Introduction:
I need to quickly write-down a first draft of this in the CD community because of our dual willingness to both seriously discuss the fast evolving contagious consequences of a disguised Global Empire exploding its nuclear-economic WMD "debt bomb' in the US, which any other community of thinkers and writers may not yet accept --- and because many CDers seem comfortable in using and reading the short-hand of "analogy thinking'.
I know from numerous and informed CDers' feedback that my too-often-stated claim that a ---"ruling-elite Global corporate/financial/militarist Empire now almost fully controls "our' country by hiding behind its faà §ade of TWO-Party "Vichy' sham democratic government" (and media) --- is accepted as fact and uncontroversial in our CD community. Unfortunately, the same thing can not be said or assumed of any/many other communities.
Additionally, I have observed from many fellow posters that CDers seem comfortable and astute with reading, writing, and thinking in the wonderful natural mind-short-hand of "analogythinking', as described by George Lakoff and other cognitive scientists --- which allows me to save time by briefly stating the analogies that a longer narrative of the argument would necessarily depend:
1. A "Failed-state' analogy between weak failed-states allowing weak non-state actors (such as terrorists) to hide and act, and a singularly unique strong failed-state allowing a virtual superpower non-state actor (such as an Empire) to hide and act with limited consequences.
2. A Warrant Buffet inspired "WMD' analogy between traditional nuclear-explosive weapons development/use, and the newer nuclear-economic weapons development/use.
3. A "Dr. Strangelovc" analogy between many aspects of the fictional movie about the aberrant behavior of those who might have launched traditional nuclear-explosive weapons (with their massive negative externality costs) into our 20th century world, and the non-fictional mental state of those who actually set-off a nuclear-economic "Doomsday Machine' (with similar negative externalities) in our current world.
Priorities:
1. Since things are moving very fast and devolving into multiple crises throughout the world, "Priority One' (or as Ford might say, "Job One") for President Obama (hopefully with the support of many "democracy-thinking' Americans) must be to immediately disavow the setting-off of this nuclear-economic "Doomsday Machine" (financial WMD), which is now causing such expanding/explosive/contagious destruction both here at home and throughout our world.
President Obama can not afford to be as flippant as Flip Wilson and simply say "The devil made me do it", but needs to repentantly, truthfully, and convincingly prove that "The Empire made the U.S. do it".
To make a convincing legal and moral argument, Obama, the Constitutional Lawyer in Chief must candidly admit that through our distraction by guileful Empire and inattention to democracy America became somewhat of a "failed-state' --- not a weak failed-state such as Sudan, Yemen, or Afghanistan, which could not prevent rag-tag bands of under-funded "non-state' terrorists like Al Qaeda from hiding and launching inferior guerilla asymmetrical war on the world, but that America became a supremely powerful (unrivaled super-power) failed-state within which the "non-state' actors were a hidden, but fabulously wealthy Global Empire, intent on using superior asymmetrical economic war on the world.
President Obama's contrition (and pledge of recovery help) for the nuclear-economic violence unleashed by this uninvited, unseen, and thus uncontrollable psychotic Global Empire on the functioning democracies and people of the world should/would be analogous to (Peter Sellers) President Muffley's apology to his Russian counter-part in "Dr. Strangelove" during the candid red-phone call after General Jack Ripper launched an unauthorized and preemptive traditional nuclear-explosive attack of B-52's ---- said that "this is not the national policy of our government, but that Gen Ripper (like the current Empire) went a little funny in the head and did a bad thing". Muffley more directly and earlier tells (George C. Scott) General of the Air Force, Bucky Turdgeson (modeled on LeMay) that Ripper's last call to SAC HQ show "it's very clear that he is psychotic" ---- just as Obama could provably say of the Global Empire secretly controlling the economic power of our country.
An effective and totally honest mea culpa from our president, shared and backed by the overwhelming majority of "democracy-thinking' Americans, and describing the capture of our government by a small but deadly and powerful cabal of elitist "empire-thinkers' from the previous dubiously selected regime, will hopefully cause the suffering people of Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and all other "democratic-thinking' people of the world --- who are currently (or soon to) suffer the spreading contagious economic "shock-wave' and violence of the nuclear-economic "Doomsday Machine", which was set-off in our land --- to accept our apologies, to be swayed by Obama's offer to help them avoid the worst effects of this unauthorized economic attack, and to perhaps treat us (and the US.) better than we treated the poor people of Afghanistan, whose failed-state was used without their knowledge or approval by the weak non-state actor of Al Qaeda to inflict pain and suffering on us.
