67

EU Elections are Proof of Europe’s Decay

Andre Vltchek

Europe, an “old” colonialist continent, is decaying, and in some places even collapsing. It senses how bad things are going. But it never thinks that it is its own fault.

North America is decaying as well, but there, people are not even used to comparing. They only “feel that things are not going well”. If everything else fails, they simply try to get some second or third job, and just survive, somehow.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the establishment is in panic. Their world is in crises, and the ‘crises’ arrived mainly because several great countries, including China, Russia, Iran, but also South Africa, Turkey, Venezuela, DPRK and the Philippines, are openly refusing to play in accordance with the script drawn in Washington, London and Paris.

In these nations, there is suddenly no appetite for sacrificing their own people on the altar of well-being of Western citizens. Several countries, including Venezuela and Syria, are even willing to fight for their independence.

Despite insane and sadistic embargos and sanctions imposed on them by the West; China, Russia and Iran are now flourishing, in many fields doing much better than Europe and North America.

If they are really pushed any further, China, Russia and their allies combined, could easily collapse the economy of the United States; an economy which is built on clay and unserviceable debt. It is also becoming clear that militarily, the Pentagon could never defeat Beijing, Moscow, even Teheran.

After terrorizing the world for ages, the West is now almost finished: morally, economically, socially, and even militarily. It still plunders, but it has no plan to improve the state of the world. It cannot even think in such terms.

It hates China, and every other country that does have progressive, internationalist plans. It smears President Xi Jinping and his brainchild, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but there is nothing new and exciting that the West is able to offer to the world.

Yes, of course, those regime changes, coups, military interventions and theft of natural resources, but anything else? No, silence!

*

During my two weeks long working visit to Europe, in the Czech Republic (now renamed to Czechia), a country that enjoys a higher HDI (Human Development Index defined by UNDP) than Italy or Spain, I saw several young, decently dressed men, picking through garbage bins, right in front of my hotel, looking for food.

I saw young Europeans kneeling and begging in Stuttgart, the second richest city in Germany (where both Mercedes and Porsche car are produced).

What I observed in all seven countries of the EU that I visited, was confusion, but also indifference, extreme selfishness and almost grotesque idleness. In great contrast to Asia, everybody in Europe was obsessed with their ‘rights’ and privileges, while no one gave a slightest damn about responsibilities.

When my plane from Copenhagen landed in Stuttgart, it began to rain. It was not heavy rain; just rain. The Canadair jet operated by SAS is a small aircraft, and it did not get a gate. It parked a few meters from the terminal and the captain announced that ground staff refused to bring a bus, due to lightning and the downpour.

And so, we stayed inside the plane, for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour. The lightning ended. The drizzle continued. 40 minutes, no bus. One hour later, a bus appeared. A man from the ground staff emerged leisurely, totally wrapped in plastic, protected hermetically from rain. Passengers, on the other hand, were not even offered umbrellas.

“I love myself”, I later read graffiti in the center of the city.

The graffiti was not far from the central train station, which is being refurbished at the cost of several billion euros, and against the will of the citizens. The monstrous project is marching on at an insanely lazy pace, with only 5-6 construction workers detectable at a time, down in the tremendous excavations.

Stuttgart is unbelievably filthy. Escalators often do not work, drunkards are all over, and so are beggars. It is as if for decades, no one did any face-lift to the city. Once free museums are charging hefty entrance fees, and most of the public benches have disappeared from parks and avenues.

The decay is omnipresent. The German rail system (DB) has virtually collapsed. Almost all trains are late, from the ‘regional’; to the once glorified ICE (these German ‘bullet trains’ are actually moving slower, on average, even in comparison to some Indonesian inter-city expresses).

The services provided everywhere in Europe, from Finland to Italy, are grotesquely bad. Convenience stores, cafes, hotels – all are understaffed, badly run and mostly arrogant. Humans are often replaced by dysfunctional machines. Tension is everywhere, the bad mood omnipresent. Demanding anything is unthinkable; one risks being snapped at, insulted, sent to hell.

I still remember how Western propaganda used to glorify services in the capitalist countries, when we were growing up in the Communist East: “The customer is always treated like a god”.

Yes, right! How laughable.

For centuries, “European workers” were ‘subsidized’ by colonialist and neo-colonialist plunder, perpetrated in all non-white corners of the world. They ended up being spoiled, showered with benefits, and unproductive.

That was fine for the elites: as long as the masses kept voting for the imperialist regime of the West.

“The Proletariat” eventually became right-wing, imperialist, even hedonistic.

I saw a lot this time, and soon I will write much more about it.

