1. The Autocratic-Militarist Yoke
Since the beginnings of civilization, humanity has been subjected to a dual yoke. This consists of an intensified warlike threat from rival peoples and authoritarian rule by an aloof upper class. The situation has tended to worsen primarily through two mechanisms. First, in the power struggles among privileged circles, ruthless, narcissistic personalities who do not care about the interests of the people have risen to the top. Noble rulers unleashed wars whenever they saw an opportunity to expand their personal domains of power. They unhesitatingly sacrificed the lives of their subjects to these goals of power.
Second, advances in weapons technology have made these wars increasingly bloody. With these two trends, which remain unbroken to this day, civilization is driving ever deeper into a historical dead end—and will continue to do so as long as it fails to get a grip on the irresponsible narcissism of the truly powerful and their opportunistic followers, and thus the wars that flourish under their influence. https://www.frieden-freiheit-fairness.com/en/blog/moneys-rule-out-control
For millennia, unfavorable personality profiles at the leadership level have also led to destructive trends in economic and social spheres. For wherever assertive circles can secure privileges and obtain a unilateral claim on the labor output of other people, free economic development, the principle of performance, and thus technological innovation fall by the wayside.
The approximately 60 million war dead of World War II served as an urgent reminder to become aware of this historical dead end and to make a resolute break from it. Indeed, the delegates at the 1945 UN founding conference proclaimed the groundbreaking resolution in the preamble of their Charter “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Yet the message lacked the urgency that this paradigm shift toward non-violent conflict resolution is not only highly desirable, but in the medium term, a prerequisite for the survival of the species.
2. The Missed Stabilization of the Democratic Principle
Much earlier, starting in 1776, the breakaway of the USA from the British motherland could and should have finally led out of the dark era of suppressed progress and human sacrifice for power interests. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, had even warned against precisely the disruptive influences that have since insidiously undermined the democratic constitutional order. These influences are the expansive power of financial institutions, the distortion of truth by newspapers, and militarism in foreign policy.
Despite these warnings, generations of American and European politicians have failed to further develop liberal democracy so that it remains resilient against the influence of autocratically ambitious individuals.; This can be understood as an ongoing historical task; for narcissists never accept a democratic social order that strips them of the privileged position to which, in their own view, they are entitled.
But as politicians ignored Jefferson's warnings out of convenience and opportunism, the state was able to step by step distance itself from its liberal ideals. Western democracies are meanwhile halfway on a roll backward into autocracy, standing by idly as undemocratic power structures emerge within their legal order. These structures include, among others, privileged financial systems, corporate oligopolies (also privileged by taxes, etc.), and an information system likewise dominated by an oligopoly—namely that of the major news agencies. https://www.sociologygroup.com/mass-media-as-a-power-institution/
Secret services and the military also represent semi-autonomous, autocratic power cells within democratic societies. In Great Britain and the USA, the evolution of the security apparatus into a state within a state has progressed particularly far, with its own military jurisdiction and extensive refusal of accountability.
3. The "Fruits" of Financial Rule
The uncontrolled rampant growth of all these power structures is proving increasingly counterproductive. As an overarching phenomenon, the de facto rule of money—constantly kept out of focus by uncritical mainstream media—has meanwhile bestowed upon us a social ambiance that rewards the propagandists of a militaristic and corporate-favoring policy with lucrative posts, while suppressing constructive forces like small business owners and the self-employed with tax burdens and regulations. Those who adapt to this course swim in the stream of opportunism; those who strive for truth and fairness are pushed aside.
The continuous ignoring of the warnings of Jefferson and other founding fathers has led our civilization into current military conflicts. https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/24/john-pilgers-2014-warning-about-ukraine/ Moreover, their enormous escalation potential is irresponsibly ignored or played down by media and politics—just as has long been the unreliability of all political and military forces that could have prevented these wars, long ago peacefully resolved them, or—in the case of the Middle East conflict—brought them to a victorious end.
Financial rule has already created such an effective narrowing of debate that no room remains for questioning the objectively clearly recognizable suicide course of civilization. When Russian propaganda is instantly imputed beyond unconditional military support for Ukraine, opinion pluralism and thus a core element of the supposedly defended democracy is being thrown overboard.
The psychological perseverance and self-reinforcement mechanisms of the system causing this resistance to insight make an absolutely peaceful, fair, and democratic, yet comprehensive reform throughout the entire West the alternative-free way out.
4. Stocktaking
The starting point is a stocktaking of the decisive historical errors and omissions. Among these, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 represented an absolute catastrophe that permanently shifted the power balance to the detriment of democratic nations and in favor of the private financial system. In principle, commercial banks have been creating money out of nothing for centuries through book entries and lending. But the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 brought a qualitative systemic leap by enabling a massive rationalization of these processes. The establishment of a central bank as a backstop (Lender of Last Resort) facilitated the creation of new money by commercial banks upon lending and minimized their risks.
State-institutionalized safeguarding thus formed a turbo-privilege for money creation by private banks. For 113 years now, the real purchasing power of Western economies has increasingly migrated to a financial elite and their legions of system profiteers. During Bill Clinton's presidency, two laws consolidated the position of the banking sector as an extra-state power center in which a few large players hold an oligopoly. The 2008 financial crisis can be traced directly back to Clinton's disastrous deregulation (including that of derivatives trading). https://journals.law.harvard.edu/hblr//wp-content/uploads/sites/87/2014/09/Derivatives-and-Credit-Crisis.pdf
A gauge for the substance-consuming effect of the unleashed financial system is the prosperity development of the working population. Since about the mid-1990s, virtually no increase in real purchasing power has taken place—despite a significant increase in labor productivity. During the same period, states, too, have become impoverished—facing mounting debt, sell-offs through privatization, and infrastructure in urgent need of repair.
