Except for.... real wages have declined during the same period as the imperial strategy of plunder, looting, to maintain "creature comforts" has increased; except the "averge" consumption lifestyle doesn't really exist as the redistribution of both wealth and income from bottom to top has gone hand in hand with this version of "imperialism, the highest stage of bribing the 'average,' the 'middle class,' the workers."
Reality is such a demanding mistress, isn't she? What's simple and stark is that the relation between profits and "the general welfare" is inverse; has become inverted. And to explain that, we need economic, social, historical, Marxist analysis, not natural, geological, catastrophe scenarios. ----- Original Message ----- From: "The Buffalo In Da' Midst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 12:44 PM Subject: [PEN-L] The 'Bone of Contention' -or- Why no one cares to discuss 'Peak Anything' > Stan Goff. from a post regarding the Democratic War Machine, and why > America doesn't seem to care if their political system has two > right-wings of one party. > > > The average consumption lifestyle of the United States, which > keeps politicians in office, is based on extortion, violence, and > plunder in places we don't see, and from activities the media seldom > mentions. > > To maintain that lifestyle, which is an imperial political payoff > for a quiescent home base, requires ever expanding inputs of finite > resources — many from aborad — and the continued ability to back up > financial extortion with military force where necessary. The pivotal > resource that makes it possible to make all the other consumer goods, > be they cars, clothes, computers, or whatever, is fossil energy. > > The United States, with five percent of the world's population, > used 26% of the word's energy supplies. > > Our domestic production has been falling since 1973, even as our > aggregate demand has continued to rise steeply. The United States has > allowed car companies and developers to establish an economic > infrastructure that depends absolutely on private automobiles. This > massive fleet of around 250 million automobiles runs on oil. > > This oil cannot be replaced by biofuels, contrary to the bullshit > being propogated to support a fresh new > vote-buying-and-corporate-welfare scheme for Cargill, Monsanto, and > Archer-Daniels-Midland. > > Follow the logic. > > The US economy cannot continue to operate as it is without > guaranteeing its access to fossil fuel that comes from abroad. > > The establishment wants this to be our dirty little secret, and > that's why we twist ourselves in knots talking about it, including > deluding ourselves that we can continue our energy profligacy and > ignoring the wet work that gets done to maintain control over a region > as strategically vital to this end as Southwest Asia. > > This, of course, means that when Republicrats use coded language > about "vital American security interests in the Middle East," they are > really talking about maintaining secondary political control over the > human beings who live on top of those energy lakes. > > If you accept that maintaining the American way of life is the > highest priority, then you have to accept that the US has to intervene > with force when necessary to get the energy supplies, and even that > this force be maintained through a constant threat, i.e., a permanent > US military presence in the region and support of unsavory regimes to > act as our surrogates. > > If you believe that people in that part of the world should have > the right to decide when, where, and how to use their own resources, > then you have to accept that this might result in a dramatic and > painful change in the "American way of life." > > It's that simple, that stark. > > <http://www.insurgentamerican.net/2007/09/15/ping-and-pong-you-are-the-b all/> >