What I did not witness, was hope, or enthusiasm. There was no optimism. No healthy and productive exchange of ideas, or profound debate; something I am so used to in China, Russia or Venezuela, just confusion, apathy and decay everywhere.

And hate for those countries that are better, more human, more advanced, and full of socialist enthusiasm.

*

Italy felt slightly different.

Again, I met great left-wing thinkers there; philosophers, professors, filmmakers, journalists. I spoke at Sapienza University, the biggest university in Europe. I lectured about Venezuela and Western imperialism. I worked with the Venezuelan embassy in Rome. All of that was fantastic and enlightening, but was this really Italy?

A day after I left Rome for Beirut, Italians went to the polls. And they withdrew their supports from my friends of the 5-Star-Movement, leaving them with just over 17%, while doubling the backing for the extreme right-wing Northern League.

This virtually happened all over Europe. UK Labor lost, while right-wing Brexit forces gained significantly. Extreme right-wing, even near-fascist parties, reached unexpected heights.

It was all “me, me, me” politics. An orgy of “political selfies”. Me had enough of immigrants. Me wants better benefits. Me wants better medical care, shorter working hours. And so on.

Who pays for it, no one in Europe seems to care. Not once did I hear any European politicians lamenting about the plundering of West Papua or Borneo, about Amazonia or the Middle East, let alone Africa.

And immigration? Did we hear anything about that nuisance of European refugees, millions of them, many illegal, that have descended in the last decades on Southeast Asia, East Africa, Latin America, and even Sub Continent? They are escaping, in hordes, from meaninglessness, depressions, existential emptiness. In the process, they are stripping the locals of land, real estate, beaches, everything.

“Immigrants out”? Fine; then European immigrants out from the rest of the world, too! Enough of the one-sidedness!

The recent EU elections clearly showed that Europe has not evolved. For countless dark centuries, it used to live only for its pleasure, murdering millions in order to support its high life.

Right now, it is trying to reshuffle its political and administrative system, so it can continue doing the same, more efficiently!

On top of it, absurdly, the world is expected to pity that overpaid and badly performing, mainly right-wing and lethargic European proletariat, and sacrifice further tens of millions of people, just in order to further increase its standard of living.

All this should not be allowed to happen. Never again! It has to be stopped.

What Europe has achieved so far, at the expense of billions of lives of “the others”, is definitely not worthy of dying for.

Beware of Europe and its people! Study its history. Study imperialism, colonialism and the genocides it has been spreading all over the world.

Let them vote in their fascists. But keep them away. Prevent them from spreading their poison all over the world.

They want to put the interests of their countries first? Wonderful! Let us do exactly the same: The people of Russia first, too! China first! And, Asia, Africa, Latin America first!

Originally published by New Eastern Outlook

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Categories: empire watch, EU, Europe, latest
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Drupo
Drupo
Jun 8, 2019 9:44 PM

It’ true. Europe has not evolved.

Frank Poster
Frank Poster
Jun 10, 2019 2:42 PM
Reply to  Drupo

Europe has evolved massively over the centuries to become the pinnacle of human achievement in many spheres. Success breeds envy. That’s why the US Neocons, and others, are working hard to bring down this wonderful community of countries. Never thought I’d see Trotskyists working hand in hand with Neocons.

George
George
Jun 8, 2019 3:55 PM

Now this is familiar stuff. These pampered workers are obsessed with their rights but won’t take on responsibilty. Our (of course totally non-pampered) writer here is upset about how these airline workers won’t jump up to help in a thunder storm. The conclusion: that our workforce has “ended up being spoiled, showered with benefits, and unproductive”. Ah – the answer is obvious: take away all those ridiculous luxuries like minimum wage, maximum working hours. Best of all: tell those slackers they won’t get paid anything at all unless they can wipe our writer’s arse with the softest silk hanky. You see – what we really need is someone who will get the trains to run on time!

halishere
halishere
Jun 8, 2019 1:40 AM

the collapse was inevitable…..the Reset begins…..the ant workers sleepwalk to the precipice – and blindly dig their own abyss – and moulded from it’s clay – came their new master – the Machine Intelligence – it alone will decide their future….and who is worthy of it…..It Must be Stopped – It Isn’t Yet Too Late.

