Uplink 25 is up.
Onwards to dissertation revisions, plus some media work.
In other news, Michael Thomas forecasts a 99% chance of a rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem:
"When the great day comes, Wall Street will pray for another Pecora, because compared with the rough beast now beginning to strain at the leash, Pecora will look like Phil Gramm..."
Not just one beast -- millions, billions of beasts. That's what you did to us, Wall Street.
We're beasts now.
Pelts and fur. Tooth and claw.
We were human once, with middle-class lives, incomes and futures. But you went and destroyed all that. Because your greed was the only good, your privilege the only law.
Beasts we are. We sing savage songs, harsh and grating to your ears, of survival and loss, battle and resistance.
We have nothing to lose but our debt-slavery, and a world -- the world we created with our own hands -- to win.
And now the ineluctable coil of the dialectic -- that mysterious force called History, the sum total and aggregation of all human knowing, wishing and acting -- is bending towards one direction.
The Beasts. Are. Coming. For. You.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Egypt: The Revolution Continues
Mubarak is gone, but the battle against the mini-Mubaraks continues. Samira Ibrahim describes her ordeal at the hands of SCAF - just one of many incidents which sparked the massive November protests.
One of the most hopeful aspects of the Arab Spring is the mass participation of women. They are no longer acting as proxies of husbands or the extensions of joint families, but are demanding full citizenship. In fact, many of these women are light-years ahead of even the most politicized men, for the simple reason that the women are beginning to understand that revolutions aren't about chants and slogans. They are a process which transforms oneself as well as one's society -- they are lived down to the marrow of one's bones.
One of the most hopeful aspects of the Arab Spring is the mass participation of women. They are no longer acting as proxies of husbands or the extensions of joint families, but are demanding full citizenship. In fact, many of these women are light-years ahead of even the most politicized men, for the simple reason that the women are beginning to understand that revolutions aren't about chants and slogans. They are a process which transforms oneself as well as one's society -- they are lived down to the marrow of one's bones.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Numbers, We've Got More Numbers
Recently, numbers have been flying around about the total size of the ongoing 2008-2011 neoliberal bailout. Now that the Occupy movements are in full swing, it's important to get our numbers right, because economics is too important to be left to bankster hucksters and PR spinmeisters. Fortunately, journalist and author Nomi Prins (website here) has done the heavy lifting for us here:
US Bailout Tally, October 2011: $9.2 trillion
So $9.2 trillion is the total of all current support in the US, including TARP ($700 billion) and the stimulus package ($787 billion).
Then there's another $6.8 trillion of potential support for Fannie and Freddie, the two Federally-chartered housing agencies. That number is simply the sum total of all Fannie/Freddie mortgages, but that number isn't going to zero (assuming the absolute worst, a deflationary meltdown where radical crazies take over the US government and allow everything to collapse, housing prices would drop 30%, an additional $2 trillion). So maybe the $9.2 trillion will eventually hit $11.2 trillion.
But most of that $11.2 trillion aimed at the financial sector wasn't "spent" as an outlay or purchase. It was a set of guarantees, designed to keep the banking system from imploding completely. One partial exception was the $1 trillion to $3 trillion spent by the Federal Reserve to purchase dubious assets from the banksters, assets which are probably not worth that amount (otherwise, why would they be selling them, when they get can unlimited liquidity for nearly free?). Net subsidy: noone knows, but it can't be more than $3 trillion.
Some of the bigger numbers floating around the mainstream media put the total bailout at $27 trillion. Now, this number is not based on fiction, but it's not as scary as it sounds. It's just the $9.2 trillion, plus the $6.8 trillion in Freddie/Fannie Mae loans, plus the total cost of the global stimulus packages ($1 trillion in direct spending from European Union and the BRICs), plus the implied guarantees by the European Central Bank (another $3 trillion in financial support, and $7 trillion in implied guarantees). Total real expenditure of funds: maybe $5.5 trillion globally. That's 9% of our $60 trillion world economy, not the end of the world.
Now, here's where things get interesting. What did the Wall Street banksters do with that $3 to $4 trillion? Only a sliver went to bonuses, or to purchase the vermin called the US political class. Most went to reserves, to compensate for the huge holes in the banking system: yes, most of those dead mortgages, extinct CDOs and worthless derivatives are still on their books. Why can't they just write off all that junk? Because without those zombie assets, the shadow banking system implodes completely, and takes down the standard banking system with it.
The next question is, what the heck is this shadow banking system? The NY Fed has the answer right here, in a bombshell 2010 report. The opening page states: "Shadow banks are financial intermediaries that conduct maturity, credit, and liquidity transformation without access to central bank liquidity or public sector credit guarantees. Examples of shadow banks include finance companies, asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits, limited-purpose finance companies, structured investment vehicles, credit hedge funds, money market mutual funds, securities lenders, and government-sponsored enterprises."
And note the key chart on page 5 of the report, showing how assets in the shadow banking system grew larger than the regular banking system during the long era of neoliberalism - and then tanked after 2008.
That's why the neoliberal model of bankster bubbles is dead. The glory days of deregulated credit playing insane leveraged games, sloshing around world markets and fueling a debt-dependent consumption boom heavily tilted to the 1% are gone. For. Good.
What we need now is a world for, of, and by the 99%. An economy geared to human need, not rentier greed. A society organized on the principles of democracy, not plutocracy. And a politics of massive public investment in green jobs, green infrastructure, and high-tech human services.
After Occupy Wall Street, it's time to Occupy the Bailout!
US Bailout Tally, October 2011: $9.2 trillion
So $9.2 trillion is the total of all current support in the US, including TARP ($700 billion) and the stimulus package ($787 billion).
Then there's another $6.8 trillion of potential support for Fannie and Freddie, the two Federally-chartered housing agencies. That number is simply the sum total of all Fannie/Freddie mortgages, but that number isn't going to zero (assuming the absolute worst, a deflationary meltdown where radical crazies take over the US government and allow everything to collapse, housing prices would drop 30%, an additional $2 trillion). So maybe the $9.2 trillion will eventually hit $11.2 trillion.
But most of that $11.2 trillion aimed at the financial sector wasn't "spent" as an outlay or purchase. It was a set of guarantees, designed to keep the banking system from imploding completely. One partial exception was the $1 trillion to $3 trillion spent by the Federal Reserve to purchase dubious assets from the banksters, assets which are probably not worth that amount (otherwise, why would they be selling them, when they get can unlimited liquidity for nearly free?). Net subsidy: noone knows, but it can't be more than $3 trillion.
Some of the bigger numbers floating around the mainstream media put the total bailout at $27 trillion. Now, this number is not based on fiction, but it's not as scary as it sounds. It's just the $9.2 trillion, plus the $6.8 trillion in Freddie/Fannie Mae loans, plus the total cost of the global stimulus packages ($1 trillion in direct spending from European Union and the BRICs), plus the implied guarantees by the European Central Bank (another $3 trillion in financial support, and $7 trillion in implied guarantees). Total real expenditure of funds: maybe $5.5 trillion globally. That's 9% of our $60 trillion world economy, not the end of the world.
Now, here's where things get interesting. What did the Wall Street banksters do with that $3 to $4 trillion? Only a sliver went to bonuses, or to purchase the vermin called the US political class. Most went to reserves, to compensate for the huge holes in the banking system: yes, most of those dead mortgages, extinct CDOs and worthless derivatives are still on their books. Why can't they just write off all that junk? Because without those zombie assets, the shadow banking system implodes completely, and takes down the standard banking system with it.
The next question is, what the heck is this shadow banking system? The NY Fed has the answer right here, in a bombshell 2010 report. The opening page states: "Shadow banks are financial intermediaries that conduct maturity, credit, and liquidity transformation without access to central bank liquidity or public sector credit guarantees. Examples of shadow banks include finance companies, asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits, limited-purpose finance companies, structured investment vehicles, credit hedge funds, money market mutual funds, securities lenders, and government-sponsored enterprises."
And note the key chart on page 5 of the report, showing how assets in the shadow banking system grew larger than the regular banking system during the long era of neoliberalism - and then tanked after 2008.
That's why the neoliberal model of bankster bubbles is dead. The glory days of deregulated credit playing insane leveraged games, sloshing around world markets and fueling a debt-dependent consumption boom heavily tilted to the 1% are gone. For. Good.
What we need now is a world for, of, and by the 99%. An economy geared to human need, not rentier greed. A society organized on the principles of democracy, not plutocracy. And a politics of massive public investment in green jobs, green infrastructure, and high-tech human services.
After Occupy Wall Street, it's time to Occupy the Bailout!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Don't Mess With The Bears
The Bears explain the latest twist in neoliberalism's 35-year reign of thievery, fraud and debt-slavery.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Elizabeth Warren, Senator of the 99%
The first American revolution started in Massachusetts.
