By Jeff J. Brown, for the Moscow-Beijing Express
Crosslinked with China Rising here: http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2016/07/06/twilight-zones-on-planet-earth-china-rising-radio-sinoland-for-the-moscow-beijing-express-160706/
Crosslinked with SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/44-days/twilight-zones-on-planet-earth-china-rising-radio-sinoland-on-the-moscow-beijing-express-160706
Rod Serling was the creator, producer and main screenwriter for his celebrated 1940s-1960s radio and TV shows, including the Twilight Zone. A committed leftist, he suffered regular censorship and was a fierce activist against racism, McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons and censorship. He was an eloquent and creative voice against American empire. (Image by baidu.com)
It has been instructive to travel this summer and get out of China for a while. What is apparent to me, as I read national newspapers and international magazines along the way, is that humanity is living in two parallel worlds, and for the most part, they are mutually exclusive. Rod Serling, the producer of the 1950-60s science fiction television show, Twilight Zone, could not write a more dimension bending script.
On the one hand, the majority of the world’s people are living in Empire World. Their perceptions are molded and manipulated by the West’s owners, those elites (and their army of enablers), who make up the top one-tenth of one percent of the economic and political pyramid. In Empire World, Planet Earth is portrayed as a very scary place, full of monsters, demons and their evil leaders, who are all hell bent on threatening the “established order”.
This Western status quo is depicted as a shining beacon on the hill, towering over the rest of the world’s people, nobly imposing its superior history, civilization, culture, goodness, capitalism, justice, rule of law and civil society on the human race. The subtle message is that non-Westerners who are not empire’s obedient servants are thus ahistorical, uncivilized, uncultured, unjust and lawless savages. This propaganda is so ruthlessly pervasive and effective, that most of Planet Earth’s non-Westerners suffer from terrible inferiority complexes and accept their status as second class citizens, in the face of Eurangloland’s relentless juggernaut.
This 85% of humanity, mostly dark skinned and surviving from day to day, are brainwashed into fatalism. It’s their fault that they only own a tiny fraction of their country’s wealth and have little to no control, nor the means to do something about it. They keep telling themselves, “If only…”, “Once I…”, “Except for the fact that…” The vast majority of them don’t even recognize that they and their inherited natural resources are being exploited by Western imperialism and its client state elites, with its noxious cocktail of racism, capitalism, colonialism, false flags, war and fascism (see http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2016/03/27/the-cycle-of-western-empire-a-china-rising-radio-sinoland-modern-day-math-lesson/). Even though they are victims, talking about these components of imperialism is often met with disbelief or denial. The notion that the West is an empire and that colonialism and fascism are alive and thriving in their countries just does not register. Fascism was vanquished in 1945 and colonialism was finished in the 50s-60s, with all the people’s countries gaining their “independence”, right?
Yet, it is perfectly normal that Eurangloland has over 1,000 military installations around the world, that it can freely invade or bomb any country it wants, secretly or in the open, in the Americas, Africa, Asia and even Europe. It is okeydokey that Israel and NATO commit horrific war crimes and genocide, nonstop with total impunity, while Western NGOs, banks, corporations and institutions plunder this 85% and their rightful wealth. The mentality of most of the world’s non-Western peoples is like that of a rape victim,
It’s my fault, I deserve it. And I realize that I should, but it is not worth trying to seek justice, since the system is rigged, even though by not fighting back, this psychopath will continue to rape others.
Then there are those countries living in the reality of another Twilight Zone. They see the world differently, at least among their leaders and most of their citizens. I call this group the “Anti-West”. It includes Russia and its Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), China and its Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), North Korea, Iran, Syria, Eritrea and the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) in the Americas. The fact that many of these countries are officially communist or socialist is telling, as these political systems are the only two that have historically opposed Western imperialism and its aforementioned cocktail of destruction and mayhem.
However, as we have seen recently in Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, among their political parties and elites, there is a significant percentage of their national populations who drink from the poisoned chalice of Western empire and swallow all that “beacon on the hill” propaganda, as irrefutable gospel. They call themselves “freedom loving”, “capitalists” and “libertarian”. For maybe a few extra crumbs of the colonial pie, they are more than willing to turn their country into a socioeconomic hell hole and Western client state. Most are not even thinking on that level, they just want to emulate super-consuming Westerners and live a more materialistic existence. Ironically, the West is rich only because of its massive theft of these people’s wealth, via its colonial empire. These subversive victims create their own, perverted Twilight Zone alongside the Eurangloland version. They are often called the “fifth column”, being self-serving termites, who are happy to bring down their nation’s tree of commonwealth, for a belly full of wood (see http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2016/06/13/5th-column-attacks-on-china-or-a-sino-new-world-order-china-risings-jeff-j-brown-shadow-of-truth-160611/).
