So, in today's post let's all focus on the soft spoken but well equipped Noam Chomsky in a video address that we have referred to previously.
But you won't grasp the reason that elders of his ilk are filled with value unless you engage in listening to his sharing of his view of global governmental dynamics (epigovernment?).
Especially the discussion about the middle east nuclear free zone wherein any nuclear weapons or systems involved in their development are to be held in violation of international law.
[Only the U.S. and Israel are opposed to that nuclear free zone, Chomsky intimates, unless of course Israel gets to keep their nuclear WMD (let's pretend Israel is inside the U.S. instead of in the middle east).
This is soooo Emperor Hadrian, who built an art center extraordinaire as well as building "Hadrian's Wall" in Britain (to keep out the "terrorists").]
Check it out:
Video index to "Who Owns The World"
(min:sec topic):
01:05 Adam Smith describes power structure of British Empire
02:15 "all for ourselves and nothing for other people" ... motto of masters
02:50 U.S. greatest economic and military power in history
04:00 U.S. "unquestioned power" took over lands of the British Empire
05:20 A common theme now in foreign policy journals is "American Decline"
05:40 "Is America Over" on front page of prestigious foreign policy journal
07:50 "we lost China" in late 40's ... elite think they own the world
08:40 when nations gain independence, elites call that "loosing them"
09:50 mass slaughter in Indonesia done by west called "a gleam of light in Asia"
10:40 Kissinger: we have to prevent the virus of independence from spreading
11:50 the "loss of South America" by U.S.
13:35 U.S. policy was "if we control Mideast oil we control the world"
13:45 U.S. engendered coup of Iran in 1953 to control oil in the region
14:20 a central U.S. foreign policy is the control of oil
16:21 "it takes genius not to see it" ... (U.S. oil imperialism)
16:45 decline over the past 50 years is self inflicted
17:45 two issues that determine human fate: global warming and nuclear war
18:50 governments haven't responded to dangers with requisite concern
19:10 rather, their response has been to accelerate the catastrophe
19:15 government policy reflects willingness to sacrifice human life for oil
19:50 Ernst Mayr said the evolution of human "intelligence" is ominous
21:20 "intelligent" humans are hell bent on self destruction right now
21:50 critical issues politicized, insuring catastrophe
22:25 right wing wants to stop funding climate science
23:10 Obama is into securing 100 years of "American oil independence"
23:45 issue of nuclear war
25:15 U.S. / Israel at odds with rest of world RE: Iranian power plants
26:12 Gen. Lee Butler: "dangerous in the extreme" giving Israel nukes
26:35 Israel is considered most dangerous nation on Earth in European polls
27:45 elite want dictators, not democracy, for Arab populations
28:38 Mideast people see Israel as rogue nation backed by U.S.
29:10 NY Times: Golan Heights "disputed territory"; U.N. condemnation
29:40 Iran in hundreds of years only invaded two tiny Arab islands (Shah)
30:45 UN Charter bars threats against nations; U.S. and Israel threaten anyway
36:55 intellectual praise for Kennedy during missile crisis is inadvisable
39:45 Nuclear weapons free zone in Mideast ... opposed by U.S. and Israel
42:45 U.S. domestic issues: 23 million people unemployed or underemployed
47:00 U.S. financial system runs "doomsday cycle"
50:15 Working people under constant attack ... especially unions
53:20 political structure: republicans for rich; democrats for the rest
54:05 U.S. more per capita fundamentalists than other countries
57:50 "Failure By Design" shows rich richer; citizenry worse off (by design)
58:05 overcoming the plutocratic coup requires a "New Deal" type activism
61:05 world is composed of the plutonomy and the precariat
For those who don't have the time to listen, and would rather read this material, there are some posts that contain some or all of the material in the video:
Plutonomy refers to the rich, those who buy luxury goods and so on, and that’s where the action is. They claimed that their plutonomy index was way outperforming the stock market. As for the rest, we set them adrift. We don’t really care about them. We don’t really need them. They have to be around to provide a powerful state, which will protect us and bail us out when we get into trouble, but other than that they essentially have no function. These days they’re sometimes called the “precariat” -- people who live a precarious existence at the periphery of society. Only it’s not the periphery anymore. It’s becoming a very substantial part of society in the United States and indeed elsewhere. And this is considered a good thing [by plutocrats].(Life In The Ferengi Home World - 2, quoting Chomsky). More at this post:
Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons(Tom Dispatch, Chomsky). The video is worth watching, to say the very least.
I’ve kept to domestic issues, but there are two dangerous developments in the international arena, which are a kind of shadow that hangs over everything we’ve discussed. There are, for the first time in human history, real threats to the decent survival of the species.
One has been hanging around since 1945. It’s kind of a miracle that we’ve escaped it. That’s the threat of nuclear war and nuclear weapons. Though it isn’t being much discussed, that threat is, in fact, being escalated by the policies of this administration and its allies. And something has to be done about that or we’re in real trouble.
The other, of course, is environmental catastrophe. Practically every country in the world is taking at least halting steps towards trying to do something about it. The United States is also taking steps, mainly to accelerate the threat. It is the only major country that is not only not doing something constructive to protect the environment, it’s not even climbing on the train. In some ways, it’s pulling it backwards.
And this is connected to a huge propaganda system, proudly and openly declared by the business world, to try to convince people that climate change is just a liberal hoax. “Why pay attention to these scientists?”
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
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