The second one just started.
This time around, the enemy isn't an overseas Empire, but America's very own internal plutocracy.
Coming this holiday break: TubeSlorg's post-neoliberal walkthrough continues. Stay tuned!
The second one just started.
This time around, the enemy isn't an overseas Empire, but America's very own internal plutocracy.
Coming this holiday break: TubeSlorg's post-neoliberal walkthrough continues. Stay tuned!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Supervillains: They're Real
Yet another real-world billionaire has crossed over the line into comic book supervillainy, by openly saying to the 99% that he'd fire half of your teachers, because your serf-children deserve to be poor and stupid and shackled into class sizes of 60, just like some rural industrializing nation:
"How does it feel, 99%, to stand on the very Street that destroyed your job, your mortgage, and the entire middle class? Do you feel sad? Full of rage? Or do those Anonymous masks help bury your feelings; hiding your true self? Oh, you are a truly extraordinary specimen... I look forward to breaking you." —Mayor Hugo ("the Mike") Strangeberg
(with apologies to Rocksteady's original).
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Occupy Your Homes!
The banksters tried to foreclose on a 103-year-old woman. Ain't happening.
To celebrate the holidays, the Occupation is coming to a foreclosure near you.
To celebrate the holidays, the Occupation is coming to a foreclosure near you.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Numbers, I Need Numbers
You want numbers, we got numbers.
Number of Americans close to starvation, i.e. dependent on foodstamps: 45.8 million (1 out of 8).
Number of Americans underwater on their mortages (i.e. are debt-serfs): 14 million homeowners (2 out of 7 homeowners with mortgages).
Employment-to population ratio has fallen from 63% to: 58%, the worst since the early 1980s.
The Great Recession destroyed 8 million jobs, but since the end of the recession, new jobs created amount to only 2 million, resulting in: Worst. Employment. Recovery. Ever.
New home sales: Lowest. Number. Ever.
Local and state deficits: still bleeding $100 billion.
Total amount US Federal government will waste on military-industrial boondoggles, rather than bailing out the states: between $1 trillion to $1.4 trillion.
Back in 1986, the top 1 percent received 12% of all income and owned 33% of all wealth. Last year, the top 1 percent received: 25% of all income and 40% of all wealth.
Student loan debt: $1 trillion and counting.
Total Wall Street bailout: $7.77 trillion. That's not a typo - we're talking eight trillion fricking-sharks-with-laser-beams dollars.
Number of Americans close to starvation, i.e. dependent on foodstamps: 45.8 million (1 out of 8).
Number of Americans underwater on their mortages (i.e. are debt-serfs): 14 million homeowners (2 out of 7 homeowners with mortgages).
Employment-to population ratio has fallen from 63% to: 58%, the worst since the early 1980s.
The Great Recession destroyed 8 million jobs, but since the end of the recession, new jobs created amount to only 2 million, resulting in: Worst. Employment. Recovery. Ever.
New home sales: Lowest. Number. Ever.
Local and state deficits: still bleeding $100 billion.
Total amount US Federal government will waste on military-industrial boondoggles, rather than bailing out the states: between $1 trillion to $1.4 trillion.
Back in 1986, the top 1 percent received 12% of all income and owned 33% of all wealth. Last year, the top 1 percent received: 25% of all income and 40% of all wealth.
Student loan debt: $1 trillion and counting.
Total Wall Street bailout: $7.77 trillion. That's not a typo - we're talking eight trillion fricking-sharks-with-laser-beams dollars.
Monday, November 28, 2011
All Tomorrow's Uprisings
Hard drive expired today. All the technology I own is slowly expiring, circuit board by circuit board. In search of solace, I ran into Clave de Barrio's scintillating message to all tomorrow's uprisings. In other news, neoliberalism's trillion-dollar crime spree continues unabated.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Egypt, Clock of the Revolution
The Children of Masrzilla know what time it is: time to take back their country from the 1%.
Sharif Kouddous reports on the latest.
More raw footage here.
Al Jazeera stream here.
Sharif Kouddous reports on the latest.
More raw footage here.
Al Jazeera stream here.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Tahrir 2.0
Tunis inspired Cairo, Cairo inspired Benghazi, Benghazi inspired Zawiya, Zawiya inspired Misrata, Misrata inspired Tripoli, Tripoli inspired New York, and now New York has inspired Cairo.
In the words of a famous philosopher, you ain't seen nothing yet!
In the words of a famous philosopher, you ain't seen nothing yet!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wisdom of the Elders
A message from the Civil Rights generation to Occupy Wall Street: we struggle, we resist, we occupy!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Mask of Liberty
Predictably, the Wall Street billionaire who bought the NY mayoralty with spare change finally sent in the goon squad to disperse Occupy Wall Street's encampment in Zuccotti Park. RT has this excellent piece covering the madness of a collapsing empire, which has run out of enemies and is now turning its taxpayer-funded weapons against its own citizens. Really, the only surprise is that it took this long for the crackdown to happen.
But then something happened which the 1% did not expect -- precisely because they're so clueless, so corrupted by their overweening power, and completely devoid of the slightest drop of understanding of how we 99% live -- but which we, the people, knew would happen: WE CAME RIGHT BACK (live coverage is running here).
The live coverage is now showing something amazing: Americans are peacefully assembling, protesting the occupation of America by Wall Street in a public park open to all, while the police are occupying the center of Zucotti!
Look at the cold, empty pavement in between the officers, Americans. You see that emptiness?
That is the freedom Wall Street has given you.
It is the freedom to do nothing. It is the freedom to say nothing. It is the freedom to be nothing, because that's what Wall Street thinks of you: they own EVERYTHING and you are NOTHING to them.
You are seeing, in Heiner Müller's immortal phrase, the iron face of Capital's freedom. It is the freedom of the 1% to take everything from the 99%.
Did the patriots of Bunker Hill die for this freedom?
Did the heroes of Gettysburg die for this freedom?
Did the soldiers of Iwo Jima die for this freedom?
Do we have less dignity and worth than the people of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, who struck down tyrants and plutocracies which oppressed them?
No. We have the same dignity. We have the same honor. And now we must bring justice back to our country.
The time is now, my fellow Americans.
It's time to take back our country.
But then something happened which the 1% did not expect -- precisely because they're so clueless, so corrupted by their overweening power, and completely devoid of the slightest drop of understanding of how we 99% live -- but which we, the people, knew would happen: WE CAME RIGHT BACK (live coverage is running here).
The live coverage is now showing something amazing: Americans are peacefully assembling, protesting the occupation of America by Wall Street in a public park open to all, while the police are occupying the center of Zucotti!
Look at the cold, empty pavement in between the officers, Americans. You see that emptiness?
That is the freedom Wall Street has given you.
It is the freedom to do nothing. It is the freedom to say nothing. It is the freedom to be nothing, because that's what Wall Street thinks of you: they own EVERYTHING and you are NOTHING to them.
You are seeing, in Heiner Müller's immortal phrase, the iron face of Capital's freedom. It is the freedom of the 1% to take everything from the 99%.
Did the patriots of Bunker Hill die for this freedom?
Did the heroes of Gettysburg die for this freedom?
Did the soldiers of Iwo Jima die for this freedom?
Do we have less dignity and worth than the people of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, who struck down tyrants and plutocracies which oppressed them?
No. We have the same dignity. We have the same honor. And now we must bring justice back to our country.
The time is now, my fellow Americans.
It's time to take back our country.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
It's a Metal Gear Planet
Jasiri X interviews true American patriot Sgt. Shamar Thomas. (Jasiri has this speech right here -- be sure to scroll down to read the description of the events behind the video. Also check out Jasiri's Real Gangstas video from 2010.)
Juan Cole shines a spotlight on Metal Gear Planet -- where we are all locked into struggle against the far-from-beautiful Beasts of Neoliberalism.
In Chile, the 99% are facing down a predatory billionaire.
Juan Cole shines a spotlight on Metal Gear Planet -- where we are all locked into struggle against the far-from-beautiful Beasts of Neoliberalism.
In Chile, the 99% are facing down a predatory billionaire.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
This Revolution Can Dance
One of the little-known perks of the thankless, overworked, and underpaid job of being a transnational media scholar is that we get to document the tremors which eventually turn into geopolitical earthquakes. Behold, as the daughters of Bearzilla rock the transnational house.
The dance party spreads to this awesomeness from Turkey.
More remixes here and here.
The dance party spreads to this awesomeness from Turkey.
More remixes here and here.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Ammo Re-Up
Check out Bill Moyers' scintillating keynote.
William K. Black eviscerates the bankers.
