Capitalism, Democracy, and Freedom of the Press
Was a time the United States lectured the entire world on Democracy and the Free Press. This would be done with gestures just short of salaaming, and sometimes hand on heart. By this set of supposed “values”, Civilization itself was ostensibly guaranteed. Those who lectured on it often veered off into left field, referring to deliverance from Hitler and such. Of course, they neglected to tell their audience that Hitler was a sick product of Democracy combined with the French and British abuse of the German people in the Treaty of Versailles.
The fact that most Communist countries insisted on calling themselves the
“Peoples Democratic Republic of This, That or the (literally) Bloody Other”, was dismissed as an abuse of the term and general propaganda “eyewash”. Those who questioned the logic had to live with comments such as,”we-e-e-ell, they’re not really democratic”.
We have now seen three big developments on these matters since 1989, namely, (1) the Collapse of Communism in Europe and its associated adoption of the trappings of Capitalism, (2) the ostensibly democratic “Arab Spring” and associated “Color Revolutions” as far afield as the Ukraine, and (3) the vicious rejection of a democratic Presidential Election by the “Democratic Party” and the “Free Press” in the USA.
The limits of Capitalism and Communism
The hideously rampant abuse and economic failures under the flag of Capitalism in the late 19th and early 20th century had to be brought to heel by tempering the philosophy and adapting the very model of the concept. One saw that as late as 1987 with the Black Monday stock Market meltdown. The United States had to ask even deeper questions when faced with the Worldcomm, Enron and Bernie Madoff disasters early in the new century. The Final Damnation was the Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2008 (below) in which the United States managed to export its financial exposure and liabilities to other nations as “De Luxe investments”. It practically collapsed the world economy and financially destroyed Iceland. Capitalism had overplayed its hand.
Why then are the great defenders of Capitalism so surprised that Communism would also adapt itself to reality. Those who profess the Communist philosophy have realised that the rampant abuse and economic failures under that flag in the 20th Century had to be brought to heel by tempering the philosophy and adapting the very model of the concept. Despite the fact that this author strongly believes that China will be hitting an economic wall of reality in the not too distant future, that country represents the leading example of this “New Communism”. It is more akin to “corporatizing” the Communist State than anything else. Russia combines that with all-pervasive corruption from top to bottom. Both countries have grasped the benefits of Capitalism, whilst having little if any concept of the ethics or responsibilities that come with it.
The point is that, just as the shine came off the American Capitalist Penny in 2008, the two leading (ex?) Communist countries launched revivals. In both cases, their leaders by far outperformed Barack Obama. One can hate Vladimir Putin, but there is no denying that he has been a brilliant leader for Russia. There is no denying that China is a heavily controlled country with little in the way of individual freedom, but Xi Jinping has been a very effective leader of that country.
For an ordinary leader of an ordinary country, say the Philippines’ Duterte (below) it is by no means obvious which way to align himself. In simple terms, the West has lost its Capitalist mojo and is no longer the obvious choice.
The limits of Democracy
Commentators in the United States could hardly contain themselves in the wake of one Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouhazizi (below), resorting to self-immolation in protest against state control of his business life. This act eventually led to the dictator of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, stepping down. This in turn led to “pro-Democracy” demonstrations spreading across the Arab World, a sequence of events eventually referred to in the West as the “Arab Spring”.
Before invading Iraq in 2003, President George W. Bush had told us that the secret to stability in the Middle East was Democracy. This author watched him make this speech from afar and told the rest of the family, “Yeah, right!” (end sarcasm)
The subsequent betrayal of the Sunni Iraqis to the Shia majority in the name of Democracy led directly to the so-called “Insurgency” as Sunnis struggled to figure out how to stay alive in a country where the government was now their historic enemy. This invasion ultimately turned Iraq over to Iran on a silver platter when Barack Obama pulled out US troops in 2011. ISIS followed in the wake of the vacuum left by the USA.
When the Tunisian event above happened, the “dominos started to fall” in other countries, including Egypt. Obama promptly thought he could repeat the South African experience in the Middle East and proceeded to force Mubarak out of office. But these misplaced efforts at Democracy soon all turned into nightmares. So far, Democracy has given Iraq to Iran, Eastern Syria and Western Iraq to ISIS, Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood, Gaza to Hamas, and most recently Lebanon to Hezbollah. If anyone in the West could direct me to a spot where Democracy has actually worked among the Arab nations, I would appreciate hearing about it. Democracy has overplayed its hand.
Fundamentally, it is impossible to implement a system predicated on respect for another man’s opinion in a society where there is not even respect for that man’s life. So far, the 21st century has only managed to prove that Democracy begets savagery and horror at the hand of those not ready to be entrusted with it.
The author was in the good company of the Israelis in being very worried about this so-called “march of democracy“. The Israelis had many decades of experience of Arab political philosophy and the author had the equivalent experience of African political philosophy. The United States had neither. The result was inevitable.
Ronald Reagan famously said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help“. I beg to differ; I think:
The scariest words in the English language are, “I am from America and I’m here to bring you Democracy”.
In a nutshell, Democracy works well among people who agree anyway on the more important issues. It can be ably used to sort out the lesser issues. But, if Democracy were as wonderful as many Americans wish to make it out to be, then Germany, France and the UK would have voted to avoid World War II. Democracy works well for Germans in Germany, but having the numerically superior Germans vote on what should happen in France is obviously an infantile thought. Why then are the Sunni people of Iraq expected to submit to the whims of the Shia majority when democracy is abused to subject them?
We should remember these words as we watch what happens in Catalonia in Spain; or in Eastern Ukraine, for that matter. The same holds as regards the White Christian Afrikaners of South Africa who labour under a government that wishes to destroy them by abusing Democracy while that government is fawned on by the West.
