The Empire, Polarization and Espionage
Published in La Jornada
(Mexico) on 24 October 2013
by Adolfo Sánchez Rebolledo (link to original)
(Mexico) on 24 October 2013
by Adolfo Sánchez Rebolledo (link to original)
Translated from
by Maria Tartaglia.
Edited by Keith Armstrong.
The world’s inability to protect itself against the United States’ espionage confirms that the old empire does not change its nature, nor does it change any of its favorite methods. Those who thought that the extinction of Soviet socialism would become sort of like the end of a tale, the advent of an era of universal understanding under the paradigms of democracy and the market, were completely wrong, not only because the contradictions underlying capitalist societies remain unsolved, but also because more contradictions that had been hidden were added when they erupted with globalization.
In the disputed adjustment process and renovation of the institutions of the Cold War (which does not mean the creation of a new international order) the death of national states is sung as a warning whose boundaries fall with the expansion of trade, capital and human rivers of migrants in search of any job, but in this scheme, the United States reserves for itself the privilege of being the hegemonic power, a super-national state whose international responsibilities are decided as a function of its domestic issues. Although this ensures that it is bringing itself into an era of decadence, the truth is that its leaders (of either party) do not hesitate to identify their own ideology, their own national interests with the interests of humanity as a whole, even though imperial design is increasingly questioned every day.
When the latest crisis broke out, following the war-like adventurism of Bush, American society pushed for a change in course and cut through the shackles of racial prejudice by electing the first black president, armed with a liberal program that approached the ideas of the old New Deal. Shortly after, named Nobel laureate, he awoke among the losers of the neoliberal revolution’s hope of finally realizing the big reform for global capitalism. The situation, however, drifted off course from the predicted optimistic path of those days.
Beyond the discussions about Obama’s tactics for overcoming the negative effects of the crisis, it has been made clear that American society was crossed by an ideological fracture capable of putting the viability of necessary reforms at risk. The enormity of the attacks against presidential reform, the contempt for rationality and the extremism of their positions proved that the hegemonic power is sick as a consequence of the old evil, incubated through its own history of seeing itself in the mirror as the only free country. This crusade, as the president has called it, is the largest act of conservative resistance every realized (discounting, of course, the offensive of Fascist totalitarianism in the 1930s). It is, apparently, one of the greatest concerns for society as a whole. Despite Obama’s recent victory over the Republicans, the persistence of racism, religious intolerance and, in general, belief in the saving mission of that country which bodes future storms charged with hate is alarming.
In the disputed adjustment process and renovation of the institutions of the Cold War (which does not mean the creation of a new international order) the death of national states is sung as a warning whose boundaries fall with the expansion of trade, capital and human rivers of migrants in search of any job, but in this scheme, the United States reserves for itself the privilege of being the hegemonic power, a super-national state whose international responsibilities are decided as a function of its domestic issues. Although this ensures that it is bringing itself into an era of decadence, the truth is that its leaders (of either party) do not hesitate to identify their own ideology, their own national interests with the interests of humanity as a whole, even though imperial design is increasingly questioned every day.
When the latest crisis broke out, following the war-like adventurism of Bush, American society pushed for a change in course and cut through the shackles of racial prejudice by electing the first black president, armed with a liberal program that approached the ideas of the old New Deal. Shortly after, named Nobel laureate, he awoke among the losers of the neoliberal revolution’s hope of finally realizing the big reform for global capitalism. The situation, however, drifted off course from the predicted optimistic path of those days.
Beyond the discussions about Obama’s tactics for overcoming the negative effects of the crisis, it has been made clear that American society was crossed by an ideological fracture capable of putting the viability of necessary reforms at risk. The enormity of the attacks against presidential reform, the contempt for rationality and the extremism of their positions proved that the hegemonic power is sick as a consequence of the old evil, incubated through its own history of seeing itself in the mirror as the only free country. This crusade, as the president has called it, is the largest act of conservative resistance every realized (discounting, of course, the offensive of Fascist totalitarianism in the 1930s). It is, apparently, one of the greatest concerns for society as a whole. Despite Obama’s recent victory over the Republicans, the persistence of racism, religious intolerance and, in general, belief in the saving mission of that country which bodes future storms charged with hate is alarming.