The Anti-West has its own propaganda, media, political parties and systems, all flailing away at the overwhelming dominance of colonialism. While the West sees in them as threatening monsters, demons of evil, the Anti-West lives in its own, opposing Twilight Zone reality, cooperating and aligning together, while building metaphorical and real bridges of commerce, infrastructure, connectivity and transportation.
The Anti-West is succeeding in all these categories, except in the propaganda and media departments. Yes, it has RT, Telesur, Press TV and China Daily, but the truth is that they are like blood starved fleas on the rump of a raging bull elephant. The West’s soft power and cultural suzerainty totally rule across the planet. Millions of Chinese, Russians, Iranians and ALBA citizens (fanatically) follow Western sports teams, musical artists, Hollywood, television, press, media and fashion. In the background, they underestimate the linguistic hegemony of English, which is the global language of empire. They often don’t make the connection between their countries’ struggles for financial and political independence, freedom from exploitation and aggression, with the Western soft power that they crave. It is as deadly as stealth bombers. Why? Because that’s how the human brain works and the resulting feelings of victimhood, inferiority and powerlessness, which take root.
Western governments, spy agencies, corporations and media work in well-coordinated lockstep to blanket humanity in a fog of withering and highly effective propaganda. It brainwashes the vast majority of world citizens into consumer nihilism, self-satisfying numbness, apathy and helplessness. Neil Postman wrote angrily about this, in his classic takedown of Western soft power, “Amusing Ourselves to Death” (see http://neilpostman.org/).
China and Russia have already officially joined hands to create a cooperative media effort. Last month, they held their huge Far Eastern Media Summit in Vladivostok, inking numerous agreements (see http://english.sina.com/news/2016-06-10/doc-ifxszmnz6986152.shtml and http://tass.ru/en/society/880965). It was actually the third summit, the first one taking place in 2014. But this is not enough. Remember those blood starved fleas on the rump of Western empire’s raging bull elephant. Russia and China may tower against the West in the spheres of economy, military, science and technology. But in terms of propaganda and media, they are on the same, humble level as Iran and Venezuela.
Thus, in order to stand up to the West’s global propaganda behemoth, they need to expand their media summit and deal-signing concept, to include all of their allies in the Anti-West. I can die trying to find Press TV, Telesur and RT on cable or satellite in China and I suspect the same problem exists in all these countries. But, I can damn sure get my brain lobotomized by an endless stream of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and BBC, in even the remotest corners of Latin America, Africa and Asia.
This has got to change. China’s and Russia’s Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin can sign all the commercial, military, educational and S&T deals they want, together and with their Anti-West brethren, but around the world, these success stories are heavily censored and distorted behind the Great Western Firewall (see http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2016/03/02/the-xi-putin-honeymoon-is-over-now-its-time-to-make-the-china-russia-marriage-succeed-long-term/). SCO, CSTO, ALBA and all other Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries with state-owned media concerns need to meet regularly and sign tons of cooperative media, cross-cultural and sports agreements. Then most importantly, they must put them into effect and promote the hell out of them, day after day, year after year. Otherwise, the NBA, Lady Gaga, Batman, Game of Thrones, Time magazine, BBC and Versace will continue to win where it really matters, in the minds of the world’s people: perception and the notions of superiority and inferiority that it engenders.
Check out Jeff’s newest book release:
China Rising, the e-book, available around the world, in all formats: https://ganxy.com/i/113798/jeff-j-brown/china-rising-capitalist-roads-socialist-destinations
China Rising, the e-book, available on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/China-Rising-Capitalist-Socialist-Destinations-ebook/dp/B01HHLHXBI/
First of all, if we read Russian newspapers like ex. RIA Novosti, the present Sputnik, TASS, RT…etc all are without any fighting flame, something like a soup without salt.
On other hand these “Russian” media don’t know how to call its enemy.
Some names are used like “The West” but who is it?
Very small number of people will agree to the same definition.
Others are calling “them” – Anglo-Zionists, here too only a closed group of people “know” who it is.
It was suggested to call them “The Natoists” but for some reasons all Russian media will boycott that termin.
And the last – during cold war the USA media used to write ” Poland, Russian satellite will participate in …etc, all in that style.