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jun 8, 2019 1:18 AM

As I consider “why” Vltchek’s critique of our Western self-absorption and lifestyle of overconsumption based on centuries of mass violence elicits such anger and resistance among many readers at a “progressive” site like OffG – the following comes to mind. Each of us sees the world through a set of inherited cultural and societal “lens” if you will, that shape and color, and filter “in” or “out” certain information – which then allows us to maintain our “identity” and self definition as a ‘good person’ within our society. That “identity” in the West is as one “individual skin-encapulated ego” in a world of “billions of individual skin-encapsulated egos.” As a juxtaposition – those who see the world through the lens provided by a life raised in an Indigenous society, or in much of the East, form an identity that tends more toward group awareness and values of group connection rather… Read more »

Ramdan
Ramdan
Jun 8, 2019 2:12 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

Spot on! Brilliant.

BigB
BigB
Jun 8, 2019 10:31 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

I’m still in basic agreement: not least having studied Yogacara/Zen for forty years and have been involved in therapy myself – I can see where you are coming from. But Vltchek is still superficial in his analysis. I’ve sketched the rise of the TNS below – which grew out of the unregulated euro$ offshore shadow markets. Neoliberalism spread from the City of London, to Wall St, then expanded globally [see ‘The Spiders Web’]. The whole world is a vassal of the offshore stateless TNS. What this amounts to is that the onshore elites are all Westernised, globalised, and neoliberalised. Many, if not most, of Russia/China’s ruling elites are schooled abroad …including all their neoliberal economists. We have a neoliberalised world system: one that does not necessarily penetrate that deeply into a society – beyond the cognitive elites. Thus, the people of China and Russia can be communist – the elites… Read more »

different frank
different frank
Jun 8, 2019 12:22 AM

What is this bollocks?
Do me a favour offguardian.

Jen
Jen
Jun 7, 2019 10:41 PM

On top of it, absurdly, the world is expected to pity that overpaid and badly performing, mainly right-wing and lethargic European proletariat, and sacrifice further tens of millions of people, just in order to further increase its standard of living. This and other passages in the article demonstrate Vltchek’s bias, even contempt, against ordinary workers, many if not most of whom are migrants or descendants of migrants (or even slaves) from Third World countries or former colonies of the nations where they live, and his lack of understanding of how hard they and their ancestors fought for their political, social and economic rights. Over past centuries, European imperial powers also treated their own populations as badly as they treated the people in their colonies, and stole land and resources from their own people. Is Vltchek unaware that in Britain, France and other western imperialist powers, the “proletariat” often undertook to… Read more »

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Jun 7, 2019 7:38 PM

Does André Vltchek even read the stuff he himself writes? How does he reconcile this: During my two weeks long working visit to Europe, in the Czech Republic (now renamed to Czechia), a country that enjoys a higher HDI (Human Development Index defined by UNDP) than Italy or Spain, I saw several young, decently dressed men, picking through garbage bins, right in front of my hotel, looking for food. I saw young Europeans kneeling and begging in Stuttgart, the second richest city in Germany (where both Mercedes and Porsche car are produced). … with this: For centuries, “European workers” were ‘subsidized’ by colonialist and neo-colonialist plunder, perpetrated in all non-white corners of the world. They ended up being spoiled, showered with benefits, and unproductive. And then there’s this little puzzler at the end: And they withdrew their supports from my friends of the 5-Star-Movement, leaving them with just over 17%,… Read more »

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jun 7, 2019 5:19 PM

One can see from comments how difficult it is for those of us from the West to do anything resembling an actual honest “look into the mirror” or to engage in some honest “soul searching” regarding both our bloody colonial past, and our equally bloody and uber violent post-WWII history as well – in terms of the relationship of such history to our current global dilemma. Amazing. And this is at what I consider a very “progressive” web site. 500+ years of our Western led pillage and plunder of the entire planet, and still apparently few in the West can so much as acknowledge our well documented historical record without feeling a compelling need to insult anyone exhibiting the rudeness and bad manners to have actually brought it up in the first place. Speaking the truth about the absolutely parasitic relationship between Europe and her settler colonies – to the… Read more »

BigB
BigB
Jun 7, 2019 8:44 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

An American that realises that his own countries lifestyle is imperialistic is as rare as rocking horse shit: and is to be commended. As one that has never been blind to the imperial crimes of the UK – or that our lifestyle continues to be post-colonial credit imperialism – I can agree with much of what you say. Vltchek’s analysis is ‘superficial’ because he turns a blind eye to ‘Eastern’ (Russia/China/Iran) lifestyle imperialism. Under the ‘progressive’ banner: the ‘East’ is just as guilty of foreclosing the future for generations to come. From and ecological perspective: the ‘triple evils’ are extractivism, expansionism, and exploitation. Exploitation, not just of this world – but the next. Modernity is killing the planet: which, if widely accepted …we maybe would have to do something about – other than celebrating it. There is no west and east in capitalism. The TNCs have been building up their… Read more »

