I was listening to NPR the other day. One item in the news struck me as particularly worrisome.
The Greek debt crisis is prompting some worrying ideas on how to fix it. One way that is being proposed is to replace Greek elected officials with Technocrats -- "experts" who can manage the country and make hard decisions economically that elected people who are beholden to their people cannot make.
I was startled when I heard this. I'd heard it before. It was a strange kind of political noise, the ramifications seeming to pass the reporter by.
This is a call to limit democracy or outright eliminate democracy in favor of appointed officials making decisions for the Greek people. Actually, we need to rephrase that. This is a call to limit democracy in favor of bank-appointed officials to make decisions against the interests of the Greek people but in favor of the big banks.
If you listen carefully, you will hear the subtle strains of this anti-democracy music being played everywhere. Here in the US, worry over the "Super Congress" being able to come up with the "hard solutions" also involves the threat of the downgrading of the US debt by the rating agencies. The rating agencies have already done this to Greece, and now to Italy -- Italy now has a Technocrat Prime Minister! Anti-democracy is coming back to Italy. How long before the Technocracy eliminates the Italian Parliament altogether. How long before the people have no voice left?
The music dominates in the calls to privatize government functions so that some favored few might profit on them. Privatization of military functions created paramilitary organizations in the US (Blackwater) to operate in Iraq and Afghanistan without any rules and answerable to no one. The music forms the thematic basis for anti-union legislation and legislation to restrict the right to vote.
Deprive the people of a voice and they are ripe for dictatorships. Are we being set up for a new kind of dictatorship, brought to us by the Big Banks and Multinational Corporations? Maybe the Big Banks do intend to rule the world after all. Democracy is so messy, isn't it? Those governmental rules on the banks make cheating people so much harder. It would be cleaner and simpler to take over. Cause a crisis, Engineer public hysteria. Pay off politicians. Buy the government away from the people.
It IS happening. Here in the US Big Banks have their say directly in the Obama Administration, and have blocked Obama's ability to bring about reforms. Big Banks are stealing the pensions from those who have earned them, while demanding rigid enforcement of their own contracts. They demand control of the assets of everyone for them to manipulate to their own profit. US cities are being put under "Emergency Management" where elected officials have no say and the Emergency Manager has near-dictatorial powers.
We have already seen that the Occupy Movement, while having gone viral worldwide, is not moving the Bankers' positions very much or causing them to see reason. Instead, we see police used to treat the protesters like criminals. Well over a thousand people have been arrested for peaceful protest. Police brutality has already caused deaths and injuries with innocent and unarmed civilians. The recent clash between Police and the protesters in Berkeley shows officers beating unarmed and unresisting people.
As the financial crises continue, look for the calls to replace politicians with unelected technocrats "empowered" to make decisions the political bodies cannot. Then remember, someone will be appointing them. Who? And who will get rid of them? And will power ever return to the people if bankers can manage this attack on national sovereignties and the rights of the people to self-governance?
This is an attack by the 1/100th of a percent at the top against the world.