Pelshval

Antropologiske betraktninger om pelshvaldrift

Global Inequality

Do we know about it? Do we even want to know about it? Don’t laugh, because I think the two questions are difficult. I think I have to admit that for many years, I suspected the iniquity you will find carefully documented here. But I liked my life, liked feeling nice and warm, not too warm; liked knowing that a decent meal awaited me at the end of my working day and that I would start my next working day with two pieces of delicious buttered bread and cheese. I liked imagining that I was not exploiting badly paid workers in Bangladesh or anywhere else. I was going about my business, earning my monthly wages doing what I had been taught to do.

And of course I was not actively exploiting anybody. But for the clothes I wore, the coffee and tea I drank, the chocolate and even most of the fruit I ate, the workers that produced those goods were earning next to nothing and living as slaves. I still drink coffee and tea, still eat chocolate and exotic fruit, by the way. The workers’ plight would not improve if I did not. Only system changes will improve their lives.

Now it has become clear to me that my children and grandchildren will probably not be assured the easy life I have enjoyed. I don’t like that at all! More and more of those of us who live in the so-called West will, with increasing frequency, feel cold and wet and hungry (or very much too hot), and more and more of us are even now dying during dramatic climate events. Moreover, there will be worse to come due to future financial events that will dwarf even the one in 2008.

I know a bit more now than I used to, about the economic trends that have been prevalent over the past decades. I know, in short, that we’ve been had. Yes, even we who live in the West are discovering, country by country, that we’ve been had. The spirits of Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman and the Mont Pelerin Society are still with us. The results of the power they wielded are all too evident. Everywhere.

For details, cf. Chapter 2 in The Revolt of the Rich – How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America’s Class Divide, by David Biggs (2024). I have highlighted this book, because it really is – the whole book – a pretty shocking eye-opener and extremely well sourced.

The prevalent economic order is not slowing down the accelerated ecological breakdown and GLOBAL INEQUALITY. On the contrary.

I admit that the information on the linked site is academic stuff, but it is carefully explained, though not exactly in the form of bedtime stories. I, too, tend to want simple messages, the kind so generously offered by demagogues of all political colours. Sometimes, however, we just have to take the time to sit down and really concentrate. To understand the lessons offered on the said website, you do not need an academic background, but you will need to exercise your brain to understand a message which runs so totally contrary to what has been inculcated in us by Milton Friedman and his ilk. Learning that something is the opposite of what we thought it was tends to require mental muscle.

Few if any Norwegian economists will admit, now, to adhering to Milton Friedman’s tenets. Nevertheless, “Neoliberalism” is the system we all are governed by. It is unsustainable in every sense of the word, and most of us suspect that now. That is the good news. (Goodness knows there is plenty of bad news.) The problem is, few of us have any idea of what alternatives are, or might be, sustainable.

I therefore also recommend Jason Hickel’s substack, a far more amenable read, and a very interesting one, indeed. In 2017, Jason Hickel authored the book The Divide – a Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (2017). He believes – and many with him – that sustainability is possible; not only possible, but also rewarding!

Plenty of economists agree with him, too, would you believe it? However, as Philip Mirowsky explained in his book Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown (2013), any economist who wants a job must forget all about that sort of thing. Mirowsky also taught me the word “discombobulate”.

We have been discombobulated into believing that there is “no alternative” to the system – call it capitalism, if you will – to which we are shackled. “No alternative” my foot! Take a look at the links I have listed above and, if possible, also the two books, The Revolt of the Rich and The Divide. You will see that a better world is indeed possible.

Something else

Let me start with a digression.
—What do you mean, digression! Digression from what?

So, ok, maybe the correct term isn’t “digression”, but I want to start by pointing out something that has nothing do with today’s topic.

I live in the northern hemisphere. We use thick winter clothing six months a year. You may, or may not, know what “thick winter clothing” means. I’d better spell it out: woollen sweaters, wind breakers, thermals, puffer jackets and coats, knitted hats, boots… and scarves. Lots and lots of scarves, not because we need to wear many at the same time, but because they serve as accessories in addition to providing warmth and bursts of colour, which we badly need, because there is hardly any natural light in winter, hence no colour. Forget about the fairytale landscapes of Christmas cards: Winters are dull. Period.

So most of us living here prefer summer to winter. So did I until recently. However, only in winter can I wear my large, very warm, red and white Palestinian scarf. That scarf is a scream, a silent protest, a reminder to those who are as aware as I am of what is going on, but who “cannot bear to think about it”.