Today, the Russian newspapers never write, Merkel as the American puppet, Spain as the American vassal, Hollande the American stooge…etc.
So, no wonder that – the west, Anglo-Zionist, the Unipolarists, the Natoists have upper hand in the propaganda.
.
I believe the propaganda monopoly is powerful but not as effective as it once was. I was reading a comment on another site however that was bang on. The US has almost full cultural control of the West.
At the Warsaw Summit, (how many Joe-six packs even care) Russia was directly mentioned as the source of contention. Just the way Breedlove war cabal wants it.
In direct contrast anyone who reads Putin’s speeches can observe, he never makes direct accusations. Only the informed audience knows who he’s calling out though. (i.e Some of “our partners” “geo-political opponents”) People like Hillary Clinton and the neocons are playing a zero-sum game, but Putin is smart enough to always leave the door open and has never directly demonized others, or says something to poison future relations.
I believe in the long run this non-confrontational style is the best way to win people over as the publics will decide for themselves who’s right and wrong. But time may be running out.
Well written essay.
well, Putin expresses his frustration:
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/putin-loses-it-journalists-i-dont-know-how-get-through-you-people/ri15456
One of the best articles I’ve seen in a long,long,time. I’ve “preached” the same for years (but without Jeff’s awesome ability to write). He has the problems (and the answers) exactly right.
@ Sonya
You are also correct. The media on our side, as you say,refuses to recognize the problems. Not only must we as, Jeff points out, have more media. But we must also reform the media we have. To make sure it isn’t infected with 5th column ideology (and never becomes so).
Uncle Bob
Thanks, I have always appreciated your opinion.
Harold Pinter’s damning critique below captures the essence of the American Beast, especially how it is able to perpetrate its unending crimes through the greatest propaganda machine in history:
“The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It’s a winner.”
Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html
I think that I understand the meaning of this essay yet for me the author is already trapped in the Empire’s logic. Capitalism, communism, colonialism, fascism etc… Fascism was really working for the working class but at the opposite of communism they though that workers and employers had to get along: each category needing the other one, when the communists wanted all the employers to be beheaded. And that is what they did and then the new employers were usually far worse than the former. The other point with the fascism is their unique understanding of the international financial system and the exposure to the liberty generated by that system being run by the famous 0.1%. They went a step further making a direct link between this 0.1% and the Zionists, which sounds reasonable.
Nothing has changed: the Zionists won and the world is getting worse because they are and have always be slave drivers with an infinite appetite. They want the whole world and today the bets are in their favor.
I’m curious as to where you came up with this from,” Fascism was really working for the working class “. The “ideal” of the fascists was for cooperation between the bosses and workers with the state as the mediator forcing that. But in practice it worked similar to the “wolf and the sheep” voting on what was for dinner.With the state acting as the “wolf’s” helper. One more point as well. I think you are thinking of the nazis not fascists when discussing the zionists. The Italian fascists,when not under the influence of the nazis, had no problems with Jews. In fact many Italian Jews were supportive of Mussolini until he fell under Hitler’s control, and adopted some of Hitler’s anti-Jewish “Racial Laws”.
It is true, I am mainly talking of the Nazis. The Jewish people in Germany at that time was a 5th column as the one existing today in Russia. It is obvious that Putin is much more subtle than Hitler was in dealing with that 5th column and I hope that Putin’ subtlety will avoid the tragic end of the Nazis.
Concerning the Nazi social program, it was a success ways ahead of what was existing abroad. This improvement in Bosses and Workers relationship is a major factor in the then success of the German’s industry.
Yet I understand that Russia having so much suffer during the war considers the Nazis as monsters even though Stalin and his political commissars did contribute a lot to this suffering.
I think that a better understanding of the past may help understanding what is happening today.
Interesting! We don’t get too many nazi apologists posting here (though lately I’ve run into a few). But I will have to point to a couple of things. I don’t believe that the German-Jews were a “5th column” in Germany at that time. They had nowhere near the economic power in Germany that the Russian 5th column has in Russia. Nor that of the Jews in the US today.And I must say the way of comparing Hitler’s “Final Solution” to Putin’s struggle with the Russian 5th column is breathtaking.
As to the “improvement in Bosses and Workers relationship is a major factor in the then success of the German’s industry”. That was broken down to ,”if you don’t do what your bosses tell you to, you are beaten. And sent to a concentration camp if the beating doesn’t work on you”.
