Epigovernment: The New Model - 6

"The Global Cubicle"

In this series Dredd Blog has been looking at how "government" gets out of shape, out of character, beyond its design, and out of touch with the people.

This metamorphosis is done by forces that are outside of the government.

In this series Dredd Blog has labeled those forces of metamorphosis with the name "The Epigovernment."

Some of the components of the Epigovernment have been suggested, while noting at the same time that the people, places, and things which make up the components of Epigovernment (like the official people, places, and things which are the official components of government) can and do naturally change from time to time.

So, in addition to the method called "follow the money", Dredd Blog has suggested another way to track the Epigovernment --even though "the people, places, and things" comprising the Epigovernment may change.

That method is "follow the immunity" (e.g. Follow The Immunity).

The concept of "immunity" which the news media have recently instilled in us is "too big to fail" and/or "too big to jail", both of which are useful concepts for understanding the notion of immunity.

When you see Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Banks, or government officials that cannot be held accountable for wrongs they do, they are too big to fail or too big to jail, that is, they are immune to the power of government justice (e.g. When Accountability Is A Plague).

This immunity from government accountability is an indication that the entity in question is in some way a part of the Epigovernment, just like "diplomatic immunity" at the government level indicates that a diplomat is in some way a part of government:

Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws ...

(Wikipedia, "Diplomatic Immunity"). So, when the trail gets cold as one is trying to follow the money in order to establish a link to epigovernment, one can instead resort to the use of the immunity trail to get there.

Today, let's look at a government that at one time was impacted by an epigovernment due to "conditions on the ground."

Let's also take a look at how much of a change or metamorphosis that government went through as a result of the pressures of epigovernment:

Vatican City ... officially Vatican City State ... is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome. It has an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of around 840. This makes Vatican City the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population.

Vatican City is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state, ruled by the Bishop of Rome—the Pope. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergymen of various national origins. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See ... and the location of the Pope's residence, referred to as the Apostolic Palace. The Popes have generally resided in the area that in 1929 became Vatican City since the return from Avignon in 1377, but have also at times resided in the Quirinal Palace in Rome and elsewhere.

(Wikipedia, "Vatican City"). During the feudal times in Europe we are told by the Catholic Encyclopedia about that Catholic Church's government becoming controlled or influenced by an epigovernment.

Great pressures from outside that church government resulted in profound changes or metamorphosis:

The Church, too, had her place in the feudal system. She too was granted territorial fiefs, became a vassal, possessed immunities. It was the result of her calm, wide sympathy, turning to the new nations, away from the Roman Empire, to which many Christians thought she was irrevocably bound. By the baptism of Clovis she showed the baptism of Constantine had not tied her to the political system. So she created a new world out of chaos, created the paradox of barbarian civilization. In gratitude kings and emperors endowed her with property; and ecclesiastical property has not infrequently brought evils in its train. The result was disputed elections; younger sons of nobles were intruded into bishoprics, at times even into the papacy. Secular princes claimed lay investiture of spiritual offices. The cause of this was feudalism, for a system that had its basis on land tenure was bound at last to enslave a Church that possessed great landed possessions.

(American Feudalism - 2, quoting the Catholic Encyclopedia). There were epigovernment engendered forces that caused the government of a church to, at times, become governed by warriors, not peace keepers, as noted by the revelation that "younger sons of nobles were intruded into bishoprics, at times even into the papacy. Secular princes claimed lay investiture of spiritual offices" (ibid).

The point being made is that just as external forces can work on individuals to the point people will say "she is not herself lately", external forces in the form of epigovernment can also cause a once-valid government to morph into something strange until it seems that it is not itself lately.

We have noted this about American Government in this series:

"In terms of pure projectable power, there’s never been anything like it. Its military has divided the world -- the whole planet -- into six “commands.”

(Epigovernment: The New Model - 5). The point here is that American Government "of, by, and for the people," has not traditionally been favorably disposed to becoming a world ruling empire with six "commands" which divide the nations of the Earth into sections to be mastered by military generals.

That is because the people, the Constitution, and tradition have been in favor of peace and mutual co-existence among nations.

But, as with the Vatican City government, some epigovernmental feudalistic forces from outside the American Government have been changing the government, as pointed out in this and other Dredd Blog series (e.g. A Tale of Coup Cities - 4, American Feudalism).

One example has been seen within one of the six commands, called "USAFRICOM", which the Epigovernment influenced or controlled American Government has created:

General Carter Ham, the [USAFRICOM] commander for the Pentagon, admitted last week that the US had helped trained the Mali rebels, including Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led the military coup which overthrew Mali’s constitutionally-elected government.

In describing the statement Ham made at the Ralph Bunche center, Veterans Today editor Gordon Duff is highly critical of Ham’s support for widening US military involvement in the region, including the recent establishment of drone bases in Niger.