5. Dangerous Tandem: MIC and Financial Industry
Defense contractors, however, have reason to cheer. This is ensured by the close cooperation between the transnational financial empire and the military-industrial complex (MIC). Already during World War I, major bank J.P. Morgan in particular had escalated the centuries-old practice of enabling countries to make arms purchases on credit to war-deciding dimensions. https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Merchants%20of%20Death_2.pdf
However, the ‘successes’ of the Western military have been in inverse proportion to the absurdly increased military expenditures and the surreal dragging out of military interventions (Vietnam and Afghanistan 20 years each with a disastrous conclusion) at least since the Vietnam War. Arms deals, conflict management, and the initiating of new interventions thus became profitable business models that continue running on autopilot regardless of the true security interests of citizens. https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/syndicated/prosperity-losing-wars-60-years-funding-military-industrial-complex-end-democracy/#:~:text
Among other things, so-called revolving-door effects ensure that the interest-driven automatism includes and coordinates all components of the system. Thus, many high-ranking officers transition into the defense industry whose revenues they pushed during their military deployments. People from the defense industry are elevated to political posts where they procure state contracts for their former employers. Even without central coordination, the system works like clockwork on the dragging out and recreation of conflicts. https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/11/latest-count-revolving-door-defense-contractors-names-names/152836/
6. The fatal polarizing programming of society
The system protects itself against rejection by citizens through their polarization into two hostile camps, left and conservatives. This also works in automatic routine mode, as media and NGOs serve two large, entirely different collections of narratives that alienate each of the political camps from rational principles and true societal dangers in its own way, making them waste their energy against each other.
The bourgeois-conservative camp was driven into a reflexive, uncritical militarism. Patriotism, according to the message, should express itself above all in unconditional support for any military intervention. While blind punch-and-crunch militarism rose to a maxim, learning from historical mistakes, adherence to principles, psychological finesse, and strategic foresight were carelessly pushed aside. By keeping the political consciousness of citizens and politicians at an underdeveloped level, the overdue purging of the security apparatus and the MIC could never reach the political agenda. Even during such drastic scandals as the Iran-Contra affair, concerted countermeasures by the media prevented political consequences. https://theintercept.com/2014/09/25/managing-nightmare-cia-media-destruction-gary-webb/
The political left traditionally tends in the opposite, pacifist direction. However, since the Vietnam War (1955-1975), this pacifism has increasingly mutated into appeasement, sometimes escalated to identification with the military opponent. This thwarts chances for peace, because peace thrives in an ambiance of mutual respect. One-sided concessions without reciprocation, on the other hand, result in disrespect and a cascade of further demands. Left-wing criticism of Western militarism is completely justified, but ignores its self-damaging side: by letting civilians in the deployment country suffer more than unavoidable, the reputation of the USA and the West is undermined, while Islamists and other enemies of freedom receive "moral" backing via media reporting.
In summary, it can be stated that conservatives and leftists are steered onto two very different, but equally damaging paths for their own democratic nations. This dual foreign policy misorientation is complemented by one in domestic policy. As a result of polarizing media influences, leftists and conservatives perceive each other as bitter opponents or even enemies, while across all party lines it is narcissistic and irresponsible façade democrats who stand in the way of a future in peace, freedom, and authentic constitutionalism.
7. The Israeli Dilemma: From Military Strength to the Dahiya Trap
The geopolitical consequences of this maldevelopment are particularly drastic in the Middle East. Following historical victories in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, Israel has run into the strategic trap of its opponents with the assistance of system profiteers in its own ranks. With the so-called Dahiya Doctrine since 2008, the Jewish state is seduced into a clumsy militarism that copies the deterrent example of counterproductive American military interventions like in Iraq in an even more exaggerated form.
This anti-strategy relies on the blanket destruction of civilian buildings and infrastructure for supposed deterrence. Yet devastated residential neighborhoods neither break the will of terror structures like Hamas, nor weaken their backing among the population. On the contrary, a rally-around-the-flag effect occurs, driving impoverished and desperate civilians straight into the arms of their extremist leaders. At the same time, the Dahiya strategy provides the global media machinery with the perfect imagery to brand Israel as an aggressor and drive Judaism worldwide into dangerous isolation.
8. Systemic Self-Deception and Awakening
The entire system is kept running by millions of decentralized actors. Beyond lobbyists, these include career-makers in all areas, inter alia in NGOs and in the executive suites of major corporations. The latter are increasingly under pressure to make huge donations to NGOs (with the 'right' political profile). The system offers further lucrative career opportunities in the media sector, the military, politics, associations, and education. In this overall socially harmful game, all participants act without an overarching master plan, following solely their career interests. The political stage remains open to them as long as they respect the narrowing of discourse enforced by "political correctness".
The objectively socially unjust, responsibility-destroying and dangerously polarizing system was artificially "protected" from reform efforts for far too long in the ambience of an oligopolistic media landscape structured by the few large news agencies, by reflexively suppressing and stigmatizing any fundamental criticism.