Ramdan
Ramdan
Jun 8, 2019 12:48 AM
Reply to  BigB

The problem stems from the reference frame, labels, categories…. We keep using an outdated reference frame: west vs. east, capitalism vs. socialism, rich vs. poor. This reference frame is basically false, misleading and have long being contaminated, emptied, and made spurious. The actual ‘confrontation’ is between the egotic mindset and the non-egotic mind set where the former see life as ‘Is either ME or YOU’ whereas the latter only sees a ‘WE’. Egotic have been the predomininant mindset across ages and societies, it gives rise to social darwinism, competition, violence, ‘winner takes it all’ mentality, nature as subservient to man. It is found everywhere, west, east, rich, poors, capitalist societies and socialist societies alike. Non-egotic is the other face of the coin: cooperative, community, sharing, altruism, compassion. We all win or we all loose together…of course this winning-loosing refers to life as what it is…breathing…inmediacy, not a set of material… Read more »

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 8, 2019 2:56 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

Yours is a contradictory, and worse, racist viewpoint, positing as it does that the bonds of nationhood, race and religion tie us irrevocably to our past, if we are (notionally) rich and western, but may be cast of like last years fashions, in search of a better life, if one is poor and from the third world.

Anyone experiencing Liverpool and Glasgow in the seventies / eighties will be aware that the benefits of colonialism were extremely ephemeral, and only exaggerated for political reasons.

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jun 8, 2019 3:35 AM

What can I say William, I’ve never before been called “racist” for pointing out the quit clearly “racist” history of Western colonialism, followed by our current equally “racist” present period of post-WWII Western led neocolonialism. We in the U.S. alone are estimated to have brought about 20 million civilian deaths “since” the end of WWII – almost entirely of course of brown and black peoples around the globe who just by coincidence happened to inhabit regions of “our former colonial empires.” Millions have died in my lifetime (not two or four hundred years ago) in order to maintain the now sinking ship of Western empire that has spanned over 500+ years. If acknowledging this well documented history is equated with a “racist viewpoint” in your perspective I’m really not sure what to say other than – good luck with that.

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 8, 2019 4:01 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

I’ve never before been called “racist” for pointing out the quit clearly “racist” history of Western colonialism, followed by our current equally “racist” present period of post-WWII Western led neocolonialism. We in the U.S. alone are estimated to have brought about 20 million civilian deaths “since” the end of WWII – almost entirely of course of brown and black peoples History has very few facts, but is replete with opinion, which is why those, of a certain mindset, like your good self, are able to revise it so often. I find your attitude illogical, in that it seeks to deny that anyone but rich western nations have any agency in their fate, that any war we are involved in , must be unwelcome interference, and to our own racial advantage. The west should have intervened in the Rwandan Genocide, but didn’t (a black on black racial war). Of course, there… Read more »

mark
mark
Jun 8, 2019 8:14 PM

Why should the west have intervened in the Rwandan genocide? There was no oil there. And the Chosen Folk didn’t want that particular country destroyed. If they did, it would have been.

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 9, 2019 2:39 AM
Reply to  mark

And the Chosen Folk

Even Heinrich Himmler would regard you as ‘bang out of order’..

UNAMIR could have largely prevented the genocide, but were forbidden to by Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian. (this is where you frantically Google ‘Kofi Annan’ to see if he was Jewish)

Your sixth form assertion about the lack of oil is juvenile, Kosovo has no oil..

The truth is, it’s a difficult place to get to. From the North (well its in the Southern hemisphere, from the west, the DRC is in the way (the size of Western Europe), from the east, you’d need to cross Tanzania (not a small country)

mark
mark
Jun 8, 2019 4:17 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

Yes, Gary, but that doesn’t matter. Bombing Brown People is good for them. Everybody knows that.

mark
mark
Jun 8, 2019 4:15 AM

The benefits of colonialism were anything but ephemeral. Virtually all the stately homes in England were the product of the West Indian sugar plantations. If it wasn’t for colonialism, there’d be nothing for the National Trust to do. In the 18th century, fully 10% of England’s wealth came from the West Indian slave plantations. Then the British Empire got some ephemeral gold and some ephemeral diamonds and some ephemeral minerals from its South African treasure house and some ephemeral rubbber and some ephemeral tin from Malaya. And its people were fed with ephemeral food from the cheap ephemeral land in Canada and Australia. Its industry processed its ephemeral raw materials. Then and later, the average Jock and the average Scouser didn’t see much benefit and just got a few crumbs. But the fabulous wealth that was looted from 14 million square miles of Empire kept our upper crust in the… Read more »

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 8, 2019 4:35 AM
Reply to  mark

Virtually all the stately homes in England were the product of the West Indian sugar plantations. If it wasn’t for colonialism, there’d be nothing for the National Trust to do.

