The Axis Of Ignorance

Hypocrisy and double standards are the most obvious traits of our global political class and the large chunk of the liberal mainstream media. Many other shocking truths have spilled out in 2016 – perhaps the most important year in the political history of 21st century, since 2001, says Devdan Chaudhuri.

“The naked passion of self-love of Nations, in its
Drunken delirium of greed,
Is dancing to the clash of steel and the howling verses
Of vengeance.’
 
Rabindranath Tagore, The Sunset of the Century, 1899.

 

 

The Rebellion Against The Axis Of Ignorance
In our 21st century world, nothing much seemed to have evolved from the time, when Tagore – with his pro-humanity and anti-nationalism worldview – penned the verse. In our world of today, when the Governments of the most powerful nations on Earth justify actions in favour of ‘freedom’ and ‘national interest’ – those words no longer mean freedom and interests of the citizens – but they mean the freedom to pursue vested interests which favour a select group of shadowy billionaire elites basking in dreams of either, or all, of the three: dominance, profits and imperialism.

The spokespersons of the so-called ‘democratic’ governments – the Presidents and the Prime Ministers – mask the dark ulterior motives with dignified and graceful ‘light filled’ words of some higher purpose, which are broadcasted to the world. In reality, they however operate as marionettes of invisible masters who have invested in them to carry forward odious geopolitical and profiteering goals, which are overtly and covertly pursued with the moral standards of the most notorious criminals in the history of our planet.

In our world, the State is not only a political entity, but the head of a giant squid whose tentacles are media, intelligence agencies, PR firms, surveillance contractors, social media bots and paid supporters, corporate interests, merchant banks and even ‘humanitarian’ NGOs who further the causes of the vested interests under the camouflage of the pious.

Citizens get to hear what they should be hearing due to the submission and the compliance of the large section of the mainstream media that has become the paid Public Relations Unit whose prime task is to repeatedly hammer the narratives and the worldview of the establishments. But the work of a major chunk of the mainstream ‘journalists’ – who have relinquished all the ideals of journalism and have become corrupted shills and hacks – are now being done by the alternative media, independent journalists, inter-disciplinary analysts, the Anonymous hackers, the whistle-blowers, the social media activists and specialised online publications such as WikiLeaks. The neologism ‘agnotology’ was coined by Robert N. Proctor, a Stanford University professor. It’s name is derived from Neoclassical Greek word agnosis – meaning ‘not knowing’.  Agnotology is the study of culturally induced ignorance – through publications and media – designed to deliberately mislead with inaccurate facts and analysis. This creates a society of the shallow and the ignorant – that is exploited by the establishment to further its interests. In our world, the State is not only a political entity, but the head of a giant squid whose tentacles are media, intelligence agencies, PR firms, surveillance contractors, social media bots and paid supporters, corporate interests, merchant banks and even ‘humanitarian’ NGOs who further the causes of the vested interests under the camouflage of the pious.

But in the age of the Internet, the ‘mainstream media brainwashing’ only works for those who gather news and analysis from the discredited and biased publications and TV channels. Most of the intelligent and the concerned global citizens have widened their sources of information and analysis, in order to circumvent the PR driven mainstream narratives which function as the prime enemies of truth – the freedom to question, the freedom to investigate, the freedom to know and the freedom to say. Hence, we come to know of truths, see the actual faces behind the masks and come to understand our world.

A deliberate propaganda attack has recently been unleashed on the alternative media sites in the guise of ‘fake news’ that is allegedly creating ‘fact resistant humans.’ The establishment is no longer able to keep all the citizens ‘unaware and compliant’.

But it is getting harder as well – the establishments are striking back against all the non-mainstream sites, the whistle-blowers, the activists and the independent journalists. Extreme surveillance of an Orwellian world is already upon us. A deliberate propaganda attack has recently been unleashed on the alternative media sites in the guise of ‘fake news’ that is allegedly creating ‘fact resistant humans.’ The establishment is no longer able to keep all the citizens ‘unaware and compliant’. Even the Internet algorithms are being manipulated to arrest the reach of the alternative media sites and curtail discourse.