And yes,the deaths of 27 million of your citizens caused by the nazi invasion “can” have a way of “souring” Russian’s thinking on nazi ideology.
Fascist system is a state, owned by the o,1% with organized and individual thugs terrorizing systematicly every movement of the population without any legal sanction.
Thus Ukraine is a fully fledged example, but the term is in inflationary use.
While this is an excellent analysis, the author in my opinion places far too much emphasis on the media.The western media today is total propaganda, and not something that should be emulated.
The main issue is a cultural one. The west has many educational, cultural, sports institutions. They can call on moral opinion leaders, athletes, hollywood film stars to promote their world view. Elie Wiesel died and immediately we have a flashback to how the US fought Nazism, Angelina Jolie preaches about “human rights” , and how to intervene in Syria, Obama wins the Nobel peace prize..etc.
Where are Russia’s and China’s Elite? Where are their movie stars? Writers? Opinion leaders? Fashion models? Athletes?
They all live in the US and London…
To quote JFK: “The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”
That is what he talked about also. The traitorous 5th column is “allowed” to do the things you mention. They get away with it because there is no punishment for it. If your profits come from being a Russian or Chinese company. But you spend them and bank them outside the country. You should be a “prime” target for nationalization. But until those countries start pushing for “actual” patriotism,and not just “mouth” the words.Then nothing will change.In a life and death fight,you fight to win. Until our side wakes to that truism,we won’t win.I really can’t understand how ,as clear as that is,they do nothing about it. And put it down to personal greed in our sides governing classes. Another matter that begs for fast and harsh attention.
The recent and on-going re-organisations in the Kremlin suggest to my eye that Comrade President has perhaps some slight awareness of the “column” problem Russia faces, There are, I have read, at least 6 columns, Nos 5 and 6 being the kind one worries about. The expert at systema would naturally wait for the correct overall situation – but that the sands of their treasonous freedom of action and perhaps even their lives runs out would be a natural assumption based on history and logic.
Beautifully written and well done essay too! Bravo!
@Serbian girl,
Good comment.
Ordinary people seem to be waking up though even if the media and their talking heads are still perpetuating the myth:
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/1400-us-mayors-just-slammed-white-house-risking-nuclear-war-russia/ri15436
Some more myth breaking, at last. It doesn’t go far enough but there is not enough whitewash in the world to disguise the horrible truth. Chilcot is all over the news Britain today:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/four-lessons-we-must-learn-iraq-war-chilcot-report-veteran-1569080
Very good points you made Serbian Girl. Just to add, a good propaganda has real value when it is backed by a good ideology. In case of Russia and China this ideology is missing, at least I don’t see it at all. But what do we expect when both countries are running the same old capitalist way. In the case of China is even more confusing : you have one party system – communist – while everything else is capitalist. Russia has many parties and the system is as well capitalist. So, how can they change something when they run their countries under the rule of those against whom want to have a good propaganda ? How can you have a good propaganda if you accept the same rules ? this is a contradiction – at least in my view. In the same way, how can you make your audience to listen to you if the audience sees this behavior ? you cannot serve two masters or between two chairs you will find yourself on the floor.
I’m not sure on that. I do agree with you that having an ideology can be important in our modern World. But I disagree that its essential. The real concept of ideologies didn’t come into being until the 20th Century. Before the end of WWI the different opponents were much alike. Britain,Germany,Russia,France,the US,etc,all followed the same capitalist economic system. And yet they were on opposite sides in the War.I personally very much despise the system that we are stuck with today. But even with that,I don’t see that as necessarily stopping nations from opposing foreign domination. It hasn’t worked that way since 1991,and I don’t see that it has to today. The real key is to prevent traitors and 5th columnists from taking power under whatever system is in place. A separate ideology would help with that,no doubt. But as history shows its not essential. Patriotism is far more important than ideology for that.
Dear Bob, you picked up the ideology, but the main article is about propaganda war. And it seems that Russia and China is not doing the best on this issue. Of course, they learn, but how ? In case of Russia, I used to watch RT from the beginning till today, almost every day and can say that there is some back-tracking in their approach (without going into details) , that means, they started heavier and now is softer. I lived in a communist country back then so I know what is propaganda. Looking back, that communist propaganda was a lame-duck compared to what the west has done, even with an ideology but not the ideology was to blame.The poor construction of the propaganda was the blame because they couldn’t explain the ideology, or in other words, they couldn’t sale it for god. That was a big fault. If you can’t achieve a credibility to your cause, you will loose the game on this territory which is propaganda.