Mind you, I do – I really do – understand that they cannot bear to think about it. It is so very much worse than all the evils we have read about in fairytales or seen even in Hollywood films. “We are powerless,” they say. And of course, they are right because Norway is, to all intents and purposes, an occupied country. Norwegians don’t like it when I say that, but we are only 5 million people here, and the USA has 12 military bases on our soil. Could we militarily defend Gaza? We have no independent armed forces. None. We are just part of NATO, and NATO is USA’s European arm, to deploy as it sees fit, against Russia, Afghanistan, Libya., … AND PALESTINE: What would we do. for example, if the US were to invade Greenland?

I am actually looking forward to winter, when I shall once more don my large, very warm, red and white Palestinian scarf. That scarf, that blessed scarf – just thinking about it evokes the very real memory of its softness against my skin – is not only a scream; it is my pitchfork!

I have, I admit, a pitchfork, a real one, that is. It hangs from a dedicated hook in my tool shed. A lot of Norwegians have pitchforks in their tool sheds. Let me tell you, in case you didn’t know: Pitchforks are murder weapons. However, unlike the murder weapon, HUNGER, employed by Israel (USA’s “aircraft carrier ” in the Middle East), pitchforks kill only one person at a time. Norwegians are not, unlike most US congressmen and most Israelis, a murderous tribe.

Nor am I a murderous person. But I want to hurt USA’s aircraft carrier Israel. I want to hurt USA. I promise I shall never again, ever, EVER buy anything I know has been produced by Israel or the USA. But I shall not murder.

I shall just wear my large, very warm, red and white Palestinian scarf and imagine that it is a pitchfork against the USA and its 800 military bases all over the world and its crippling sanctions, and its bigotry and hypocrisy and… and…

Now, for today’s topic:

Look up the Koran, 2.62. Neither the Iranians nor the Palestinians are “antisemitic”! If I were to write a book of doctrine, it might consist of only one sentence:

Thou shalt judge men and women by their deeds,
not by their religion or the colour of their skin.

Then what?

So the US finally attacked Iran, as most of us knew it would, sooner or later; the attack was inevitable. Not only due to pressure from the Israel lobby and the military-industrial complex, but also because the US has every reason to fear that BRICS will undercut US supremacy.

I woke up with a start in the middle of the night 21-22 June, and knew at once that now, just now, it had happened: the US had bombed Iran (even though Trump had stated, just two days earlier, that he would give Iran two weeks to mull their fragile position).

I will not dwell upon the consequences for the USA. I will not speculate about who will be the “winner”.

What is certain, though, is that the winner will not be the US – if for no other reason because the USA hasn’t won a single war since I was born. (Actually, that is not quite true: I urge you to listen to the historian David Gibbs explain how the US “won” the Kosovo War in 1999.)

Israel will not be the winner either. Israelis are roughly 8 million. As we have learnt from Tucker Carlson, Iran has a population of 92 million, lots and lots of mountains and tremendous pride. In fact, Israel has already suffered considerable damage.

We do not know how Israel’s neighbouring states will react, and to what extent authoritarian US-backed regimes will be able to restrain angry pro-Palestinian populations. After all, the Shiite Iranians supported the Sunni Palestinians, which the US-backed Sunni regimes did not. A lot of people must be very angry.

Iran will, of course, suffer more than bears thinking about. Iran has now been subjected to unprovoked attacks by two nuclear powers. Iran is not a nuclear power. I repeat: Iran is not a nuclear power! But pulverising countries is one of the things the US and Israel seem to find particularly enjoyable.

Moreover, World of Warcraft is not the only US forte. Geopolitical analysts tend to forget the tremendous soft power wielded by the US. Decades of Hollywood, jazz, popular music, Microsoft, Google Search, Netflix and HBO, etc., etc. and etc. dampen the sense of outrage that should have brought citizens of the world to the very doorsteps of their presidents’, kings’ and prime ministers’ dwellings. Citizens of the world should be loudly clamouring against the madness of launching the preliminaries of a new world war. We have been drugged into a state of numbness, and are blind and deaf to the mendacity of US narratives. Here, there and almost everywhere, we are under the sticky thumb of the US entertainment industry.

Iran has been coveted by the USA for a very long time. See the brief clip of General Wesley Clark (interviewed on Democracy Now in 2007). Wesley Clark is an extremely charming man, it seems, and he was considering running for president again when this interview took place. You might also listen to his amusing account, from 22 to 25 minutes into the full interview about plans for the invasion of Haiti. An exceptionally charming, I repeat, and dangerous man, with a wonderful sense of humour.

