RIP REAGAN
Out of context: Reply #125
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Gawd bless Reagan I say. In the same perverse way I say gawd bless Margaret Thatcher and gawd bless Pope John Paul II. For bringing into being the Empire of the corporations. The Pre-Reagan world was 2 military empires carving up the world between them in an show of military strength. The first world faced the second world and fought over the third world through proxy wars and puppet dictators. But then in the 1980s, the first world realised that the military strength of the second had no firm economic foundation. That if pushed, the whole system would implode. And so they unleashed the free market with a push towards democracy. Globalisation was thus fashioned as a system that would secure American asymetric global dominance through corporate America. Through McDonalds on the streets of St Petersburg, and Nike on the T-Shirts of Africans. Ideas of democracy went hand in hand with free trade - and both were pushed with equal venom.
Unfortunately Americans (Democrat & Republicans) realised Reaganism could ultimately lead to the downfall of America as a superpower, and eventually as even a nation state. Free trade trade threatened US economic dominance - maintained through a heavily subsidised and protected economy. The rise of Japan during the 80s was the first such warning. The Reaganites (now repackeged as neo-conservatives) realised their vision of a New American Century (George Bush I's "new world order") based on the global dominance of the dollar must now be backed by asymetric military strength, as during the cold war; to check the ambitions of would-be superpowers. This is the duality of Reaganism - at once contradictory. Both George Bush I and Bill Clinton fought "police wars" designed to reposition the US as the sole guarantor of world security. A world constitution was developed to serve the needs of capitalism based on the internationalism of the WTO, World Bank, IMF, and the multinational corporations. The US served as the monarchical power towering over the UN as the new senate of Rome. A system designed to maintain the freedom of corporations from the interference of nations - and so rendering the state all but obsolete. Free market capitalism as inherent to the spectacle of society.
With the impending super-power status of China and India; the resurgence of Brazil (which will eventually lead to South America dominating the North as it had done for 1000s of years up until 200 years ago), the current US administration is
extending the remit of the US as the worlds police-man to face these challenges. Transferring dollar power into real power; the US posesses the exclusive use of pre-emptive wars; and in fact maintains sole control of the war machine. Failed states
are turned into weak states, only to be allowed to turn back into failed states. The US isn't exclusive in its wars of
geopolitics (witness Israel against the Palestinians, and the Russians in Chechnya). Nevertheless, the US is in the process of creating a world constantly at war with itself. A world in which policing by the US will be the essential funciton of the Capitalist global Empire. War is Americas answer to threat from China, India, Europe, and Russia (the Democrats under Clinton were no different).All these wars will, in the end amount to nothing. Corporate America doesn't need the United States. If (like Margaret
Thatcher said) that the free market was the only form social relations may take - then all social relations are orchestrated by multinational corporations that have no state loyalty. Goods and services will be exchanged freely across open borders. To such a point that social life itself is being produced by the corporation (ala Blade Runner/Robocop). With mass flows of capital goes mass flows of labour. Europe might be voting for right-wing nationalist parties today to keep out the foreigners - but this is a project doomed to failure. States will dissapear and the first and third world will exist in the one and same
place. All that will be left will be these giant multinational corporations. But without the State to defend them - the
multinationals will be naked and defenceless. And, in a democratic moment, the multitude will seize the means of production on a global scale, and Karl Marx will be proved right.RIP Reagan, and take ur beloved country with u. muahhahahahahahaaa!