The FB page of one alternative news site ‘Mint Press News’ reported on 1 Dec 2016: ‘One of our posts today reached less than 1000 of our 272000+ Facebook followers.’ Many similar other reports are coming as well: search engines are burying important stories and social media sites are unfairly manipulating their algorithms. It’s a virtual war going on between the agents of ignorance and the agents of truth. If one has to rebel against the establishment, one has to rebel against the axis of ignorance. Nowadays, there has been a splintering of the media into three essential tribes – the right wing media, the liberal centrist mainstream and the alternative media that is dominated by the liberal left progressives or the democratic socialists.

With the splintering of the media into three groups with their own mindsets, biases and worldviews, the citizens have also got highly polarised. The battles of the mindsets, which take place every day on the social media, is an extension of this polarisation. Within this atmosphere of splintered perspectives, it has become the prime duty of a global citizen: to keep oneself well informed of the actual facts and to stop being ‘gas lighted’ – manipulated by psychological means into doubting one’s own sanity. Being a ‘conspiracy theorist’ is not a pejorative to denote a lunatic – the establishment labels everyone who poses uncomfortable questions as ‘conspiracy theorists’ to discredit all those who seek truth, beyond the rhetoric.

In this atmosphere of manipulation, ‘conspiracy theorist’ means a free independent critical thinker, who can pluck out the facts by sifting through the ocean of mainstream narratives, alternative media and Internet junk. ‘Conspiracy theorist’ means one who doesn’t wish to fall victim to demagoguery and agnotology.

But in reality, it means a person who doesn’t blindly swallow and digest the establishment narratives, because one knows: what the establishments say, and what they actually do and why they do it, are completely different. Ideas are marketed and sold to the citizens via the relentless propaganda machine, while the actual motives and the manner they are pursued are contrary to the humane values and the noble purposes, which are espoused. In this atmosphere of manipulation, ‘conspiracy theorist’ means a free independent critical thinker, who can pluck out the facts by sifting through the ocean of mainstream narratives, alternative media and Internet junk. ‘Conspiracy theorist’ means one who doesn’t wish to fall victim to demagoguery and agnotology.

‘Conspiracy theorist’ means to go against the monoculture of one dominant worldview and venture beyond one’s own echo chamber to seek diverse voices and perspectives. ‘Conspiracy theorist’ ultimately means being a rebel, against the axis of ignorance.

 

The Need To Break The Shock And Awe of Moral Comatose

 On 28 November 2016, in a statement to coincide with the release of diplomatic cables, known as ‘Carter Cables III’, Julian Assange said, ‘If any year could be said to be the “year zero” of our modern era, 1979, it is.’ Assange pointed out that a decision by the CIA, together with Saudi Arabia, to plough billions of dollars into arming the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan to tackle the Soviet Union, had led to the creation of the terror group Al-Qaeda. Speaking about how 1979 began to shape the current global events and scenario, Assange said, ‘The uprising at Mecca permanently shifted Saudi Arabia towards Wahhabism, leading to the transnational spread of Islamic fundamentalism and the US-Saudi destabilisation of Afghanistan.’ I may also point out that the ‘Mujahideen’ idea was adopted by Pakistan and the ‘freedom fighters / terrorists’ infiltrated Kashmir in 1990, and terrorism began to be actively used as a state policy by Pakistan.  Assange has correctly pointed out the 1979 origin of what has come to be known as ‘Islamic Terrorism’ that has also largely shaped the political history of the 21st century that began with 9/11.

