The Great American Illusion

On A Mission From God The West has repeatedly been under the illusion that it should try to save humanity by destroying part of it. This is how it was in colonialism, with the genocide of indigenous peoples, and the African slave trade (50 million deaths). This is how it was in the period of the colonial and World Wars (estimated 125 million deaths.) This is how it was under Stalinism, and with the Gulag, (5-10 million deaths,) and under Nazism, with the Holocaust (6 million deaths,) and the great purges in China under Mao-TseTung (50 million deaths.) And now today, this is how it is under American neo-conservatism, regardless if Democrat or Republican. (Vietnam, South America, SE Asia, Africa, Iraq (6-8 million deaths.) America and the Third World War War on democracy - School of Americas References *Gulag *Colonialism *Selected Death Tolls *China's Democide *Death By Government (Nazi depiction of "The Eternal Jew") And what may now be appearing in the "New Russia" The New Illusion With the war against Iraq, it is fitting to ask if what is in progress is a new genocidal and sacrificial illusion, and what its scope might be. It is above all appropriate to ask if the new illusion will not herald the radicalization and the ultimate perversion of the Western illusion: destroying humanity in the illusion of saving it. amerika amerika Sacrificial genocide arises from a totalitarian illusion manifested in the belief that there are no alternatives to the present-day reality, and that the "Final Sacrifice" must be made. The Mind of an Islamic Suicide Bomber There is a very real danger that the system could unravel due to the political and financial pressures in the not-distant future. With the enormous federal financial challenges predicted by *GAO and *CBO for the next decade, what is really needed to treat the hundreds of thousands of new wounded warriors coming to VA hospitals out of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the millions of Vietnam, World War II and other veterans who currently rely on VA healthcare? Veterans' Health Care Underneath the glittering surface of India's economic boom lie the ugly realities of modern day India: mass suicide by debt-ridden farmers, a rise in Hindu nationalism, discrimination against Muslims and a caste system which condemns millions to a life of servitude. The Indian Miracle? This story is set in southwest China during the early 1980s, immediately following the Cultural Revolution, and at the start of China's amazing economic transformation. A man and a woman, one a visiting Japanese lecturer, the other a museum assistant, are found dead in the foreigners' compound at Sichuan University. Superintendent Zhang is assigned the case but she soon realizes that it involves much more than a couple's apparent suicide. Zhang's investigation takes her back into China's distant past to the Tang Dynasty, to uncover a most terrible secret. China - The Song of Enduring Sorrow If there is unemployment, hunger and death in the Third World, this is not the result of market failures; instead, it is the outcome of market laws not having been fully applied. If there is terrorism, this is not due to the violence of the conditions that generate it; it is due, rather, to the fact that total violence has not been employed to physically eradicate all terrorists and potential terrorists. Am I a racist? no, I'm an American During the last hundred years, the West has experienced three versions of this logic: Stalinism, with its logic of the planned economy and the efficiency of the plan; Nazism, with its logic of racial superiority; and neo-conservatism, with its logic of efficiency of the market. A Catastrophic Heroism The first two periods involved the destruction of democracy. The last one trivializes democracy, disarming it in the face of social actors sufficiently powerful to be able to privatize the state and international institutions in their favor. At all these moments, a death drive, a catastrophic heroism, dominates the idea of a looming collective suicide, only preventable by the massive destruction of the other. American War Crimes Caught on Video Paradoxically, the broader the definition of the other the more likely collective suicide becomes. In its sacrificial genocide version, neo-conservatism is a mixture of market radicalization, neo-conservatism and Christian fundamentalism. Its death drive becomes the idea of "discardable populations", referring to citizens of the Third World that are not capable of being exploited as workers and consumers. Collateral Damage The concept of "collateral damage", referring to the deaths, as a result of war, of thousands of innocent civilians. Between two and five million people will die during the Iraq war, and in the months after (this is without there being civil war or a nuclear attack); the war will cost 1 to 2 trillion dollars, enough to pay the health costs of the the USA and the world's poorest countries. We must bear in mind that historically, sacrificial destruction has always been linked to the economic pillage of natural resources and the labor force. Terror Democracy It is as though that world powers, both when they are on the rise and when they are in decline, repeatedly go through times of primitive accumulation, legitimizing the most shameful violence in the name of futures where, by definition, there is no room for what must be destroyed. In today's version, the period of primitive accumulation consists of combining neo-conservative economic globalization with the globalization of war. When the machine of democracy and liberty turns into a machine of horror and destruction. This new situation forces globalization to re-think itself, and to reshape its priorities. A strategic shift is required. Social movements, no matter what their spheres of struggle, must give priority to the fight for peace, as a necessary condition for the success of all the other struggles. This means that they must be in the frontline of the fight for peace, and not simply leave this space to be occupied solely by peace movements. All the movements against neo-conservative globalization are, from now on, peace movements. We are now in the midst of the fourth world war (the third being the Cold War) and the spiral of war will go on and on. Finally to end this post ... Real American Hero Stumble It!

