population realizes they can support leaders that will force the rest of the population to do more work so they can do less, the decay begins. Look at the hippie communes of the 60s. Those things fell apart for the same reason. One morning a tree hugging hippie wakes up and starts doing their share of the commune's work and realizes the rest of the hippies are still sleeping.
A government truly "of the people and by the people" can't have people relying on the government because THEY ARE THE GOVERNMENT they want to rely on.
Look at the hippie communes of the 60s.
As Dennis Miller once pointed out, it's ironic that the only people who know how to make soap are the least likely to use it.
Everything that PCR says about the demise of Western democracy is true. We are being run by a cabal of criminal oligarchs and "deep state" apparatchiks who don't give a rat's ass about the people they purport to represent. They collectively represent 21st century corporatism/fascism.
Where PCR goes wrong is to suggest that the likes of Corbyn in the UK and Chavez in Venezueala are/were the solution. They are not. The solutions are to re-instate a strong constitution, small government, free market economics, remove the central banks from control of money and freedom of self-determination etc etc etc.
Chavez never did any of those things. Corbyn in the UK will never do any of those things.
Smacker is on to something....PAY attention!
So is, Insanelysane - both give succinct points to ponder....
These are all just symptoms of the real problem. The root of it all is simply over-population.
The ethos of Wall Street is kill, or be killed. The USA likes killing, and has acquired a taste for killing Americans too. The probability of the Russian Federation/China acting in opposition to the American killing spree, and genocide of their own , is as close to zero as one could possibly get. Totalitarian regimes rule via killing, threats, and intimidation. All are fascist, and their guiding principle that governs is shared amongst all so-called superpowers. Each takes a page from Stalin, and each has rationalized man's inhumanity to man as a necessary evil to preserve their right to victimize in the name of absolute power so that they may continue to be corrupt. To sociopaths in leadership, being corrupt is the only way to govern with stealth. And if it ain't broke why fix it, Dr. Roberts?
In other words; sin dominates the human heart, just as it is written.
Socialism will save us!
/s/
:D
What most of you miss are the Biblical references he is using; he is spelling out what our sin natures do to ourselves and the world around us, which is self-destruction and mutilation. Read Romans 1:18-32 and see how the immorality of man permeates his entire being and none are immune from it, actually contribute to it, and will self-destruct by it unless one submits to the King of Righteousness, but you will not. Why? For you are deaf, dumb and blind to things that matter, like TRUTH. You use you moral standard, that changes like the wind, and add an emotional bias and dress it up for logic and reason; it is your religion and all have it. For the few that have submitted their lives to that one relationship that matters, with Christ, we are at peace knowing where we came from, how we got here and how it ends and that is a bitter-sweet victory, for many will perish in their sins (bitter) and a few will be in God's utopia (sweet), where there is no sin. Where would you rather be?
I for one, would rather work for my living in hell than grovel on my knees, begging handouts from alleged deities in heaven.
Detroit?
Truth is not submission to fictional authority... any fictional authority. And since "authority" is inherently a fiction, submission is self-destruction.
The appropriate behavior is not what some might imagine or claim is the "opposite"... to enslave or destroy other sentient beings (or their property). The opposite is to not enslave or destroy others, and to defend oneself from being enslaved or destroyed.
Every human has a fundamental choice. Be the old, ancient, prototypical human animal who lives as a predator. Those who choose this original behavior are "human predators", have no ethics, but live by their modus-operandi, which is approximately "get away with whatever they think they can". They simply grab, consume, destroy whatever they find in whatever environment they live. By their fundamental choice, actions and nature, they are destroyers.
Those who choose the newer behavior become "human producers", who take actions that create AKA produce goods and goodies they need to survive, prosper and enjoy life. Rather than just grab, consume, destroy whatever they can find, they take actions that create goods and goodies that would not have come to exist without their actions. By their fundamental choice, actions and nature, they are creators.
All 1000+ supposed deities are fiction. However, perhaps at least some of deities were intentionally created as metaphors rather than attempts to describe literal entities and events. After all, there are striking parallels.
For example, the "good" is supposedly a "creator". Well, that's what some of us (atheist or religious) claim to be a (or the) fundamental good. To create what you consume rather than grab, drain, steal it from others. And though it seems a bit too convenient, "god" is just "good" with one "o" character missing. Yeah, I know, English wasn't around then. Still... ?????
Also, the notion "truth" is supposedly important in many religions. I say "supposedly" because the massively contradictory term "faith" is also important, and sadly seems to be more important in religions. In fact, most formal religions claim the way to find "truth" is to ignore reality, ignore rationality, and believe the current "authority" of the religion "on faith", without reference to personal experience or rational thought. Nonetheless, another interesting parallel.
My "ethical standards" are virtually unchanged since I was 4 years old. However, what tiny bits and pieces have changed (albeit only in subtle ways) have been due to the great deal of personal effort I have invested in observing reality, finding what are the fundamental aspects of reality, and crafting more and more precise and insightful understandings of the nature of reality (and ethics, and humans, and everything else I care about) to the extent I can. My point is, one cannot be born with a full and perfect knowledge of "truth". To accept "on faith" whatever the dominant fictional "authority" claims in the part of the universe one happens to be born and grow up is not a way to know "truth", but is a way to adopt a fixed and eternally unchanging set of ideas and beliefs. What I'm saying here is this. It is better to change one's beliefs as necessary as one learns more about reality, than to claim some kind of false virtue because what you believe never changes.
