Is Democracy Dead In
The West?
By Paul Craig Roberts
January 29, 2015
"ICH" - We will find out the answer to
the question posed in the title in the outcome of the contest between the new
Greek government, formed by the political party Syriza, and the ECB and the
private banks, with whose interests the EU and Washington align against Greece.
The Spartans, whose
red cloaks and military prowess struck fear into the hearts of both foreign
invaders and Greek opponents in the city-states, are no more. Athens itself is
a ruin of its historical self. The Greeks, who were once to be contended with,
who were able with 300 Spartans, supplemented with a few thousand Corinthians,
Thebans, and other warriors, to stop a one hundred thousand man Persian army at
Thermopylae, with the final outcome being the defeat of the Persian fleet in
the Battle of Salamis and the defeat of the Persian army in the Battle of
Plataea, are no more.
The Greeks of history
have become a people of legend. Not even the Romans were able to conquer
Persia, but little more than a handful of Greeks stopped the attempted Persian
conquest of Greece.
But the Greeks,
despite their glorious history, could not stop their conquest by the EU and a
handful of German and Dutch banks. If the Greece of history still existed, the
EU and the private banks would be cowering in fear, because the EU and the
private banks have ruthlessly exploited the Greek people and represent the same
threat to Greek sovereignty as Persia did.
Greece, stripped of
its independence by its EU membership and acceptance of the euro as its
currency, has lost is sovereignty. Without control over its own money, Greece
cannot finance itself. Greece must rely on private banks from other countries.
In the 21st century European private banks are not allowed to lose money simply
because they are incompetent and over-lent to EU member countries. This is not
considered to be the fault of the banks, but of the borrower governments and
populations.
According to reports,
the American bankster firm, Goldman Sachs, sometimes known as Gold Sacks, hid
Greek debt from view in order that banks would extend more credit to Greece,
thus setting the Greek people up for looting.
The EU’s disingenuous
argument is that this bankster trickery benefitted the Greek people. The people
enjoyed the resources from these loans. Therefore, the Greek people must pay
back the loans through reductions in old age pensions, through unemployment,
through lower wages, and through the sale of Greek national assets.
This is the austerity
that has been imposed on ordinary Greek people by the EU and Greece’s creditors.
Greece is prostrate.
Greeks are actually committing suicide, because Greeks cannot provide for
themselves in the depressed conditions that the EU and the private banks have
created for them for no other reason than that the private banks must not have
to write down the loans.
So, one result from
“democracy” in Greece is suicide. With enough democracy, we can control world
population and halt the destruction of nature’s capital. All we have to do is
to enable the banksters to loot the entire world.
What can Syriza do?
Without Spartans,
very little.
The party’s
intentions and that of its leaders are honest and deserve our respect. Syriza
is a people’s party, and that is what marks it for doom. The voice of the
people is no longer permitted to affect politics in the Western world. The
powerful rich interest groups that rule the West could not care less about the
people over whom they rule.
No sooner was Syriza
in office than Bloomberg, a business news service, conveyed to the new Greek
Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, that Syriza needs to play by the creditors’
rules.
Tsipras stated that
the new Greek government does not intend a “catastrophic clash” with its
creditors, only an acceptable amelioration of the unreasonable conditions
imposed on Greece, in order that Greece can give some satisfaction to its
private bank creditors and also avoid social, political and economic
instability in Greece.
Against this
reasonable statement, Bloomberg reports that the new Greek cabinet contains
communists who favor closer ties with Russia. To remind the newly elected Greek
government of the whip that is held over Greek financial markets, Greek bond
and stock prices were assaulted and driven down.
The warning from the
EU and Wall Street is clear: Defy us and we will destroy you.
The punishment of the
new Greek government was instant.
This from Bloomberg:
“Greek stocks and
bonds slumped for a third day, after new ministers said they will cease the
sale of some state assets and increase the minimum wage. Yields on three-year
bonds rose 2.66 percentage points to 16.69 percent. The benchmark Athens
General Index decreased 9.2 percent to its lowest level since 2012, led by a
collapse in the value of banks.”
Does Tsipras
understand that Greek financial institutions will continue to be punished if
they stand behind his government? Bloomberg makes it clear: “Germany warned the
Mediterranean nation against abandoning prior agreements on aid, after analysts
said that setting Greece on a collision course with its European peers might
lead to its exit from the euro region.”
Statements of newly
appointed ministers “imply confrontation and tense negotiations in the near
future,” Vangelis Karanikas, head of research at Athens-based Euroxx
Securities, wrote in a note to clients.”
What is Syriza’s
“collision course”? The new government wants to moderate the agreements made by
previous Greek governments that sold out the Greek people. The new government
wants to stop giving away at bargain prices Greek public assets to clients of
its creditors, and the new Greek government wants to raise the Greek minimum
wage so that the Greek people have enough bread and water on which to live.
However, for the
private bank creditors, for Merkel’s Germany that stands behind the banks, for
Washington which could care less about the Greeks, for the Greek elites who see
themselves as “part of Europe,” Syriza is something to be rid of.
And so the Greek
bonds are attacked, the Greek stocks are attacked, threats are issued that
arouse fear in that part of the Greek population that is propagandized into the
belief that Greece must be part of the euro and the EU or be bypassed by
history.
What it boils down to
is that the Greek people, like the Americans, are insouciant. Only about 37% of
the voters voted for Syriza. That is far more votes than any rival party
received, but it is not enough to show Washington, the EU and creditors that
Greeks stand behind their government.
Instead it shows that
the new party had to form a government with another party that money, perhaps,
can buy off. It shows that Syriza can be demonized in the Western media and
presented to the Greek public as a threat to Greece.
The new government is
aware of its weakness. The new prime minister says that he does not want
confrontation, but that the new government cannot continue the kowtowing of
previous Greek governments. A reasonable accommodation must be reached.
Accommodation is
unlikely to occur, because a reasonable accommodation is not the desire of
Washington, the EU, or of Greece’s creditors.
A purpose of the
“Greek financial crisis” is to establish that EU members are not sovereign
countries and that banks that lend to these non-sovereign entities are not
responsible for any losses with regard to the loans. The population of the
indebted countries are the responsible parties. And these populations must
accept the reduction of their living standards in order to ensure that the
banks do not lose any money.
This is the “New
Democracy.” It is a resurrection of the old feudal order. A few super-rich
aristocrats and everyone else serfs obliged to support the ruling order. The
looting that began in Greece has spread into Ukraine, and who knows who is
next?
With only 37% of the
vote, does Syriza have the clout to stand up for Greece against the looters?
Can Greece escape from a situation comparable to the European Dark Ages when
populations were ravaged by marauding raiders? Perhaps if Greece realigns with
Russia and gains financing from BRICS.
