| Lest this whopper (am not talking about a fish story or a so-called fastfood meat product) go unnoticed, the Global War On Terror (GWOT) is suddenly slipping out the backdoor of global consciousness. More accurately, Global War OF Terror (GWOFT) because of the chaos unleashed in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, US (GWOFT-lite at Standing Rock: rubber bullets, attack dogs, tear gas, water cannons), plus “1,147 people killed by police in the U.S. in 2017”[1] (some of which is probably self-defense/averting bigger violence yet the article cites race issues), and other countries totaling over a million reported killed, many harmed, babies being born with deformities, and toxic residue in land, air, and water. The very thing that has been the raison d'être for the past seventeen-and-a-half or so years, the very premise for beefing the military, enhancing surveillance, and eroding Constitutional rights has been rebranded! Echoing, no, reading from the same script as US Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis who first announced it: "Great power competition, not terrorism, has emerged as the central challenge to US security and prosperity," Under Secretary Of Defense David L. Norquist told reporters Monday following the unveiling of the budget proposal. 'It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model-gaining veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic, and security decisions,' the budget document says. Beijing is 'using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea.'"[2]North Korea is also mentioned; so that explains much of the relentless media hype – a justification for the military budget replete with a new cast of characters now that Islamic extremists are no longer a threat. But, what?, no champagne-popping celebratory news reports that Terror has finally been subdued, that extremists are behind bars? Hmm... There’s more hypocrisy packed into the “central challenge” statement than this essay cares to deal with but let’s start with some of the words themselves. America the “great” country runs on “competition,” which is to say that competition is capitalism's bread-and-butter. Among other institutions such as politics and education, arts and entertainment are also competitive, as witnessed from the grotesquely overpaid athletes in sports to the grotesquely overpaid entertainers competing for ratings and awards in so-called artistic fields. But this overall brand of capitalism is a guise for corporatism where the competition is closely guarded, typically pay-to-play, except for the lucky few who get sucked in the door, wooed by the high-wind scent of success, and the even fewer genuinely talented who find an outlet for their skills. If you consider government subsidies, off-shore tax havens, tax breaks for corporations, government (state and city) approved yet publicly funded sports arenas, and umpteen other loopholes you get a sense of how the game is rigged. It is astounding there is little if any outrage that “competition” is now considered a premise for war, probably because American Exceptionalists are beyond discussion of such trivialities. Yet the so-called Global War On Terror, too, was linguistically a war on an abstract noun. And so it goes, for centuries in the land of rebranding – remember that some of the timeless ancient land (Turtle Island) of the Original Peoples was rebranded as New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New England, New Mexico, New Orleans . . . Run-of-the-Millennial Seventeen-and-a-half years is almost a generation's worth, so would it be fitting to label post-Millennials as Generation Terrorized? According to Wikipedia the hipper labels are: “Generation Z (also known as Post-Millennials, iGeneration, or the Homeland Generation).” By the way, who's in charge of such labels and why do we go along with such stuff? Perhaps it is a way to give people a specific identity so as to make them feel special, to separate them from others and from respecting ancestors whose previous generations have lessons to share – that's where some of true power is. As for what “power” is, John Trudell perhaps said it best in 1980: “We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions. They tell us that it is power, but it is not power. They may have all the guns, and they may have all the racist laws and judges, and they may control all the money, but that is not power. These are only imitations of power, and they are only power because in our minds we allow it to be power. … The people who have created this system, and who perpetuate this system, they are out of balance. They have made us out of balance. They have come into our minds and they have come into our hearts and they’ve programmed us. … A blizzard is power. An earthquake is power. A tornado is power. These are all things of power that no oppressor, no machine age, can put these things of power in a prison. No machine age can make these things of power submit to the machine age. That is natural power. And just as it takes millions and billions of elements to make a blizzard to happen, or to make the earthquake, to make the earth to move, then it’s going to take millions and billions of us. We are power. We have that power. We have the potential for that power.”[3]At least the oppressor reveals some truth: “central challenge to US security and prosperity,” i.e. gated-community lifestyle for the rich and infamous. Accusing China of “predatory economics” has some truth to it, one example being its influence in Africa; from Tom Burgis' book The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth (2015): “'We have plenty of money to spend,' said Zhao Changhui, one of the architects of China's trade relations with Africa. The $3.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves that China has amassed as the world's largest exporter could not simply be parked in US government bonds, the investment equivalent of sticking your cash under the mattress. … Zhou said: 'Africa for the next twenty years will be the single most important business destination for many Chinese mega-corporations.'” As for “China's challenge to Western control of the continent's resources” … “the new powers in Africa and the old have more in common than either would care to admit.” & “Lamido Sanusi, governor of Nigeria's central bank from 2009 to 2014, put it well: 'So China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured ones. This was also the essence of colonialism. The British went to Africa and India to secure raw materials and markets. Africa is now willingly opening itself up to a new form of imperialism.'”[4]Though China is certainly less militaristic and the finer points of geo-politics may reveal differences, such accusations of “predatory economics” from the USEmpire remind of both the proverbial pot calling the kettle black and The Who's song “Won't Get Fooled Again”: “And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye / And a parting on the left / Is now a parting on the right / And the beards have all grown longer overnight . . . / Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” Come on, make my, er, have a nice day So I say, forget revolution and Make America Compete, that is, compete fairly on a level playing field and we’ll see who is most qualified. C'mon, America, show us what you got . . . that isn't belligerent and greedy . . . C'mon, America, let's step outside and see who's boss. Oh, not a fight!, let's step outside and look beneath our feet and all around and above . . . THAT'S who's boss! Can you feel THAT power? NOTES: 1. “U.S. Police Shootings Reflect Structural Racism Across States, Study Finds” 2. “Pentagon asks for major budget increase amid threats from Russia, China and North Korea” 3. “Thanksgiving address (1980)” 4. published by Public Affair(TM), a member of the Perseus Books Group, pp.137-38 & p.149. Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer, he is a small press publisher and Turtle Islander. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”. © Copyright 2018 by AxisofLogic.com This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you! |