Amy Goodman and Chris Hedges (who was just arrested protesting Goldman Sachs) weigh in on Charlie Rose.
Our UAW brothers and sisters are joining the struggle.
We're just getting started.
William K. Black eviscerates the bankers.
Amy Goodman and Chris Hedges (who was just arrested protesting Goldman Sachs) weigh in on Charlie Rose.
Our UAW brothers and sisters are joining the struggle.
We're just getting started.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Bulletins
Shorter posts for awhile, because I'm writing the final chapter of the diss, but here's the latest:
Business Insider chronicles the (citizen-friendly) rampages of the Pirates of the Banksterium. Yarrr!
True American hero William K. Black, the scourge of the 1980s banksters, savages Bank of America for ripping off the public. (Visit Black's blog at New Economic Perspectives for an economic perspective founded on sanity and rationality).
And last but hardly least, Oakland gets busy.
Business Insider chronicles the (citizen-friendly) rampages of the Pirates of the Banksterium. Yarrr!
True American hero William K. Black, the scourge of the 1980s banksters, savages Bank of America for ripping off the public. (Visit Black's blog at New Economic Perspectives for an economic perspective founded on sanity and rationality).
And last but hardly least, Oakland gets busy.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Ramping Up...
Parents, teachers, and students fight the power. Watch the neolibs trying to destroy public education scurry away!
Egyptians sent a shout out to their American brothers and sisters.
Egypt's Asmaa Mahfouz in NY's Liberated Zone, and the indispensable Amy Goodman, one of the greatest journalists of our time, talks with Egyptian activists Basem Fathy and Ahmed Maher
(clip starts at 46:40 on the timer) about Egypt and the importance of the OWS.
Egyptians sent a shout out to their American brothers and sisters.
Egypt's Asmaa Mahfouz in NY's Liberated Zone, and the indispensable Amy Goodman, one of the greatest journalists of our time, talks with Egyptian activists Basem Fathy and Ahmed Maher
(clip starts at 46:40 on the timer) about Egypt and the importance of the OWS.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
What The Arab Spring Did
Listen to Junkyard Empire's Rebellion Politik (2010).
And now, one year later, here's Junkyard's We Want (2011).
Hear the difference?
Dissent has turned into demand.
And now, one year later, here's Junkyard's We Want (2011).
Hear the difference?
Dissent has turned into demand.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Libya is Free
The people of Libya have written a glorious page in human history, breaking their chains and putting an end to one of neoliberalism's most bloodthirsty monsters. The celebrations are ongoing, and the Libyan people's media has the details, but I did want to say this.
First of all: a special dedication to Mo Nabbous, because I know you're watching all this, somewhere, and you'll excuse me if I'm getting emotional typing this, but Mo exemplified everything which was wonderful and inspiring about the Arab Spring. Mo was the single most influential citizen journalist of the Libyan revolution, and his example inspired numerous other Libyans to step up and start creating their own free media, ranging from radio stations to hip hop bands, and from webzines to twitter feeds. Mo was killed by a regime sniper in March while reporting from the front lines, at the exact moment the tide began to turn in favor of the revolution. The sorrow of his passing is made bearable only by the fact that his newly-born daughter will grow up in a free, democratic Libya.
Much love to the brave people of Benghazi, who resisted the katiba's bullets with their bare hands; to the people of Tobruk and Derna, steadfast in their resistance; to the people of Misrata, who endured rocket barrages and defeated the regime's most fearsome units in battles of unbelievable ferocity; to the Amazigh people of the Nalut mountains, who sheltered the Revolution in its hour of need and then swept down from the mountains to free their brothers and sisters elsewhere; to the towns of the south, who rose up to free their communities; to the people of Zawiya, who resisted and kept resisting, until Zawiya was free; to the people of Tripoli, who rose up en masse to tear down the regime's walls, fortresses and prisons; to every Libyan who fought for change, and to the Libyans all over the world who returned to fight for their country's future -- and sometimes paid the ultimate price.
You forever changed your country, but you also taught the rest of the world a lesson: that no tyranny, however how many prisons it builds or how many weapons it stockpiles, can withstand the power of human dignity.
The day comes when human beings will rise up for their freedom, and fight for their freedom -- and win their freedom.
Sunday, October 23, is now your day.
May the blessings of peace and prosperity rain upon your land!
First of all: a special dedication to Mo Nabbous, because I know you're watching all this, somewhere, and you'll excuse me if I'm getting emotional typing this, but Mo exemplified everything which was wonderful and inspiring about the Arab Spring. Mo was the single most influential citizen journalist of the Libyan revolution, and his example inspired numerous other Libyans to step up and start creating their own free media, ranging from radio stations to hip hop bands, and from webzines to twitter feeds. Mo was killed by a regime sniper in March while reporting from the front lines, at the exact moment the tide began to turn in favor of the revolution. The sorrow of his passing is made bearable only by the fact that his newly-born daughter will grow up in a free, democratic Libya.
Much love to the brave people of Benghazi, who resisted the katiba's bullets with their bare hands; to the people of Tobruk and Derna, steadfast in their resistance; to the people of Misrata, who endured rocket barrages and defeated the regime's most fearsome units in battles of unbelievable ferocity; to the Amazigh people of the Nalut mountains, who sheltered the Revolution in its hour of need and then swept down from the mountains to free their brothers and sisters elsewhere; to the towns of the south, who rose up to free their communities; to the people of Zawiya, who resisted and kept resisting, until Zawiya was free; to the people of Tripoli, who rose up en masse to tear down the regime's walls, fortresses and prisons; to every Libyan who fought for change, and to the Libyans all over the world who returned to fight for their country's future -- and sometimes paid the ultimate price.
You forever changed your country, but you also taught the rest of the world a lesson: that no tyranny, however how many prisons it builds or how many weapons it stockpiles, can withstand the power of human dignity.
The day comes when human beings will rise up for their freedom, and fight for their freedom -- and win their freedom.
Sunday, October 23, is now your day.
May the blessings of peace and prosperity rain upon your land!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
O-15
Chris Hedges hits it out of the park in Times Square. I'm old enough to know why he chokes up at the end. Occasionally I've felt the same way while watching the feeds. Because my generation -- those of us born in the shadow of the decades-long American decline, who are old enough to remember the Cold War -- failed to stop neoliberalism, until it nearly wrecked the world.
Well, maybe failure is too strong a word. "We tried to warn them, but the Administrator just wouldn't listen", as a famous line in Valve's Half Life (1998) put it. This Empire (and its semi-peripheral clones) was an immovable weight on this planet's neck for thirty-five years.
Now that weight is shifting. Most of those semi-peripheral clones have been swept away, and the final redoubts of Empire -- the ones Americans have been carrying around in their minds for centuries -- are now beginning to totter. Just as Egyptian soldiers left their barracks and joined the Arab Spring, Sgt. Shamar Thomas came back from the Middle East and delivered this amazing lesson in civic patriotism.
Something magical is happening, something which happens only once in a lifetime. Zizek gets it right: the protests are a new kind of ink, the digital ink out of which the 99% will begin to reshape the destiny of this planet.
All births are deeply sacred moments, and this one has its own special elixir of joy, anxiety and wonder. You can almost see the vast, skyscraper-sized shapes of Bearzilla, Pandazilla, and Brazilla off in the mist, singing and chortling and greeting some new arrivals: the people of Tunis, the workers of Cairo, the lions of the desert who defeated North Africa's Mussolini, and so many others...
Well, maybe failure is too strong a word. "We tried to warn them, but the Administrator just wouldn't listen", as a famous line in Valve's Half Life (1998) put it. This Empire (and its semi-peripheral clones) was an immovable weight on this planet's neck for thirty-five years.
Now that weight is shifting. Most of those semi-peripheral clones have been swept away, and the final redoubts of Empire -- the ones Americans have been carrying around in their minds for centuries -- are now beginning to totter. Just as Egyptian soldiers left their barracks and joined the Arab Spring, Sgt. Shamar Thomas came back from the Middle East and delivered this amazing lesson in civic patriotism.
Something magical is happening, something which happens only once in a lifetime. Zizek gets it right: the protests are a new kind of ink, the digital ink out of which the 99% will begin to reshape the destiny of this planet.
All births are deeply sacred moments, and this one has its own special elixir of joy, anxiety and wonder. You can almost see the vast, skyscraper-sized shapes of Bearzilla, Pandazilla, and Brazilla off in the mist, singing and chortling and greeting some new arrivals: the people of Tunis, the workers of Cairo, the lions of the desert who defeated North Africa's Mussolini, and so many others...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Neon Genesis Europa
During one of the most mysterious and revelatory moments of Hideaki Anno's 1995 anime series "Neon Genesis Evangelion", namely near the end of Episode 24, two gigantic mechas, one symbolizing the developmental state and the other Euroliberalism, wage a life-and-death struggle which will determine the fate of humanity. They crash through barrier after barrier just like the Great Recession has crashed through one financial tranche after another, one failed ringfence after another, one failed bailout after another, accompanied by the stirring chorale of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" (original epic footage here from 15:00 to 24:15).