We will have to recall the cascading effects since 9/11 that is still unfolding in our world: 9/11 attacks. To sum up they are as follows – War on Terrorism officially declared by the USA; bombings in Afghanistan and mountainous regions of Pakistan; the disastrous invasion of Iraq under the blatant lie of the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’; extremism-free Iraq destabilised – millions are affected,  killed and dispossessed; rise of ‘Islamic’ extremism in parts of the world with goals of retribution against the perpetrators of the Iraq war; end of the Bush era; arrival of Barrack Obama as an anti-war candidate; election of Obama as the 44th President of the USA and the total disconnect and contradiction between the spoken words and the actual actions of President Obama: first US President to be at war for the full two terms; highest weapons sale under any US President in history; maximum number of immigrants deported by any US President; creation of a surveillance and militarised police state that has persecuted more journalists and whistle-blowers than any US President; enhancement of US military bases around the world to over 800; the Nobel Peace Prize Winning ‘Drone-strike’ perpetrator under whom the US enhanced, modernised and increased its nuclear arsenal; starting of new disastrous wars in Libya and Syria – where Libya has got ruined and has collapsed from a leading socialist economy of Africa to a wasteland ruled by factions of terrorists and militiamen; continued bonhomie with the Wahhabi – ultra-orthodox puritanical ideology – supporting Saudi Arabia; killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan; simultaneous US military interventions in seven Muslim countries – Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan; unprecedented migration caused by the wars in the Middle East, especially in Syria; continued funding of billions of dollars to Israel; rise of anti-immigrant sentiments in Europe and America due to the influx of refugees that largely led to the Brexit; rise of xenophobia, Islamophobia and right wing populism around the globe along with the simultaneous failures of liberal centrists governments practising pro-Corporatism Neoliberal Capitalism that led to the 2008 Financial Crash, unfettered globalism and growing inequalities which resulted in anti-establishmentarian and anti-mainstream media sentiments; sudden rise of rebranded ISIS in 2014 when the US and the NATO wanted yet another regime change in Syria; quick control of Syrian and Iraqi oil fields by ISIS who starts to trade the stolen oil with western companies via Turkey, and as revealed by Wikileaks on 4 December 2016, with the direct involvement of Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak whose company  processed the ISIS oil; Obama’s deal with sanction hit Iran and the consolidation of Iran’s power in the Middle East with the support of Russia; growing popularity of the progressive left – especially amongst the youth – led by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn in US and UK; sabotage of Bernie Sanders by the DNC establishment in favour of the scandal ridden establishment queen Hillary Clinton; unexpected rise of loose cannon Donald Trump who took upon himself the ‘anti-establishment’ outsider candidate space vacated by Sanders; intervention in Syria by Russia that turned the tide in the Middle East; ISIS slowly getting defeated in the strongholds of Aleppo and Mosul in 2016; the role of WikiLeaks in influencing the US elections 2016; and finally, the disturbing  legacy of Obama – totally opposite to his likeable public persona – tainted by the defeat of Hillary Clinton and the victory of Donald Trump – who painted Obama and Clinton as the founders of ISIS – as the 45th President of USA.

 

There have been doubts raised about the cause of the collapse of the Twin towers and the building 7. European scientists have released a paper saying the two towers couldn’t possibly have collapsed due to the strikes by the planes. A contingent of architects, engineers, fire fighters, experts and the public have long reported that controlled explosives brought down the three buildings. Evidence of suspicious trading in stocks related to the airlines, which were involved in the 9/11, prior to 9/11, has been discovered. And various’ conspiracies theories’ have been proposed that involve the Bush administration, Saudi Arabia and Israel – the evidence presented certainly demands a thorough reinvestigation.

Even US President Elect Donald Trump had promised in his pre-election manifesto to reopen the investigation of the 9/11 events. On November 10, Trump included the reopening of the 9/11 investigations as part of his plans for his first 100 days in office. Trump said, ‘First of all, the original 9/11 investigation is a total mess and has to be re-opened.’ But it has to be seen whether Trump finally does it, or the deep state players and the members of the establishment strike a deal with him.

Many have started to question the ‘official’ 9/11 narrative – including Morgan Reynolds, Former Chief Economist in the Bush administration, who called the official 9/11 story as ‘bogus’. It has also been revealed in 2016 that the 28 missing/redacted pages from the official 9/11 report spoke of direct involvement of the Government of Saudi Arabia with the Saudi terrorists who were responsible for the hijacking and the attack. Even US President Elect Donald Trump had promised in his pre-election manifesto to reopen the investigation of the 9/11 events. On November 10, Trump included the reopening of the 9/11 investigations as part of his plans for his first 100 days in office. Trump said, ‘First of all, the original 9/11 investigation is a total mess and has to be re-opened.’ But it has to be seen whether Trump finally does it, or the deep state players and the members of the establishment strike a deal with him. It is looking very unlikely – going by the choices he is making in choosing his cabinet – that he will fulfil the anti-establishmentarian pre-election promise of #DrainTheSwamp.

