The killing of America
By Christian Marx
America is teetering on the edge of collapse and possible civil war. How did it come to this?
Every problem the U.S. currently faces can be traced back to capitalism.
America has always been based around a rugged, dog eat dog type of individualism. A Darwinian survival of the fittest mentality. This is the only country in the Western world without socialised healthcare. Tens of millions can`t afford to go to a hospital, and many that do, find themselves bankrupted by hundreds of thousands for major surgery.
The corporate elites run both major parties. Together with their toxic media, they can rule the masses with an iron fist, primarily through disinformation and lies. Confused, frightened and uneducated people cannot vote for their best interests.
The current disclocation engulfing America is the senseless murder of an unarmed black man, George Floyd. Yet another thuggish cop has murdered a person of colour. The anger erupted when NOTHING was done. The cop was only sacked after country wide outrage, and now has been charged with 3rd degree murder. However, there is every chance he will get off scot free, like so many killers before him.
Capitalism is the underlying root of the problem. Firstly, George was arrested on suspicion of a forged $20 bill. This in itself is a symptom of the crippling poverty engulfing much of America.
45 MILLION Americans are living below the poverty line.
This poverty has been systematically increasing since the Reagan years. One of the biggest causes of poverty has been the free trade deals, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA) which gutted local manufacturing and industry, in favour of offshore jobs at third world labour rates.
Compounding this is the complete decimation of state services, such as food banks, healthcare, education programs, etc.
Poorer areas, especially places with a high black populace are the hardest hit. There is also a systemic attack on blacks and other minorities through the hard-right lens of the media. Narratives are shaped via deceptive and negative stereotypes. The black man is portrayed as a criminal and dangerous individual, even when he has done no wrong, and is merely standing up against injustice.
Compare the vastly different narratives to the white libertarians who invaded congress with semi automatic guns, versus the black protests against police brutality. The white libertarian militias were largely praised in the media for standing up to “state oppression,” while the black protesters were scorned and mocked as “dangerous thugs.” More reading here.
There is an underlying media bias of whites being “good” and blacks “bad.” This of course ties into the division needed in order for capitalism to continue to benefit the primarily wealthy white establishment and to neglect the needs and rights of black people and other marginalised minorities.
Sure, there has been a black president, but as Dr Cornel West explained:
“We tried blacks in high places. Too often our black politicians, professional class…become too accommodated to the capitalist economy, and too accommodated to celebrity, status, power and all that superficial stuff.”
In other words, capitalism does not just corrupt rich white people, it can drive a wedge between different classes of black people. Those that are permitted into the club of politicians and wealthy donors, themselves become corrupted and turn their backs on their poorer brothers and sisters. Sadly, capitalist greed transcends colour, creed and cultural backgrounds, which makes it incredibly insidious.
Compounding this is the constant censorship and omission of scientists and legitimate sociologists, linguists, and other intellectuals from the progressive sphere. They just don`t get a platform. If one dares to challenge the inequalities of capitalism or its multitude of problems, including environmental, sociological, cultural, or geopolitical, one is either completely de-platformed, or in extreme cases attacked and ridiculed, for example Julian Assange, for daring to expose the murderous actions of the U.S government and its imperialist war machine.
In summing up, capitalism has thrust a dagger into the heart of America. Capitalism has essentially eaten itself. Greed has pushed it to achieve greater and greater profits into fewer and fewer hands. This results in huge community dislocation, poverty, neglect, violence, the suffering of millions, and racial scapegoating by the mainstream media.
The more people are affected and left behind by capitalism the greater the resistance against the establishment. Paradoxically, the greater the resistance, the harsher the state brutality will be. The profits of the wealthy will be maintained, no matter how violent. This is what end stage capitalism looks like. Fascism can be defined as the merging of the state and private capital. This is the killing of America.
Christian Marx is a political and social activist interested in making the world a fairer place. He has a Bachelor of Social Science and has a keen interest in sociology, politics and history. He was one of the organisers of the March in March rallies in Melbourne and is the founder of the progressive news and information site: Don`t Look At This Page.
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15 comments
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John Hermann
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John Hermann
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Jack Cade
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Stephengb
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Jack Cade
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New England Cocky
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Neilw
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B Sullivan
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DrakeN
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Matters Not
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Jack sprat
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Phil Pryor
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Jack Cade
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wam
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Terence Mills
Return to home pageThe USA is – to use the language of Mike Pompeo – a failed state.
It should be recognised that Trump is not an aberration, he is merely a symptom of a deeply dysfunctional society. And the fact that Biden is the best the Democrats can come up with as an alternative to Trump signifies that the democratic Party is also part of the problem.