There are those who maintain that Israel is running the USA. There are others who maintain that “defence” of Israel is merely a pretext.

As the economist Michael Hudson puts it:

The motivation for the attack on Iran has nothing to do with any attempt by Iran to protect its national sovereignty by developing an atom bomb. The basic problem is that the United States has taken the initiative in trying to pre-empt Iran and other countries from breaking away from dollar hegemony and U.S. unipolar control.

So if you think that the cessation of hostilities between USA/Israel and Iran is anything but temporary, think again. Israel agreed to the ceasefire only to catch its breath. The war has just barely begun.

Meanwhile, back at base camp, what the EU will do is anybody’s guess. Europe has for some time seemed suicidal. European leaders are determined to engage in military Keynesianism. Nobody quite understands why. True, Chancellor Merz appears to be a perfect idiot. P.M. Starmer also appears to be a perfect idiot. But surely they are surrounded by teams of advisers, highly educated specialists?

I find David Gibbs’ take on the matter very interesting. The EU and Europe, he explains in the conversation referred to above, lost their independence during the Kosovo war of 1989-1990. It is not news to me to learn that most European states, including my own country, are US vassals. And it should not be news to me to learn that in a vassal state, even historians, political (and other) scientists, and journalists must spend much of their professional life genuflecting in the emperor’s anteroom. Confer the recent White House pressure on even the most prestigious US universities. In Debate on the CIA and Academe, David Gibbs offers valuable insight into how and why academia refrains from pointing out cracks in foreign policy narratives, about which there is a wealth of available information for those who have access to the sources.

I decided to check David Gibbs’s sources on the Kosovo War, and have taken a long look at his 2009 book “First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia”, which I recommend. I find his documentation compelling.

I know my compatriots, and maybe your compatriots, too, want to believe that we are on the right side in a battle between good and evil and that NATO is defending us in that battle. I have long suspected that we are being misled and that US foreign policy is not, and has never been about good versus evil.

Blessings of ridicule

I wonder when I last listened to a comedian. It’s been years, I think. Maybe I haven’t heard of the right comedians, the comedians for me, that is. George Carlin is no longer, and I know of no one who has taken his place.

Most comedians I stumble across on the rare occasions when I turn on my TV are just “silly”; to my mind at least. Not that I don’t appreciate silliness. I have a silly dog, and she makes me laugh out loud even in public places. I don’t need silly comedians who are unable to make me laugh even alone in the shower.

But today I happened, by pure accident, to listen to … No, let me explain. I was reading Jeffrey Sachs, “Stop Netanyahu Before He Gets Us All Killed” and suddenly the scene shifted – I must have done something – at any rate, suddenly, I was faced with John Steward, and John Steward was screaming. That definitely caught my attention.

So I listened to him for a while. And I was able to laugh! Yes! Because he was screaming and targeting what I abhor, warmongering.. In my mind, I thanked him.

I leave it there, for now, not because I believe John Steward deserves the last word – I really know nothing about him – but because ridicule is so powerful a weapon. In geopolitics, the weapon of ridicule has been all but forgotten.

Peter Pan-syndromet

Natt til i går ble Iran utsatt for et stort israelsk bombeangrep.

Verdens ledere ba “partene besinne seg”. Det betyr i klartekst at den ene parten (Iran) bes ydmykt akseptere at den andre parten har tatt seg til rette. Det tror jeg faktisk ikke Iran vil gå med på. Israel har jo lenge ønsket å føre Iran tilbake til stenalderen, og vil fortsette å gå inn for det uansett hva Iran gjør eller ikke gjør.

Når Iran går til motangrep, vil USA komme Israel til unnsetning, dvs. aktivt delta i videre angrep mot Iran. Slik er det, og slik har det alltid vært, til tross for at USAs støtte til Israel skader USAs omdømme og interesser. En krig med Iran er derfor noe Trump ikke ønsker.

Jeg tror at vi her i Norge har overvurdert USAnske presidenters makt. Jo, de oppfører seg som allmektige keisere, men det viser seg at de må samarbeide, enten de vil eller ei, med stadig mektigere interessegrupper. I utenrikspolitikken er det særlig den såkalte “Israel-lobbyen” og apparatet rundt våpenprodusentene (“military-industrial complex”) som gjør seg gjeldende. Våpenprodusentene trenger kriger (“forever wars”) for å få avsetning for sine kampfly, ballistiske missiler, osv.