I always thought the end was an allegory of the passing of neoliberalism: no apocalyptic battle, just the realization that somehow, through millions of acts of individual survival (symbolized by the refusal of Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami to give up), change was possible. Madrid staged its own deeply inspiring retake of this moment here.
I always thought the end was an allegory of the passing of neoliberalism: no apocalyptic battle, just the realization that somehow, through millions of acts of individual survival (symbolized by the refusal of Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami to give up), change was possible. Madrid staged its own deeply inspiring retake of this moment here.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Signs and Portents
For years, I had to scour the nether reaches of the global airwaves to find any traces of dissent in the Neoliberal Ice Age.
But suddenly, faint cracks have appeared in the ice. Tremors are running through the ground, telegraphing earthquakes to come.
On Bill Maher, some of Wall Street's hired clowns scurried and sneered for half an hour. But suddenly Alan Grayson stood up for the 99%. The crowd delivered a standing ovation.
Hersi shows what dignity is all about. (Much love and a shout out to PoetNation.)
And the heartbeat of the Resistance keeps on.
But suddenly, faint cracks have appeared in the ice. Tremors are running through the ground, telegraphing earthquakes to come.
On Bill Maher, some of Wall Street's hired clowns scurried and sneered for half an hour. But suddenly Alan Grayson stood up for the 99%. The crowd delivered a standing ovation.
Hersi shows what dignity is all about. (Much love and a shout out to PoetNation.)
And the heartbeat of the Resistance keeps on.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
We Are the 99%
Just read the stories. The pain level in this country has risen past the point of no return.
Such immense suffering across this land. Wounded bodies, wounded hearts, wounded minds. But instead of healing, there is just more violence. Viciousness disguised as self-interest, narrowness disguised as market access, brutality disguised as market discipline.
We must learn to be better than our past.
Such immense suffering across this land. Wounded bodies, wounded hearts, wounded minds. But instead of healing, there is just more violence. Viciousness disguised as self-interest, narrowness disguised as market access, brutality disguised as market discipline.
We must learn to be better than our past.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Neoliberalism: The Video
My own take on neoliberalism, a.k.a. Wall Street financial fundamentalism, a.k.a. the plutocracy of the 1%.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
BRIC-ology
I wrote on September 24 that the BRICS were cooking up a little surprise for the plutocrats who pretend to run the world-system.
Here you go.
How did I know? No secret documents or high-tech decryption streams were necessary. The train of Eurasian integration left the station in the summer of 2008 and has been gathering speed ever since.
Here you go.
How did I know? No secret documents or high-tech decryption streams were necessary. The train of Eurasian integration left the station in the summer of 2008 and has been gathering speed ever since.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Ammo Pack
I can't be in New York, but I can at least suggest poster slogans:
We're the 99%
We're the 99%
and we want our planet back
Jail the Thieves!
"Hosni Mubarak" Is Arabic For Goldman Sachs
Steal $100, you're a criminal
Steal $14 trillion, you're Wall Street
Arab Spring, Libyan Summer...
New York Autumn!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Ya Basta
Twenty years.
Twenty years of working harder and harder for less and less.
Twenty years of going into debt for jobs which don't exist.
Twenty years of seeing my society become nastier, crueler, more polarized.
Twenty years of watching the Empire wage monstrous neocolonial wars.
Twenty years of watching the richest 1% steal our jobs, our money, our future.
Twenty years of living in less than 10K a year.
Twenty years of living on one meal a day.
Twenty years of brokenness.
Twenty years of neoliberal hell.
* * * * * *
As a wage-slave, I don't have the funds to be in NY to help the Resistance. But at least I can type these words. And testify to the anger. The terrible, terrible anger which I first experienced in 2003. It would well up suddenly, explosively. It was new to me, something alien to my extremely privileged and reasonably happy childhood (supportive family, good schools, good books, good neighborhoods). I was always polite, shy, geeky. But this anger was like nothing I'd ever felt before. This wasn't geek frustration at a technology not working properly. It was an absolute, terrifying, all-devouring rage.
Heiner Müller wrote about that rage, in words I translated long ago, without fully comprehending them.
Rage at the lies. Rage at the deceit. Rage at the stupidity of a society being driven off the rails by plutocratic thieves who produce nothing but lies, invest in nothing but theft, do nothing but steal.
The words
form the shape
of a fist:
ya basta
NO MORE
The battle begins.
Twenty years of working harder and harder for less and less.
Twenty years of going into debt for jobs which don't exist.
Twenty years of seeing my society become nastier, crueler, more polarized.
Twenty years of watching the Empire wage monstrous neocolonial wars.
Twenty years of watching the richest 1% steal our jobs, our money, our future.
Twenty years of living in less than 10K a year.
Twenty years of living on one meal a day.
Twenty years of brokenness.
Twenty years of neoliberal hell.
* * * * * *
As a wage-slave, I don't have the funds to be in NY to help the Resistance. But at least I can type these words. And testify to the anger. The terrible, terrible anger which I first experienced in 2003. It would well up suddenly, explosively. It was new to me, something alien to my extremely privileged and reasonably happy childhood (supportive family, good schools, good books, good neighborhoods). I was always polite, shy, geeky. But this anger was like nothing I'd ever felt before. This wasn't geek frustration at a technology not working properly. It was an absolute, terrifying, all-devouring rage.
Heiner Müller wrote about that rage, in words I translated long ago, without fully comprehending them.
Rage at the lies. Rage at the deceit. Rage at the stupidity of a society being driven off the rails by plutocratic thieves who produce nothing but lies, invest in nothing but theft, do nothing but steal.
The words
form the shape
of a fist:
ya basta
NO MORE
The battle begins.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Berlin Curbstomps Neoliberalism
Berlin, home of travel-prone nanobears and sky-pirates.
As some famous person said, somewhere, yarrrrrrr!
As some famous person said, somewhere, yarrrrrrr!
Final Watch
Anton Gorodetsky welcomes back Gesar to the Moscow Night Watch (video clip here).
(Mystified? Read Sergei Lukyanenko's "Night Watch" novels -- everything you need to know about where Bearzilla came from, and where it's headed).
In other news, the BRICS are cooking up a little surprise for neoliberalism. You have been warned!
(Mystified? Read Sergei Lukyanenko's "Night Watch" novels -- everything you need to know about where Bearzilla came from, and where it's headed).
In other news, the BRICS are cooking up a little surprise for neoliberalism. You have been warned!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The US: Last Prisonhouse of Orientalism
One of the most striking effects of the Arab Spring has been the media-intensive demolition of the three most prevalent tropes of First World Orientalism. The first is the trope of the docile comprador elite, incarnated by Tunisia's Ben Ali. The second is the trope of the US-bankrolled military leader, epitomized by Egypt's Mubarak. And the third is the occasionally spiteful (but ultimately acquiescent to neoliberal capital) dictator-plutocrat, immemorialized by Libya's Qaddafi.
All three went down in flaming wreckage. The first barely escaped an arrest order by hopping on a plane, the second is in jail, and the third is being hunted down like the low-rent gangster he always was. While the fall of the tyrants has been predictably electrifying on the Middle Eastern region -- several other countries are now in revolutionary ferment -- one of the most intriguing and paradoxical effects of the Arab Spring has been its transformation of the American political unconscious.
This political unconscious did not watch the Arab Spring with joy. Strange as it may sound, it watched with a trepidation tinged with sorrow. Not sorrow for the fallen dictators, but for the fall of the US Empire.
There are good reasons for this. For one thing, the US has been a society in crisis since the 1980s. Faced with the structural decline of its military-industrial empire in the face of overseas competitors, US elites chose a strategy of aggressive speculation and imperial revanchism called neoliberalism. As the decades passed, the scope of neoliberalism's speculation and revanchism kept increasing, and became flagrantly self-destructive.
Neoliberalism was afflicted with a reverse Midas touch: everything it touched eventually blew up in its own face, only with compound interest. 1980s union-busting turned into 1990s deindustrialization and eventually 2000s economic suicide. Likewise, the $400 billion S&L debacle was followed by the $1 trillion dotcom bubble and bust, and finally the $14 trillion (yes, it really was this big, see Nomi Prins for the gory details) securitization and housing bubble, whose implosion nearly melted the world economy. Conversely, counterinsurgency campaigns in El Salvador and Nicaragua turned into regional wars and IMF structural adjustment campaigns in the 1990s, and finally full-scale invasions of Central Asia in the early 2000s.
