Friday, October 14, 2005

Apocalypse Now and the Brave New World

A Futurist Outlines the Likely Future of America and the World

I almost always avoid reading or emailing anything by a futurist. One reason for my aversion to most futurist writers is that they almost always display serious gaps in their knowledge about how the present day world is actually functioning. This is a fatal flaw because what a futurist does is not unlike what is done by the utopian novelists, both negative and positive.

Utopian writers select certain tendencies in their contemporary societies and project those trends onto a huge imaginary screen whereon they are greatly enlarged, a process not unlike that which is done at your local movie theater when you take in a flick. With the image we have of our current society thusly magnified many, many times, a viewer gets a much better view of what certain social, political, and economic trends might look like if allowed to grow to a much greater size.

It's clear that such writers must understand their current societies in depth before they can do these projections. The most famous negative utopian novelist was George Orwell. His futuristic society was based on trends Orwell brilliantly identified in England and America. Based on those trends, he developed a vision of where the future was taking Great Britain and America. That's why he is still deemed worth reading.

As I said above, most of today's futurists lack an in-depth understanding of today's America. They see some trends that truly exist, but they also throw in trends they paranoically imagine. The piece I'm sending you today is a brilliant exception to that rule. Richard Moore has written the best futurist look at America and the world that we currently live in that I've read since I don't know when.

It unquestionably is an apocalyptic vision of the future, but it is one that is consistently based on obvious trends that are being shaped and driven by the PNAC cabal. Moore over and over again elucidates what he says with examples of statements by powerful insiders such as Kissinger. The entire piece hangs together beautifully as it presents an astonishing overview of where America and the world are apparently headed. This analysis is not some kind of naked guesswork. Moore offers evidence for everything he says. You may hate what he has to say, but you'll find it mighty tough to quarrel with his projections.

Incidentally, if you want to read an excellent analysis of Katrina and the behavior of our government in her aftermath, you will find it here.

The same goes for speculating on what appears to be a looming assault on Iran.

I have a couple of small quarrels with Moore's analysis, but his is a consistently insightful analysis, the kind that is often referred to as a MUST read. I know that 'must read' is an overused phrase, but I use it here with confidence. If you're interested in having a clear, cohesive overview of what now looms as a potential future world, I don't know of another analysis that will do the job as ably as this one.

One warning: this item just might send you scurrying to obtain a New Zealand or Costa Rican passport.

Warmest regards,
Richard

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Apocalypse Now and the Brave New World

by Richard Moore

21 Sep 2005 - We are now on the cusp of one of the most momentous historical episodes of all time — the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are about to ride. Peak oil is the primary underlying condition forcing change, and Apocalypse is the action plan ruling elites have chosen as their response to that condition. Not only does this response make a great deal of sense, from their Machiavellian perspective, but by their recent actions they have clearly signaled the scope and direction of their intentions. Furthermore, their planned response is in complete alignment with earlier responses to similar situations in the past — by these same people or by their direct predecessors.

The Four Horsemen of this Apocalypse:
Collapse
Genocide
War
Fascism
References:

Brzezinski, Zbigniew, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Basic Books, New York, 1998.

Chossudovsky, Michel, The Globalization of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Re-forms, Second Edition, Global Outlook, Shanty Bay, Ontario, 2003.

Engdahl, William, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, Revised Edition, Pluto Press, London, 2004.

Higham, Charles, Trading with the Enemy, Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1984.

NSSM 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests, http://web.archive.org/web/20041122015841/http://www.africa2000.com/SNDX/nssm200all.html.

Project for a New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses, http://www.newamericancentury.org/defensenationalsecurity.htm.



Historical background:

“History teaches by analogy, not identity. The historical experience is not one of staying in the present and looking back; rather, it is one of going back into the past and returning to the present with a wider and more intense consciousness.”