Israel-lobbyen, på sin side, er riktignok sammensatt av hummer og kanari, men later til å ha total kontroll over begge partiene i kongressen. Kongressen er rett og slett blitt et sionistisk organ.

Hva er sionisme? I USAs kongress innebærer sionisme nå uforbeholden støtte til alt Israel og Netanyahu måtte finne på for å utrydde palestinere, okkupere nye landområder, fastholde middelaldersk rasediskriminering, angripe naboland og gjennomføre attentater mot personer i fjerne land. Også i USAs statsapparat står sionismen sterkt. Jeg antar at sionisme har sterkere kort på hånden nå enn noensinne før, til tross for – ja, jeg må gjenta det – til tross for at Trump faktisk ikke ønsker krig mot Iran.

Tenk om norske stortingsmenn og -kvinner skulle få betalt for å stemme for Norges deltakelse i militære operasjoner mot Iran. Tenk om ledelsen i våre etterretningsorganer var sionister. Er det utenkelig, sier du? Kanskje det, men slik er det altså i USA.

Palantir er et privat firma som driver med etterretning. Palantir er overalt. Det produserer og selger AI-baserte overvåkings- og etterretnings-løsninger til høystbydende, også til norsk politi, som visstnok avbrøt avtalen etter noen år. USA har privatisert (“outsourced”) stadig mer av sitt etterretningsarbeid, og Palantir, har nå adgang til de aller fleste personopplysningsregistre i landet. Det kreves ikke mye fantasi for å forstå at Palantir kan være et uhyre effektivt våpen mot dissidenter.

Palantir ble skapt av Peter Thiel, som er sionist på sin hals, og Alex Karp, selskapets toppsjef. Sistnevnte har for øvrig et menneskesyn som får det til å gå kaldt nedover ryggen på meg.

Karp er overbevist om at USA er berettiget i å bruke absolutt alle midler for å bevare sitt globale overherredømme. Vi i vesten er nemlig bedre enn de andre. “The West is obviously superior“. Personlig lurer jeg på om mannen er en smule gal.

Palantir er som sagt et aksjeselskap. I likhet med andre aksjeselskap trenger det kunder, oppdrag. De næringsmedia som Palantir vokser seg stor og sterk på, er krig og sosiale konflikter. I likhet med den private militære organisiasjonen (“contractor”) Blackwater, nå omdøpt til Constellis, som arbeider på oppdrag for CIA, er Palantir ikke interessert i å dempe konfliktnivåer. Tvert i mot. Om konflikter på hjemmebane er konfekt for bedriften, som i stor stil har bidratt til utvisninger fra universiteter og massedeportasjoner fra landet, så er konflikten i Midtøsten et 6-retters luksusmåltid. Drapslister (“hit lists”) er noe selskapet visstnok er særlig gode på. Medvirket Palantir også i drapet på flere militære ledere og vitenskapsmenn i Iran i går natt?

Hva blir så Norges rolle i den kommende krigen? Ja. jeg hørte Bart Eide oppfordre til fortsatte forhandlinger. Men nei, jeg tror ikke Iran kan gå med på USAs krav. De er så urimelige at ikke noe land med respekt for seg selv ville kunne bøye seg for dem. Dette vet Bart Eide utmerket godt.

Bart Eides jobb er å la Ola og Kari forbli i drømmelandet enda en stund til, ja, så lenge som mulig. Det eneste vi trenger å vite, fra Bart Eides ståsted, er at USA vil passe på oss når russerne kommer. Bart Eides jobb er å late som om Norge enda er et selvstendig land med en selvstendig utenrikspolitikk. Når Israel med USAs hjelp bomber Iran tilbake til stenalderen, slik de pleier å gjøre med land de ikke liker, må Bart Eide ta oss inn i eventyrkroken og fortelle om tusser og troll, og om snille kloke Askeladden.

Vårt bilde av USA, det snille gode landet som beskytter oss mot trollene, er skapt av Hollywood, godt hjulpet av norske utenriksministre og norsk presse. Vi befinner oss altså i Peter Pan landet for dem som ikke vil bli voksne; for dem som ikke orker å se at det – for eksempel – faktisk er USA som finansierer og bevæpner og altså muliggjør det uhyrlige folkemordet av det palestinske folket og den kommende krigen mot Iran.

