I am reading a lot of Noam Chomsky these days, after reading a lot of Bertrand Russell, and there is no way to escape the fact that the United States has become more and more of a rogue state, at least throughout my own lifetime, but if we look back at the genocide of the Native Americans, followed by the heavy reliance upon slave labor, it is hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t an embarrassment to be an American. When I traveled internationally during the post-Vietnam war years, I had to pretend I was Canadian to be socially accepted anywhere.
These days, when there are riots over the pulling down of statues of Robert E. Lee and other figures of the Civil War, it is well to remember, as some commentators have mentioned, that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were not only slave owners, but, by all accounts, stern if not cruel masters, and clearly racist. One apologist says that, yes, they were slave owners and racist, but they founded this great country. Excuse me – which “great country” are we talking about? Genocide and slavery have been followed by an almost constant parade of wars in perpetuation, not of “Democracy” (Heaven forbid) but of Free Market Capitalism. An international poll has found that the perception is nearly universal that the United States is the greatest threat to world peace – by far – followed by Pakistan, at a distant second place. A ranking of countries on the basis of social justice placed the United States in twenty-seventh place out of thirty-one, right above Greece, Chile, Mexico, and Turkey.
If anyone is interested in further histories of how the United States has deliberately subverted democratically elected governments in order to install puppet dictators “friendly to American business interests,” there are plenty of sources for that information.
Well, let us all spend a few minutes wringing our hands in grief, but then let us consider what is to be done about the elephant in the room. (I was going to say, “what is to be done about the clown in the room,” but the problem goes way beyond Donald Trump.)
Many people have already figured it out, notably Osama bin Laden, and the leadership of China. What they have figured out is that military strength is no longer an accurate measure of ultimate power. Power, these days, is measured in money. In other articles, I think I have discussed the idea of “money” as a universal abstraction which can be used to understand, explain, and treat social, political, or environmental problems. So here, for instance, we have the United States as a rogue state rampaging around the world as a gang of outlaw cowboys, led by “Donnie the Kid.” But the United States is also a financial corporation, and the key to the problem is that the United States is ultimately insolvent.
So the way to stop Uncle Sam in his tracks is to call in the loans. Simply decline to renew the Notes when they come due, and stop accepting Uncle Sam’s funny paper. If investors refuse to extend any more credit to the United States corporation, then rates will sky-rocket until someone is willing to invest in the failing state. (Cash out your dollars too, by the way.) And those who do try to profit by investing in “the full faith and credit of the United States government,” will most likely lose their money, unless they get out before the final crash.
That’s right – How about a Run on Uncle Sam? The truth is that Uncle Sam is hopelessly insolvent and can’t possibly withstand such a run. Carlo Ponzi survived for a surprisingly long time when there was a run on his bank, but since his bank was fundamentally way beyond unsound (very much like the U.S. government), his “bank” collapsed in the end.
Now what? What does the Post-Apocalyptic world look like, and where do we go from here? Well, I have spelled it all out in my article A One-World Total Makeover. One hint is to buy land. Don’t be caught holding money when the music stops.
The Soviet Union was able to collapse without descending into the chaos of nuclear war; let us hope that the leaders of the bankrupt USA will have the grace to do the same, allowing the people of the earth to evolve a new political and economic structure to carry the world along, as this new millennium unfolds into the future.
