|
The Paradise Perspective: Commentary from a Free and Compassionate Alternate Reality Volume 1, Number 30 The Enemies of Love and Freedom With a Review of The Secret History of the American Empire by Glen Allport Exclusive to STR August 20, 2007 -
1 - A
Simple Question Who
are the enemies of love and freedom? One answer is: "Not always who
you might think." -
2 - Bad
Frameworks and the Evils of Coercion In
Blinding
by Paradigm, I described how faulty paradigms for politics (and for
worldview in general) create disaster. Inaccurate paradigms actually
prevent the creation of a healthier world by directing human action in
counterproductive and often destructive ways. Frameworks which praise
coercive power are particularly dangerous. This is true even when – in
fact, especially when – the coercive power is presented as being in the
service of helping
or protecting people.
Marxism, fascism, coercive-socialism, corporatism,
or anything else that involves using coercion against others (even if only
for funding of basic services) – all of it brings destruction in the
end. Statism in any guise is an excuse for one group to use force against
the rest of society; no wonder governments are the champion mass-murderers
of all time, with 262
million government murders in the 20th Century alone – plus tens of millions of war dead. Not to mention widespread
torture, unjust imprisonment, needless famine, and other horrors. Who
are the advocates for today's destructive Statist paradigms? Broadly
speaking, there are four main groups: Those who benefit financially or in
terms of power from the paradigm (the power elite, for the most part);
those who hope to personally
benefit or who believe they are
benefiting from the paradigm even as the paradigm harms them (most of the
lower and middle classes); and those who sincerely believe – despite all
evidence to the contrary – that mankind as a whole will benefit from the
paradigm (this requires sloppy thinking and a willingness to misperceive
history and current events, plus the rather cold-hearted belief that some
coercion is good as long as it
applies to others; Bono
comes to mind). The fourth group are more propaganda victims than
advocates; this group includes those who have simply been brought up to
believe that government coercion is normal and necessary, and who have not
yet thought about the topic clearly enough or observed life carefully
enough to move beyond irrational Statist beliefs. You will have noticed
that there is much overlap in these categories, but I think the
distinctions are still useful. In
today's America, the first group – those who actually benefit
financially and in other ways – includes most (perhaps all) of those who
own and many who work in the major media, plus many who teach our
children or who influence the teaching of children. That factor alone
makes it surprising than anyone in the Vast
sums of money are involved – check the U.S.
budget, for example, or profits at ExxonMobil
or Halliburton –
so not surprisingly, both government power and corporate and special
interest control of that power have grown enormously despite efforts to reign them in. -
3 - Another
Perspective: Segue to a Book Review It
isn't only Americans who are paying for this feeding frenzy, as I have
been reminded recently by John Perkins' The
Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the
Truth About Global Corruption. Secret History reads like a spy
novel and is a follow-up to Perkins' Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man. Perkins'
indictment of the corporatist system is staggering and detailed. I wrote a
column only last month on corporatism (CorporateGovernment
CorruptionSynergy: The Dangers of Corporatism), but Secret History
took my breath away. Among other things, I was amazed at Perkins'
descriptions of how common is the knowledge – among foreigners – of
the corrupt and corrupting foreign policies followed by the United States
government, and of the results of those policies, which include widespread
poverty, cruelty, environmental disaster, and massive wealth stolen from
the people in various ways by corporations and US-backed tyrants. The
contrast with typical American
knowledge and opinion on these topics, not to mention with what one sees
and hears in the major American media, is huge. Americans are sheltered
almost beyond belief, and on purpose, because the corporatocracy needs to
keep its actions hidden in order to continue feeding at the trough. Few of
the foreign leaders who have been corrupted to do -
4 - Submit
or Die Perkins
discusses the carefully-orchestrated corruption of numerous and often
democratically-elected foreign leaders, and the overthrow or assassination
of others who would not do as they were told. In many cases Perkins was
personally involved with these events. Money and power are the
ever-present motives for these crimes, and Perkins describes government
and corporate power as seamlessly interwoven in plotting the crimes and
carrying them out. What
do I mean by "crimes"? Time after time, a new head of state is
told, in essence, that he can become staggeringly wealthy through bribes,
kickbacks, and massive U.S. aid packages (much of which will end up in his