The question is, what is the difference between “Democracy” and “Tyranny by the Majority”? And the answer is, “Civilization”. The road from Civilization to Democracy is a one-way-street:
Civilization engenders Democracy; Democracy does not engender Civilization.
Is it really any surprise that an intellectually astute world leader like Vladimir Putin (below) would comment about the United States that “Whatever they start doing, all they end up with is Libya or Iraq“? He is perfectly right. But fortunately President Trump has realised this. He made that clear before he was elected.
In the United States, the Left had lectured South Africans about how we should accept Democracy and all its “wonders”. It got us a bunch of savages, thieves and convicted murderers in command over us, scheming morning, noon, and night on how to further hurt us. When the United States elected a successful businessman as president THIS is how that very same Left that had lectured us reacted.
I trust this explains to the reader the visceral anger this causes in folks like the present author. Clearly Democracy is good for everyone, and they should shut up and suffer it, but it is apparently not for Left leaning Americans. These “illuminated” creatures may somehow reject their legitimately elected president and denounce Democracy when it suits them.
After this, I am not brooking any further lectures on Democracy from the United States. Apologies to my longest standing friends in my life. They are Americans.
The limits of the Free Press and Media
In the United States, the Party of Slavery, better known today as the Democratic Party, has undergone a sea change since the days of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid 1960s. It effectively converted itself into the “Party for Black Folks and Immigrants”. It adopted a liberal social mindset. Along with this came the overwhelming majority of the Media.
Over the two terms of Barack Obama, the Party lurched violently to the left, and is now struggling to retain any credibility with ordinary salaried white people and small business owners. It may be solidly counted upon to always represent the opposite of the interests of ordinary Americans. Hillary Clinton infamously referred to them as “The Deplorables” and threatened blue collar miners that she would put them out of business. Yet, with few exceptions, the Media remains wholly in the Democratic Party camp.
The proper and formal election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has shaken the very foundations of the Democratic Party. It has reduced them to clinging to the Pacific and Northern Atlantic coasts of the country. Trump has virtually single-handedly managed to portray the US Media as being “Anti-American”. Their reaction to him has only served to make his point even more convincingly. It would appear that the Democratic Party has become the “Anti-Democracy Party”. The supposedly “Free Press”, which is practically wholly in the pocket of leftist liberals, is now devoted around the clock to assailing the President’s person, rather than his policies. They seem to talk to no one but themselves and generally hold TV talk shows that are vivid demonstrations of dripping hatred and group think run amuck. Harvard Business School would do well to base some courses on how such group think can limit intellectual discourse, using CNN or MSNBC footage to make the point. Freedom of the Press has overplayed its hand.
It would appear that the US “Free Press” has finally run completely off the rails. At the end of a normal day’s exposure to CNN, an innocent viewer might very well think President Trump a greater threat to America than the entire Russian nuclear arsenal. The situation is completely out of control, with bevies of talking heads looking at one another and laughing at their president as though their mocking is an indictment of him. They’re just waiting for him to get hanged; they just do not seem to know what exactly for. It is entirely obvious that they are never exposed to any form of intellectual debate, or any information that does NOT fit their prejudice. Ten minutes of the North American version of CNN should be enough for any rational human being to recognize the problem. President Trump calls them Fake News.
The Media in the United States is no longer serving anyone. They are an active impediment to the intellectual development of the country and its people. It is this very group think of theirs that led to them mocking the idea that Mr Trump could win the election. Had they read my article on the subject, they would have understood that he could entirely rationally win. But they would not listen to anyone but themselves. When indeed he did win, they proceeded to go into what many describe as Trump Derangement Syndrome, best demonstrated by THIS distraught young lady (below), who could not control herself when the Trump victory was announced. Thinks: {I wonder what she did when she lost her Barbie Doll}.
The point here, is that this leftist Media of the US has been feeding Americans rubbish as news for decades, and now some Americans cannot handle reality. What Americans must ask themselves is, if these people can be so desperately wrong about Donald Trump, as proved by the election results, what else have they been getting wrong? The answer to that question is, if the news was about another country, they were mostly selling you a fabrication to fit their script.
It will come back to haunt you
One might ask “So what?” Well, with (1) the international table scrambled as regards “Bad” Communists and “Good” Capitalists, (2) Democracy thoroughly discredited as a means of civilizing the world, and (3) the so-called Free Press having become little more than Fake News and a voice for “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, the hands of all three concepts have been overplayed. Decent Americans capable of independent thought should be questioning the entire picture they have been sketched about the world by the participatnts in this debacle.
This holds in particular for places like South Africa. Democracy has failed in that country; the country has drastically regressed into savagery; it is a textbook case of Tyranny by the Majority; it has moved into the orbit of Russia, China and Iran; the government is muzzling the real Free Press; life and limb is under threat; and it is the international cultural headquarters of all anti-white thinking on Earth, even leading the US by the nose on the subject. The effort to take down statues in the USA was born in South Africa and got to the USA via Berkeley. Barack Obama himself was inspired to get into politics as a result of matters in South Africa.
Americans need to seriously revisit these three holy cows, because they do not seem to be serving their country particularly well anymore. It is time to realize that if “The Free Press” and “Democracy” are holy cows, then they seem to have Mad Cow Disease at this time. At a time when the West has “lost its Mojo”, the USA cannot afford further stupidities.
My comments to any American are, “(1) If you are getting your news from the US Media, then you are most likely being misled” and (2) “I beg you stop sqaundering the pearl of Democracy on unworthy people left right and center. You are making the world a more dangerous place thereby“…. “it will come back to haunt you“. After all, as I show in another article, the stupidities of 1975 came back to haunt you on 11 September 2001.
— Harry Booyens
AmaBhulu 