Perhaps because of the entanglements and interdependency fostered by globalization, governments, right, left and center, don't seem able to solve their economic crises or governance responsibilities. You see it everywhere as political schisms, irrespective of ideology, degenerate into canyons of disbelief and invective. Both socialist and capitalist governments are broken by endless dickering with patching efforts underway that seem to only lead to more crises, not the end of crisis.
Two recent developments point to issues that almost every country faces, including my own, where stalemate and polarization are the order of the day, or should I say, the disorder of the day?
Consider China:
The NY Times reports fear and loathing as debates emerge, first in private and then in public " "the private gatherings are a telling indicator of how even some in the elite are worried about the course the Communist Party is charting for China's future. And to advocates of political change, they offer hope that influential party members support the idea that tomorrow's China should give citizens more power to choose their leaders and seek redress for grievances, two longtime complaints about the current system."
Now, turn to, Israel, where for all its talk of a united people, disunity reigns:
"JERUSALEM -- The broadest unity coalition Israel has seen in many years broke apart Tuesday evening, rent by irreconcilable differences over how to integrate ultra-Orthodox men and Arab citizens into the military and civilian service, a fundamental question for the future of the Jewish democracy.
After stunning the political establishment with a secret, late-night deal in May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz , the leader of the centrist Kadima Party, failed to achieve their top priority and agreed to part ways."
In Hollywood, this is known as "irreconcilable differences"
One reason may be that the
people who often appear to be in charge are, in fact, not. Elected officials
are, in many cases, in office but not in power. They have ceded power to
military interests such as Israel's "War Cabinet" or America's Pentagon or the
lobbyists for economic power structures in Wall Street, the City in London or
parallel financial centers in every country. Central banks and International agencies like The IMF seem
to be governing by default.
Misgoverning may be a better word for it, according to top former IMF economist who just resigned and slammed the Fund for incompetence
The Guardian reports, "In a resignation letter to the IMF's board and senior staff, dated June 18, Peter Doyle said the IMF's failures in issuing timely warnings for both the 2007-2009 global financial crisis and the euro zone crisis were a "failing in the first order" and "are, if anything, becoming more deeply entrenched."
Everyone knows that Iran's Supreme Ruler is the ultimate power broker there but unknown, even invisible, "supreme" forces run other countries but hide their existence. In the US, the unelected "Supreme Court" majority more or less has a right-wing agenda. They selected George Bush as the country's President in 2000 and then imposed through the Citizens United decision a way that corporations and the wealthy can use their money to dominate our politics. These "Supremes" don't just review laws; they make them.
There are conflicts and structural weaknesses within nations and between nations that undermine a social stability also insuring that the Center cannot hold. Top-down consensus-based liberalism of the technocratic variety has become more volatile. Third World analysts like Samin Amin have been arguing the Center is hot holding, writing, "The world economy (of historical capitalism) moves from disequilibrium to disequilibrium through changes in the balance of power between classes and nations."
Deep internal conflicts have destabilized the system even as new forces and protest movements emerge to challenge it.
MIT's Noam Chomsky also
warns explicitly that the Center cannot hold, but focuses on the victims of its
collapse.
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