These are the headlines from an FT newsletter this morning:
The message could not be clearer. The neoliberal world is moving to a war footing.
However, because Donald Trump said that Israel and Iran had agreed to a truce and total ceasefire last night, oil prices fell, and it looks as if markets will be happy for the next few hours.
But, this assurance came from the man who last week said he did not know if he would attack Iran, and might take a fortnight to decide.
Then he sent the B2 bombers.
Meanwhile, despite what he had to say, Iran and Israel carried on bombing.
We are living in a mad world where irrational decisions based on incoherence appear to be the only thing we can be sure are happening.
Making sense of any of this is either very hard or very simple.
The bit that is hard is seeking to make sense of what makes no sense.
The first part of the simple bit is understanding that those supposedly in charge have lost all touch with reality, but unfortunately have the opportunity to play wargames for real, and not on their PCs or gaming machines. This is what happens when you base all of your political thinking on the fantasies about human nature and desires that underpin neoliberal ideology.
The second part of the simple bit is to understand that around the world, no one wants the wars that these people are talking into existence.
The challenge is to make sure that leaders know they are alienating us and to think about what happens when talk of war is over.
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I’m just reading George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson’s book, the Invisible Doctrine. Although I don’t agree with how neatly it wraps up neoliberalism as an almost organised conspiracy, much of it makes sense. It is a violent ideology once picked apart, and conflict, and therefore war, is a natural state for it.
It is…
I didn’t think that neoliberalism was organised as such, but books such as Matt Kennard’s “The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs The American Empire” helped convince me otherwise, along with influences we see clearly (biased BBC and mainstream media, bought politicians, captured regulatory bodies, foreign policies, etc). https://amzn.eu/d/1ZdjHvM
I don’t understand why people of standing make comments of this nature “no one wants the wars that these people are talking into existence”. If they are in a debate then they will lose that debate if their opponent can find just one guy who does want that.
Are yiu saying you do?
Why?
For what reason?
And are you willing to die in this war?
Why? What is the gain?
The politicians are planning for war because they think that fighting for diminishing resources will be easier to sell to the voters than suggesting the spoiled denizens of the West give up their luxuries and start living a lifestyle that is consistent with planetary limits.
1991 – gulf war nice n short (hey we sorted out Saddam!!)
2003 – Iraq war – not nice n short (ISIS)
2003 – 2022? Afghanistan war not nice n short (US & EU – arse handed to em on a plate by the equally ghastly Taliban)
2012 – Libya – light entertainmnet & a bit of practise for Western airforces?
2022 – Russia (I want a bit of war as well) vs Ukraine (on going & a great weapons testing & development ground (go Ukraine go) for the “west”).
2025 – Iran – time we gave the mullahs a good kicking via west proxy Israel
Who makes money? the weapons suppliers. Who consolidates more power? The neolibtards.
We live in a world dominated by a combo of the evil (Net&Yahoo) and the demented (Trump, B.Liar.. the list is long).
& you dear readers & your children & grandchildren are collateral – no agency – but simply meat for the machine.
I suppose it’s of some interest that the UK could increase Defence expenditure by about 0.5% of GDP by simply adopting the US definition of Defence spending. Might keep Trump quiet for a while.
“We are living in a mad world where irrational decisions based on incoherence appear to be the only thing we can be sure are happening.”
Trump’s irrational decisions based on his total incoherence appear to be the only thing we can be sure are happening!
There! I fixed it for you!!!!!
In my arrogant opinion, Trump has never made a rational decision in his life. It is all emotional and immediate response.
Who in their right mind would conduct foreign policy via social media???
I have to agree with you…..
While I agree with you, I cannot quite believe what just happened.
One of the most belligerent nations on the planet and the extremist government they have been bombarding, just stopped what they were doing because Trump screamed STOP IT. OK it sounded like a 2 year old having a tantrum, but it seems to have worked.
How the hell did that happen?
Ask the real question. Did it actually happen? Do you really think this ceasefire is going to last?
I’m at the point where the more I read, the more I think and the more I reflect, the more confused I am as to how humanity has reached where we are. I’m still convinced that 99.99% if humanity does not want war and just want to get along irrespective of caste, creed, colour, religion, male, female, young, old, sexual orientation or whatever. Just how did nasty old angry men get to command such power and why do we accept them!? Are there just too many sycophants amongst us or are we all just too cowardly and feeble to end this madness!?
I suspect it is a little less than 99.99%, but a massive majority, I agree.
Agreed with Richard.
Prima facie, we have no idea what is going on, and the the Iranians are missing a trick here too by not divulging anything or very little. The more they hide, the more justified Israel will look.