"It is past time ... for Americans to consider why we have 
			created an empire - a word from which we shy away - and what the 
			consequences of our imperial stance may be for the rest of the world 
			and for ourselves."--Chalmers Johnson (author of the 
			book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire)
			We have been debunking the neoclassical economics doctrine to 
			understand social and economic development as rationally dependent 
			on the forces of the unregulated Free Market (or corporate 
			globalization). We have found out how this Free Market has 
			disconnected our social and economic development from needed goods 
			and services and how this Free Market has become an oligopolistic 
			cartel of the multinational corporations of the world's richest 
			countries.  
			In particular, we have described how the endemic speculation of 
			making money with money has created financial bubbles and false 
			expectation of wealth. Classical economics started with an 
			understanding of supply and demand of goods and services and how 
			prices would drive the perceived equilibrium between supply and 
			demand of goods and services.  
			Neoclassical economics took off from the understanding of 
			classical economics and put the unregulated Free Market at the 
			center of economic development along with the gospel of making money 
			with money preached by the Chicago School of Economics headed by 
			Nobel Prize winner economist Milton Friedman.  
			We must understand that an unregulated Free Market, on the 
			average, makes people with power have more power through the 
			exercise of their power. Also, we must understand that when we make 
			money with money we create a further disconnect between the needs we 
			want to satisfy and the goods and services provided by the market 
			place (this disconnect causes the economic fluctuation), and this 
			disconnect inflates the GDP number without corresponding real 
			wealth. Therefore, our neoclassical economists, conscious of this 
			disconnect between needs and goods/services, have been covering up 
			the intrinsic faults of the Free Market to become an oligopolistic 
			gambling casino with the 'irrelevant' social notion of productivity 
			along with the mantra of increasing productivity through new 
			technologies.  
			Now we understand why our neoclassical politicians are peddling 
			the Free Market, are peddling the economic measurement of the GDP 
			number, are peddling the notion of ever increasing productivity and 
			the associated false notion of better standard of living and 
			freedom, are peddling new research and new technologies, are 
			peddling more money into new technologies to weaponize our skies, 
			lands and waters. Some time ago I raised the prospect that the Free 
			Market was a conspiracy, and yes now I believe that it is a 
			conspiracy, a conspiracy which has been legalized as people have 
			been losing their individual rights and as our governments have 
			become the instruments of the few and powerful, corporations and 
			fortunate sons.  
			The Free Market (or corporate globalization) has caused the 
			concentration of power in the multinational corporations, it has 
			caused the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and therefore 
			the Free Market has diluted our democracies and it has contributed 
			to make our world more violent. I have described in my past articles 
			how the Bush administration has pushed the Free Market to become a 
			New World Order enforced by the super power of the U.S. military. 
			This super power of the U.S. military has become now the absolute 
			hyper military power throughout the world. The United States has 
			become the new 'Uber Alles.'  
			Some time ago, I expressed my intention to write on the 
			environment of secrecy, economic speculation and unilateralism of 
			the United States to show the flaws of the Bush Administration. 
			Today, I realize there is no need for me to do any research in this 
			regard as social activist Tina Staik has just published a diatribe 
			against President George W. Bush Jr. and against the neoclassical 
			radical conservatives who have been peddling the Free Market for the 
			last some 30 years.  
			The Baltimore Chronicle introduces Staik's philippic denunciation 
			as "Then, Emile Zola Wrote His J'Accuse; Now, 
			Tina Staik Asks, "Is it a coincidence...?" 
			Emile Zola was a French novelist who wrote J'Accuse, 
			an article in which he openly accused high officials, military 
			staffers and handwriting experts of meddling with the truth in the 
			1894 conviction of Captain Dreyfus for treason. Zola was sued for 
			libel, was found guilty, was trashed by the media, and mob threw 
			spit, rocks and rotten tomatoes at him. In spite of the military 
			cover up the Truth prevailed and Dreyfus was cleared in 1906. Zola 
			died on September 29, 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning, following a 
			probably criminal tampering of his chimney.  
			
			 The 
			courageous Tina Staik begins her denunciation against American 
			policies with this sentence:  
			
				"If ever there was a time to examine what is happening in 
				our country and world--step back and look at the big picture, 
				think, ask, question, reflect, even consider a conspiracy theory 
				or two--this is it." She goes on to say "It is time for 
				Americans to think what has been done to our country, its people 
				and government--in the name of oil, war and drug profiteering. 
				Then we must also think what the same forces have done to other 
				countries, nations, governments, and peoples of the world in the 
				name of the same."  
			 
			Staik's denunciation is quite long to read but her article is 
			extremely important for reflecting on the historical events of our 
			New World Order commandeered by our radical conservatives 
			(neoclassical leadership also associated with neoliberalism). I must 
			say that our future doesn't depend on our managing stress, on our 
			managing money, on our managing success, on our managing education, 
			on our managing the upbringing of our children, on our managing 
			wars, on our managing new technologies, on our managing the GDP, on 
			our managing anything else. Staik says that  
			
				"Our lives and world may depend on using our critical 
				thinking skills, and inviting leaders and citizens throughout 
				the world to do the same."  
			 
			So I conclude this story inviting you to wake up, think and read 
			at your own speed Staik's commendable article.  
			References:  
			Pertinent articles published in Ensign  
			Quotations from the book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of 
			American Empire, by Chalmers Johnson, Henry Holt, 2000 http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blowback_CJohnson/Quotations_BCJ.html
			 
			The American empire: The US has structured the world economy to 
			enrich itself. It cannot last, Robert Hunter Wade, January 5, 2002 
			The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,627921,00.html
			 
			Neoliberalism defined. Neoliberalism is a philosophy in which the 
			existence and operation of a market are valued in themselves, 
			separately from any previous relationship with the production of 
			goods and services, and without any attempt to justify them in terms 
			of their effect on the production of goods and services; and where 
			the operation of a market or market-like structure is seen as an 
			ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action, 
			and substituting for all previously existing ethical beliefs. 
			http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/neoliberalism.html  
			The Georgetown Audio-Visual Electronic Library project for the 
			Study of Emile Zola and the Dreyfus Case http://www.georgetown.edu/guieu/libproj.htm
			 
			Another Salvo for the New Year: Then, Emile Zola Wrote His "J'Accuse"; 
			Now, Tina Staik Asks, "Is it a coincidence...?" January 2, 2002 
			http://baltimorechronicle.com/coincidence_jan02.shtml  
			Additional Information and Material by Tina Staik: Act Today to 
			Restor Our Democracy, Fringefolk web site , Tina Staik's call to 
			action http://www.fringefolk.com/tstaik.html  
			Wake Up and Take Back America , essay in Fringefolk http://www.fringefolk.com/fsTS1.html
			 
			Tina Staik Essay from Journal 
			Online   |