ioan, nothing in history or even dystopian literature like 1984, compares to Western brainwashing. Citizens of Western states are subjected to intensive indoctrination from birth, from a MSM, advertising, PR and ‘entertainment’ edifices all totally controlled by the ruling elites. And the Groupthink is near 100%, the Newspeak fluent and arrogant, and all Thought Criminals long ago purged. Chomsky and Herman outlined the nature of the system as a propaganda machine 25 years ago, already at that time an unarguable reality. But in the years since the oligopolisation of the MSM has intensified, the Right become even more dominant, the propaganda and bias absolutely unrelenting, and the USA has added tens of billions per year in propaganda and subversion efforts led by the likes of the NED, IRI, IDI, Radio ‘Free Asia’ etc. To that can be added the billions expended by NGOs tied to the likes of Soros, and the takeover of NGOs like Amnesty, MSF and even, judging from recent behaviour in regard to Syria, UNICEF. The West is the greatest and most totalitarian force in history, that not only despises all cultures, religions, societies and ways of life different from itself, but is determined to destroy them and force them to ape the glorious West. Surrender to this Moloch is suicide, cultural, moral and, often enough, physical.
The West is run by people who hate and want to destroy the West and all of its people.
ioan
whenever I listen to Lavrow and Putin speaking I don’t hear a word of propaganda, but facts only and the counting of one + one.
The rub to me seems to be: are the 1% owning the state or are they under the supervision of the state, which is a child of socialism in different shape?
Capitalism seems to me like sin an indelible feature, like Lenin said emerging like weed millionfold every minute. To extirpate it by state is like extirpate sin – always ending in horrible crimes of bureaucratic appliances.
It’s the struggle for the human soul hence the poetry of life in a carefully balanced policy – with God’s help, that saves man’s immortal soul.
“But when we penetrate the depths of the soul and when we try to under- stand its mysterious life, we shall discern that death is not a meaningless end, the mere vanishing into nothingness — it is an accomplishment, a ripe fruit on the tree of life.” ~Carl Jung, CW 18, Para 1705-7
In addition: man has only a future if he escaped the extraversion-only mindset, which is mirrored in the entire post-christian aka western lifestyle.
C.G.Jung, my mentor, never ceased to mention, that the world is only to be improved by the single individual and the question everyday has to be: what happened to the soul today.
On this track my astromundane contribution:
http://mundanestagebuch.blogspot.de/2016/07/4.html
sorry that link was the german version, it should be this one:
http://astromundanediary.blogspot.de/2016/07/7.html
mundanomaniac
“C.G.Jung, my mentor, never ceased to mention, that the world is only to be improved by the single individual and the question everyday has to be: what happened to the soul today.”
Thanks for mentioning the importance of the soul, in this regard I do accept C.G. Jung ‘s thoughts. I know, the individual progress is very essential in his progress toward finishing the personal karma and much more (here would be too long to discuss it), but, we as persons are living in societies shared with other people (persons) and in this regard we have common ways to achieve also. In this spirit, we have to engage ourselves by contributing to the well being of the entire society we live in. Jesus has not died for himself. Thanks for your comments.
@ ioan
Very well put. Although man’s evolution to a higher state of spiritual and moral development requires that the individual achieve self-realization and autonomy (conscience of self) it is only as social man that he can set the conditions leading to that goal. Man alone is doomed. The main vice of capitalism is the atomization of man in a self-centred individualism that both imprisons and prevents his development as a social being.
Kim
@Serbian girl: In India, the situation is noticeably changing. In 2014, the English-language elites raged against Narendra Modi, but he was elected prime minister nonetheless. Now, most people recognize that the old generation of elites–which looked to the West for guidance and approval–is fading away.
Yes, the AZ media has been influencing the world for a long time, and has been nearly unopposed for nearly twenty years. So it is not surprising that they are currently dominating the information war..
Yet the Brexit vote succeeded. It succeeded in spite of extremely loud and nearly continuous propaganda from the media. I see a major crack in their seeming invincibility there.
The non-AZ media have a major advantage: the truth. As long as they stick to it, they will overcome their late start and win.
Do the minds of the world’s people matter? Does the mind of the guy behind you in the Edmonton grocery store line-up matter more than the crow on the lamp post? If he hates Russia and the crow squawks, are we to see the difference?
