BigMike wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 6:49 pm
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 6:26 pm
Democracy is in huge danger today, mostly from what the Left is deceptively terming, "Democratic Socialism," which is really nothing but elitist authoritarianism, a coming together of the radical Left with big business, the legacy media, and global power-brokers to undermine the interests of the ordinary citizen and to diminish his freedoms.
Wow, that is a mind-boggling interpretation of the actual state of affairs.
It really isn't, but the entire situation would have to be carefully examined and carefully and fairly explained.
And no one has time for that.
Democracy is not so much the thing in danger as it is
the cause of the social and *identity* problems. The real cause of the disunity in the US has to do with demography: the reengineering of the demography of the United Staes. This is an unpopular idea naturally. But I would assert it is one of the major causes of social division. It is
numbers within a democracy that determines all things about that democracy. When a given culture loses its 'cultural identity' it is because demographic numbers (original population) has been supplanted. That, of course, is what 'replacement theory' is about: the realization of what, really, is happening and what is effects are and will be.
It becomes
necessary, for obvious reason, when a new demographic situation emerges in a national culture for conflicts to arise. For example in how the United States is
defined. A 'patriotic view'
defends the country, its
raison 'd'etre, its *goodness*, etc. But it is quite possible, as a choice, to see the US as bad or evil. For the destruction of the cultures it supplanted (and genocided). For the slavery issue as an engine of tremendous wealth. For the original cultural and racial views of its founders.
Business, to be successful, must side with the majority and certainly not with a minority, because business is only interested in markets. The US, for them is essentially one of the most important markets. Naturally they take their side in the new demographic wave.
Where did 'globalization' originate? It is an extension of the post-WWll division of the world into market- and power-regions. The US designed this project. It culminated in the '90s when the Soviet Union collapsed and there was nothing left to oppose the US plans. Globalization and an inter-connected world was then constructed as everyone knows. Now, the US is to be converted into just one *region* among many. Who controls this? Good question. But it sure isn't *democracy'.
So the question is how and with what lens one examines all of this. Are you *in-pro* or are you opposed? Vast, determinimng powers hardly care!
Domestically, and in the cultural realm, two extremely different *narratives* arise and the narratives go to battle against one another. What is the root cause? A hard question to answer but again I suggest demographics. Inundate any relatively homogenous country you can take as an example and radically change its demography: conflicts will arise. I'd also suggest that it is economic powers, not democratic choice, that is determining America now.
The other element, which is not talked about, is that the definition of the US must include the fact that the US
is an empire. That is it manages a world-scale empire. Call it neo-imperialism or what you will. But its business interests, and geo-political interests, that is to say the interests of vast networks of corporations that control these world-scale enterprises, have a range of interests that have nothing, or little, to do with classic American constitutional democracy of a republic sort, and they have deep roots into American government. Or
controlling arms is a better metaphor. They cannot be separated. Neither removed.
Is the US a constitutional republic or is it a conglomeration of business interests that require a vast military to defend its holdings?
Unfortunately, this results in a veritable *conflict of identity*. What interests are being defended, whose interests, when the military-political arm is raised? Now, today, in a really weird reversal of fortune, the paramilitary arm of power is turned against those who clamor for, or defend, or wish to protect, the former *identity* of America as a new identity-structure is imposed on it. Who is doing this? For what purposes?
Today, in this climate, obviously it becomes illegal (essentially) to state the clear facts about what is going on. It becomes paramount to control both speech and thought. You must not oppose what *they* (who are they?) are constructing. And obviously to oppose anything requires the ability to speak your mind. In Orwellian fashion then your oppositional speach is not 'free speech' but 'hate speech' or 'anti-democratic speech' or ultra-rightwing rhetorical, etc. etc.
You are really just a Nazi though, aren't you?
To what, and to whom, shall I commit my allegiance? The System is what provides me with everything I have (or do not have depending on where I stand in the economic scale). Should I 'defend the empire' or should I take a stance against it and its essential collusion with the entire government-military apparatus?