own pockets and the pockets of his family, friends, and supporters) if he follows the corporatist game plan, or he can be driven from power in a coup or simply assassinated. The
carrot usually works, but if not – there is always the stick. Submit
or die is
the constant demand from Power, unchanging since before the Pharaohs ruled
-
5 - Empire
by Stealth We
have been impoverishing most of the people in nations that we are
pretending to "aid" while creating wealthy and corrupt elites
loyal to American – or at least to corporate – interests: from the Shah
of Iran to Marcos
in the Philippines; from Noriega
in Panama to the Saudi
royal family; from Carlos
Castillo Armas in Guatemala to Pinochet
in Chile. The lists of both corrupt allies and of victims who were deposed
or murdered are long and actually overlap; Noriega and Saddam, for
example, were both Perkins'
description of the mechanisms involved in American looting of foreign
nations is worth the price of the book by itself. This is partly because
Perkins gives clear yet simple descriptions, and partly because he uses
anecdotes, personal experience, and historic and other data to weave a
compelling story that makes sense logically and which fits with what
readers already know. Secret History points out that the Removing
Mossadegh and installing the Shah benefited American oil companies and
other corporate interests. The net result was to take wealth out of the
hands of Iranians and put it into the coffers of American companies, and
from there eventually into the hands of American individuals. There
are many ways in which American corporations and industries have benefited
from this form of nearly-invisible empire; one has been to offer target
nations huge loans for infrastructure that most local citizens will never
benefit from – but which they will be stuck paying
for in the form of crippling interest (i.e., bank profits) and
principal payments by their government to the IMF or other (mostly
American-controlled) bank or development agency. Thereafter, money that
might have been used to provide services to the poor and the middle class,
or which those people might have simply been allowed to keep, is drained
away by loans which bought power grids and roads and other infrastructure
(built mostly by American corporations) used by the corporatocracy and the
rich, but which are either too expensive for use by the poor or, in many
cases, physically not available to the majority of citizens. Roads and
power stations serving logging companies, mines, oil fields, or
plantations, for example, may be of little use to most of a nation's
citizens, while at the same time assisting in the environmental
destruction and financial draining of the country. At the same time,
hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for such projects (and billed to
local citizens via taxes) find their way into the pockets of corrupt
officials and their cronies – the "carrot" that buys
cooperation from the target nation's rulers. In
addition to being forced to pay for expensive infrastructure used mostly
by the rich and the corporatocracy, the poor and middle class of target
nations suffer as their land is taken for corporate use of various kinds,
as their environment is degraded, as their traditional ways of life are
made impossible and then replaced by stultifying low-wage factory jobs,
and as national resources are taken by foreigners on bizarrely favorable
terms. -
6 - Hope
for Change John
Perkins' story of That
such books are being written and widely read is a hopeful sign for most of
us, and surely an uncomfortable problem for those being exposed. Perkins
goes beyond creating a useful and well-documented framework for
understanding an evil that has grown, almost unnoticed, right under our
noses. He offers hope for change, and provides chapters devoted to how
such change might be brought about. As he does elsewhere in the book,
Perkins lets others speak and shows real openness to their viewpoints and
ideas. I am still mulling some of his suggestions, and while I don't agree
with them all – in particular, Perkins seems far more trusting of
democracy and of political "solutions" generally than history
warrants – I appreciate his determination to act in ways aimed at
healing an unhealthy situation. This man takes the human condition
seriously and is determined to help move it in a healthier direction. In
addition to his experience working in many different nations for the
corporatocracy, Perkins spent time abroad in the Peace Corps, which he
joined to avoid the Vietnam-era draft. This and other experience gives him
a perspective that is unusual and well-informed, and which makes The
Secret History of the American Empire well worth the time. -
7 - A
Simple Answer Who
are the enemies of love and freedom? Sometimes the answer is
"Us." Yet as Perkins explains, we are
also the solution to this
problem; we are the protectors and stewards of love and freedom, and the
midwives for a healthier world – if only we choose to be. Glen Allport is the author of The Paradise Paradigm: On Creating A World of Compassion, Freedom, and Prosperity and maintains paradise-paradigm.net. This is one in a series of columns on the human condition.
|