Then in 2016, there was a moral surge in the UK. The Chilcot Report was published that even documented that Prime Minister Tony Blair was haggling with Bush about the share of the Iraqi oil on behalf of British Petroleum, four months prior to the Iraq invasion. Jeremy Corbyn as the new Labour leader in a moving speech apologised to the Iraqi citizens, the families of the deceased UK soldiers and the British citizens, for the disastrous Iraq war. Corbyn, most likely to be the next UK Prime Minister, has even called Tony Blair – a war criminal.

War on Terrorism proved to be a convenient alibi for oil and war profiteering.

War on Terrorism proved to be a convenient alibi for oil and war profiteering. The military-industrial-media-intelligence-surveillance complex and the merchant banks – is known as the ‘deep state’ that totally controls the American Foreign and Economic Policies. It doesn’t matter who the President is – the shadowy oligarchy of billionaires will call the shots.

President Theodore Roosevelt had pointed out the nexus between the banks, corporations and the media that he described – as reported in The New York Times on 27th March 1922 – ‘the powerful corrupt cliques who compose the invisible government’. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had warned about the increasing power of the military-industrial complex in his farewell address when he ended his term in 1961.

But the power of the cliques and the military-industrial complex has only grown in the American Establishment; it has now become the military-industrial-banking-media-intelligence-surveillance complex. This shadow of un-elected power largely controls the elected politicians and the political parties. This makes democracy an illusion of choice – the citizens have no say in the actual policies of the establishment – predetermined agendas of powerful vested interests hide behind the fair and noble public rhetoric of freedom, equality, democracy and justice.

An article by Jordan Michael Smith was published in Boston Globe in 2014 – Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change.

The article pointed out that Obama’s Foreign Policy is indistinguishable to the policy of Bush. The article quoted Tufts University political scientist Michael J. Glennon who spoke of a ‘double government’ that is independent of Presidential influence. In another article published in Salon in 2016: “We are the death merchant of the world”: Ex-Bush official Lawrence Wilkerson condemns military-industrial complex; Wilkerson said that the military-industrial complex ‘is much more pernicious than Eisenhower ever thought it would be.’

Wars are good business for all of them; never mind the doubling of US debt to nearly 20 trillion dollars under the 8 years of President Obama! The burden is on the beleaguered working class and the indebted middle class from whom more money will have to be sucked out to pay the mountain of debt.

So the American establishment influenced by the ‘double government’ needs enemies to keep up the wars for profit for a select few – the elites behind the private Federal Reserve owned by merchant banks, the private companies behind NSA, the oil companies and the corporations involved in military supplies and arms. Wars are good business for all of them; never mind the doubling of US debt to nearly 20 trillion dollars under the 8 years of President Obama! The burden is on the beleaguered working class and the indebted middle class from whom more money will have to be sucked out to pay the mountain of debt. Hence, the American Foreign Policy under Obama was just a continuation of the Washington based ‘The Project for the New American Century’ neoconservative think tank policy that was boosted under the Bush administration.

It is no longer a secret. The world now knows about the involvement of the USA and Saudi Arabia in the creation of Al-Qaeda, and later, the Salafi Wahhabism of ISIS that comprises mostly of hired mercenaries and militia men. Various other evidences have been published in the alternate media about the direct links between the intelligence agencies of USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel and their allies with ISIS. WikiLeaks also revealed, even Hillary Clinton knew of the direct role of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in funding of ISIS; but that didn’t stop her from continuing the bonhomie and arms trade with the Saudi Regime and even accept over 20 million dollars from the most misogynist Saudi regime in The Clinton Foundation to fight the US elections.