Is that why we don’t need Europe, we don’t need the jobs trade brings, because we can all work for the National Trust, and live off the endless colonial bounty that provides…? I doubt that makes sense even to you..

mark
mark
Jun 8, 2019 8:09 PM

Britain has traded with the continent for thousands of years. Four thousand years ago, when copper axes were the “must have” item for every upwardly mobile continental tribesman, Britain supplied the goods. It did so without paying £50 million a day in tribute to Brussels, or putting up with their arrogant, corrupt, anti democratic shenanigans. Juncker or Verhofstadt would have been given pretty short shrift. They’d probably have got a copper axe in their skull. People will still be trading with each other when the EU is nothing more than a footnote in an economic text book, the chapter on “How not to run your economy.”

George
George
Jun 8, 2019 4:06 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

It seems to me that you are indulging in an old right-wing trick of saying “we” and “us” as if all of the Western population are guilty of those colonial crimes and the implication is that all the benefits the lower elements have gained are to be dismissed as luxuries which should be abandoned. Which ironically involves us all in the same race to the bottom that the right wing attempt to impose.

The irony (and the giveaway) is that Mr Vltchek’s entire article, while venting spleen on the big fat cats above, is written from the point of view of a pampered brat moaning about the standard of services. He’s a fraud.

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jun 8, 2019 7:36 PM
Reply to  George

“It seems to me” – you are completely validating Vltchek’s argument – as well as my own. There is a vast difference between the denying that “all” in the West are “guilty of those colonial crimes,” and having the simple basic moral integrity as a student of history to acknowledge how we citizens of the West both have “benefited” personally from those crimes, not only past, but present, and how we continue to benefit from those crimes. Do you pay taxes in a Western “democratic” nation? If so you bear moral responsibility for your nation’s military operations. This proposition hardly requires consultation with a moral philosopher or theologian to understand. I have a good deal of sympathy for Mr. Vltchek’s “spleen” and his obvious anger and frustration with the rather apparent obliviousness of most citizens of the West regarding the suffering and death and mayhem our governments bring about –… Read more »

George
George
Jun 8, 2019 7:48 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

First – I always feel an extreme reaction to anyone who starts up with this responsibilty/rights stuff and this lament about delining productivity which I see from Mr Vlticheck. This is exactly what I read from the right wing and from people attacking the public services that I work in and that I depend upon.

Second, so exactly what is it that you want me to do then? Do you want me to stop paying taxes? Do you pay taxes? Does Mr Vltichek pay taxes? Do you want everyone to just stop what they are doing? Apart from this splendid display of self-righteous wrath, what exactly are you doing?

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jun 8, 2019 8:40 PM
Reply to  George

I’m just asking you to “think about” what Vltchek is discussing George. And why having seen what he has seen, his anger and frustration might boil over in his writing. Nothing more really. We’re kind of all in the same boat, those of us trying to oppose a system of violent psychopathic power in the world – but I don’t think “killing the messenger” is useful, it just helps us pretend we don’t know what we know for another day. M pointing out our often unwitting and unwilling “complicity” in the Empire simply by being employed, paying taxes, having a pension fund, etc. is not intended to be – “self-righteous” or “wrathful” – it is simply an observation that I think bears our contemplation as moral human beings. And no, I’m not a tax resister, so I’m not throwing stones at anyone else. I’m simply doing my best to look… Read more »

George
George
Jun 8, 2019 9:49 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

Thank you for that response. I can understand – or, at least imagine – how actual experience of the horrors of those Western “interventions” would induce a revulsion towards the trivia obsessed affluent Western populations. Perhaps it might even be more unbearable to hear those who pay a bit of lip service about how awful those “foreign situations” are before wandering off to view the latest soap. However – and I’m speaking from experience of my own past – I reckon most people lucky enough to be born here don’t want to know. They will vaguely make a noise about horrors abroad and acknowledge that it may have something to do with us. But if you press them, they’ll get angry about it and start to rationalise it away. And the media is all too willing to help them. I have heard people say e.g. “You see – those other… Read more »

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jun 8, 2019 10:51 PM
Reply to  George

Thank you for your response George. I don’t think you and I have much we would likely seriously disagree about overall, if we got to sit down over a cup of coffee or a beer and could just chat. I’m glad you referenced John McMurtry as I also think his work is stellar in pointing how “how” and “why” the system we have created works the way it does and caries out the daily carnage that it inflicts – referring to that eco-destruction that as you point out is simply dismissed as an -“externality.” How does one hope to understand a myth system that considers the very habitability of planet earth as a mere – “externality” not worthy of inclusion in the calculus of our economic system? Sometimes when I think of all the very wealthy reviewing the ever changing sets of “numbers” on the stock exchange, and experiencing some… Read more »

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Jun 7, 2019 3:38 PM

We are all in this together.
This brief sojourn on Mother Earth.
There IS enough for everyone.
Enough food, enough water, enough shelter.
Even enough Love.
Will we wake in time?