Heinous derangement

For months, commentators and geopolitical analysts have been biting their nails, fearing that the Zionist lobby would be able to prevail upon the US president to support the Israeli wish to annihilate Iran.

For months, US presidents – first Biden, then Trump – have stood their ground. Now, however, the US is withdrawing personnel from all the countries in the Middle East. It looks as though the lobby of the deranged will succeed. Trump is, after all, a weak president, while the military-industrial complex is anything but. And Israel does, after all, have “the Bomb”.

So maybe, the Evangelists and the ultra-orthodox Jews will at long last see an end to their earthly tribulations, as they reach Wagnerian suicidal orgasms enjoying Armageddon.

Idiots!

Akk

Glenn Diesen er blitt presset til å trekke seg fra valgkampen som representant for partiet FOR.

Når en som stiller til valg som stortingsrepresentant anklages foran hele nasjonen og i beste sendetid,
(a) først for muligens å være “en betalt agent for” og
(b) deretter for helt bestemt å være en “nyttig idiot for”
Norges for tiden verste fiende, da skjønner jeg at han/hun må trekke seg.

Glenn Diesen er relativt ung og har sikkert barn. Jeg får frysninger ved tanken på hva familien hans utsettes for, siden anklageren i et av NRKs mest besøkte programmer var ingen ringere enn den forrige regjeringens utenriksminister.

Ine Eriksen Søreide er altså en dame som har vært utenriksminister og som later som om hun ikke aner hvorfor Ukraina er blitt angrepet av russiske tropper. Er det virkelig blitt slik at våre statsråder er like uvitende som (jeg nevner ingen navn) deres kollegaer i USA? Helt siden 1950-tallet har USA-presidenter og statsråder underholdt oss med sin formidable uvitenhet og like formidable kynisme.

Jeg er gammel nok til å ha opplevd flere tiår av USAs utenrikspolitiske sirkus. Ine Eriksen Søreide er riktignok ikke like gammel. Men hun kan vel lese? Det forventes at noen som har et så ansvarsfullt embete som hun hadde, faktisk setter seg inn i ting og tang.

Jeg må rett og slett spørre: Hvorfor er Ine Eriksen Søreide villig til å risikere at nordmenn setter spørsmålstegn ved presse- og informasjonsfriheten i landet sitt? Den informasjonen som Glenn Diesen har samlet gjennom sin årelange forskning er nærmest bannlyst fra norsk presse men tilgjengelig og viden kjent i mange andre land. Hvorfor møter Ine Eriksen Søreide informasjon med sjikane?

Terje Alnes har logget noen av argumentene Ine Eriksen Søreide brukte mot informasjonen FOR prøvde å formidle på “Debatten” på NRK:

  • reinspikka tøv
  • de har slukt den russiske propagandaen rått
  • de videresender russisk propaganda i beste sendetid på NRK
  • innholdet er helt uten rot i virkeligheten
  • alle som ser dette skjønner veldig godt at dere snakker reinspikka tull
  • dere har ingen argumenter for det dere mener
  • historien viser at dere er som å høre ekko av propagandaen fra Moskva
  • dere er nyttige idioter for en politikk som Russland ønsker skal få fotfeste i Europa
  • Russland bruker dere fordi de ønsker å skape splittelse og polarisering

Terje Alnes, skriver videre.

Samtidig hadde Søreide et kroppsspråk som underbygget «argumentasjonen», der hun himlet med øynene og smilte hånlig av motparten. Denne høytstående representanten for det politiske Norge viste seg ikke i stand til å imøtegå motstanderen på en saklig måte, sannsynligvis fordi hun mangler kunnskap. Derfor saboterte hun i praksis debatten med et forsøk på å idiotforklare motparten, en kjent hersketeknikk.

Terje Alnes er saklig.

Jeg klarer ikke være saklig når jeg er sint, og nå er jeg – det må jeg innrømme – alvorlig sint. Jeg må derfor rett og slett spørre, slik Ine Eriksen Søreide mer enn spurte: Er hun kjøpt og betalt? Av USAs våpenindustri? Av NED? Av Atlantic Council? Kanskje burde PST ta en kikk på hennes konti i inn- og utland.

Let us listen and learn

I have nothing to add to what this man has to say.

True, the speaker’s English is probably AI-generated.
True, the speech was not delivered in the UN itself although it is addressed to the UN.

The fact remains that Burkina Faso has been one of the very poorest countries in the world, although it has some of the world’s most important gold mines, mines owned by Western companies that pay next to nothing to the workers in the mines, and next-to-nothing for the gold they appropriate.