Pentagon had paid a UK based PR firm half a billion dollars to make fake ‘terrorist’ videos which were used to recruit terrorists and show false flag violence to sway public mood in favour of the regime change operations and wars. Even false videos of the suffering Middle East citizens – pleading for military intervention – were used extensively to drum up support before the Iraq war and the Syrian proxy-war.

Hypocrisy and double-standards are the most obvious traits of our global political class and the large chunk of the liberal mainstream media. Many other shocking truths have spilled out in 2016 – perhaps the most important year in the political history of 21st century, since 2001. Pentagon had paid a UK based PR firm half a billion dollars to make fake ‘terrorist’ videos which were used to recruit terrorists and show false flag violence to sway public mood in favour of the regime change operations and wars. Even false videos of the suffering Middle East citizens – pleading for military intervention – were used extensively to drum up support before the Iraq war and the Syrian proxy-war. These propaganda videos, broadcasted relentlessly in the mainstream western media, contributed to the creation of Islamophobia around the globe. Add to this the 1 trillion dollar worth of heroin trade – grown in Afghanistan – that goes on via the Pakistani ports, with the full knowledge of the US, who is forever reluctant to stop doing business and trade with terrorism sponsoring regimes of the world. All this makes it rather blatantly obvious that Islamic terrorism is a manufactured bogey to further geopolitical gains and war profiteering.

The reason why the US engages itself in the Middle East may be more than the grabbing of oil and other natural resources and providing profit to the military-industrial-banking-media-intelligence-surveillance complex. Other geopolitical strategies might be at play such as to reduce the dependency of Europe on Russian gas. Many analysts also point out that the regime change operations in Syria began, after Assad had turned down a proposal for an oil-pipe that needed to pass through Syria, in order to connect Europe via Turkey.

It also brings the Zionist Greater Israel Project to mind, when the US regime change interventions and wars in the Middle East are always against the Shia countries like Iran, Iraq and Syria. But why should US be so blatantly pro-Israel? President Obama publicly admonishes the Israeli establishment, but that doesn’t stop him from handing out an unprecedented 38 billion dollars – to be paid in 10 yearly instalments – to Israel. The reason is linked to the pro-Zionist deep state controllers – the majority shareholders of the 12 banks, which own the private Federal Reserve – that is not owned by the US Government.

On June 4, 1963 President John F. Kennedy signed a decree – Executive Order 1110 – to get rid of the power of the privately owned Fed or the Federal Reserve to loan money to the United States at an interest. President Kennedy knew the Federal Reserve Notes being used as the purported legal currency were contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America. The order returned to the federal government, specially the Treasury Department, the constitutional power to create and issue currency money – without going through the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank. As a result 4 billion dollars in ‘United States Notes’ were brought into circulation in $2 and $5 notes, and the $10 and $ 20 were being printed by the US Treasury Department when Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. After the assassination of President Kennedy, the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation. Now, 99.9% of all US paper ‘currency’ is Federal Reserve Notes aka US dollars.

The power over the US Governments by the 12 Federal Reserve Banks or the Fed – organised into a corporation whose shares are held by commercial banks  – has only grown ever since the attempt by President Kennedy to get rid of the privately owned Fed.  It was revealed by the WikiLeaks in 2016 that one month before the presidential election of 2008, the giant Wall Street Group Citigroup submitted to the Obama campaign a list of its preferred candidates for cabinet positions in an Obama administration. This list corresponds almost exactly to the eventual composition of Obama’s cabinet.

Things are not what they seem; there are shadowy powers behind the US Government and the American Foreign Policy who don’t want to eradicate the Islamic extremists, but use that to further its interests, which however, have no benefit for the American citizens and the greater world. How long such rogue policies – causing boundless death, destruction and immigration – which go against the basic tenets of democracy and humanity can continue?

Things are not what they seem; there are shadowy powers behind the US Government and the American Foreign Policy who don’t want to eradicate the Islamic extremists, but use that to further its interests, which however, have no benefit for the American citizens and the greater world. How long such rogue policies – causing boundless death, destruction and immigration – which go against the basic tenets of democracy and humanity can continue? This question must be raised, again and again, to the political and the media establishments and their cheerleaders.