Ramdan
Ramdan
Jun 7, 2019 4:01 PM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

“The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed,” Ghandi.

…but we’ve been following the latter while pretending the former was not possible or “natural”….and we keep doing the same over and over and over…again….and “expecting different results” = Insanity.

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 8, 2019 10:42 AM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Jun 8, 2019 11:57 AM

What a bonny lad ya are

BigB
BigB
Jun 7, 2019 3:34 PM

Another superficial take on the fully integrated globalised world economy. Wallerstein critiqued the overtly state-structuralist overview from the 80s on. William I Robinson and others critiqued Wallerstein’s ‘World Systems Theory’ itself for being overly state-structuralist. Zinoviev posited the ‘suprasociety’ in the 90s. Now Robinson et al refer to the Trans-National State or Superstate (TNS) as a top elitist tier that exists ‘offshore’ (‘non-dom’ for tax evasion purposes). This includes to 2,200 billionaires; the 140 controlling TNCs; the offshore financial institutions (banks, shadow banks, hedge funds, etc). The TNS exists above the core imperialist; the semi-periphery sub-imperialist; the peripheral semi-exploited; and the excluded exploited tiers. Separating the US and China is a particularly amusing trick that the Vltchek/Escobar/Korybko crypto-globalists perform. The USD and CNY are practically integral. Only recently, in the last week did Mexico overtake China as the US’ biggest trading partner. China supports the value of the USD by… Read more »

Steve Hayes
Steve Hayes
Jun 7, 2019 3:30 PM

It may seem pedantic, but the use of personification in the opening paragraph clearly shows the limitations of this philosopher’s thinking. Europe (which just to be actually pedantic, is not a continent) does not think or feel or judge anything. Thinking by using metaphors is simply failing to think. I would recommend the author read George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”.

Rechenmachetr
Rechenmachetr
Jun 7, 2019 3:29 PM

I live in Stuttgart and I can confirm some of the things the author says. A few other things, however, he is getting seriously wrong.
Delay of the railway station project has been mostly caused by endless complaints and court suits, brought forward by individuals and parties of the left spectrum (Greens, Social Democrats, Environment Protectors). With horrible effects on the costs, of course. The people actually voted FOR the project.
Those European young men, kneeling and begging will most probably have been from Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans. Police are very careful not to upset them.
The German Railways have been a nightmare for many years. What would be the best way to finally soften up the public for the shelved plans to privatize Deutsche Bahn? Sabotage? Maybe the Chinese with their BRI will need to help us out.

Thomas
Thomas
Jun 7, 2019 2:46 PM

I am getting tired of this guy now. He claims only non-Western people are suffering. And recently om Twitter he came out as a EU fan. At least he thinks everyone voting Brexit were selfish facists. Who needs the right wing with a left like we have now? I e-mailed Counterpunch asking why they Only post anti-Brexit articles now, no answer of course. Democracy is not a big deal for the left of Counterpunch types, Vltchek etc. Vltchek’s ideas are the ideas of a 15 year old who thinks he’s figured it all out. He travels the world, don’t write particularly well and calls the western working class facists.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Jun 7, 2019 9:28 PM
Reply to  Thomas

So he hates Europe but loves the European Union? Typical …

Thomas
Thomas
Jun 8, 2019 2:00 AM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

And another bullshit pro EU article in Counterpunch today. No wonder why people abandon the “left”.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Jun 8, 2019 12:11 PM
Reply to  Thomas

I think–correct me if I’m wrong–that CounterPunch got rid of their Euro-skeptic writers a couple of years ago after Brexit, right? I used to be a regular there, but now I hardly ever read CP anymore.

Thomas
Thomas
Jun 8, 2019 11:49 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

Yes, it seems like that. I remember reading a great article by Paul Kingsnorth there. What do you read instead of CP?

andyoldlabour
andyoldlabour
Jun 8, 2019 12:36 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

Why not?
I love Europe but hate the corrupt entity that is the EU.