— Daniel Estulin, investigative journalist

Peak oil is real. That is to say, we have reached the point where our annual consumption of oil is considerably greater than our annual ability to develop new sources. While global consumption continues to increase, potential sources can only decrease. No matter what anyone does, our oil-based global economy cannot continue for much longer in its current form — at current population levels. At the same time, we must remember that the remaining reserves are vast — perhaps the same amount remains as has ever been pumped, although it will become increasingly expensive to extract.

The fact of peak oil, in itself, does not necessarily imply that apocalypse is inevitable. If humanity were to face this problem in a sensible way, there is much that could be done to alleviate the crisis, re-organize our societies and economies, localize our production and consumption, reduce our wasteful practices, move to appropriate technologies, develop alternative energy sources and transport methods, etc. But it is not ‘humanity’ that is in the driver’s seat.

As we have watched the arrogant and radical behavior of the Bush administration over the past five years, it has become apparent to all that the neocon clique that dominates the White House is pursuing an agenda of its own, an agenda that is partially described in their PNAC document, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”, which they proudly display on their website. This is not an agenda that ‘humanity’ has chosen, nor have the American people chosen it. In fact people and nations all over the world are resisting and protesting this agenda, Bush’s popularity is at an all-time low in America — and none of this makes any difference to the pursuit of the agenda.

For the moment at least, we can all see that a clique is setting the world’s course, a clique that acts in its own self-interest, following an agenda that in no way has any kind of democratic legitimacy. Many people assume, however, that this situation is an aberration from our normal political process, something unique to Bush and his crowd. Some see the sinister hand of a Zionist plot, and some point to the Bush family history of collaboration with the Nazi regime. If only we can get Bush out of office, such people think, we can return to some kind of sanity. If only it were so simple.

If we want to understand what we are facing, we need to be a bit more careful in identifying who are the ultimate movers and shakers behind world events. In fact, we are not looking at a Zionist plot, and we are not looking at a recent aberration. A careful examination of history over the past century reveals that a very specific elite clique has come to totally dominate and control world affairs. The neocons are not that clique; they are its agents, eagerly pursuing their assignment because of the looting opportunities thereby made available to themselves and their corporate cronies.

“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.”

— Amshall Rothschild*

The elite clique I refer to include the top financial circles in New York and London — the people who control financial institutions like Chase Manhattan, Citibank, HSBC, Rothschild’s, and Lloyds TSB. We’re talking about a handful of people, blessed with inherited wealth, and operating mostly behind the scenes. The Rockefeller brothers are the most obvious members of this clique, due to their uncharacteristically high profile in public affairs. As with the Rockefellers, whose wealth came from the 19th Century exploits of oil-baron J.D. Rockefeller, this clique exhibits considerable continuity through the decades, both in terms of its approach to maintaining its power, and in terms of the family trees and connections that characterize its membership.

I won’t repeat here the story of how this particular elite gained its power. Suffice it to say that the financing of wars, when governments are desperate for funding, has been one of the primary vehicles by which this clique has gained its wealth and power. It would be a gross understatement to say that this clique “influences governments”. It would closer to the truth to say that the U.S. and British governments are owned, lock stock and barrel, by this clique, a fact which is symbolized by this thing we call ‘national debt’. The Federal Reserve Bank, the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank are all directly controlled by this clique and its agents and banks. Presidents and Prime Ministers are groomed in their careers, and selected for their turn in office, based on which particular agendas are being pursued at any given time.

The Bilderberger meetings, the Council on Foreign Relations, and a network of think tanks and foundations serve to rationalize and promulgate the agendas of this clique among lower-level echelons and officials. Through ownership, investment, and other means of influence, this clique controls the mainstream global media and the spin that is applied to the important stories. With their ability to set interest rates and credit availability, and their domination of exchange markets, they exercise decisive control over global finance generally. Their power is extended still further by their close fraternal relationships with key players in the Anglo-American oil cartel and in American and British Intelligence circles.