Actually, I dislike the term "belief", because I have discovered over time that the more appropriate term is "inference". For anyone who struggles throughout life to learn by observation and honest thought, those ideas (and values, ethics, virtue) one infers are true, valid, correct and fundamental are better called "inferences" than "belief", and vastly better called "inferences" than "truth" (even though one does believe them to be true at that moment). In fact, in my own mind, I always think with the term "provisional inference" rather than just "inference" to make eternally clear that every "inference" is subject to modification or outright rejection given new first-hand observations and new thought and insight derived from those observations.
Though some "provisional inferences" get to the point where we reasonably estimate the probability they are wrong is astronomically tiny (say, one in a billion or trillion or less), they do remain "provisional inferences" nonetheless. Having said this, I should probably also say that a few ideas are not inferences, they are "absolute certainty". However, the number of these is extremely tiny. We can count them on the fingers on two hands, and quite possibly on one hand (if we don't count direct corollaries of the most fundamental ones).
What is "absolutely certain"? Well, I'll just toss out two, and let others figure out the rest (because "figuring out" is a very important process that leads one to understand a great deal about the fundamental nature of existence). The first is, "there is an existence" (a reality, a universe). I suppose this may be the philosophical statement "existence exists" (though I can't be entirely sure what other philosophers mean by their statements). The second is, "existence is not static in every respect". This simply means "change exists". It doesn't mean everything changes, or everything changes all the time, or every aspect and respect of existence changes [continuously]. It just means what it says... existence is not 100% fixed and static in every respect. Stuff happens. To answer the question "what stuff" is science, not philosophy, and thus slightly less fundamental.
Crocodile asks "where would I rather be?". The answer to that question depends on what he means by that question, but I'll try to answer in a way that is not "wise ass". Where I would rather be is... where I can manage to get myself through my own honest first-hand observations, my own honest reflection and thought, my own choices and actions, and then enjoying/baring/suffering the consequences of my own actions, and not the actions of others (except for voluntary interactions with others).
I don't believe this Jesus Christ was a god or deity, or a son of one, or that any god or deity exists (in any normal sense of these terms). In fact, I'm not sure whether any such individual ever existed, though he could be a synthesis of stories about many different gurus, or simply an outright story with a few grains of truth. I will say, however, that whether real or fictional, he did seem a much more benevolent dude than most other supposed deities or prophets I've heard of. And I have no problem giving credit to good humans for being good humans, so if he existed, good for him.
Though I consider stories and metaphor potentially very useful and often enjoyable, I am always extremely careful not to infer stories or metaphor are accurate portrayal of real, or probably real... unless the evidence is sufficient. And it isn't. Not for me.
And so, I'll stick to the decision I made at age 4 that has guided my behavior ever since. I cannot trust adults. I cannot trust so-called "authorities". I cannot trust anyone but my own first-hand observations, my own honest, careful, diligent reflection and thought processes, and my own provisional inferences. And I can only trust those to the extent my personal analysis of those observations and thought processes are justified. Which is just my way of saying I try to keep track of the bases of all my provisional inferences, and my estimate of how probable each provisional inference probably is.
Which means, I'm an individualist. Which means, I don't trust any authority to perform observations or thought for me. I'll listen to what anyone has to say, and if anything they say seems possible and relevant to me, I'll attempt to find ways to perform observations and think the ideas through with my own mind and techniques, and integrate that into my consciousness.
Notice something. My approach makes ME, and only me, fully responsible for ALL my mistakes. I don't have ANY cop-outs. I can't claim some "authority" that I had "faith" in misled me. Nope. For me, that excuse is "off the table". I am 100% responsible for all my mistakes. ALL of them. And I am 100% responsible for all my non-mistakes, for all my insights, for all my discoveries and inventions, for all my successes, for all the consequences of my actions. ALL of them... the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Somehow, that feels like the appropriate relationship between any sentient entity and existence. Responsibility for all observations and experiences, responsibility for all reflection and thought, responsibility for all choices, responsibility for all actions, and responsibility for all good/neutral/bad consequences of those actions.
I don't know why most humans feel a need to create fictional "authorities", then kneel before them and willingly say "I abdicate my individuality, I abdicate my senses, I abdicate my mind, I turn my life over to you, and shall forever remain your slave".
I honestly don't get it. Are humans that afraid of their own senses and their own brains? Or are they just afraid to be responsible for their choices and actions? Got me, batman! I don't see the attraction. And I certainly don't see any validity.
PS: I don't consider this a criticism of your message, crocodile. Just an alternate viewpoint on the topic you raise.
This article highlights that the term "democracy" is synonymous with Marxism.
Funny how Marxists never realize that it is their own policies, of top down everything, that worms such munificent corruption into the government first, business next and finally society as a whole.
To put it another way, perhaps less philosophically... the shit flows down hill.
Ok, my turn to exume some witty dead guy:
"Justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger" (Thrasymachus, c. 459 - 400 B.C.).
If you're gonna go dead guy, go really, really dead.
If you live long enough you see it all. And the world needs integrity driven capitalism (if such a thing exist) now more than ever. Show me that successful socialist model before you slam me.