Adding to the crisis, the US Empire lost its most useful counterplayer, the USSR, in 1991. Ever since then, US elites have been casting about for a substitute for the fiction of the Soviet colossus in order to legitimate their rule. Muslim-bashing and the Terror War were final, desperate attempts to resuscitating the moldering corpses of the Communist boogeyman and the Cold War, and now the Arab Spring has obliterated even these pathetic excuses.
What the Arab Spring symbolizes, above all, is the popular rebellion against neoliberal plutocracy. The message to American citizens is clear: if you don't want plutocrats to despoil your country, you'll have to protest like a Tunisian, walk like an Egyptian, and fight like a Libyan.
All three went down in flaming wreckage. The first barely escaped an arrest order by hopping on a plane, the second is in jail, and the third is being hunted down like the low-rent gangster he always was. While the fall of the tyrants has been predictably electrifying on the Middle Eastern region -- several other countries are now in revolutionary ferment -- one of the most intriguing and paradoxical effects of the Arab Spring has been its transformation of the American political unconscious.
This political unconscious did not watch the Arab Spring with joy. Strange as it may sound, it watched with a trepidation tinged with sorrow. Not sorrow for the fallen dictators, but for the fall of the US Empire.
There are good reasons for this. For one thing, the US has been a society in crisis since the 1980s. Faced with the structural decline of its military-industrial empire in the face of overseas competitors, US elites chose a strategy of aggressive speculation and imperial revanchism called neoliberalism. As the decades passed, the scope of neoliberalism's speculation and revanchism kept increasing, and became flagrantly self-destructive.
Neoliberalism was afflicted with a reverse Midas touch: everything it touched eventually blew up in its own face, only with compound interest. 1980s union-busting turned into 1990s deindustrialization and eventually 2000s economic suicide. Likewise, the $400 billion S&L debacle was followed by the $1 trillion dotcom bubble and bust, and finally the $14 trillion (yes, it really was this big, see Nomi Prins for the gory details) securitization and housing bubble, whose implosion nearly melted the world economy. Conversely, counterinsurgency campaigns in El Salvador and Nicaragua turned into regional wars and IMF structural adjustment campaigns in the 1990s, and finally full-scale invasions of Central Asia in the early 2000s.
Adding to the crisis, the US Empire lost its most useful counterplayer, the USSR, in 1991. Ever since then, US elites have been casting about for a substitute for the fiction of the Soviet colossus in order to legitimate their rule. Muslim-bashing and the Terror War were final, desperate attempts to resuscitating the moldering corpses of the Communist boogeyman and the Cold War, and now the Arab Spring has obliterated even these pathetic excuses.
What the Arab Spring symbolizes, above all, is the popular rebellion against neoliberal plutocracy. The message to American citizens is clear: if you don't want plutocrats to despoil your country, you'll have to protest like a Tunisian, walk like an Egyptian, and fight like a Libyan.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Arab Spring: Building Developmental States
Libya has officially begun the transition to the post-revolutionary era, something nicely underlined by the Transnational National Council's relocation to the newly-freed capital city of Tripoli, where they held their first press conference today.
Despite its small demographic size -- Libya has a population of 7 million, smaller than Tunisia's 10 million and much smaller than Egypt's 84 million -- the success of Libya's revolution will have far-reaching consequences for the entire region. The reason is that both Tunisia and Egypt
have economies deeply damaged by Euro-American neoliberalism and indigenous comprador elites. However, Libya has $150 billion in foreign exchange reserves, plus one-quarter of Africa's energy reserves. A free, democratic Libya is precisely the financial motor the North African region urgently needs.
All the initial signs are promising. The freedom fighters have done a remarkable job in avoiding unnecessary bloodshed and revenge attacks, and have moved quickly to re-establish civic security and stability. Most neighborhoods in Tripoli now have checkpoints, excess weapons are being collected, and electricity, internet and cellphone access have been almost fully restored. There are still isolated firefights with the remnants of Qaddafi's militias, but the vast majority of the city is secure.
Tripoli's extensive cadre of civil servants, engineers and professionals can now begin to reconstruct the country. Libya's financial and energy resources, its newfound sense of national unity and purpose, and competent political leadership could spark an unprecedented economic boom. Libya, Tunisia and Egypt could conceivably form a "growth triangle" which will be one of the two key economic motors of the Middle East (the other is AKP-led Turkey, one of Eurasia's fastest-growing developmental states).
This isn't to say there won't be missteps along the way. Author Hisham Matar has this timely essay on the challenges of building a post-Qaddafi Libya.
Also, check out this portal of Arabic-language rap music, which will hopefully expand in the near future.
UPDATE: Twitter posts say Mohammed Bin Lamin, the brilliant Misurata artist whose work was mentioned in a previous post, has been freed (along with thousands of others) from the notorious Abu Salim prison.
Despite its small demographic size -- Libya has a population of 7 million, smaller than Tunisia's 10 million and much smaller than Egypt's 84 million -- the success of Libya's revolution will have far-reaching consequences for the entire region. The reason is that both Tunisia and Egypt
have economies deeply damaged by Euro-American neoliberalism and indigenous comprador elites. However, Libya has $150 billion in foreign exchange reserves, plus one-quarter of Africa's energy reserves. A free, democratic Libya is precisely the financial motor the North African region urgently needs.
All the initial signs are promising. The freedom fighters have done a remarkable job in avoiding unnecessary bloodshed and revenge attacks, and have moved quickly to re-establish civic security and stability. Most neighborhoods in Tripoli now have checkpoints, excess weapons are being collected, and electricity, internet and cellphone access have been almost fully restored. There are still isolated firefights with the remnants of Qaddafi's militias, but the vast majority of the city is secure.
Tripoli's extensive cadre of civil servants, engineers and professionals can now begin to reconstruct the country. Libya's financial and energy resources, its newfound sense of national unity and purpose, and competent political leadership could spark an unprecedented economic boom. Libya, Tunisia and Egypt could conceivably form a "growth triangle" which will be one of the two key economic motors of the Middle East (the other is AKP-led Turkey, one of Eurasia's fastest-growing developmental states).
This isn't to say there won't be missteps along the way. Author Hisham Matar has this timely essay on the challenges of building a post-Qaddafi Libya.
Also, check out this portal of Arabic-language rap music, which will hopefully expand in the near future.
UPDATE: Twitter posts say Mohammed Bin Lamin, the brilliant Misurata artist whose work was mentioned in a previous post, has been freed (along with thousands of others) from the notorious Abu Salim prison.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Libya You Don't Know
The Arab Spring is on the march, and no dictators, one-party states, or crumbling Empires can stop it. Still, one of the hurdles facing the Arab Spring is the persistence of neo-Orientalist stereotypes about the Arab world in the mainstream English-speaking media. All too often, the region is depicted as a landscape of oil, deserts, and political tyranny. To counter these stereotypes, here's a small sampling of the amazing cultural richness of just one Arab country, the country of Libya.
Sight. Here's a piece called "Tree of Women" by Misurata-based Libyan artist Mohammad Bin Lamin:
Bin Lamin's works are riveting, haunted by postcolonial ghosts and yet scintillating with energy. More of his work can be seen here and here (his homepage is here). Early in the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi thugs ravaged Misurata, killing and abducting thousands of people. The revolutionaries defeated them and drove them out of the city, but Bin Lamin was one of those abducted. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Sound. In 2010 and 2011, exiled Libyan musician Ibn Thabit created some of the finest rap music of the Arabic region, including this track, which may go down in history as the unofficial anthem of the revolution (his homepage is here, and his Youtube videos are here). Recently, Ibn Thabit made the courageous decision to join the frontlines of the revolution -- read his latest account of the revolution in the Nafusa mountains.
Diversity.The Libyan revolution is not just about formal political liberation, it's also about the liberation of the long-suppressed cultural diversity of Libyan society. Some of the staunchest defenders of the revolution are the Amazigh (also known in English as Berber) inhabitants of the Nafusa mountains, whose language and culture were ruthlessly suppressed by the dictatorship. A Libyan resident of the mountains created this video, counterpointing the soaring music and words of Algerian artist Idir (a member of the Algerian branch of the Amazigh) to images of the mountains and its revolution. Note that the language is not Arabic but Amazigh, and English subtitles are included in the video.
Food. Last but surely not least, Libya has its own world-class culinary traditions. You can check out some of them at the Libyan Food Blog, with authentic Libyan and regional recipes. We've tried some of them, and can certify they're delicious.