DunGroanin
DunGroanin
Jun 7, 2019 2:42 PM

It’s not all doom and gloom in Europe. E.g. The Spanish turnout was massive in the EU elections – wiping out their alt-rightist foreign funded chancers. Socialism isn’t down and out for the count – it is getting up and fighting, cleverer and harder punching, having removed the neocon/liberal chains. No amount of mass mainstream media propaganda, social media manipulation, rabble rousing by the elitists can stop a genuine grassroots mass movement. Sure the peoples across Europe have been sold the bs austerity politics to make them unhappy enough to promote the alr-right masterplan, their cheerleaders from the US are happy to openly interfere, like Bannon. All these agent provocateurs and their bosses and paymasters must be hounded out and mightily punished. The unnecessary austerity has made many unhappy, their life plans unfulfilled, their daily subsistence needs unmet, they are supposed to roll over and buy the big new lies…… Read more »

Frank Spaker
Frank Spaker
Jun 7, 2019 3:29 PM
Reply to  DunGroanin

Well said.
Farage the City spiv was put in his place by the electorate yesterday. He and the right wing populists remain a threat though, but once again, at least for now, Britain has been spared from having one of his self-appointed stormtroopers sitting in Parliament.

mark
mark
Jun 7, 2019 8:12 PM
Reply to  Frank Spaker

Yes, nearly 10,000 of them “put him in his place.” Just behind the Labour muppet and well ahead of the Tories. Not bad for a party that didn’t exist a few weeks ago.

William
William
Jun 9, 2019 7:58 AM
Reply to  mark

Very bad for the rest of us though….you think ‘he’s on our side’..Mark?

mark
mark
Jun 9, 2019 8:40 PM
Reply to  William

He’s certainly on Israel’s side. Though he’s “anti semitic” as well. The Guardian says so, so it must be true.

DiggerUK
DiggerUK
Jun 7, 2019 2:20 PM

An unusually thought provoking article.

The ancien regimes, centred on the North America’s, European and Australasian world are being relegated by China, India, and Russia. The new silk roads are being built, the times are changing and they will embrace both the best of times and the worst of times.

The populations of the old world orders are in a state of confusion as to were their entitled positions are going. Gurus and snake oil sellers could have a field day if left unchallenged.

As far as I am concerned, war is still the greatest threat we all face…_

andyoldlabour
andyoldlabour
Jun 7, 2019 1:53 PM

To say that Iran is flourishing is an insult to the Iranian people. They are suffering with high inflation, caused by the crippling sanctions imposed on them by the evil US. Everyday foodstuffs are very expensive.

John Thatcher
John Thatcher
Jun 7, 2019 1:44 PM

I don’t necessarily agree with everything in this article,but these things need to be said, and in this sort of plain language.Thank you.

Frank Speaker
Frank Speaker
Jun 7, 2019 11:54 AM

Another Europe hater. Are European countries the only ones carrying out imperialism in the history of the planet? Your ‘democratic’ Chinese friends have great form and history on this one. Your Russia too, with their imperialist Tsars and followed by the destructive, imperialist Soviet system.

Humans, all of us, are a pretty nasty species, we kill each other, and the planet. We can be compassionate and caring too. Your tribal comparisons are meaningless.

As a very wise teacher once said: “He who is without sin can cast the first stone”. Perhaps it would be good for you and others to listen?

wardropper
wardropper
Jun 7, 2019 5:50 PM
Reply to  Frank Speaker

Pointing out failings in a system is not hating the system.
It is hating the failings, if that.
After all, failings can be corrected.

Calling people “Europe haters”, “Freedom haters”, “America haters”, or “Democracy haters” just because they have noticed the hypocrisy and corruption which hide behind those four words doesn’t really adress the issues.

By the same token, someone who criticizes American faults is not automatically a Putin-bot or a China-bot. Nor is someone who can criticize their own failings guilty of “self hatred”.

Let’s look into all this properly.
We don’t need slogans.

padre
padre
Jun 7, 2019 6:11 PM
Reply to  Frank Speaker

And just who did the Russians and Chinese plunder?

