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Tuesday, April 19, 2022

The Business Model of Empire

 

If you've been following the news about Ukraine but still don't understand that it's the single most aggressively narrative managed and psyop-intensive war in human history, there is a 100 percent chance you believe false things about what's happening there.         --Caitlin Johnstone

The Business Model of Empire

by C.A. Matthews

The United States of America is an empire. It has imperialistic intentions. It seeks out resources, lands, and peoples to further its own purposes. You don't have to agree with its intentions to agree with the fact that it displays all the characteristics of an empire.

In order to build an empire, you must have a business plan of sorts. In my opinion, the US has a pretty simple business model when it comes to empire building. I call it "The Three Cs" or "Capitalism, Conflict, and Competition."

Capitalism is the "religion" or the belief system of US Empire. Capitalists are the billionaires (soon becoming trillionaires) who essentially own a controlling share of everything--and I mean everything.  They own politicians, who are essentially their paid-off servants who do everything to keep capitalists and fellow politicians from ever going to jail for the crimes they regularly commit. 

Capitalists own our mainstream media outlets--television, radio, cable and newspapers/periodicals--as well as our social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. They own our communication devices such as internet connections and cell towers. They own almost every morsel Americans put into their mouths through their massive agribusinesss, food processing plants and franchised restaurants. They own our military and profit well on the constant purchasing of armaments and related instruments of destruction.

Conflict is the means in which capitalism continues to exist. Capitalism needs endless resources--minerals, oil, foodstuffs, technology, plastic dollar store gadgets, etc. Capitalism demands profits, so paying too much for resources or the land or the people to produce these products they sell isn't seen as a good thing. And why pay for resources, lands, or workers at all when you can simply take them through Conflict? 

So, Conflicts--or the more accurately named "military actions," "interventions," "proxy wars," or simply "coups d'etat"--are started in order to feed the hungry monster that is Capitalism. The Capitalists aren't particularly bothered about the innocent lives forfeited in their grabs for resources. The natives are seen as so much "collateral damage."  That's what the capitalists' politician-puppets are for--to make a big noise to distract from all the needless deaths. Politicians pontificate and say things like, "The US has invaded such-and-such country in order to defend democracy," or "We are fighting to save the locals against Communism/Socialism/Any-ism that doesn't care much for Capitalism and building up the US Empire."

And, frankly, why would any country in the middle of a proxy war to cover for the US Empire's interests care about the growth of the US Empire or the success of Capitalism? The people there are seen by the US/Western powers as wage slaves or cannon fodder at best. Even George Orwell couldn't have foreseen the blatant disregard for human life.

Competition is a word that covers all sorts of manipulations that keep the world's populace off balance so that the US Empire/Capitalism can continue to grow. While conflict is necessary for the US Empire to make those land or resource grabs, how do you get the human element to cooperate with your plans? This is where competition comes into play. You seed competition among peoples by causing artificial scarcity of food and other necessary items such as medicines/vaccines worldwide. You seed competition by playing "The Race Card" and creating artificial divisions among human beings based on race, religion, gender identity, etc. at home.

Once the US Empire has seeded enough division among its own people (as well as other peoples) then it becomes fairly easy to swoop in and pick up the pieces from among the warring factions. Competition creates mini-conflicts that fuel the bigger Conflict needed for the success of Capitalism and so the billionaires can cash in and pocket all the profits they can possibly glean from a situation.

But what can one do with all the money taken in a world that has fallen apart through war (possibly nuclear war) and climate catastrophe? The US Empire builds a "Space Force" to protect the billionaires currently competing to get their spaceships into space. Once the Capitalists have traveled to other worlds they'll restart The Three Cs once more.

What a glorious future, huh?

If you still can't connect the dots between US Empire building and the current proxy war in Ukraine, don't be too hard on yourself. After all, the Capitalists who own all the mainstream media news outlets and social platforms are doing their best through the fourth "silent C" of Empire Building--Censorship. Censorship and "Cancellation Culture" keeps the public ill-informed. 

That's the way the US Empire Builders want it. It adds a fifth "C" to the equation of "Confusion" that keeps groups of people in Conflict, allowing for Competition that negates and persecutes truth-tellers such as Julian Assange and Chris Hedges. Networks and independent journalists that report on all sides of the story in Ukraine are being shut down by the Capitalists and ridiculed by their politician and media pundit-puppets, so it's difficult to learn what's really happening.

And Capitalism flourishes as the profits from the proxy war grow amid confusion and censorship. There were $800 million in arms sales to Ukraine last week alone. Raytheon and Lockheed Martin stock is soaring on Wall Street. Happy days are here again! (At least for those who own and control armament stocks.)

In order for you to see Clearly (a "C" that isn't in the Empire building business model) check out last week's blog piece on Critical Thinking Skills. That's the lucky seventh "C" for the people--Criticism or keeping a critical eye open. There's only one way for us to Continue life on this earth. We must Continually Critique Capitalism and US Empire Building or else it will kill everyone and everything in its insane quest for profits above all else.

To quote Redd Phlagg: "Remain skeptical. Read widely." And always be aware that you  and your happiness aren't a part of the US Empire's Business Model. It doesn't deserve your allegiance. It only deserves your disdain.