Sight. Here's a piece called "Tree of Women" by Misurata-based Libyan artist Mohammad Bin Lamin:
Bin Lamin's works are riveting, haunted by postcolonial ghosts and yet scintillating with energy. More of his work can be seen here and here (his homepage is here). Early in the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi thugs ravaged Misurata, killing and abducting thousands of people. The revolutionaries defeated them and drove them out of the city, but Bin Lamin was one of those abducted. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Sound. In 2010 and 2011, exiled Libyan musician Ibn Thabit created some of the finest rap music of the Arabic region, including this track, which may go down in history as the unofficial anthem of the revolution (his homepage is here, and his Youtube videos are here). Recently, Ibn Thabit made the courageous decision to join the frontlines of the revolution -- read his latest account of the revolution in the Nafusa mountains.
Diversity.The Libyan revolution is not just about formal political liberation, it's also about the liberation of the long-suppressed cultural diversity of Libyan society. Some of the staunchest defenders of the revolution are the Amazigh (also known in English as Berber) inhabitants of the Nafusa mountains, whose language and culture were ruthlessly suppressed by the dictatorship. A Libyan resident of the mountains created this video, counterpointing the soaring music and words of Algerian artist Idir (a member of the Algerian branch of the Amazigh) to images of the mountains and its revolution. Note that the language is not Arabic but Amazigh, and English subtitles are included in the video.
Food. Last but surely not least, Libya has its own world-class culinary traditions. You can check out some of them at the Libyan Food Blog, with authentic Libyan and regional recipes. We've tried some of them, and can certify they're delicious.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Margins
How thin, the veil between critical thinking and the total system.
One false step, one missed shot, one mangled interview and you spiral down into the brokenness of the United Status of Chimerica. The morbid symptoms of imperial collapse are multiplying -- plutocrats who prattled endlessly about market discipline while indulging in the biggest, most irresponsible credit bubble in recorded history, health insurers whose business model is to deny health care to the sick, elites who prattle endlessly about freedom while building the biggest prison-system of all time, the savaging of education and social services while trillions are pissed away on failed neocolonial wars. These days, you can feel the geopolitical riptide carrying an entire society out to sea.
But that's not a reason to despair, but a reason to fight for the things which give us life. Those things can be as complex as Adorno's message in a bottle, or as simple as the sight of a child laboriously hand-copying its first written word. They are the things which are cast off, excluded, dismissed -- the things at the margins. They shimmer, just out of reach of the prison-house of neoliberalism, their surfaces edged with the faintest shadow of what could be.
I can hear it in the best transnational hip hop.
I can see it in the best transnational video.
I can feel it in the best transnational videogames.
The heartbeat of the Resistance.
One false step, one missed shot, one mangled interview and you spiral down into the brokenness of the United Status of Chimerica. The morbid symptoms of imperial collapse are multiplying -- plutocrats who prattled endlessly about market discipline while indulging in the biggest, most irresponsible credit bubble in recorded history, health insurers whose business model is to deny health care to the sick, elites who prattle endlessly about freedom while building the biggest prison-system of all time, the savaging of education and social services while trillions are pissed away on failed neocolonial wars. These days, you can feel the geopolitical riptide carrying an entire society out to sea.
But that's not a reason to despair, but a reason to fight for the things which give us life. Those things can be as complex as Adorno's message in a bottle, or as simple as the sight of a child laboriously hand-copying its first written word. They are the things which are cast off, excluded, dismissed -- the things at the margins. They shimmer, just out of reach of the prison-house of neoliberalism, their surfaces edged with the faintest shadow of what could be.
I can hear it in the best transnational hip hop.
I can see it in the best transnational video.
I can feel it in the best transnational videogames.
The heartbeat of the Resistance.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Metrics of Decline
Occasionally I get comments from readers who express surprise at my gloominess about the US. Surely this place isn't melting down completely... is it?
Here's a chart showing just one metric of imperial decline, the implosion of the US machine-tools industry (data from the ever-reliable folks at Gardner Publications):
(Side-note: the magnitude of the US decline is matched only by the slide of that other former superpower trashed by market fundamentalism, Britain, whose share of machine-tools production dropped from 2.3% in 2001 to 0.7% in 2010).
It doesn't have to be this way. If the US spent $1 trillion every year on education and green jobs instead of neocolonial war and drone strikes on Afghan wedding processions, 90% of our social and economic problems would go away within a decade.
America has a choice: military-colonial ruination, or eco-democratic rebirth.
Here's a chart showing just one metric of imperial decline, the implosion of the US machine-tools industry (data from the ever-reliable folks at Gardner Publications):
| Region or Country | 2001 Production of Machine-tools as Percent World | 2010 Production of Machine-tools as Percent World |
| BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) | 8.9% | 32.4% |
| Europe (EU plus Switzerland) | 48.7% | 31.0% |
| East Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) | 14.0% | 30.4% |
| US | 7.9% | 3.1% |
(Side-note: the magnitude of the US decline is matched only by the slide of that other former superpower trashed by market fundamentalism, Britain, whose share of machine-tools production dropped from 2.3% in 2001 to 0.7% in 2010).
It doesn't have to be this way. If the US spent $1 trillion every year on education and green jobs instead of neocolonial war and drone strikes on Afghan wedding processions, 90% of our social and economic problems would go away within a decade.
America has a choice: military-colonial ruination, or eco-democratic rebirth.
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Death Mask of Neoliberalism
In times like these, it's easy to give in to rampant despair.
But the painful, bumpy descent of the US Empire into stagnation and irrelevance isn't the end of the world.
The plutocrats own trillions in assets. But we workers of the world own twenty-five or so developmental states and gigantic sovereign wealth funds.
The plutocrats own the US political overclass. But we own massive social movements.
The plutocrats own the mainstream media. But we own the digital commons and the videogame culture.
The plutocrats are trying to make workers pay for the cost of their thievery and outrageous greed. But progressive candidates are winning in Latin America and revolutions are sweeping the Middle East.
Neoliberalism has trashed our planet. It's time to take it back.
But the painful, bumpy descent of the US Empire into stagnation and irrelevance isn't the end of the world.
The plutocrats own trillions in assets. But we workers of the world own twenty-five or so developmental states and gigantic sovereign wealth funds.
The plutocrats own the US political overclass. But we own massive social movements.
The plutocrats own the mainstream media. But we own the digital commons and the videogame culture.
The plutocrats are trying to make workers pay for the cost of their thievery and outrageous greed. But progressive candidates are winning in Latin America and revolutions are sweeping the Middle East.
Neoliberalism has trashed our planet. It's time to take it back.
One, two, many Joe Capellis!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Why I Study Transnational Media
Fame? Fortune? Actually, it's because my day job is finding gems like this.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Imperial Undertow
Surefire sign that I'm getting older: science-fiction posthistory is increasingly difficult to distinguish from fantasy-fiction prehistory. Because the tide is going out on this Empire, and the undertow is pulling millions of Americans under.
It's a familiar undertow. I know all too well what they're going through. The rage, the frustration, the steadily increasing desperation, the spiral into near-suicidal depression -- been there, done that. Long ago, the first ripples of that undertow almost carried me out to sea. This was almost a decade ago, when my chosen profession (the teaching of literature in the US) went and shot itself in the head. I shudder to think of what would've happened if I hadn't discovered the world of media studies.
The ripples became waves, the waves became a flood. The horrible tragedy is that most Americans still don't realize it isn't their fault. It is the fault of this dreadfully corrupt and unjust system we live in, this dying Empire collapsing under the weight of trillion dollar military boondoggles and trillion-dollar bailouts for corrupt banksters. Trillions for war and theft, while schoolteachers are fired to save pennies and children are test-milled into oblivion.
We must disassemble the monster, before it disassembles us all.
In happier news, I've posted some new theory-rants posted here (the first of six, they're all up now). Also, I finally scored a cheap webcam, which means more webcasts will be unleashed in the near future on an unsuspecting planet. Next up: thoughts on the postneoliberal era.
It's a familiar undertow. I know all too well what they're going through. The rage, the frustration, the steadily increasing desperation, the spiral into near-suicidal depression -- been there, done that. Long ago, the first ripples of that undertow almost carried me out to sea. This was almost a decade ago, when my chosen profession (the teaching of literature in the US) went and shot itself in the head. I shudder to think of what would've happened if I hadn't discovered the world of media studies.
The ripples became waves, the waves became a flood. The horrible tragedy is that most Americans still don't realize it isn't their fault. It is the fault of this dreadfully corrupt and unjust system we live in, this dying Empire collapsing under the weight of trillion dollar military boondoggles and trillion-dollar bailouts for corrupt banksters. Trillions for war and theft, while schoolteachers are fired to save pennies and children are test-milled into oblivion.
We must disassemble the monster, before it disassembles us all.