Duff is extremely concerned that the US lacks the intelligence resources in Africa to prevent the horrendous “collateral damage” nightmares drones have caused in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

He goes on to describe Mali as a “domino” in a misguided and poorly thought out destabilization effort aimed at creating a generation of warfare.
...
Western multinational corporations’ attempts to cash in on the wealth of Congo’s resources have resulted in what many have called “Africa’s first world war,” claiming the lives of over 3 million people. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been labeled “the richest patch of earth on the planet.” The valuable abundance of minerals and resources in the DRC has made it the target of attacks from U.S.-supported neighboring African countries Uganda and Rwanda.

The DRC is minerial rich with millions of tons of diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium, niobium, and tantalum also known as coltan. Coltan has become an increasingly valuable resource to American corporations. Coltan is used to make mobile phones, night vision goggles, fiber optics, and capacitators used to maintain the electrical charge in computer chips. In December of 2000 the shortage of coltan was the main reason that the popular sale of the Sony Play Station 2 video game came to an abrupt halt.

The DRC holds 80% of the world’s coltan reserves, more than 60% of the world’s cobalt and is the world’s largest supplier of high-grade copper. With these minerals playing a major part in maintaining US military dominance and economic growth, minerals in the Congo are deemed vital US interests.

Historically, the U.S. government identified sources of materials in Third World countries, and then encouraged U.S. corporations to invest in and facilitate their production. Dating back to the mid-1960s, the U.S. government literally installed the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, which gave U.S. corporations access to the Congo’s minerals for more than 30 years. However, over the years Mobutu began to limit access by Western corporations, and to control the distribution of resources. In 1998, U.S. military-trained leaders of Rwanda and Uganda invaded the mineral-rich areas of the Congo. The invaders installed illegal colonial-style governments which continue to receive millions of dollars in arms and military training from the United States. Our government and a $5 million Citibank loan maintains the rebel presence in the Congo.

(Journalism: Facts vs. Fantasy). The McTell News tends to filter out "unpleasantness" so that the people do not take note of these "managed atrocities."

Such as the one that is going on within the command called USAFRICOM, specifically, the one that is taking place in the Central African Republic (CAR):

The Central African Republic ... is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the northeast, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about 620,000 square kilometres (240,000 sq mi) and has an estimated population of about 4.4 million as of 2008. The capital is Bangui.
...
Despite its significant mineral and other resources, such as uranium reserves in Bakouma, crude oil in Vakaga, gold, diamonds, lumber and hydropower, as well as arable land, the Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world and is among the ten poorest countries in Africa.

(Wikipedia, "Central African Republic", emphasis added). Once upon a time the American Government, when it was unfettered by the Epigovernment, would have assisted that nation (CAR), so that it could have a good government for its people, like the American Government was reputed to be for its people.

But there is trouble in USAFRICOM, rather than peace and prosperity for those people:

The Central African Republic (CAR) has been in turmoil since rebels seized power in March. The UN deputy secretary general has warned the country is descending into "complete chaos" and called for urgent action.
...
Most people are terrified as lawlessness has overtaken the country, which is bigger than Spain and Portugal combined. Armed men from rival groups trawl many areas looting, killing, burning crops and homes. Many villages are now empty, with people either hiding in fields or in the bush. Some 460,000 people - 10% of the 4.5 million population - have fled their homes.

Some 1.1 million outside the capital, Bangui, finding it extremely difficult to feed themselves.

(Central African Rep. Trouble). The General in charge of that 1/6 section of the planet Earth has already admitted to some "mistakes" that have harmed the image of his vassal fief:

General Carter Ham, the [USAFRICOM] commander for the Pentagon, admitted last week that the US had helped trained the Mali rebels, including Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led the military coup which overthrew Mali’s constitutionally-elected government.
...
Historically, the U.S. government identified sources of materials in Third World countries, and then encouraged U.S. corporations to invest in and facilitate their production. Dating back to the mid-1960s, the U.S. government literally installed the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, which gave U.S. corporations access to the Congo’s minerals for more than 30 years.

(ibid, Journalism: Facts vs. Fantasy). Well, it is now about time to try to end today's post on an encouraging note of sorts.

So, remember that the Vatican City government, mentioned above in this post, which became a vassal when it was governing the church of The Holy Roman Empire (ibid, American Feudalism - 2) eventually threw those shackles off.

Today, that church government has an anti-feudal flavor, evidenced by its tenets recently spoken out in today's world:

Pope Francis has attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.

The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticising the global economic system, attacking the "idolatry of money" and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare".

(Pope Francis calls unfettered capitalism 'tyranny'). Perhaps the American Government can throw off the shackles of the Epigovernment just as the Vatican City government once did?

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.