A positive unexpected initiative happened in December 2016. US Congresswoman Democrat Tulsi Gabbard introduced a bill – ‘Stop Arming Terrorist Act’ – that aims to protect US taxpayers’ dollars from being spent on supporting and arming international terrorist groups through covert operations and ally states. The act also wants to make it illegal for the US Government to provide assistance of any kind to any nation that sponsors terrorists. The dramatic ‘madness must end’ speech of 35 year old Gabbard, when she took the House floor to present the legislature, is available on the internet. Gabbard said, ‘If you or I gave money, weapons or support to Al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the US government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of Al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.’ She also accused CIA for supporting terrorists around the world, and signed off by saying, ‘This madness must end. We must stop arming terrorists. The government must end this hypocrisy and abide by the same laws that apply to its citizens.’

The global political scenario is also changing very fast. We are already in a multi-polar world with the rise of the BRICS nations. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – despite their problems – are free of imperialistic goals and genuinely wish to eradicate terrorism.

We will have to see how far this Bill goes, and whether this act becomes law. The mainstream western media hasn’t covered this dramatic development, and this goes to reveal the bias and the hypocrisy of their narratives. But we also understand that unless the US Government and the political parties can free themselves from the shadowy control of the elite Pro-Zionist private banking cartel – the core of the deep state or the shadow government – a truly democratic US Government dedicated to the cause of its citizens and a better world, cannot take shape. The global political scenario is also changing very fast. We are already in a multi-polar world with the rise of the BRICS nations. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – despite their problems – are free of imperialistic goals and genuinely wish to eradicate terrorism. The Eurasian project – that will eventually link with ASEAN –and the new financial institutions – The BRICS Bank and The Asian Infrastructure Bank created by the eastern coalition will end the hegemony of The World Bank and The IMF – who have been using economic imperialism by giving ‘conditional’ loans and acquiring the natural resources of countless countries in favour of western corporations, forcing them to the open their markets and implement the policies of neoliberal capitalism. Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins – the International Word-of-Mouth Bestseller – is the classic book that reveals the shocking inside story of economic imperialism. The consolidation of the BRICS nations and their growth will bring geo-political and economic balance in our 21st century world.

 

 The Present World And The Near Future

Through all these cascading and inter-related events – that started in 1979 and got boosted in 2001 – the worldwide Islamophobia got created. This manufactured idea and emotion are now being exploited by the right wing ideologies in midst of a growing disenchantment with the pro-Corporatism Neoliberal Capitalism all around the globe. In a simple sentence: pro-corporatism neoliberal capitalism of liberal centrist mainstream establishments and their disastrous economic policies and geopolitical strategies are directly giving rise to right wing populism around the world.

The era of ‘strong’ authoritative leaders is upon us, because the liberal centrist leaders have failed the world and the citizens, with their incompetency, corruption and hypocrisy.  When people are in deep water, it doesn’t matter who is offering them a rope. People will catch hold of any rope that promises to save them from the present injustices.

The era of ‘strong’ authoritative leaders is upon us, because the liberal centrist leaders have failed the world and the citizens, with their incompetency, corruption and hypocrisy.  When people are in deep water, it doesn’t matter who is offering them a rope. People will catch hold of any rope that promises to save them from the present injustices. The right wing populism is exploiting the very situation and taking hold of power all around the world.

But the right wing governments are more likely to make even more disastrous policy choices – along with the regressive mix of masochism, fascist symptoms, nationalism, xenophobia, theocracy, sexism, misogyny and more – and increase the stranglehold of neoliberal corporatism upon the world. We are in a bleak and a dangerous phase of our collective global political history. We need to remain aware, vigilant and protest at every opportunity against the devious policies of the establishments to save ourselves, our liberties, our economies and our planet from the continuing onslaught of the pro-banking and pro-corporatism cabal that can take a more ominous form under the newly rising right wing governments.

India is now the second most unequal nation in the world. The gap between the super rich and the rest has grown alarmingly since 2010. 1% super rich owns nearly 60% of the wealth; it was 40% in 2010.

