Running on fear as the corporate welfare state collapses
How corporate welfarism is ruining our societies by robertjb
(centrist)
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Since winning their majority there has been no shortage of press coverage commenting on the arrogant and ruthless, “elbows-up” nature of Canada’s ‘conservative’ government led by Stephen Harper. Instead of a steady at the helm time of measured change that should typify a truly conservative government and one that has secured a solid majority it is steeped in a vengeful arrogance that is contemptuous of Canada and Canadian values and somehow feels the need to settle old scores and scorn democratic values. It is a government that is both nervous and ill-tempered with its newly won power.
Whether they are practised by individuals or governments arrogance and ruthlessness are often manifestations of fear, of some hidden vulnerability or a deception that might be discovered.
In a recent CBC interview Harper told interviewer Peter Mansbridge Iran “frightens me.” Harper’s fear is actually misplaced as he has more to fear from the US and Israel-his enduring allies. The history of the Middle East is that the US and Israel are the two driving forces behind the wars, conflicts and the criminal loss of life there. But Canada’s squeamish foreign policy fails to recognize this.
Iran has every right to fear and mistrust the Western intentions. Up until 1953 it had a democratically elected government which was deposed by the US and British in a coup d’état. The Iran we see today is very much a product of bungling US foreign policy.
The US is itself afraid Israel will launch a unilateral attack without consulting it first.
Iran is under siege by the US and Israel. Like it or not it has a right to self- protection and history proves one of the best protections for any nation is to have a nuclear capability.
In the same interview Harper claims Iran might actually use a nuclear weapon but this is very unlikely; to do so would be a death wish on Iran’s part. The retaliation would leave the country decimated. Nor is it likely the US or Israel will attack, as Iran, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, has the ability to retaliate and the consequences could be catastrophic- possibly driving the world price of oil through the roof. The truth of the matter is that none of the parties to this endless sabre rattling can afford open conflict- neither Israel, Iran, the United States, or the global community as silent spectator to this farce.
What Harper’s comments also fail to truthfully address is that the Age of Militarism for the US and its kowtowing NATO allies is over. The utterly ruinous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have ransacked the US treasury leaving the country bankrupt. All NATO countries are suffering serious debt problems and spending almost a trillion dollars annually on phantom enemies in support of the utterly insatiable military- industrial complex is pure insanity.
Recognition the US cannot afford to spend half its national budget on its military is long past due. The US military accounts for 43% of defense spending globally. It spends six times more than China and twelve times more than Russia.
The US has just announced budget cuts for its military but these are trivial compared to what is really necessary to save the American economy and way of life. The US military budget could be cut in half still leaving the US with by far the world’s largest military. These cuts are no doubt aimed at salvaging Obama’s failed presidency; given a second term these would no doubt fall by the way side like his first term promises.
The US military-industrial complex is the most putrid manifestation of the corporate-welfare state as corrupt politicians pump tens of billions into military spending while the country dies on the vine. What is equally putrid is that the US coerces all too willing NATO allies into buying over- priced arms they don’t need to defray the cost of empire and deliver generous corporate welfare to its arms dealer.
The controversial and technically flawed F-35 becomes a soaring symbol of corporate welfarism in all its malignancy. It also becomes a symbol of betrayal as America’s debased political elites pander to corporatism and endless unnecessary warfare at the population’s expense.
Harper has just told Canadians we must “rethink “our retirements-in other words get ready for cuts to pensions and Medicare. This suggestion though is obscene when governments are spending tens of billions of dollars on military toys that are unnecessary and highly redundant.
Political elites have shamelessly exploited 9/11 to implant the culture of fear, fight ruinous wars, advance militarism, consolidate the corporate welfare state, abrogate civil liberties and degrade democracy. They have whored themselves to corporatism and betrayed the very people who elect them.
America exemplifies the corporate welfare state in advanced decline, but of course this is a transnational global phenomenon. Canada like so many other countries is an all too willing enthusiast.
As long as corporatism is allowed to insert itself so maliciously between governments and the societies they represent politics and democracy are parodies of what they should be. Denials’ reign supreme, lies and deceptions litter the political landscape. Unfettered capitalism as manifested in the corporate welfare state is not sustainable.
Capitalism takes many forms and is not necessarily the enemy. Unfettered capitalism is. The neoliberal agenda of the market driven deregulated and privatized economy: of continuous warfare, of the denigration of government has been a feast of greed and corruption at public expense. The only thing that has saved Canada from the full onslaught of neoliberalism is that our governments(mostly Liberal) were wary of this ruinous ideology.
Libertarians, Neoconservatives, Neoliberals and Straussians may celebrate the ascendance of the corporate welfare state but it is only a matter of time before its destructive power impacts on all. There is no immunity from a destroyed environment, the end of oil, or global warming.
Liberals and social democrats do not escape complicity in this debacle. Just as Democrats in the US are all too willing to feed at the trough of corporatism along with Republicans; Liberals and the NDP in Canada have shown a stunning indifference to this hijacking, this unfettered capitalism that is so socially destructive that flattens democracy and the common good. While allowing government and its importance to be slandered and undermined we are seeing in the starkest of terms just how essential government-and good government! - is to maintaining a society that is viable, at least somewhat egalitarian with consideration for future generations. As long as this corporate hijacking is tolerated it is truly, “a race to the bottom,” the new feudalism,” the inglorious pursuit of self-extinction.”
As temporary custodians of this precious earth we are condemning future generations to bleak times.
There is fear in the populations as our societies and values disintegrate and we endure our political elite’s epidemic morbidity. There is also fear in the political elites as to when, where, how-and indeed if- they are going to be held to account for their lies, deceptions and corruptions in support of an unsustainable and increasingly fascist corporate welfare state.
The winds of change are upon us in gale force and our decadent political elites fearfully run from this reality.
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