For mobilization, it matters that Russians care who is big in the West:. Yes, very true. You can’t mobilize people if they are gazing at the Western Star. I watched a video series called “Real Russia.” The host was excited that the band, “Thirty seconds for mars”, was coming to a Russian city. That band couldn’t attract 10 people to a college dorm in North America. They’d probably be thrown up on by the one drunk that stumbled in by accident. But he thought America = good (= God?). If you mention the latest Russian hit song in any place in North America, no one, on top of no one, cares. Why do Russians care what is big here?
Because the Western propaganda teaches if its “Western” (especially American) its,”cool,hip,in,the bomb,awesome,civilized,cultured, (I know those last two were laughable,but they think that way),etc”. Now “we” can relate to how the African’s and American Indian’s used to think when showed the European trinkets by the first European traders,”those are so “cool” I must have some”. Those in New York sold Manhattan to the Dutch for “Western” trinkets. The 5th column does better than that. They are willing to sell all Russia for those “new” trinkets.
@ Uncle Bob.
The trinket as an acculturation tool as well as a trading appeal is a very good analogy to the modern media for spreading the myth of a ‘superior’ civilization.
You are doing great, almost alone, against the hordes of obscurantism. Can’t help much now but TL2Q is back and Ioan, ‘Mundo’ (Ocker short for the ‘maniac’) are also manning the battlements with verve and valour.
Kim
Westcott, in Soviet times the USSR produced a stream of fantastic musicians, instrumentalists, composers, conductors etc. The USA produced virtually none, preferring to hire them from Europe, and what they did produce had to flog their wares to Hollywood. Concerts in the USSR were virtually free and numerous. And radio and TV broadcast culture, not crap and advertising. And we were told, every day, over and over, that the West was Utopia and the USSR Hell on Earth. And the lying has just rolled on since, unstoppable, because it’s all they know. Greed and lies-that’s the West.
This article was first published by Global Research in December 2015
The literature on imperialism suffers from a fundamental confusion about the relationship between capitalism and imperialism. The aim of this paper is to remove this confusion. The paper is organised in three parts.
In Part I we state our own position of the capitalism-imperialism relation. In part II we discuss some major points at issue in the Marxist debate on imperialism. And in Part III we review the changing forms that imperialism has taken in Latin America in the course of the capitalist development process.
The main focus of the paper is on the form taken by imperialism in the current conjuncture of capitalist development, namely extractive capitalism. This conjuncture is characterised by the demise of neoliberalism as an economic model and a growing demand on the world market for energy, minerals and other “natural” resources—the political economy of natural resource development (large-scale investment in the acquisition of land and entailed resources, primary commodity exports). The fundamental dynamics of what we term “extractivist imperialism” are examined in the context of South America, which represents the most advanced but yet regressive form taken to date by capitalism in the new millennium. Our analysis of these dynamics is summarized in the form of twelve theses.
In this essay we are concerned with unravelling the intimate relation of imperialism to capitalism and clearing some confusion surrounding it. There are two major problems in the way these two concepts are often understood and used in the literature. In the liberal tradition of political science the projection of imperial power and associated dynamics are generally disconnected from capitalism and its economic dynamics, reducing imperialism to a quest for world domination based on a lust for power or purely geopolitical considerations by the guardians of the national interest in the most powerful countries. On the other hand, in the Marxist tradition of political economy, among world system theorists of the new imperialism there can be found the opposite tendency in which the institutional specificity of the state as an instrument of class power is ignored, and imperialism is reduced to a purely economic dynamic, essentially confusing imperialism with capitalism.
In this paper we argue that capitalism and imperialism are intimately connected but engage distinct dynamics in the geoeconomics and the geopolitics of capital that need to be clearly distinguished. We advance this argument in the Latin American context, with reference to the capitalist development process and associated dynamics in their temporal and spatial dimensions. But first we engage several points of dispute among Marxists in regard to imperialism. We then trace out the salient features of imperialism at various stages in the capitalist development process in Latin America
http://www.globalresearch.ca/imperialism-and-capitalism-rethinking-an-intimate-relationship/5496284
RR
Yes, I’ve been saying this for years. The leaders of China and Russia, especially, need to, together, articulate a progressive vision for the world, for humanity’s survival and flourishing. This vision and corresponding values need to form the basis for a global media effort, to provide a real alternative. Somehow it doesn’t seem that they as yet understand how pressing is the need for this. I wish someone could convince them.
Carl-exactly! There is no point supporting China and Russia against the Great Satan unless they represent a total rejection of Free Market capitalist psychopathy. In fact, if the Western neo-liberal, neo-feudal project is not utterly defeated, and soon, humanity will disappear, through thermo-nuclear war or total ecological collapse.