Unless there is a consolidation of the liberals – the centrists and the left progressives – to bring forward new 21st century ideas about economics and geopolitics, we will not be able to create a fair and a progressive future for the sake of our collective inter-dependent web-like existence on the planet earth. The gap of wealth and influence between the elite 1% and the remaining 99% will continue to widen, and lead to more vigorous social protests and discontent, and even anarchy. India is now the second most unequal nation in the world. The gap between the super rich and the rest has grown alarmingly since 2010. 1% super rich owns nearly 60% of the wealth; it was 40% in 2010.

A huge transfer of wealth from the working class and the middle class to the super wealthy is happening all over the world at a faster rate, than ever before. The social consequences of this will be disastrous in the near future. In this atmosphere, Islamic Terrorism – that should be called ‘Wahhabi-Salafi’ Terrorism – primarily funded and exported by the ‘close ally’ of the USA since 1979 – Saudi Arabia – needs to end. Iran and Hezbollah have condemned Saudi Arabia for creating havoc in the Middle East and millions of Muslims in Iraq have marched against ISIS. On September 2016, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani appealed to the Muslim world that ‘regional countries and the world of Islam should take coordinated actions to resolve problems and punish the Saudi Government.’

A total halt of funding can only eliminate the spread of the puritanical ultra-orthodox violent ideology of Salafi Wahhabism. But there are powers in the world – like the USA, Israel and their allies – who want to keep the ‘war on terrorism’ perpetually alive – just like the unending ‘war on drugs’ – in order to suit their geopolitical and profiteering goals. A bogey-man or an enemy is essential to slowly rob away the civil liberties and justify the need of an Orwellian surveillance state working in favour of pro-banking and pro-corporatism global elites.

The sordid game has been exposed; hundreds of articles are coming out in the alternative media to oppose the game known as the New World Order – the attempt to create a worldwide deep state where democratic countries will work under the shadowy control of the International banking cabal that only seeks power, control and profit.

But 2016 has been a setback to this dream. The goal to create an undemocratic super state in Europe under the guise of the European Union – where laws are framed by unelected bureaucrats representing the banking cabal and the allied corporate interests – received a jolt by the unexpected Brexit.

But 2016 has been a setback to this dream. The goal to create an undemocratic super state in Europe under the guise of the European Union – where laws are framed by unelected bureaucrats representing the banking cabal and the allied corporate interests – received a jolt by the unexpected Brexit. On 27 April 2016, an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard was published in the UK’s The Telegraph: The European Union always was a CIA project, as Brexiteers discover. It tells us that how the original EU project was more of an American idea, than of Europe. Anti-EU sentiments are now rising fast in Europe, along with right wing populism that is exploiting the anti-immigration sentiments caused by the monumental displacement due to the wars in the Middle East. Italy, Netherlands and even France, can potentially seek to exit from the European Union. Even the global trade deal Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – where corporations would have had a right to sue governments if their profits are affected by the government policies – is dead. The idea was to create a common market by including USA, the EU and some other countries via TPP.  Even though Obama tried his best to push through the TPP, his desperate effort fortunately failed. This last minute failure, just before the end of his term, also mirrored his failed effort to stop passing of the Bill that would allow the families of the 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. The veto power exercised by President Obama to stop the Bill was overturned by the Senate, and was passed.

Despite the setbacks which happened in 2016, the New World Order players – blessed by the banking cabal – won’t give up their dream. They will plot to execute newer plans by using the same methods which are being used since 2001 – fear, wars, false flag events, false propaganda and the exploitative policies of the pro-banking and pro-corporatism neo-liberal capitalism.

We need more global outrage against the rogue geopolitical and economic policies whose adverse ripples spread all over the globe. The lack of moral outrage in the mainstream discourse is shocking. The selective righteousness of a major chunk of the liberal mainstream discourse is a shame on humanity.

We have to ask ourselves few philosophical and spiritual questions. Are we in favour of truth, justice, peace, fairness, humanity, democracy and progress? Or are we simply the morally depraved blind cheerleaders of our corrupt, hypocritical and myopic establishments?

Do we wish to sleepwalk through our life with a shallow apathy and a dead conscience?

