“World war or Revolution?” comes after
“Hegemony or survival?”
Emanuel Pastreich
As the old Chinese expression goes, “when the tide goes out the rocks emerge.” We can see the contours of the made-in-billionaireland Trump cabinet revealled as the fireworks of the “battle with the deep state” show fade away. This Trump administration is shaping up to look much like the beginning of the Bush first term in 2001, a period when much of the Federal government was dominated by the most corrupt and extreme figures imaginable in the top offices, men like Ashcroft, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. Yet, even at that dark hour, there were a few moderates like Colin Powell at State and George Tenet at CIA, who, although personally cowardly, still served as the focal point for a broad range of government officials, and others from across Washington and across the United States, to rally and to refuse to go along with the circus. This time it may be Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, or even Robert Kennedy, if he survives and becomes Director of Health and Human Services, under whose shadow the resistance gathers. But granted the stakes involved this time, even if both those moderates are unsuccessful, nevertheless the resistance to the drive for war will gather together elsewhere, perhaps even right there in downtown Washington D.C.
When Noam Chomsky was still his true self, he wrote that famous book “Hegemony or Survival.” He meant that the United States had a choice before it of either complete hegemony over the Earth, or surviving as a nation. The point was that the insane plan to control the planet could not possibly lead to anything other than the complete destruction of the United States, and quite possibly of the entire Earth.
Now we are entering that final stage of the game. This time, granted the deep corruption in the Democratic Party, there will be no Dennis Kucinich or tragic Paul Wellstone, to oppose the drive for total war. Nor does the Republican Party have anyone like Ron Paul to join in drafting impeachment articles for Trump.
The Democrats? why they are rolling over themselves to kiss Trump’s golden ring after spending a year calling him a fascist, the second Hitler, and an idiot.
We will not find much opposition there in the political theatre that appears on TV to the drive for hegemony over the entire Earth.
It will start with a brutal war of conquest against Iran using nuclear weapons, one which is set up so as to drag in Russia and China.
And what will Trump do? Do not waste your time trying to predict it. Trump is a pro wrestler, not a politician. He likes winning; he has no values beyond himself, his family and his buddies. He has no policies. He has an image that he built up through his performances over four decades. When Trump was in the White House before, he left everything to Mike Pompeo and spent his hours trying to get foreign visitors to stay at the Trump Hotel. Blaming Trump is a waste of time. He is a surfer, riding the latest wave. And beyond that? “Après moi, le déluge.”
If we follow the path that has been mapped out for us over the last week, we are heading for world war-starting with Iran, but quickly extending to Russia and China, followed by a nuclear war, followed by the destruction of the environment and the climate. Those left behind can look forward to mass starvation flavored with social, economic, and environmental collapse.
One might say that the next volume after “Hegemony or Survival” must be “World War or Revolution.” That is to say that if we do not have a real revolution, not a “made for television” extravaganza, then world war is coming down the pike, coming after us, as we gaze on with indifference. We are talking months and weeks this time. That old line rings so true, “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
Forget about all that progressive and conservative verbiage, all those cultural barriers the rich erect to keep us separated in our own private Gazas of the mind. We had better get serious about a new system about independence from the global invisible empire, or there will not be much left to protect, to defend. There will not be much of us left at all.
