Where have all the Flowers Gone?

Written on October 31st, 2014 in politics Comments Off

Published on Dissident Voice, by Denis A. Conroy, Oct 28, 2014.

Thinking through the binary oppositions of “have” and “have nots” is like segregating the homeless from the Paris Hiltons of the world in order to present a narrative that represents a ‘going America’s way’ kind of reality, a reality that uses finance, by way of speculation and specialisation, to foster advantages for elites and their hierarchical institutions for the sole purpose of amassing capital in order to leverage control of the social narrative through the commodification of culture itself.  

With the advent of the consumerist economy, the hegemonic power of money soon became the ‘elephant in the room’… if not attaining the status of the mother of all existential battles to boot. In the scramble to have the commodities that gave our lives legitimacy, we mistakenly assumed that America’s can-do manufacturing bonanza of the 20th century, an adjunct to Henry Luce’s ‘American Century’ dream, to be the provider of the Panglossian prize ad infinitum. But did Luce ever take into account that the ‘haves’ never seem to have enough?

But capitalism’s relentless pursuit of cheap labour was forgotten while the liberal democracies paused a while to hone a template fit for exportation to the global marketplace. Believing themselves the exceptional people, America led the way in instructing the rest of the world on how they ought to act in order to catch up with the developed economies.

But Anglo-American insouciance is everywhere present in its relationships with the broader world. The West’s own progress brought about by colonial and imperial chicanery is conveniently obscured when it comes to the question of how the West established its own comparative advantages. Slavery and indentured labour and land theft, that liberal democracies imposed on their colonial subjects, were experienced as ruthless exploitation by their victims. As time passed, the realisation that catch-up was passé enabled some of the developing economies to organise their piecemeal efforts along lines that separated simulacrum and the template model from the smoke and mirrors of colonial catch-cry offerings … //

… Meanwhile the Generalissimos and Particularissimos keep droning on about the threats to our safety we ought to be aware of. Never a week passes without information from some government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information and intelligence in support of law enforcement, national security, defence and foreign policy instrumentalities, is used to ratchet up the fear factor. All interpretations by the former, are played back into the security narrative to justify ‘big brothers’ continuing need to rummage around in other nations’ back yards for the purpose of plundering their assets.

So the behemoth that is America has become the old sow that eats her farrow. ‘Going America’s way’ is to hustle for ill-gotten gains at home and abroad. American might is thrown into the mix to assure job applicants that payola and profit are givens. Honourable men and women are not needed at this point in time; attack-dogs only will be considered for leadership positions in this ‘brave’ new world @humanitarian@intervention@neo-conningyou@don’tyoufeelsick.

So then, the American juggernaut rolls on, inflicting immeasurable harm on innocent people across the globe… but don’t hold your breath in expectation of a change of direction coming your way. ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps…Greed For Lack of a Better Word, is Good’ …is where we are at. Regrettably, the Gorden Gekkos of the world are at the helm of the ship of state and Wall Street teleology reigns supreme. For the moment, the weeds sap the life blood of the nation and we bemoan the absence of honourable men and women. Parasites have purloined the melody that was once at the heart of the American Dream, leaving the enervated host without song or sangfroid. ‘Going America’s way’ has ushered in a culture of individual greed that has managed to siphon off public assets. What we have now is indisputably vampirish. To be left to lament the fact that mean-street can get away with sucking the life blood out of main-street with impunity, is unacceptable. Wall Street is the ‘gated community’ of the financial world deviously rorting the system. We need the return of the spirit of democracy as we do the return of the flowers…we need to sever the proboscis that sucks away the nation’s vitality. Apart from the parasites, who needs perpetual war and casino capitalism?

(full text).

(Denis is a retired businessman and journalist, and a voracious follower of matters political outside of the mainstream arena. Read other articles by Denis A. Conroy).

Links:

Bound for Syria: German Kurds Join Fight against Islamic State, on Spiegel Online International, by Jörg Diehl and Fidelius Schmid, Oct 29,2014:
Young Kurds from Germany are joining PKK’s fight against Islamic State in Syria. Security officials are concerned that tensions between Salafists and Kurds in Germany could rise once they return home …;

Quantitative Easing Is About to End. Here’s What It Did, in Charts, on NYT, by Neil Irwin, Oct 29, 2014;

The Upshot, the Big Role of Black Churches in Two Senate Races, on NYT, by Nate Cohn, Oct 29, 2014;

WANTED Technologies rapporte une croissance de 39 % du chiffre d’affaires à 10,1 millions et un profit record de 2,6 millions (0,109 $ par action) pour l’exercice financier 2014, dans CNW Telbec, Oct 23, 2014;

Au coeur du labo où s’expériment les pistes d’innovation de la Fing, dans La Tribune.fr, par François Leclerc, Oct 23, 2014;

Combating trafficking requires addressing social inequality, Q&A part III, on openDemocracy, by HELGA KONRAD, Oct 23, 2014;

Labour under pressure to revise policy on income tax, on Herald Scotland, par Magnus Gardham, Oct 22, 2014;

La démocratie, une formule qui convient parfaitement au capitalisme, dans Mediapart.fr/blogs, par BRIGITTE PASCALL, le 22 octobre 2014;

Zoe Williams: Fed up with growth-focused politics? For real change, look left, Oct 21;

PODEMOS ou quand un groupe d’enseignants bouleverse l’échiquier politique de l’Espagne, Oct 19, 2014;

Tory policies on higher education are hugely progressive, on The Guardian, by David Willetts, Oct 19, 2014;

Fuyant l’excision, une centaine de Tanzaniennes se réfugient chez les religieuses, dans Star Africa, le 18 octobre 2014;

Beliefs about Poverty, dans Living Income Now, Sept 25, 2014;

… and this:

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