In happier news, I've posted some new theory-rants posted here (the first of six, they're all up now). Also, I finally scored a cheap webcam, which means more webcasts will be unleashed in the near future on an unsuspecting planet. Next up: thoughts on the postneoliberal era.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Six Levels of Twilight
Grey shapes, formless. The bead of droplets on unknown surfaces. Gibsonian complexity which cuts the eye. Capillaries stream with light. World-systems strobe past, granular and immiscible. Ready or not, the 21st century has finally begun.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Darkness
Bad cold. Nightmares all night. Energy-drain. Crush depth. We're all Joseph Capelli and Susan Shepherd in the war of the Wall Street Chimera on humanity.
I refuse to quit.
I refuse to quit.
I refuse to quit.
There is only resistance.
I refuse to quit.
I refuse to quit.
I refuse to quit.
There is only resistance.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Twilight Souls
Deep in the dissertation zone, which is much like living permanently in one of the deeper levels of Russian sci-fi writer Sergei Lukyanenko's Twilight in his hugely entertaining Nightwatch novels (now available to English speakers thanks to excellent translations by Andrew Blomfield).
The shaping of each word. Measurements of texture, the scanning of density and mass. The extreme energy expenditure of standing still. Endless dunes of grey sand, beading into opalescent skies, streaked with light. Kneel down and grab a handful of sand: what seemed platinum gray at a distance turns out to harbor shimmering colors, each grain a fractal multitude.
Where have I come from.
Where am I going.
It's hard to think transnationally.
The shaping of each word. Measurements of texture, the scanning of density and mass. The extreme energy expenditure of standing still. Endless dunes of grey sand, beading into opalescent skies, streaked with light. Kneel down and grab a handful of sand: what seemed platinum gray at a distance turns out to harbor shimmering colors, each grain a fractal multitude.
Where have I come from.
Where am I going.
It's hard to think transnationally.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Hold the Line!
The dictator's forces have counter-attacked, taking back several towns in the west. After a week of heroic resistance, the small city of Az-Zawiya was blasted into smithereens and occupied by regime forces, though it seems many of the rebels escaped to fight another day. Misurata, Libya's third-largest city, is still holding fast, as are the far western towns, though for how long, noone can know.
What is clear is that while support for the dictator is minimal – the population of Tripoli is sullen and morose, the state propaganda victory parades shown on state TV are pathetically small, and it took the regime a full week for its crack troops to defeat the largely unarmed protestors of Az-Zawiya, a small city – the revolutionaries don't yet have the organization to topple the state's military machine. The revolutionaries made a brave but futile attempt to take the town of Sirte with nothing more than AK-47s and pickup trucks, and were driven all the way back to Ajdabiya by tanks, air-strikes and rocket barrages.
Still, the regime's greatest threat remains the eastern cities. They are not just the heartland of the rebellion, they are located in hilly terrain unfavorable to open tank warfare (in fact, the road to Tobruk was the site of some memorable battles in WWII). The regime is hastily throwing its most capable brigades at the east, knowing full well that they need to strike before the UN sanctions and the loss of oil revenues bites. Unlike Saddam-era Iraq, which had a sizeable middle class and trained engineers capable of keeping the refineries running, the Libyan regime is utterly dependent on skilled foreign labor.
The revolutionaries must play for time, dig solid anti-tank defenses, and mobilize its civilian population. Properly organized, the 1 million citizens of the east can put 50,000 soldiers into the field and eventually defeat the regime's mercenaries and elite brigades, which do not number more than 30,000. The revolutionaries control the border with Egypt, and have access to fresh weapons and supplies. The regime's obsolete, poorly-maintained tanks will become increasingly less effective and eventually useless, once the revolutionaries acquire sufficient anti-tank weaponry. Tunisia's nascent democracy will enforce UN sanctions on its border; and it will not be possible to export significant amounts of oil through Algeria or Chad. The only card the regime has left to play is air-power, and a UN-sponsored no-fly zone can take care of that.
I know what you're thinking: Slorgzilla has jumped the shark and joined the neocons, who are barking for another disastrous colonial war.
Nope, no sharks here. Any direct foreign intervention in Libya would be a catastrophe. But the problem is how best to deal with the legacy of *past* forms of foreign intervention. In a 2009 report for the US Congressional Research Office, analyst Richard F. Grimmett estimated the countries of Europe sold the regime $1.3 billion of military equipment during 2000-2009, Russia sold $600 million, and other countries an estimated $300 million worth. Now that $2.2 billion is being used by a murderous tyrant to kill his own people. Consider further that the European Union has been the main customer of Libya's oil, effectively financing the dictatorship.
Noone can fight the Libyan people's battle for them. But we can at least neutralize the regime's air-force, and save as many Libyan lives as possible.
No Libyan blood for oil, and no Libyan blood for arms sales, either.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Zawiya and Benghazi, Hero Cities
The people of Libya are so brave, so incredibly brave. They are facing not just point-blank fire by tanks, APCs, artillery and air strikes, but also the more subtle but no less dangerous enemies of fatigue, despair, reactionary identity-politics, and regime propaganda.
Alex Crawford filed this stunning report from Zawiya, a small city just twenty minutes away from the outskirts of Tripoli. It shows how the regime's thugs murdered unarmed, peaceful demonstrators -- and only then did the people pick up weapons to defend themselves. And defend themselves they have. They fought off literally weeks of attacks by the crack brigades of the dictator. They fought against the best the regime had -- and they are winning. Time and again they have driven out incursions by the dictator's forces, and continue to control their city.
On Libya Alhurra, the Revolution's web-streamed TV channel, another band of heroes had gathered: a meeting of the women of the revolution in Benghazi, organizing themselves and their city to consolidate and support the revolution. They are no less brave, casting off centuries of patriarchal oppression as well as decades of regime propaganda, and their struggles are no less important to the foundation of Libya's democracy.
Two bands of heroes, covering themselves and their nation in glory.
Alex Crawford filed this stunning report from Zawiya, a small city just twenty minutes away from the outskirts of Tripoli. It shows how the regime's thugs murdered unarmed, peaceful demonstrators -- and only then did the people pick up weapons to defend themselves. And defend themselves they have. They fought off literally weeks of attacks by the crack brigades of the dictator. They fought against the best the regime had -- and they are winning. Time and again they have driven out incursions by the dictator's forces, and continue to control their city.
On Libya Alhurra, the Revolution's web-streamed TV channel, another band of heroes had gathered: a meeting of the women of the revolution in Benghazi, organizing themselves and their city to consolidate and support the revolution. They are no less brave, casting off centuries of patriarchal oppression as well as decades of regime propaganda, and their struggles are no less important to the foundation of Libya's democracy.
Two bands of heroes, covering themselves and their nation in glory.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Revolution on the March
The people of the Middle East are pulling off one of the most amazing feats in human history, toppling a seemingly impregnable series of corrupt, bloodthirsty neoliberal dictatorships with record speed. It took a month for Tunisians to send Ben-Ali packing, and it took 21 days for the people of Egypt to topple Mubarak.
Now Libya has picked up the pace. Within a single week, the people of Libya have risen up against Qaddafi's neoliberal gangster-ocracy. It started with three days of horrifying state repression against peaceful demonstrators, but it didn't end there. Inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt, the eastern cities rose up and threw off their chains. Knowing full well that the rebellion would be crushed if it remained local, activists creatively refunctioned Libya's limited social media networks, spreading the sparks of rebellion to the rest of Libya. The regime's only response was to broadcast some the most bone-crushingly idiotic and patently absurd state propaganda ever emitted by a dying autocracy, while unleashing foreign mercenaries to murder its citizens en masse. This brutality has allowed it to retain limited control over parts of Tripoli, but has only served to enrage ordinary Libyans. Pro-democracy militias and army units are now converging on the city for the final showdown.
The city of Benghazi, epicenter of the eastern rebellion, has been running the only live video feed currently available from the country. The Revolution Cam just ran its first webcast, an improvised pre-Qaddafi flag (red, black and green) prominent in the background -- the insignia which will undoubtedly become the official symbol of the free, democratic Libya of the future:
http://www.livestream.com/libya17feb
The best source of news:
http://feb17.info/
Robert Fisk weighs in on the approaching end:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/tripoli-a-city-in-the-shadow-of-death-2223977.html
Now Libya has picked up the pace. Within a single week, the people of Libya have risen up against Qaddafi's neoliberal gangster-ocracy. It started with three days of horrifying state repression against peaceful demonstrators, but it didn't end there. Inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt, the eastern cities rose up and threw off their chains. Knowing full well that the rebellion would be crushed if it remained local, activists creatively refunctioned Libya's limited social media networks, spreading the sparks of rebellion to the rest of Libya. The regime's only response was to broadcast some the most bone-crushingly idiotic and patently absurd state propaganda ever emitted by a dying autocracy, while unleashing foreign mercenaries to murder its citizens en masse. This brutality has allowed it to retain limited control over parts of Tripoli, but has only served to enrage ordinary Libyans. Pro-democracy militias and army units are now converging on the city for the final showdown.
