George Graham

“Masters of the Universe” are on the Attack

Call me a conspiracy nut but I see a vast global conflict raging. Granted, I have read or heard nothing in the media describing current events in those words. But I smell a rat. And here’s why.

Suddenly, one developed country after another is in “crisis” – not just the United States and Britain but also European countries like Greece, Italy and now Spain.

And the cure?

“Austerity.”

In other words, shredding the social safety nets painstakingly woven together piece by piece over my lifetime.

When I was born, President Franklin Roosevelt was in the White House, Europe was heading for World War II and the Marxist revolution  had turned ugly in Russia.

As I recall,  throughout the western world, there was a ruling class and “the masses.” The “middle class” was the lower segment of the ruling class, the clerks and bureaucrats who implemented the elite’s policies and the merchants who served them.

We weren’t that far from the society Charles Dickens depicted and George Bernard Shaw lampooned. If you were one of the lucky few, you lived well, really well. But if you were so unlucky as to be born into a lower-class home, you were subject not just to lifelong poverty, but – worse – to any injustices or indignities your superiors chose to heap upon you.

In the decades since FDR, the “developed world” has changed.

It would take a book – and a fat one at that – to describe the change… But I would ascribe it to ideas that many Americans call “socialist.”  Throughout the United States,  Britain and Europe, the academic and journalistic climate became receptive to trade unions, government intervention in the economy, Keynesian economics and so on.

Perhaps even more influential, Hollywood turned out movies that rooted for the underdog and railed against bullies. Newspapers and magazines glorified the virtues of the ordinary Joe.  It was the era of the “liberal press.”

In earlier blogs, I described the right-wing propaganda crusade that followed the Vietnam protests. A cadre of enormously wealthy and powerful individuals set to work to change public opinion. They relentlessly captured America’s sources of information, buying up the media and the entertainment industry, funding think tanks and establishing “conservative” academic departments.

They also bought up the politicians.

I have no idea whether this crusade included other countries, but I suspect it did.

I suspect that a global propaganda campaign has been under way for at least the past half century as the “masters of the universe” (as they call themselves) sought to counteract the “liberal” ideas that followed World War II.

Now, the crusade is bearing fruit. Public opinion has changed to the point where they feel able to beat back “liberal” policies around the world.

Now, the global elite are ready to reclaim their omnipotence. And to do that, they are destroying the middle class in the developed countries – which they no longer need. (With globalism,  China, India and many other once poor countries have developed to the point where corporations are no longer dependent on the developed nations for customers.)

The consequences of implementing this austerity doctrine would be disastrous, according to the United Nations economic think tank UNCTAD. But not to the masters of the universe. They are planning to build a golden empire on the ruins of the existing world order.

The “masses” might not be aware of the global crusade, but they know something nasty is going on. That’s why they are taking to the streets. That’s why they are being clubbed and pepper sprayed and arrested.

That’s why we have to support them.

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com