I am not in the habit of rooting for military leaders. However, “Democracy” has not delivered what it promised to Africa. “Democracy” has not delivered peace. Nor has it delivered human rights, or health care, or retirement pensions, or education. Above all, it has not delivered dignity.

Since the establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, things are changing for the better.

The economic outlook for AES countries is positive (Burkina 5.494%, Mali 3.751%, and Niger 9.869% GDP growth in 2024, with Niger becoming the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world and the fastest growing economy in Africa in 2024., Wikipedia as at 31 May 2025

So: May all the Gods be with Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

Meningsbrytning

En gammel venn som slett ikke deler mitt syn i utenrikspolitiske saker, skrev til meg:

Jeg har fått med meg at de [FOR] opptrådte i “Debatten” i NRK, og fikk mye pepper, særlig fra Høyres utenrikspolitiske talsmann, den utrettelige Eriksen Søreide. De etablerte sannhetsbærerne i Norge vil ikke at andre synspunkter kommer til orde. Denne ensrettingen i Norge er virkelig oppsiktsvekkende. Alle avvik fra Den Eneste Rette Lære er blasfemi, gudsbespottelse og kjetteri. Helt i religiøst alvor. Det er som om noen baker sølekaker i døpefonten.

Han lurer naturlig nok på hvorfor det er blitt slik. Og han er ikke alene.

Mange viser til “russofobi”. Men hva skyldes den da? Er det ikke slik at man etter krigen var i stor i takknemlighetsgjeld til russerne, som for øvrig drev tyskerne ut av Finnmark?

Jeg for min del er ikke et øyeblikk i tvil: Til enhver tid, i ethvert land, får allmuen de nyhetene og analysene som myndighetene anser som “passende”. I Norge har vi hatt det relativt fritt, men skriverier om hvordan også det norske næringslivet utbytter land i det globale sør, det har vi ikke sett mye til i vår presse. “Redaktørstyrte aviser” som eies av f.eks. Schibsted – driver ikke med systemkritikk som rammer “næringslivet”, som det eufemistisk heter. Selv Klassekampen kan ikke tillate seg å kreve mer enn noen flere smuler fra de rikes bord.

Det er dessverre sikkert og visst at vi – mennesker – har trodd på julenissen igjen og igjen. Den franske revolusjonen ble et blodbad, den russiske revolusjonen ble et diktatur. FDR’s “New Deal” varte knapt noen år.

Og det er like sikkert som døden at noen mennesker skyr ingen midler for å oppnå egen rikdom og makt uten å bry seg om flertallets ve og vel! Sånn er det, og sånn har det alltid vært. Kan vi da “tro på” en bedre verden?

Riktignok har vi en uendelig mye bedre hverdag nå enn for 100 år siden. Her! Kun her i “Vesten” – hvor vi utgjør 13-15 % av verdens befolkning. Vår velferd går på bekostning av folk i det globale sør og den har gått på bekostning av våre egne barn. Vi har allerede langt på vei brent opp våre ressurser. Tross teknologiske og medisinske nyvinninger, går vi i Vesten mot harde tider.

Det store velferds-spranget i Europa etter krigen skyldtes forresten at makteliten var konkurs etter de to meningsløse krigene og depresjonen mellom dem (ifølge Thomas Piketty) og at den fryktet spredning av den russiske revolusjonen, som dermed paradoksalt nok gagnet oss i vest minst like mye som den gagnet russerne.

Levestandarden har også gjort et fenomenalt og egentlig utrolig sprang under Putin i Russland, for ikke å snakke om under Ji i Kina. Og der, til forskjell fra her, er det grunn til å tro at den vil fortsette å stige. Også andre BRICS-land håper å se, endelig, bedring i levestandarden etterhvert som de får frigjort seg fra dollaren og IMF.

Ja, der ligger nemlig hunden begravet: “De-dollarisering” er bra for noen, men ganske bestemt ikke for “oss”, dvs. for vestens finanselite. Vi leste for noen dager siden at Støre nylig hadde “tatt ut 12 millioner i utbytte” fra sitt “heleide investeringsselskap”. Slikt blir det mindre av hvis ikke makteliten klarer å forhindre den bebudete de-dollariseringen som BRICS driver på med.

Og hvem er det som mer enn noen annen har satt fart i de-dollariseringen? Jo det er Putin, og det fordi vestens sanksjoner faktisk tvang ham til det.

