Owning the World – The Great Illusion

In the sixties and seventies, a group of right-wingers in the United States formed a society of vindictive and power hungry men who thought they could reinvent reality. Initially they received little notice and operated inside the American Enterprise Institute; that think tank became the womb for these megalomaniacs and their monstrous ambition of remaking the world. Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz were among them and the movement was to turn into a preposterous beast. The group called themselves Neoconservatives although they were hardly conservatives in the traditional sense and were very much out there on a new and tenuous limb.

As the group assumed greater visibility, they established their goal as the creation of an artificial world which the U.S. empire would rule single-handedly. Ignoring history, they were set on creating an illusory world, one where they alone would set the rules, decide who would run big corporations, who would dominate the world scene, who would control the enormous oil wealth of the Middle East and Central Asia, who would dictate the fate of the world – without taking into consideration the ambitions of the rest of the world or the aspirations of human beings. This virtual universe began to turn into a frightening reality decades later when these men managed to seize power. And they did this through manipulating the Supreme Court into appointing a clown as President, a marionette to serve as their front man. The clown didn't have to do anything other than smirk and occasionally lift his hand in a fist; they knew that would be enough to impress the world and, in particular, the American people. Oh yes, and he would pretend to be one of the people, just like your cousin Dave or your next-door neighbor.

These men shared the illusion that all that needed to be done to control the world forever was to attack and occupy the nations that were in the way of world-wide domination. In view of the unequaled military and economic power of the United States, nobody would be able to resist or object. The United Nations was irrelevant, the industrialized world and the developing world were irrelevant; the only relevance was the military power of the United States.

So they made a plan to play the world as though it were a game of chess. This was to be an illusory world where human beings didn't count, where nationalism didn't exist. The outcome was certain before the first pawn was moved. Opponents were going to fall, they thought, like so many chessmen before the king; the fact that the king is vulnerable was not taken into consideration. This was a gambit to grab control of the world’s riches; nobody was to know what hit them until everything was in the hands of mighty U.S. corporations.

The field is open

When the Soviet Union was unmasked as being merely a mouse that roared rather than a fearful dragon, the Neoconservatives saw the opening they had awaited; the United States could now take over the running of the planet.

They had lost their most valuable asset, the cold war that had justified the arms race all by itself. But now, in their megalomania, they saw the chance to enlarge the U.S. empire to previously unheard of greatness. The groundwork had been laid by presidents Reagan and Clinton but with their clown prince in the White House, they seized upon the events of 9/11 to solidify control of the newly unipolar world.

The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) has been built to provide a gospel for these armchair warriors and its dogma assured there was no limit to the aggression the U.S. empire would permit itself to undertake. America the great, America the morally upstanding, America the invincible. They saw the world as clearly defined by good versus evil; America was all good. But to move PNAC forward, an enemy had to be created. September 11 came to the rescue.

Under cover of a 'war on terrorism' and 'national security', the now-ruling clique could count on solid levels of cooperation from people who had not previously been part of the Neocon junta. Generals and civilians played the game, willingly to begin with, and the Neocons knew they could count on that so long as the game could be made to appear as if the U.S. had the upper hand. A war on terrorism provided the perfect tool; such a war can never be won, so the basis was in place for an eternal war. That was all that was needed to make the arms manufacturers happy and keep business moving; the economy would take care of itself. Or so they thought.

They believed the best way of winning over one's enemies would be to own them. Or to dominate them by military and economic means, if needed. One easy way of dealing with enemies would be to convert most of the peoples of the planet to the American way of life. The spread of America’s so-called culture, which had started right after World War II first in Europe and Japan, seemed to be a propitious way of tilling the ground for the planned American empire that was going to take shape. Military aggression might be needed in some cases, but always there would be insidious propaganda. The cultural domination, if thorough enough, might alleviate any need for the military to complete the task, or at least soften the blow on masses no longer culturally resistant to a U.S. invasion. Once the U.S. was allowed to install military bases on foreign land, the end was achieved and the empire could spread its tentacles to the next client state. The U.S. now needs Europe to play their ball game. And so they have eagerly pushed for the formation of an EU bloc, which is wholeheartedly set on playing the neoliberal game.