It is important to make a distinction between ordinary corporations and banks, between corporate power and the power of finance. Ordinary corporations are in the business of making money, and they favor policies that generate economic growth and development. Apart from weapons manufacturers, corporations tend to favor peace and stability in world affairs, as that’s when they can grow and develop their markets. When recession hits, corporations suffer, or even go under.

The situation for the big banks is quite different. Banks gain in both good times and bad. In all conditions banks make loans of money they don’t actually have, and then collect both the principal and interest. In good times, they also make money on their investments in productive enterprises. In bad times, even though the paper value of their assets may temporarily decline, they are able to foreclose on failing enterprises, pick up bargains by buying faltering enterprises, and they can make money by short-selling assets just before they go down, based on their insider knowledge and their ability to manipulate markets. Economic cycles are like a two-phase pump, and both phases benefit the banks. The banks understand that money is simply an accounting system. For them money is not so much an end in itself, as it is for ordinary corporations, but is more a vehicle of ownership and power. Wars and economic collapses have been intentionally engineered by this elite Anglo-American banking clique throughout the past century, as this elite has systematically sought to maintain and consolidate its power.

The reason why the Anglo-American bankers in particular are running things, as opposed to other financial elites elsewhere, has to do with the immense wealth and influence that was accumulated during the heyday of the British Empire, the close fraternal relationships between London and New York banking circles, and a particular strategy of financial dominance. That strategy has very much do with oil, but oil profits are not the main issue. The main issue is that every nation, since the early 20th Century, must have oil to operate.

The strategy is very simple and very effective. If you can control the sources of oil, and if you also control the currency in which oil is traded, and the price of oil, then you have your hand on Archimedes’ lever: “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum, and I can move the world”. Yes the profits from oil are considerable, but control over oil is much more important — it gives you control over every nation’s economy, their ability to wage war, etc. This strategy was adopted by British elites prior to Word War 1, was also adopted by American elites, and has been the core geopolitical strategy of the dominant Anglo-American alliance to this day.

We are not talking here about a gross mechanism, where elites say, “Do what I want or I’ll withhold oil from you.” The game is more subtle, having to do with the price of oil, and the kind of loans a nation can get to deal with its development needs, etc. Ultimate power is financial power, and oil-dominance, in today’s world, is the key to financial power. Through intrigue and pressure from this clique, OPEC nations accept payments for oil only in dollars. Every nation must therefore accumulate dollars, making dollars artificially valuable, and thereby financing U.S. deficits. This influx of capital is called “petrodollar recycling”. This petrodollar wealth then finds its way to London and enters the ‘Eurodollar market’, where funds can be recycled into unregulated global investments. Thus both New York and London banks are able to grab their share of the profits from the oil-dominance strategy. Oil company profits are simply one more source of funds that end up being invested in banker-controlled investment portfolios. Ordinary corporations are powerful, but they play within the game whose rules are set by the banking elite.

This is the context in which we need to examine current events. It is this historical context that leads me to interpret current events in terms of the Four Horses.

Collapse

Let us consider the first Horseman: Collapse. In this regard there are two primary things to consider. The first is peak oil, and the second is the oil shock of 1973.


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Url.: http://cyberjournal.org/cj/rkm/Apocalypse_and_NWO.html

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"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State."

- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda, the 'Karl Rove' for Hitler's 'Third Reich'.

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* ''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report: ''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war''-Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7

* Bush interview. ABC: No WMD's but many killed: "It was worth it" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6bal9

* Former Secr. of State Madeleine Albright in her comment on half a million dead children in Iraq: "We think it's worth it" On CBS 60' Minutes - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* The must-see three-part BBC Documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," puts it bluntly: "Al-Qaeda is a (neocon) myth." - See Url.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

* Wayne Madsen: ''What has Israel to do with 9/11?'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754 - 'American neocons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b5vsb - The US Federal Reserve and the private banks owning it - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/d3ntq

* Are their Corporate News Media Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Brainwashed? - Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave, or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

* Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c -

* American car magnate Henry Ford investigated 85 years ago the global problem - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2xz35

* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/

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