The Great American Illusion

On A Mission From God The West has repeatedly been under the illusion that it should try to save humanity by destroying part of it. This is how it was in colonialism, with the genocide of indigenous peoples, and the African slave trade (50 million deaths). This is how it was in the period of the colonial and World Wars (estimated 125 million deaths.) This is how it was under Stalinism, and with the Gulag, (5-10 million deaths,) and under Nazism, with the Holocaust (6 million deaths,) and the great purges in China under Mao-TseTung (50 million deaths.) And now today, this is how it is under American neo-conservatism, regardless if Democrat or Republican. (Vietnam, South America, SE Asia, Africa, Iraq (6-8 million deaths.) America and the Third World War War on democracy - School of Americas References *Gulag *Colonialism *Selected Death Tolls *China's Democide *Death By Government (Nazi depiction of "The Eternal Jew") And what may now be appearing in the "New Russia" The New Illusion With the war against Iraq, it is fitting to ask if what is in progress is a new genocidal and sacrificial illusion, and what its scope might be. It is above all appropriate to ask if the new illusion will not herald the radicalization and the ultimate perversion of the Western illusion: destroying humanity in the illusion of saving it. amerika amerika Sacrificial genocide arises from a totalitarian illusion manifested in the belief that there are no alternatives to the present-day reality, and that the "Final Sacrifice" must be made. The Mind of an Islamic Suicide Bomber There is a very real danger that the system could unravel due to the political and financial pressures in the not-distant future. With the enormous federal financial challenges predicted by *GAO and *CBO for the next decade, what is really needed to treat the hundreds of thousands of new wounded warriors coming to VA hospitals out of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the millions of Vietnam, World War II and other veterans who currently rely on VA healthcare? Veterans' Health Care Underneath the glittering surface of India's economic boom lie the ugly realities of modern day India: mass suicide by debt-ridden farmers, a rise in Hindu nationalism, discrimination against Muslims and a caste system which condemns millions to a life of servitude. The Indian Miracle? This story is set in southwest China during the early 1980s, immediately following the Cultural Revolution, and at the start of China's amazing economic transformation. A man and a woman, one a visiting Japanese lecturer, the other a museum assistant, are found dead in the foreigners' compound at Sichuan University. Superintendent Zhang is assigned the case but she soon realizes that it involves much more than a couple's apparent suicide. Zhang's investigation takes her back into China's distant past to the Tang Dynasty, to uncover a most terrible secret. China - The Song of Enduring Sorrow If there is unemployment, hunger and death in the Third World, this is not the result of market failures; instead, it is the outcome of market laws not having been fully applied. If there is terrorism, this is not due to the violence of the conditions that generate it; it is due, rather, to the fact that total violence has not been employed to physically eradicate all terrorists and potential terrorists. Am I a racist? no, I'm an American During the last hundred years, the West has experienced three versions of this logic: Stalinism, with its logic of the planned economy and the efficiency of the plan; Nazism, with its logic of racial superiority; and neo-conservatism, with its logic of efficiency of the market. A Catastrophic Heroism The first two periods involved the destruction of democracy. The last one trivializes democracy, disarming it in the face of social actors sufficiently powerful to be able to privatize the state and international institutions in their favor. At all these moments, a death drive, a catastrophic heroism, dominates the idea of a looming collective suicide, only preventable by the massive destruction of the other. American War Crimes Caught on Video Paradoxically, the broader the definition of the other the more likely collective suicide becomes. In its sacrificial genocide version, neo-conservatism is a mixture of market radicalization, neo-conservatism and Christian fundamentalism. Its death drive becomes the idea of "discardable populations", referring to citizens of the Third World that are not capable of being exploited as workers and consumers. Collateral Damage The concept of "collateral damage", referring to the deaths, as a result of war, of thousands of innocent civilians. Between two and five million people will die during the Iraq war, and in the months after (this is without there being civil war or a nuclear attack); the war will cost 1 to 2 trillion dollars, enough to pay the health costs of the the USA and the world's poorest countries. We must bear in mind that historically, sacrificial destruction has always been linked to the economic pillage of natural resources and the labor force. Terror Democracy It is as though that world powers, both when they are on the rise and when they are in decline, repeatedly go through times of primitive accumulation, legitimizing the most shameful violence in the name of futures where, by definition, there is no room for what must be destroyed. In today's version, the period of primitive accumulation consists of combining neo-conservative economic globalization with the globalization of war. When the machine of democracy and liberty turns into a machine of horror and destruction. This new situation forces globalization to re-think itself, and to reshape its priorities. A strategic shift is required. Social movements, no matter what their spheres of struggle, must give priority to the fight for peace, as a necessary condition for the success of all the other struggles. This means that they must be in the frontline of the fight for peace, and not simply leave this space to be occupied solely by peace movements. All the movements against neo-conservative globalization are, from now on, peace movements. We are now in the midst of the fourth world war (the third being the Cold War) and the spiral of war will go on and on. Finally to end this post ... Real American Hero