Theos-Talk Archives (September 2001 Message tt00157)

Full article at :
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/Articles/American%20and%20the%20New%20Wor
ld%20Order.html



America and the 
New World Order 
 
 

By Richard Moore

First Preface:
What is the New World Order?

Few would disagree that the dominant trend of our day is globalization -
the elimination of trade barriers, the downsizing of governments, a
greater reliance on the private sector, reduced regulation of business,
and an increasingly global economy. A great many people interpret this
trend as economic progress, and see it is a basically good thing. This
article will argue that globalization is first and foremost political
regression - threatening to destroy our Western democratic institutions,
and turning the clock of human progress centuries backward to something
resembling feudalism.

The role of the USA in the globalization trend is not entirely obvious.
In some ways, America seems central to the process. It is the leading
proponent of free trade; it provides the primary military muscle to
shape and maintain global order; when the American President speaks on
international issues, his words are taken as being decisive - he is (by
virtue of his office) far-and-away the most powerful and influential
world leader.

But at the same time, America seems hardly to be the primary beneficiary
of the globalization process. Other countries, notably Germany and
Japan, are faring better economically, while America suffers increasing
debt and a declining standard of living. America, though the dominant
world power, appears not to be exploiting its advantage in the
traditional fashion of dominant powers.

The perspective of this article is that globalization is not about
competition among nations - but rather about the increasing power of
mega-corporations over nations, generally, and their peoples. America -
the hotbed of this trend - is in effect acting as a proxy for elite
corporate interests, not as a representative of the American people, nor
even of American national interests in any traditional sense. Seen from
this perspective, America’s seemingly ambivalent role becomes
understandable.

In order to get a comprehensive picture of where globalization came from
and where it is going, this article makes a whirlwind tour of American
history, showing how that feeds into what has now become the mainstream
of world history. If sovereign national states, sometimes competing and
sometimes cooperating, have been the Familiar World Order, then
globalization seems to be leading us all inexorably toward a New World
Order where mega-corporations (and the wealthy elite who control them)
reign supreme, and nations are reduced to a vestigial, subservient,
policing role - controlling the populace on behalf of the elite - as we
see already in much of the Third World.

Second Preface:
What and Who are the Elite?

During the era of feudalism, there were three elites. There was the
church hierarchy, there was the landed aristocracy/nobility, and there
were the royal families, who might also be seen as the topmost layer of
the aristocracy. As feudalism ended, there was the rise of an additional
elite - the business wealthy - who gained their status and influence
through trade and manufacture, with or without benefit of inherited
title. These elite groups competed for power, and different
accommodations occurred from time to time and from place to place.

>From the point of view of the general population, these elites
represented security or tyranny, depending perhaps on ones perspective -
but it was obvious to everyone that the elites ran society - no one
pretended that society was democratic. With the advent of "democratic
republics", beginning with the USA, the older elites were removed from
power, but the wealthy business elite, which had evolved into the
capitalist elite, remained relatively undisturbed.

Did this transformation bring about democracy, in any genuine sense, or
was it merely the monopolization of power into the hands of the single
remaining elite? This is a question that remains open - and it is a
question that can be asked also of most of today’s modern "democracies",
which have each to some degree been modeled on the American precedent.

Part One:
The Birth of Democratic Republics - American Independence

The Colonial Context

Although sentiment for independence in the American colonies was minimal
prior to the latter half of the 18th century, there were objective
conditions which made independence a natural, and comparatively
non-disruptive step. The colonies were already largely self-governing,
had their own social identity, had considerable natural resources, were
mostly self-sufficient economically, and had their own extensive trading
fleet. Boston was the third-busiest port in the British Empire.