Communitarian Alternative: Open_Notes 1

globalization - the new face of capitalism - WTO, etc., the main instruments and instigators -- Margaret Thatcher "TINA" There Is No Alternative -- Markets are managed, designed, constructed - double-edged (poor/rich) - managed internally by corporations (tyranny) - cost socialized, profit privatized, loss privatized (IMF, World Bank); the poor of the country pay out the private lenders, along with the western taxpayers who provide the free risk insurance (monies) -- 100 top TNC's (have received state monies, protection); 20 would not have survived without public money -- decisions are made by: 1 states (G7 the most equal among equals); the US the most equal among the equal; 2 institutions (of global dominance), ie. WTO; 3 corporations, financial institutions (linked TNC's); 1.5T$ capital flow/day, mostly destructive use (money markets) vs. constructive use [90% of the international flows of money = speculation in financial assets ie., bank loans for hedge funds, stocks on margin, etc.] - the overwhelming of National-States; Congress owned - 1/4 of 1% of the population give the majority of political contributions, and they expect a return -- the giveaway of the Internet; given to commercial interests (developed over 30 years at public expense) -- private power sets the conditions in which decisions are made, no matter who is in power - global capital power has veto power over policy (a virtual Senate vs. "irrational" policy designed to help people not profits), capital withdrawn as punishment.

"liberalization" of capital and finance opens up countries to the [SAGE] Senate; these are major factors in the world since the early 1970s (neo-liberalism, minimizing the state); in the OECD, the 29 richest countries' expenditures have increased for the rich while decreasing services to the poor (this is not minimizing the state, this is changing the state) -- the world reflects the interests of its owners (through media, advertising) - customs of the ages replaced by a message of futility, superficiality, to instill a need (a philosophy of futility and helplessness) -- the more free a country is the more you have to control the public mind -- after WWI (public franchise extended; industrial democracy) the regimentation of the public mind became a priority along with manufactured crises (the red scare) - political warfare vs. the public - after WWII and the depression, a democratic surge worldwide; this led to a huge propaganda offensive; 1960s another huge democratic upsurge ("The Crisis of Democracy", Trilateral Commission book; an excess of democracy has to be controlled), led to repression and increased propaganda and the liberalization of capital flows.

Communitarian Alternative: Open_Notes 1