What does it mean, in modern times, to engage in the everyday, common-place of life? I mean here, precisely, the western, liberal, democratic ideal of life that the powers that be are transforming the human race into today. The new world order or the end-point of history as outlined by Francis Fukuyama perpetuates the neo-liberal agenda that restricts our economic (un)freedoms to the safety and security of the forty-hour work week that today has become a privilege to a new, co-dependent brand of the middle class. What keeps the people asleep to the horrors of the ruling ideologies while only a few come to be awaken to the resulting destruction that lies all around us?
The antagonisms of capitalism can today be seen in proxies of war in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, North Korea, Africa, Greece, Libya, etc. Precisely where groups of people awaken to the monstrosities of the new world order and stand up to fight there breaks out mass acts of violence. I don’t just mean here physical acts of violence, but political violence as well: Greece being the primary example here. The new ruling party of Greece is doing violence to the typical ideological notion of a sort of Kantian duty to fiscal responsibility called austerity. Immediately following this resistance Obama announced his new budget proposal pledging to cut ‘mindless austerity’ and put trillions into social funding. Let’s analyze this strategic move by the most powerful man in the West. We all know that a budget proposal citing ‘mindless austerity’ and trillions for public spending will never see the light of day with the fiscally responsible conservatives holding the legislative branch. So why make an announcement like this? in direct assault to the republican rhetoric? and immediately following the success of the Greek peoples? Let’s call it a counter attack in the universal war of ideology. The leaders of the world now have no choice now but to acknowledge the impact of the neo-liberal agenda on the common-place worker in modern society, all but previously ignoring the crises in Argentina and their on-going battle with the capital rich western financial institutions. Precisely when a country of the European Union is revolting is when direct action is needed; precisely now Obama steps up to save face, with his charismatic rhetoric, and redeem the financial institutions he represents. This victory in Greece is bittersweet: we all know full well, the White House included, that this proposal is sheer talk.
Let’s analyze the republican/democratic dichotomy as it stands today, especially in keeping with the economic side of the discussion. Political pundits of all sorts following the comeback of the republicans, with their seizure of the senate, cried out “lame-duck Obama.” However, this is precisely the time to see the ruling ideology at play; the time to see where both parties align and rule out this false political dichotomy once and for all. Republicans are already aligning to renew the fast-track agreement to give the Obama administration the authority to pass more free-trade agreements he vehemently supports: TTP, TTIP, etc. Trickle down economics are alive and well, for when big business is happy the corporate media are happy: thus the people are happy. Unemployment rates are flaunted, people are back to work and happy just to be doing that. Why? the citizens are kept at minimal life and live pay-check to pay-check and only when business is booming and capital is expanding is when the workers see a slice of the pie. When most people are kept worrying about foreclosure and paying mortgages they are all to happy to work like dogs. Hard-work and sacrifice are the mottos that keep the ideal alive: from rag to riches successes keep the ideal instantiated in reality.
Here, with the unregulated expansion of capital that the free-trade deals represent, we see economic crashes as vital to the whole process. Too much money and luxury promotes free-thinking while economic disparity promotes political subservience. The role of the financial institutions in the housing crises of 2008 precisely created this fear and trauma to keep people at bay and thankful for their own stability. Mass media inundated us with images of foreclosures and families forced to move from their family homes. Those thankful enough to keep paying the bills probably even felt a sense of entitlement due to precisely the hard-work necessary in keeping up with the payments and providing food for their family. “We must be doing something right,” “boy, our hard-work has really been paying off, better not let up now,” etc. This is where the rhetoric of the republican party, who praise the economically successful, pays off the most. As with the most recent midterms we can see precisely when the individualist, conservative and well off middle-class goes out to vote. Here, we can also see the role the radical tea-partiers play in the ‘grand ‘ol party.’ This radicalized group is a spin-off of the establishment and birthed from their rhetoric of social darwinism: they represent the republican ideology when taken to its full consequences. The conservative majority herald patriotism and love of country, we can see this in the preaching of ‘American Exceptionalism’ on Fox News, the home of the GOP. The new middle class with the images of foreclosure in their minds and feeling the most patriotic (most liable to visit the polls in the otherwise unpopular midterms) have only economic concerns at heart: or, their own well-being (big government and socialist/marxist Obama giving your hard earned money to the poor).
Where else can we see the common point of politics here in the States? the ideological war on terror. The Patriot Act, signed in the aftermath of September 11th, has been renewed on multiple occasions by the Obama administration. Why, when the key rhetorical device used to win his first election was explicitly anti-Bush? We can be even more economically cynical here and name drop the military-industrial-complex. Furthermore, we can cite the billions of dollars of defense contracts, not only domestic but also to our foreign allies: such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc. Or, the major shareholdings of former Bush cabinet members: Cheney et. al. But this is just a minor kick-back the political elites enjoy as they fight their ‘war on terror’: which shall be renamed, for our purposes, the ‘war on ideologies other than the predominate ruling ideologies.’ For Marx was right when he said, “the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class.” In the wake of 9/11 we saw a rallying of American pride around a horrific trauma. Thus the opportunistic state apparatus enacted a war on terror to fight their ideological enemies: we did not go to war with Saddam, we went in to rid the country of ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ A strategic rhetoric to rally the masses in the wake of the mass destruction they had just witnessed in Manhattan. The previously state controlled oil in Iraq was made private, under a new Western friendly regime, to rival the neighboring Iranian economy. We can see the major impact that oil has on the world economy precisely now with oil-dependent Russian in trouble. The newest proxy is now being fought in Ukraine: completely unnecessary violence and killing for a control of power and resources. Only now the Obama administration has fought an underground war behind the mass surveillance apparatuses: wars are becoming more and more virtual as the WikiLeaks and Snowdens have been pointing out. Even more so with the political charades and images of fighting on the news being directly interpreted for our socially developed short attention spans: panels of ‘experts’ of all kinds there to give us the politically correct ways to view the nonsense killings and destruction of people livelihoods and infrastructures. It’s too hard to imagine the utter meaninglessness of the destruction so we are all too ready to accept the ruling ideological interpretations which are strictly economically motivated to serve the State backed financial institutions of the West. For as Walter Benjamin has pointed out, “capitalism is a religious phenomena,” with our new God being money and the financial institutions our churches.
-Nothing in Color
No comments:
Post a Comment