The city of Benghazi, epicenter of the eastern rebellion, has been running the only live video feed currently available from the country. The Revolution Cam just ran its first webcast, an improvised pre-Qaddafi flag (red, black and green) prominent in the background -- the insignia which will undoubtedly become the official symbol of the free, democratic Libya of the future:
http://www.livestream.com/libya17feb
The best source of news:
http://feb17.info/
Robert Fisk weighs in on the approaching end:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/tripoli-a-city-in-the-shadow-of-death-2223977.html
Friday, February 18, 2011
Masrzilla
January 25, 2011 may well go down in history as the zero-hour of a new geopolitical entity in the Middle East, the first true developmental state of the Arabic-speaking region: Masrzilla.
In many ways, Egypt's postcolonial history is a combination of post-WW II Latin America and postcolonial Southeastern Asia: a period of decolonization carried out by nationalist military officers, followed by the era of Nasser's firebrand pan-Arabism and the construction of an import-substitution economy -- a blend of Indonesia's Sukarno and Peron's Argentina, as it were.
However, while the Nasser regime did bring about limited social reforms, it was unable to industrialize the country, resolve the glaring social inequities of Egyptian society, or create a democratic national polity. The result was political crisis and economic stagnation. Egypt sank into Sadat's neocolonial
authoritarianism, and finally into Mubarak's kleptocratic neoliberalism.
Beginning in the late 1990s, neoliberal regimes through the industrializing world began to implode under the accumulated weight of their own internal contradictions. Venezuela led the way in 1998, quickly followed by Russia, Argentina, Turkey and Brazil. For their part, China and India never fully embraced neoliberal policies, and pragmatically steered towards regulated mixed economies 2004.
Two factors prevented the Egyptian regime from imploding until now. First, Egyptian workers flocked to Middle Eastern oil-producing states during the post-1979 oil shocks and also began to emigrate in significant numbers to the European Community, forerunner of the European Union. The remittances these workers sent home stabilized Egypt's economy, very much as remittances stabilized the Philippines during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Second, the US pumped tens of billions of dollars into Egypt as a reward for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
By 2011, however, the game was up. The world economic crisis crimped remittances, and US military aid was no longer large enough to finance the investment needs of a population of 80 million citizens. The result was not just one of the great democratic revolutions of the 21st century, but the first openly anti-neoliberal revolution of our time.
Ironically, this delay is why Egypt may well become a developmental state and an economic motor for the entire region in record time. It took Brazil twenty years to manage the transition from the democratic revolution of the early 1980s to the economic democratization of the Lula-Dilma era; it took Russia ten years to translate the political freedoms of 1991 into the genuine economic development of the Putin-Medvedev era. But Egypt can achieve the same feat within a couple of years, assuming it can make the transition to a full-fledged democracy (and all the signs are promising).
The key is not, as neoliberal observers chatter, the attitude of the military. The key is the extensive industrial networks of Egypt's military-owned industries. These are the crucial engine for Egypt's economic revival. The first step will be to seize the ill-gotten assets of the Mubarak family and selected oligarchs. Next, transform the military enterprises into state champions, and use their surplus-profits to finance education and social services. Finally, pursue a UNASUR-style foreign policy of regional democratization and economic integration, and help free Palestine from Israeli colonization (and encourage Israel to free itself from the monstrous Israelo-apartheid which so terribly disfigures and warps its society).
In many ways, Egypt's postcolonial history is a combination of post-WW II Latin America and postcolonial Southeastern Asia: a period of decolonization carried out by nationalist military officers, followed by the era of Nasser's firebrand pan-Arabism and the construction of an import-substitution economy -- a blend of Indonesia's Sukarno and Peron's Argentina, as it were.
However, while the Nasser regime did bring about limited social reforms, it was unable to industrialize the country, resolve the glaring social inequities of Egyptian society, or create a democratic national polity. The result was political crisis and economic stagnation. Egypt sank into Sadat's neocolonial
authoritarianism, and finally into Mubarak's kleptocratic neoliberalism.
Beginning in the late 1990s, neoliberal regimes through the industrializing world began to implode under the accumulated weight of their own internal contradictions. Venezuela led the way in 1998, quickly followed by Russia, Argentina, Turkey and Brazil. For their part, China and India never fully embraced neoliberal policies, and pragmatically steered towards regulated mixed economies 2004.
Two factors prevented the Egyptian regime from imploding until now. First, Egyptian workers flocked to Middle Eastern oil-producing states during the post-1979 oil shocks and also began to emigrate in significant numbers to the European Community, forerunner of the European Union. The remittances these workers sent home stabilized Egypt's economy, very much as remittances stabilized the Philippines during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Second, the US pumped tens of billions of dollars into Egypt as a reward for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
By 2011, however, the game was up. The world economic crisis crimped remittances, and US military aid was no longer large enough to finance the investment needs of a population of 80 million citizens. The result was not just one of the great democratic revolutions of the 21st century, but the first openly anti-neoliberal revolution of our time.
Ironically, this delay is why Egypt may well become a developmental state and an economic motor for the entire region in record time. It took Brazil twenty years to manage the transition from the democratic revolution of the early 1980s to the economic democratization of the Lula-Dilma era; it took Russia ten years to translate the political freedoms of 1991 into the genuine economic development of the Putin-Medvedev era. But Egypt can achieve the same feat within a couple of years, assuming it can make the transition to a full-fledged democracy (and all the signs are promising).
The key is not, as neoliberal observers chatter, the attitude of the military. The key is the extensive industrial networks of Egypt's military-owned industries. These are the crucial engine for Egypt's economic revival. The first step will be to seize the ill-gotten assets of the Mubarak family and selected oligarchs. Next, transform the military enterprises into state champions, and use their surplus-profits to finance education and social services. Finally, pursue a UNASUR-style foreign policy of regional democratization and economic integration, and help free Palestine from Israeli colonization (and encourage Israel to free itself from the monstrous Israelo-apartheid which so terribly disfigures and warps its society).
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Semiperiphery Explodes
Like many nations of the semi-periphery, Egypt is one of the oldest of human cultures, and the newest of nation-states.
Like many nations of the semi-periphery, Egypt heroically threw off the yoke of colonialism, only to fall under the sway of postcolonial elites who gradually forgot their popular roots, and devolved into corrupt underlings of Wall Street neoliberalism. Typically, their rule was administered by client states armed and financed by the US Empire.
But in the late 1990s, the nations of the semi-periphery began to rebel against the economics of neoliberalism and the politics of neocolonialism. The power of tanks, guns and jails fell to far mightier powers: the power of the pen, the website, the video-clip and the ballot box. It happened in Venezuela and Indonesia in 1998, Russia in 1999, Argentina in 2001, Turkey in 2002, Brazil in 2003, India in 2004, etc.
One by one, former US client states melted away, in an uncanny echo of the collapse of the Soviet client states of Eastern Europe in 1990-91.
And now the people of Egypt have joined the party, upsetting the last bastion of US neoimperial rule over the world. It's the end of the Arabic-region autocracies, the end of Israelo-apartheid (aided and abetted by corrupt regional elites), and the beginning of true democracy everywhere in the Middle East -- in Egypt, in Israel, in Palestine.
The revolution will be live and online.
Like many nations of the semi-periphery, Egypt heroically threw off the yoke of colonialism, only to fall under the sway of postcolonial elites who gradually forgot their popular roots, and devolved into corrupt underlings of Wall Street neoliberalism. Typically, their rule was administered by client states armed and financed by the US Empire.
But in the late 1990s, the nations of the semi-periphery began to rebel against the economics of neoliberalism and the politics of neocolonialism. The power of tanks, guns and jails fell to far mightier powers: the power of the pen, the website, the video-clip and the ballot box. It happened in Venezuela and Indonesia in 1998, Russia in 1999, Argentina in 2001, Turkey in 2002, Brazil in 2003, India in 2004, etc.
One by one, former US client states melted away, in an uncanny echo of the collapse of the Soviet client states of Eastern Europe in 1990-91.
And now the people of Egypt have joined the party, upsetting the last bastion of US neoimperial rule over the world. It's the end of the Arabic-region autocracies, the end of Israelo-apartheid (aided and abetted by corrupt regional elites), and the beginning of true democracy everywhere in the Middle East -- in Egypt, in Israel, in Palestine.
The revolution will be live and online.
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