Unless we speak out, write more and demand change, our establishments won’t bulge. The political class in nexus with odious billionaires are taking us to an abyss of economical, societal and ecological disasters – they are the prime enemies of our world.

Presently, we are sleepwalking to an abyss. But the point of comfortable silence has been breached; because the cost of silence will have to be paid by all. The concerned citizens and the global youth have already started to understand that our ‘world-in-peril’ is being devastated by some odious billionaires in collusion with the political parties. Use of fear, oppression, propaganda, hate-filled polarisations and divide-and-rule imperialism is still going on in our world of the 21st century. This needs to be defeated.  The tide will only turn, when we can collectively wake up, be brave, speak out and revolt.

This will be the revolution in the 21st century – the global anti-establishmentarian revolt against the elite political class – who in spite of their differences in their ideologies – serve as the puppets of the super wealthy. The research work done in order to understand the decline and the fall of civilisations and empires of the past, point out few clear trends which repeat again and again – unsustainable plundering of natural resources; unfettered consumption leading to humongous debts; costly military misadventures, hedonism and corruption of the stratified elites; myopic arrogant idiocy of the decision makers; concentration of a disproportional share of wealth and power with the top economic tier – a small minority compared to the wider population; and an imbalance of unequal spending resulting in oppression, exploitation, social unrest, displacement and anarchy.

All of the above symptoms of an imminent reset – through a period of rising injustices, cultural decline and economic regression – have begun to rise in various parts of our world, irrespective of the income level of the nations which fall within those regions. There is growing imbalances within nations as well, where concentration of wealth, business and power is happening at certain states/districts and cities, while the rest are falling behind and languishing. Going by all the apparent symptoms and the rising anti-establishmentarian mood of the global populace, I sense that the reset or the revolution – or more accurately, a series of revolutions in various parts of the world – is not far anymore. History has taught us that there is no such thing like a bloodless revolution. The injustices keep on piling, patience gradually starts to run out and a seemingly minor random event becomes the trigger to unleash the suppressed rage. The population revolts against the elite powers and things really get messy. But I can only hope, this seemingly unavoidable fast approaching era of global revolutions would be bloodless and non-violent, and come through a new alternative political, cultural and economic consciousness of the liberals – the centrists and the progressives.

An alternative democratic socialist model – a hybrid capita-socialism or socio-capitalism under market economy – will have to evolve to replace the pro-banking pro-corporatism Neoliberal Capitalism. The political class will have to be freed of the odious control of the billionaire class and the governments will have to regain the moral power to implement geo-political, cultural and economic policies in favour of peace, progress, ecology and balance – the overall common interests of the citizens, the world and our planet.

An alternative democratic socialist model – a hybrid capita-socialism or socio-capitalism under market economy – will have to evolve to replace the pro-banking pro-corporatism Neoliberal Capitalism. The political class will have to be freed of the odious control of the billionaire class and the governments will have to regain the moral power to implement geo-political, cultural and economic policies in favour of peace, progress, ecology and balance – the overall common interests of the citizens, the world and our planet. For that to happen, we will have to shake ourselves to our souls and break the shock and awe of the moral comatose, that we all suffer from.

We will have to generate a wider discourse, think of new ideas and create new visions in the spheres of politics, culture and economics. We need to get rid of our hesitancies and our small mindedness, and act decisively and collectively – with the genuine intent in our hearts – to make our world a place where people are motivated more by the sense of fairness and justice, than the sense of dominance and greed. The age-old battle within our inner self between the ego and the soul has to be won in favour of the consciousness of our hearts. Only then, there can be any hope of a paradigm shift in the way the world works, and a new dawn can truly happen, for the sake of humanity on a pale blue dot, journeying like an eternal traveller within the enigmatic space of our universe.

 

'Devdan Chaudhuri is the author of the novel ‘Anatomy of Life’ (Picador) – nominated for Tibor Jones South Asia Prize. He has published short fiction, poetry, literary essays and analytical pieces on politics and culture for various independent publications and alternate media. He is one of the contributing editors of The Punch Magazine and an executive member of Calcutta based group – Poetry Paradigm.

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