I don’t think you understood a word of Anonymous’ comment.
Where did all my tax money go? It’s one great big racket at the expense of world sanity.
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-missile-defense/
The United States and European Union are preparing for a war against Eurasia.
NATO commits to Afghan war through 2020, prepares Eurasian-wide escalation
/twilight-zones-on-planet-earth/
No wonder the Euroscum were so enraged with Brexit as it has weakened the monstrosity known as the European Union.
The Natoist media are flooding Google with negative news, articles and comments from and on Russia.
While I agree that “humanity is living in two parallel worlds” and that those parallel worlds are “mutually exclusive,” I disagree with your diagnosis as to why those worlds exist. When you state,
“the West is rich only because of its massive theft of these people’s wealth,”
you’re, at best, being intellectually dishonest with yourself; Or, at worst, repeating something you know not to be true in order to mislead your audience. And if you continue to be dishonest, your efforts to combat Anglo-Zionist media will be doomed to failure. If you wish to win, do not, for a second, think that changing the map will change the terrain.
1. Taxation is theft. All government authority has a basis in physical force. Taxes, laws, constitutions, etc., exist because there is a man with a gun who will come to your door if you do not if obey such laws and constitutions. Whether or not you agree with a specific tax, or law, or constitution is irrelevant. If there comes a time when you disagree with such taxes or laws, you cannot chose to act on that disagreement; As a man with a gun will come to your door and force you to obey.
2. Communism is a system of government where you are taxed 100%. Socialism is a system of government where you are taxed anywhere between 0% and 100%. And Capitalism is a system of government where you are taxed 0%.
3. At any tax rate above 0%, citizens are forced to act by someone else at the point of a gun. Capitalism only fails because governments that tax their citizens are able to raise armies. These armies can then, by force, impose taxes on previously capitalist societies. Communism fails, because at tax rates of 100%, citizens cannot act without their government’s permission. This means communist societies are at the mercy of the leaders’ intelligence; However, regardless of the intelligence of those leaders, it is impossible to direct the infinitely complex parts of a society. Individual citizens can, individually, direct their lives better than bureaucrats thousands of miles away.
4. Thusly, societies that can bring their tax rates as close as they can to 0%, without defunding their militaries, will tend to outcompete societies with higher tax rates. Unless of course the citizens that compose such societies have a much lower IQ or horrible leadership. For example, the Japanese compared to native Australian aboriginals.
So, when you say:
“…in Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina […] there is a significant percentage of their national populations who drink from the poisoned chalice of Western empire and swallow all that “beacon on the hill” propaganda, as irrefutable gospel. They call themselves “freedom loving”, “capitalists” and “libertarian”.”
You are simply repeating tried and failed Communist/Socialist propaganda from the previous century. Western media is so effective, impossibly loyal, and impossibly coordinated not because there is any individual, or even any group of individuals directing it. You are as clueless as Хрущёв visiting IBM facilities in the 1960’s, dumbfounded not by the computers but by the efficiency of a self-serve cafeteria.
This is the system of government you are competing against:
Western governments allow corporations the ability to lobby for laws/regulations that benefit them at the expense of their competitors.
If you are Amancio Ortega, world’s second richest man and founder of such notable brands as Zara, or if you are Bill Gates, a man who needs no introduction, you are quite aware of this.
If you are a billionaire, such as these two senior citizens, you simply ask the European Union or a State Legislature in the United States to prevent others from competing against you.
Now, you don’t say that directly, but what you do say, is that to improve the quality of, let’s say, hair cutting in the State of Florida, barbers must be trained. And when you go to the Florida State Legislature to enact this law, a law stating that barbers must be trained, you put in the fine print, on page 275 of, for example, “33 U.S. Code § 3423 Law,” that barbers must be trained for a specific number of hours, at a specific location, and have permission from three or four separate organizations, and further that they must pay a specific amount of money to a specific organization every year.
Now, this doesn’t actually improve the quality of hair cutting in the state of Florida. But it does make it much more difficult for someone to be a barber. This is what allows monopolies to exist. And is precisely why the European Union has several hundred laws regulating the sale of tooth brushes and several hundred more regulating the sale of the tooth paste that goes on the tooth brushes.
So, when someone, such as Nigel Farage, threatens the unity of the European Union, billionaires across the world spend millions in propaganda against Nigel. This is why Western media seems impossibly well coordinated against its enemies. The billionaires of the West simultaneously, individually, through their own observation, realize that if these hundreds of regulations of the European Union are removed, their competition will no longer face such stiff barriers to entry, and they will thus lose their monopoly.