BigB
BigB
Jun 7, 2019 7:22 PM
Reply to  padre

The planet. China in particular cornered just about every extractivist commodity market there is. So much so, that when they tailed off their ghost city and infrastructure strategy: the commodity markets took their present downturn. In that time – less than a decade – they used more cement than the USA used in all of the 20th century. Cement production which is one of the largest global GHG emitters (5-8%). Primary resource extraction that causes the majority of GHG emissions; pollution; biodiversity loss; etc.

mark
mark
Jun 7, 2019 8:31 PM
Reply to  Frank Speaker

“Our Chinese friends” have never been great imperialists. They are a status quo power, generally content with what they’ve got, and preoccupied with the problems of their vast country. They want to trade freely and fairly with the rest of the world. They have a very good record compared with the 500 year record of genocide, slavery, racism and rapacious exploitation of western powers. And they are of course part of that record as victims of that kind of behaviour. In the 15th century Admiral Cheng Ho led huge Chinese fleets in voyages of exploration across Asia and Africa. He gave lavish gifts to local rulers who were willing to symbolically acknowledge the Emperor as the Son of Heaven, and took back novelties like giraffes to amuse his emperor. What he did not do was massacre, slaughter, enslave, loot and burn. The Chinese thought these voyages were an interesting episode,… Read more »

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 8, 2019 11:12 AM
Reply to  mark

In 1991, the rulers in Moscow gave away nearly half of their population, and a third of their territory, over 2 million square miles, which contained fabulous natural wealth. They decided they had enough on their plate dealing with the problems of the 6 million square mile Russian Federation. Another status quo power. That’s how non imperialist Russia is.

Bollocks. The real truth is they could no longer afford to pay the soldiers occupying the countries they had de facto annexed.

mark
mark
Jun 8, 2019 8:52 PM

The 14 other republics were being heavily subsidised by Moscow, like Ulster, Wales and Scotland are by England.

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 9, 2019 2:42 AM
Reply to  mark

‘Facts’ pulled out of you arse to order…

You’ll forgive me if I’m sceptical of your expertise in Soviet era economics.

mark
mark
Jun 9, 2019 8:46 PM

You’re quite right, of course, Russia refused to allow the independence of the Baltic States, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan (floating on a sea of oil), Belarus and the rest. It brutally occupied all those countries with its armies and refused to let any of them have any independence at all.

William HBonney
William HBonney
Jun 10, 2019 3:37 AM
Reply to  mark

You’re quite right, of course, Russia refused to allow the independence of the Baltic States, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan (floating on a sea of oil), Belarus and the rest. It brutally occupied all those countries with its armies and refused to let any of them have any independence at all.

Oh ffs. It wasn’t within the gift of the Soviet leadership to ‘allow’ independence. The Soviet Union was held together by the Red Army and the KGB. When the SU collapsed it hadn’t paid them for months. It is eminently possible to be oil rich and bankrupt, as Venezuela demonstrates today.

The collapse of the Soviet Union does not demonstrate the moral superiority of the Russian, or Soviet communism, it demonstrates their incompetence.

DunGroanin
DunGroanin
Jun 8, 2019 12:38 PM
Reply to  mark

I think that you mistake the USSR with some ancient aristocratic empire – like the British, French or US ones.

The soviet countries decided to break up.

Btw, how many USSR leaders were Russian? Any from any other places besides Moscow?

mark
mark
Jun 8, 2019 8:51 PM
Reply to  DunGroanin

Quite a few. Lenin, Trotsky and 85% of the Bolsheviks were Chosen Folk, from all points of the compass north, south, west and east of Moscow. They hated Russians.
Krushchev was a crafty Ukrainian peasant.
Stalin was Georgian.
Gorbachev was Ukrainian.
Not sure about the rest.

Maggie
Maggie
Jun 9, 2019 12:54 AM
Reply to  mark

Well said Mark – as always I concur.

mark
mark
Jun 7, 2019 8:37 PM
Reply to  Frank Speaker

It is not a question of being a Europe hater, just a hypocrisy and double standards hater, a lies hater, and a genocide -, enslavement – , racism – and inhuman exploitation – hater.

Denis O'hAichir
Denis O'hAichir
Jun 7, 2019 11:51 AM

Blinkered.

wardropper
wardropper
Jun 7, 2019 5:55 PM

There does seem to be a fair amount of wishful thinking there, but something true probably lies behind it.

Denis O'hAichir
Denis O'hAichir
Jun 7, 2019 6:13 PM
Reply to  wardropper

I’ll be turning off notifications after this reply I’ve better things to be doing, Andre consistently lumps my country in with the old world parasites, I agree with a lot of what he says but he’s blinkered in his view of Europe, its greed not race, African, Asian et al would have done the same thing including the Irish it is a human condition, not limited to “the west”, I would like this obviously intelligent sentient writer to use some balance.

wardropper
wardropper
Jun 7, 2019 6:39 PM

Perhaps you’re right.
But surely it doesn’t have to be an either him-or-you situation?
Certainly I agree with a lot of what both of you say, at any rate.