The Neocon grand scheme, which took root firmly in the 1990s as the Republicans were all set on a long-term plan to outsmart the Democrats, was clearly with the intention of taking over the world. They would begin with a takeover of the United States and they intended never to let go of their supremacy. 'Pax Americana' would rule the world. So simple. The United States would own the world economically or militarily; in either case, the goal would be achieved.

Neoliberalism, the prevailing economic system today, has served well in the hands of the unipolar megalomaniacs who have reached out greedily into all the corners of the planet. In a parallel way, there has been a gradual replacement of native culture by American standards. Even in cultures traditionally very different from the United States, such as India and the countries of south-east Asia, an American-tainted way of life is emerging.

The cultural crusaders hit a snag

Gradually converting people into Americans has worked to a certain extent in some regions of the world; but, in others, nationalism has proved stronger than the Neocons anticipated. In fact, nationalist instincts seem to have been left out of their vision altogether, a phenomenon outside their narrow understanding of human nature. They had set up their virtual game with no regard for or even consideration of human feelings and aspirations.

Their credo was that the world would love them for their 'freedom'. They utterly failed to grasp that the freedom people want is to live their own lives, in their own particular ways, even if that way was not seen as democracy.

The fact that 'Pax Americana' actually stands for eternal war was not supposed to be so obvious as it is. We were all meant to be taken in by the Orwellian Newspeak; when the Neocons say ‘peace’ we are supposed to feel secure and protected. However, the 'freedom' that they are selling to the world has finally been discredited as a hollow word.

What the Moslem countries care most about is not getting democracy installed, but simply living secure lives, having jobs and a functioning infrastructure, peaceful living, basic civic rights, a working educational system, decent health care. In the days of Saddam Hussein, when political assassinations were a routine occurrence, the majority of Iraqis still had the life they only dream of now and today many are actually looking back on those days with some regret.

Where has the megalomania taken us?

As the U.S. has deviously moved to swallow every continent on the planet, what is becoming increasingly clear is that the neoliberal economic system does not serve anyone except, for a limited period of time, the upper crust of society, the corporate leaders who are awash in obscene wealth. They have profited from the stranglehold they have on developing countries; and now the poverty that is increasing all over the world, even in the so-called rich world, has reached proportions that one day soon will topple the neoliberal structure. Their inhuman and shortsighted economic game will be exposed for what it is – a totally inhuman game to profit the very few under a false pretext of eradicating poverty in the world at large.

The immense greed and megalomania and the grotesque lack of vision of our alleged leaders is about to bring on an implosion of the U.S. power structure. The economic game has been played so poorly and so viciously that the United States will soon be bankrupt, living on the goodwill of creditor countries, mainly China and Japan. So while it still seems to some as if the United States is getting away with its attempted take-over of the world’s resources and the control of the world, the structure is actually highly unstable and as we are seeing it reach into the sky, its wheels are sinking into the mud.

A light in the dark

Most importantly, as the U.S. believes it's winning on all fronts, there is, in the midst of this merciless profiteering by the imperial corpocracy, a clear beacon of hope for a different future – on the great continent of Latin America. Here, one country after another is releasing themselves from the shackles of dependence on the United States, and freeing themselves from the bondage of U.S. and European-centered corporations which were, until recently, stealing the natural resources of Latin America. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are seeing the end of their power to gobble up and destroy. Poor people are clamoring for a voice and it seems as if they have found it.

The United States power structure is falling apart in the Middle East from lack of insight and vision on the part of the madmen who believe they are running the world. At the same time, there is hope that Latin America will take the lead towards independence from their giant northern neighbor. We put our faith in Latin America and hope its resurgence and resistance will spell doom for the already tottering megalomaniac that is the United States of America.

The virtual world that the Neocons have constructed has very little to do with the real world. It is doomed to be shown up in all its artificial light, wearing a grimace for a face and a cleft foot.