Some others' thoughts on the subject:

Analysts say the defense industry has spent billions of dollars lobbying Congress while quietly making much more in profit by manufacturing weapons that fuel deadly conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen and across the world under federal arms sales agreements that have little effective congressional oversight. 

There is a dangerous “feedback loop” between major weapons manufacturers in the United States that make billions in profits from arms sales, the countries that arm themselves with these weapons, and the U.S. government, which uses arms sales as “tools” to gain economic and diplomatic leverage, according to Dan Auble, a researcher at money-in-politics tracker OpenSecrets. 

“Unfortunately, it’s ultimately the human beings on the ground who suffer as a result of the prolonged wars that are fed from these arms sales abroad,” Auble told reporters on Thursday. Mike Ludwig, Ukraine and Yemen Wars Highlight US Role As Biggest Arms Dealer in the World

Capitalist enterprises seek, find, and develop foreign sources of food, raw materials, workers, and markets. As competition becomes global, competing capitalist enterprises seek help from their nations’ governments to expand. Politicians quickly learn that companies in their nations that lose in global competition will blame those politicians for insufficient support. Meanwhile, companies that win in the global competition will reward such politicians for their help. The social result of this is that capitalism entails national competition alongside enterprise competition. Wars often punctuate capitalism’s national competition. The winners in those competitions thereby often tended to build empires, historically. Richard Wolff, The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine 

But what was “unprecedented” just six weeks ago has now become commonplace, even normalized. Any platform devoted to offering inconvenient-to-NATO news or alternative perspectives is guaranteed a very short lifespan. Less than two weeks after the EU's decree, Google announced that it was voluntarily banning all Russian-affiliated media worldwide, meaning Americans and all other non-Europeans were now blocked from viewing those channels on YouTube if they wished to. As so often happens with Big Tech censorship, much of the pressure on Google to more aggressively censor content about the war in Ukraine came from its own workforce: “Workers across Google had been urging YouTube to take additional punitive measures against Russian channels.”

So prolific and fast-moving is this censorship regime that it is virtually impossible to count how many platforms, agencies and individuals have been banished for the crime of expressing views deemed "pro-Russian.” On Tuesday, Twitter, with no explanation as usual, suddenly banned one of the most informative, reliable and careful dissident accounts, named “Russians With Attitude.” Created in late 2020 by two English-speaking Russians, the account exploded in popularity since the start of the war, from roughly 20,000 followers before the invasion to more than 125,000 followers at the time Twitter banned it. An accompanying podcast with the same name also exploded in popularity and, at least as of now, can still be heard on Patreon. -- Glenn Greenwald, Western Dissent from US/NATO Policy is Small, Yet the Censorship Campaign is Extreme 

Bridget Moix, general secretary of the Quaker organization Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), on Tuesday detailed various nonviolent steps the Biden administration and Congress "can take to help end the war in Ukraine and promote long-term peace." 

"While it may feel as though more weapons and punishing sanctions are the only options in Ukraine, in fact, U.S. leaders have many nonviolent policy options available to help save lives and advance peace," she wrote. 

"They need to understand that using diplomacy, working through multilateral institutions, supporting local peacebuilders, providing humanitarian aid, and protecting refugees are not 'weak' responses," Moix argued. "These are our best tools for bringing about a durable solution to the crisis."  Biden Answers Zelenskyy's Plea to Arm Ukraine with $800 Million in Weapons

Related articles:

The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine  https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/14/the-role-of-capitalism-in-the-war-in-ukraine/ 

Ukraine and Yemen Wars Highlight US Role As Biggest Arms Dealer in the World https://truthout.org/articles/ukraine-and-yemen-wars-highlight-uss-role-as-biggest-arms-dealer-in-the-world/

The New Gold Rush: How Pentagon Contractors Are Cashing in on the Ukraine Crisis   https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/18/the-new-gold-rush-how-pentagon-contractors-are-cashing-in-on-the-ukraine-crisis/ 

US-Backed Coup in Pakistan Overthrows PM Imran Khan https://popularresistance.org/us-backed-coup-in-pakistan-overthrows-pm-imran-khan-over-his-independent-foreign-policy/ 

The Venezuelan Coup, 20 Years Later https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/15/the-venezuelan-coup-20-years-later/  

How the US Does "Diplomacy" https://popularresistance.org/how-the-u-s-does-diplomacy/

Western Dissent from US/NATO Policy is Small, Yet the Censorship Campaign is Extreme  https://greenwald.substack.com/p/western-dissent-from-usnato-policy 

American Militarism, a  Persistent Malady https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/14/american-militarism-a-persistent-malady/

The Reasons For and Dangers Behind the War in Ukraine https://popularresistance.org/the-reasons-for-and-dangers-behind-the-war-in-ukraine/ 

Biden Answer Zelenskyy's Plea to Arm Ukraine Now With 800 Million in Weapons https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/14/biden-answers-zelenskyys-plea-to-arm-ukraine-now-with-800-million-in-weapons/

A Love Letter to All Draft Dodgers  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/a-love-letter-to-all-draft-dodgers?s=r 

How Much Are We Prepared to Sacrifice https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/how-much-are-we-prepared-to-sacrifice

Seen on Twitter:


 A very good thread (series) of tweets:

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