Vestens ledere har gravd seg ned i et hull det er vanskelig å grave seg ut av. Jo flere våpen, jo flere bomber (og tilhørende klimagasser) og jo flere sanksjoner, jo dypere blir hullet. Når Partiet FOR påpeker dette, kjøres det i gang luftvernssirener for å overdøve dem.

BRICS lover multipolaritet. BRICS lover at ingen “pol” skal være sjef, alle skal være likeverdige, med sine respektive kulturelle verdier. Ingen skal utbytte/ undertrykke/ bestemme over andre. Det høres flott og fint ut, ikke sant. Men tror jeg på at det blir slik?

Nei. Jeg gjør ikke det. Men har BRICS en mulighet til å gi det globale sør bedre vekstmuligheter enn Pax Americana? Ja det tror jeg absolutt. Langt, langt bedre! Vil våre finansfolk like det? NEI.

Jeg misliker sterkt at dissens fordømmes og undertrykkes, enten det skjer i Storbritannia, i Tyskland eller i Russland /Kina. Siden det for tiden er mitt syn som fordømmes nettopp i det såkalt pressefrie Norge, har jeg lært mye interessant om vestlig “pressefrihet”.

Pulling it off

We find ourselves wondering how come those of us who weep for the Palestinians, content ourselves with weeping. Why are there no armies of angry citizens with pitchforks in front of every US or Israeli embassy in Europe? Why do we allow unelected EU commissars to refer to Israel as a “beacon of Democracy”. What’s the matter with us?

Propaganda is not a new science. I have previously written about Arthur Ponsonby’s remarkable little 1928 book Falsehood in War-Time, about how nations were fooled into starting WWI and about how their populations were bamboozled into believing they were sacrificing their lives for a noble cause.

Since then, propaganda has made even greater strides, whereas our ability to resist propaganda has not. We swallow the bait, time and time again.

In school we were taught to look up information, to question its reliability, to consult sources, to seek other sources, to consider dissenting opinions without prejudice and assess the sources for them. That, we were told, is how science has brought us to where we are. Since then, however, those who have questioned official narratives – be they about Covid, the Ukraine war, Russia-gate, the murder of JFK or the weather forecast are labelled “conspiracy theorists”. Such an approach to controversy bodes ill for so-called Democracy and, for that matter, also for “science”.

We have long understood that history is written by the victor, and nowadays there are numerous researchers who challenge the victors’ stories, after the fact, as it were. Thus we know a great deal about the infamous cruelty of colonialism, for instance. That was a long time ago, and the perpetrators are dead. But what about the cruelties being perpetrated by neo-colonialism as we speak? Who dares expose them?

If you tell me, “time will be the judge”, I will riposte: Too much damage will have been done, by the time “time is ready to pass its verdict”, if we choose, today, a very dangerous course.

We are choosing a very dangerous course, Many dangerous courses, in fact. The old world order is cracking, but governments in the West are desperately trying to hold it together rather than pave the ground for a more just system.

There are numerous ways of airbrushing history. You can f.ex. apply the playground narrative: “He started it!” The other guy, the one with the bloody nose, will indignantly protest, “But that was after he––” before teacher grabs him by the ear and drags him off to be whipped. This constitutes what Yanis Varoufakis calls “truncation of history“. Our governments define one particular event as the catalyst of a conflict and all preceding events are simply deleted from the public memory. We won’t even be allowed to hear what the other guy, the one with the bloody nose, has to say for himself. This method has been used again and again by, not least, the USA to lend legitimacy to the new wars it needs to engage in, every couple of years or so.

Thus the Gaza war started on October 7, not a day earlier, when Hamas, the aggressor, allegedly mass-raped women and beheaded babies. Yes, here we apply not only “history truncation”; we also resort to demonization, as we did about Sadam, i.e. outright lies. When you are going to wipe out a population, you need to resort to fiction. By the time your lies are exposed, your own population is so emotionally involved that nothing can shift its outlook.

Thus the Ukraine war started in February 2022 with the so-called “unprovoked invasion” of 120 000 Russian troops in Ukraine. Yet an example of “history truncation” + demonization – as Russia’s president is regularly referred to as a modern-day Hitler. I have written extensively of this elsewhere on this site.