Capitalism, meaning economic competition without the involvement of government, is actually the most subversive force in the West today. Which is why RT supports so many Nationalistic parties throughout Europe. The destruction of the EU, by means of Nationalistic parties holding referendums to leave the EU, would destroy this government-enforced monopoly of power that billionaires such as George Soros, Amancio Ortega, and Bill Gates have over the West.
The Western “colonialism” you speak of is not the work of a British, a French, or a German empire, but the work of billionaires bribing governments around the world to make it hard for others to compete against them.
If the Russian-Chinese alliance against the West is to succeed, it needs to promote Nationalism, racism, capitalism, and religion. And to be clear, I do not mean racism as in different racial groups beating each other on the streets of London, I mean national, racial homogeneity.
The only reason the West is beginning to falter is that the billionaires who control it have decided they will become richer if they import African, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Latino consumers. What these billionaires fail to realize is that humans are biologically distinct. Especially along racial lines.
By promoting Nationalism, racism, capitalism, religion, etc., the China-Russia alliance commits itself to a divide-and-conquer strategy. And there is perhaps no other time in history, where a civilization has set itself to be so easily divided.
The West will fall regardless. The fantasy that, as you put it, “the NBA, Lady Gaga, BBC and Versace” triumph over race, religion, and general biology, has doomed it. The Chinese-Russian alliance has already won. The question is how much the Alliance can push its advantage before the Anglo-Zionists regain their senses.
US Pays Russian Journalists to Criticise Putin
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/07/us-pays-russian-journalists-to.html
It might be worth bearing this item in mind when considering the veracity [or not] of a recent journalist reporting from Ukraine that he “escaped” to Russia after being abused by the Ukrainian Secret Service, but was deported for overstaying a 90 day visa, and forcibly returned to the city from which he was arrested in spite of a plea to be sent to Donbass.
Apparently this has many in Ukraine all over themselves. However, quite apart from the oddity of a refugee being on a 90 day visa – I had thought they applied for special status – the fact that we now have a record with verifieable data to prove that the US does pay for this sort of thing puts it further into doubt. mod PS
That is an “apples and oranges” argument. People inside Russia and Donbass accept the truth of that report. Its not hard at all to see that something like that could and “did” happen. Denying truth becomes its “inconvenient” doesn’t make it any less true.
“I call this group the “Anti-West”. It includes Russia and its Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), China and its Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), North Korea, Iran, Syria, Eritrea and the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) in the Americas. The fact that many of these countries are officially communist or socialist is telling, as these political systems are the only two that have historically opposed Western imperialism and its aforementioned cocktail of destruction and mayhem.”—No, do NOT include North Korea here. That is a regressive primitive bloodthirsty feudal system masquerading as “socialist”. It would be like including Daesh/Islamic State as also “anti-West” because eventually they will try to turn against their current masters and seek to exterminate all the European people and wipe out all cultures, western as well as non-western. North Korea seems to be a relic of old-style bloodthirsty Stalinism. Their current leader seems crazier and bloodier than his father or grandfather [reminds one of the crazy rapist sons of Saddan Hussein and what rulers of Iraq they would have been]. If North Koreans ever overrun South Korea, they will likely treat the South Koreans the same way as Daesh/Islamic State forces have treated the Muslim population coming under their control, very many executions for sure.
@ Anonymous
Your rant is so puerile as to deserve no comment because it speaks for itself. But in case there are other feeble-minded readers in this thread (which I doubt), I ask you what harm has North Korea done to any country or people ever apart from its determination of reunifying the Korean nation which was separated by invasion and occupation by the US after the end of WWII
@ Anonymous
I reply I was writing to your insane comment has been lost in thin air. Your contemptible diatribe against North Korea, a country that is still at war against the imperialistic US invasion and occupation, a country that has not ever caused any harm to anybody, a country that has suffered for much longer than Cuba all type of economic and political warfare, propaganda and demonization only because it has not succumbed to US hegemony, tells more than anything else the nature of its author and source: a housenegro, a term I learned in this blog to describe a slave who internalises the belief system of his master.
Kim
Kim
I just almost forget this term, thanks to remind me again, very good one my friend !
(and your comment also)
get a name. it is so lame for all these anons, too lazy or too rude, can’t be replied to or distinguished,anti communication b.s. Call yourself self, or dummy, or car or train or ratface, just get a name!!!!!