Jesse Ventura is an extremely popular commentator and former governor of Minnesota. An independent, he is frequently urged to stand for the presidency but says that the two major parties have, in the past, combined forces to keep him and other independents out of any authoritative positions in the USA – that the Republicans and the Democrats are one and the same party, and that Nancy Pelosi – the Democrat leader, is the richest person in the US senate or congress. The National Guard has full
Military equipment, Including tanks, and that their comments suggest ‘the gloves are off’.
The NG has no compunction whatsoever in killing US civilians.
All was proceeding quite well until the oil shocks of the 1970s and the Neoliberals saw chance to insert their ideology.
Trump has thrown the world’s commerce into a maelstrom on the pretext of punishing China for its actions in HongKong – a Chinese city, whether its citizens like to accept that as a fact or not (n.b. Liverpool and some other cities in England – perhaps Newcastle for instance – could well claim that they are not English) while any number of cities in the USA are seeing equally bad crowd disturbances, if not worse.
As Will Smith said : ‘Racism is not getting worse in the USA. It is just being filmed.‘
Economists say that the poverty line in the USA is circa $24,000 pa. Some maintain that it should be set at $30,000 pa. More than 50% of the people in the USA are living below the poverty line, a poverty line which is artificially low.
Chilling stat: police in the USA killed more people in 2015 than the British police have killed since 1900…
An excellent analysis. Thank you.
Stepehngb – excellent documentary – thanks for link. I like all the economic data he provides. Covers a lot of ground
‘Fascism can be defined as the merging of the state and private capital.’
Actually fascism is just the principal of strength through unity, as symbolised by the bundle of rods called ‘fasces’ which were carried by the lectors of ancient Rome. Each individual rod could easily be snapped in two, but bound together the rods become unbreakable. The ‘fasces’ was one of Rome’s most sacred symbols of power that was famously captured by Spartacus during the Slave Revolt.
Like it or not fascism is the principal behind unionism – the workers united will never be defeated. Unfortunately Mussolini gave fascism a bad name by demonstrating that a united minority is capable of dominating a divided majority. It is no slander to say that the minority that are united in their support for such a political liability as Donald Trump is an example of fascism. Without that support his weak moral and political assertions would be dismissed out of hand as unsustainable.
No one likes to point it out but the flagpole on the top of Australia’s Parliament House also serves as symbol of fascism that didn’t even occur to the architects. They meant it to represent strength through unity, but were unaware that that is nonetheless the same principal as fascism.
B Sullivan,
Thank you for that expanation of the origin of the word ‘fascism’; but it does not represent the current understanding of it.
Many words change their meaning over time, as well in different contexts.
‘Sophisticated’ is a favorite of mine.
B Sullivan – interesting article but note the homophones in play. First, there’s the word principle (that refers to a standard, rule, or guiding belief) and then there’s another word that sounds the same known as principal (which refers to a person who is in a leadership position such as a school). It’s a common confusion as is ‘led’ (the horse was led to water) and ‘lead’ which can refer to a base metal or the means by which the horse was led. Always tricky.
As for:
Perhaps not? Isn’t it the case that it’s people who change the meaning given to particular word(s) rather that words somehow developing powers far above and beyond their capabilities? Seems to me that words are created by humans (playthings of humans) and have no powers (or life) of their own. But don’t mind me.
B Sullivan
My mother who was at school in Italy during Mussolini’s fascist rule only recently told me that part of her indoctrination in fascism at school was the constant reference of a bundle of rods being a lot stronger than just a individual one . Now that you have informed me of the origin of the word fascism from its roots in ancient Rome ,I find it a remarkable coincidence,that in the space of just a week the connection between my mother’s story and the origin of the word fascism have come together.Thank you for the information it has put all the dots together.
Sullivan’s comment are childishly pompous, errant, wrong. Perhaps there’s a hint of catholic fascism there??!!
My favourite word origin is ‘cretin’.
It is derived from Christian.
I can’t think why…
Sadly Mr Herman trump is the embodiment of the american dream. Rich enough to do what he wants with and to people.
He is a line walker crossing between truth and lies all for his own gain or pleasure. He is afraid of no one and is free from remorse completely unashamedly self first amoral. rather than immoral.
As long as there are the ultra poor or a defenceless minority the poor doesn’t care.
Trumps bumbling methodology may well drive a change in the power of racism in the white majoritywho knows what will come out of these protests if the media can ever get past the riot pictures
On a personal note biden is a riskier prospect than trump and my inclination is to vote for trump.
Robert Reich former US Secretary for labour sums up Trump :
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/31/donald-trump-coronavirus-pandemic-george-floyd-minneapolis-tweets