Now if, as is often the case, a US war ends badly for the USA, we have to resort to “framing“. By “we”, I mean not only the USA but all the US vassals in Europe. We make a big show of how good we are and how unspeakably horrible the opponents are. In Afghanistan, for instance, we provided schools and health care and, above all, we liberated women from the madmen who had used them as cows. To this day, we often see an unforgettable meme: desperate Aghans hanging from the underbelly of departing NATO planes. Yes, NATO suffered defeat in Afghanistan, but NATO was loved and missed by some thousand Afghans who had worked with the NATO forces and had reason to fear reprisals.

Now I put to you, that through framing, past Afghan history has gone missing in the most extraordinary way from the official narrative. Admittedly, I know very little about Afghanistan. But there is no doubt that Afghanistan has been egregiously fiddled with by all and sundry powers. Few seem to have noticed that (according to Wikipedia) the period 1933 to 1973 was not bad at all:

Zahir Shah [1933-1973,] like his father Nadir Shah, had a policy of maintaining national independence while pursuing gradual modernization, creating nationalist feeling, and improving relations with the United Kingdom. Afghanistan was neither a participant in World War II nor aligned with either power bloc in the Cold War. However, it was a beneficiary of the latter rivalry as both the Soviet Union and the United States vied for influence by building Afghanistan’s main highways, airports, and other vital infrastructure. On a per capita basis, Afghanistan received more Soviet development aid than any other country.

Needless to say, that king was deposed in a coup. We can’t have heads of state who actually benefit their country. Neighbouring countries might be tempted to follow their example.

Currently, Afghanistan is subject to a US-imposed starvation campaign, euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”. (Israel did not invent starvation campaigns!)

“Perception management” is big business in the US, not only for dealing with dissenters against wars. Environmentalists, for example are a menace to “US interests”, i.e. the interests of the proverbial 1%. Trump’s and Biden’s people deal with them differently, but none of them intend to avert environmental disaster.

In US vassal states, US “soft power” has blinkered us. All the films we have seen, with all those good and honest heroes and heroins have blotted out reality.

Then there is the matter of why poor countries are poor and getting poorer in spite of all the aid we are giving them? We have been led to blame corrupted officials, bad governance, inefficient institutions, difficult climates, lazy workers, etc. And of course too much fornication, which we politely refer to as “too many children”.

This is, again, an example of “truncated history” + framing. Mind you, I am not referring to the ghastly age of colonialism, which most governments are quite willing to “fess about”. I am referring to the decades since the 50s and 60s. See, for instance, the paper by Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel in Review of African Polical Economy. The details of how and why Africa has had to pay the west far more than the amount it has received in loans, aid and investment combined would take far too much space in a humble blog. Besides, it’s about economic exploitation, a field most of us find too technical. What seems clear, though, is that African countries have had to accept the terms of the more powerful countries. The injustice has been papered over with “aid”.

Which, of course, is why “perception management” is so effective. Few will be bothered to read papers published in the Review of African Economy. At least here in Norway. Most ordinary citizens in “the West” are left with the idea that in spite of a US invasion here, a US-orchestrated coup there – and yes, aggressive meddling just about everywhere, for instance in Haiti – we, the West give enormous sums of aid every year. We care about you poor sods, even if you are incompetent; we honestly try to keep you afloat. [For the record, Haiti was hell on earth under the French, then under USA until Aristide. The Haitians loved Aristide, but the US Americans did not, needless to say, so Haiti is still hell on earth.)

In his 2023 book, The Divide, Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets, Jason Hickel explains it all to us. I have not read the entire book because I stopped for a break after reading about how he was taken on a long drive on a dirt road to a place on the West Bank with an enormous sign: USAID. Apparently a well had been paid for by US tax payers to alleviate “Recurring water shortages” in the area. The well was, the sign read, a “gift from the American people”.

What made me feel quite ill as I read this was that since the 1967 war, Israel illegally controls:

water-rich territories like the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. These areas now provide a significant portion of Israel’s water supply. However, this control has come at the expense of neighboring states and Palestinians, who face severe restrictions on water access. For example, Palestinian per capita water consumption averages just 20 cubic meters annually, compared to Israel’s 60 cubic meters.

The Israeli government strictly regulates Palestinian water use, prohibiting the drilling of new wells and imposing fines for exceeding quotas, while Israeli settlements face no such restrictions. The result is a terrible inequality in access to water, …(source)


Perception management has been a priority in the USA ever since Reagan decided to energetically get the American people to “kick the Vietnam syndrom”.

Jason Hickel’s 2023 book, The Divide, is addressed to people like you and me, not to academics. However, if you are willing to read academic papers you can find him here.

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