[Note that unlike either "Dr Strangelove" or "Failsafe", President Obama would not have to offer to turn the nuclear weapons of such an unauthorized attack on his own people --- since they already are devastating his own country and people, because the nuclear-economic weapons, used by the Global Empire were simply linked together in a massive and automatic "computer controlled "Doomsday Machine' and buried in the ground of our own country" ---- exactly analogous to the psychotic insanity of the fictional "Dr. Strangelove" movie.]
2. The second major priority would certainly be for President Obama, and what remains of the United States and our honest (though pauperized) citizens, to work co-operatively with the rest of the multitude of "democracy-thinking' citizens in our small fragile world to unwind, repair, and insure that the contemptible, deceitful, arrogant, and intentional attack on the world's economic health and stability to support life would never again be endangered by the type of distorted "Empire-thinking' ruling-elite Global Empire and imperialists who had "gamed' the market-system's biggest market-flaw --- that false and ultimately existentially dangerous private profits could be conceived by devious, but immoral geniuses building "innovative' schemes for other nuclear-economic "Doomsday Machines" based on dumping "negative externality costs' on all of us.
Fortunately, there are some significant differences between the type of "nuclear-economic' weapons that the evil geniuses openly recruited to the private "secret project' on Wall Street in Manhattan built, and the types of nuclear-explosive weapons that FDR's public "secret Manhattan project' to defeat the militarist empires during the Second World War built in the desert of New Mexico.
While each type of nuclear WMD (explosive or economic) can quickly reach uncontrollable critical mass and start a chain-reaction, the economic WMD does not, like atomic-explosives kill instantly and thus there is some opportunity to put the Genie back in the bottle, and for man to learn and step back from the abyss.
In fact, there are many equally, if not more genius economic scientists, like Akerlof, Stiglitz, Krugman, Simon Johnson and many others who have the best interests of the survival of a democratically and socially constructive use of economic power. Joseph Stiglitz in "FreeFall" and Simon Johnson and James Kwak in "13 Bankers" have already, like the fictional Dr. House, precisely and correctly diagnosed the worst and most mis-guided abuses of economic theory and practice of "gaming market flaws', "dumping negative externalities' and all other devious abuses of the science that the Global Empirists used to construct their nuclear-economic "Doomsday Machine".
Together, the common message of "13 Bankers" and "FreeFall" constitute a virtual and virtuous "Twin Towers" of economic truth, which may well be as valuable to rebuilding our world, the world's people and their democracies, threatened as they have been by Empire, as were those other Twin Towers that were destroyed by a different kind of fundamentalism and imperial hubris.
Another hopeful aspect of recovering from this latest battle with "empire-thinking' and Global Empire itself, which differs from nuclear-explosives can be taken from the words of one of our past presidents, when he said after the Cuban missile crisis that "depend on the good intentions of men", and who wrestled with brewing internal Empire in our country, who had to prevent nuclear-explosive weapons from being abused by a "Secret Team' of imbalanced imperialists who seemed not to care that existential conflict brings the probability, not of winning, but of extinction.
JFK avoided the fears of those early and moral atomic weapon scientists, who as Oppenheimer expressed, were deeply and publicly concerned that they "would become death, the destroyer of man". JFK avoided the hubris and overreach of existentially dangerous use of the most deadly weapons in the hands of the most deadly would be Emperors, and he avoided the Solomon dilemma of possibly "destroying the child' or "destroying the (human) village in order to save it" --- for he knew that no human wealth or idol was worth such destruction.
In conclusion, I strongly believe, or at least hope, that there are some very hopeful parallels between JKF's exposure and confrontation with corrupting oligarchy and secret empire during an earlier militarist empire threat from within, and what our equally young and smart President Obama may be facing in his decision to expose and confront this latest, but now more visible Global corporate/financial/militarist Empire which has been driven out of its own concealed lair by its own hubris and greed. Hopefully, Obama will make the right decision.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
[My intent is to expand on this essay, as I receive judgments (and hopefully suggestions) from my CD friends. And then to make and improved and probably expanded version available to broader communities and multiple channels]
Copyright Alan MacDonald 2010
