Here, the means are necessary to achieve the desired ends and the equation is not hard to follow. Systematic and institutionalized, “not so subtle” racism, covert-overt-violent sexism, and the rat race perpetuated through capitalism by global corporations. “Fuck the poor, if they don’t work who needs ‘em!” Dick Cheney and the Trilateral Commission, the Dulles Brothers, the House of Bush and Bohemian Grove. The attempted destruction of the family and childhood and human development in nearly every country in the Americas, emphasis added to nations of Black and Brown peoples. Incessant weaponry and technological innovations and build-up, the correlating fear, and the mass-numbing-dumbing process carried out through a miseducational system and the apathy-inducing, passive submission to the enveloping, force-fed notion of, “that’s just the way it is,” in the everyday existence of our friends, family, colleagues - and sometimes ourselves. And of course the flat-screen-TVs and i-phones and their allure. Pills, pills, pills and the best, most complex postmodern propaganda machine the world has ever known. An invisible international ruling elite, the illusion of progress in the haze of unrelenting darkness…This is the New Machiavellian World Order, operated and maintained through an interchangeable and self-perpetuating system of proper-schooled Princes.
Both in Latin America and in the United States of America, we see evidence of this militarized-capitalistic, “lion” style of governance. Meanwhile and often simultaneously in the U.S., these same Princes adhere to a much more cunning “fox”-like game of control and repression, relying heavily and building creatively off of Bernay’s explicit manual, Propaganda. Thus, contemporary American rulers must be despotic and democratic, “fighting for freedom” while actually killing for capital, cowering behind crucifixes – spreading “god’s good word” while doing the work of seemingly devilish entities. Machiavelli says of this “flexible disposition” in The Prince, “He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, kind, guileless, and devout. And indeed he should be so. But his disposition should be that, if he needs to be the opposite, he knows how.” (p. 57) In other words, appearance is everything. And in the case of the Cold War and its mind-boggling overall effects in Latin America juxtaposed with the veil of darkness shrouding the view of so many mainstream Americans, show the variation and combination of Fox/Lion militaristic-political-economic-cultural tactics throughout the Americas and illustrates just exactly who “won” the Cold War: the ruling elite.
In Latin America, the collective behavior over the past 550 years, triggered and maintained by colonial-Anglo Princes has rendered the once independent, indigenous peoples and places under the rule of the Anglo-European. The hegemonic, near-genocidal policies prescribed by the United States and its allies in Latin America have been rationalized through “advancements” in science, technology, agricultural applications, covert intelligence agencies, capitalism, this modern-concept of racism, and the spread of the uniquely European tactic – international, nay intergalactic!, militarization. Moving on the Latin American nations like it were a prostitute in an American created slum, the people – as always – have been ravaged, dehumanized, and left to fend for themselves.
Behind the scenes and “backstage,” the U.S. government has waged calculating and democratically subversive war in Latin America for many, many years. This is troubling indeed, but not quite as troubling as the resulting effects of the psychological and existential oppression through education, the economy, pop culture, politics, and the mass media. And I think there are three major examples of this, then and now. First, the modern philosophy of racism as it was used to justify colonial conquest and is still used to justify this same behavior, but additionally to explain personal success, notions of self-worth, intelligence, social mobility, class, and so forth. Second, the dissemination of canonized, Western literature, history, philosophy, culture, food, and art – working simultaneously with racist dogmas – perpetuates this hegemonic gaze through which Latin America is perceived by many in the North (if it is thought of at all by people in the North). Finally, the economic dependence and corresponding control that has been jeopardized and stolen through global capitalist invasion serves to keep the United States in the picture. But beyond that and more worrying is how this economic dependence works to reinforce the Anglo cultural imposition as well as its racist ideology. And as Charles Mills asserts in The Racial Contract, “Europeans thereby emerge as ‘the lords of human kind,’ the ‘lords of all the world,’ with the increasing power to determine the standing of the non-Europeans who are their subjects.” (p. 20) Notice Mills’ Machiavellian use of subjects.
And the simultaneous human effects in North America on the people - the working, mainstream American – are nearly as troubling. Much of the racism, economic exploitation, miseducation, and Anglo cultural imposition prevalent in Latin America are present in the U.S. too. We have corrupt and white supremacist political policy and politicians. We have rampant poverty, dying babies, environmental concern, drugs, suicide, and rape also. So in reality, the people of North and South America have much more in common than they do different. (…but we’ll get to that in a minute.)
The thing is though, in North America, the corruption and oppression we live in and many work to support is so well-hidden and has been made to be perceived with as little aversion as possible. Enter social Darwinism, the Enlightenment philosophers, Anglo-history, Anglo-economy, and corporate media domination. Mix it with a dash of sexism, some class conflict, and whole heap of racism and hate. Now you have something that resembles the United States of America in 2008.
The propaganda machine built by Bernays and many others is thriving in the U.S. It’s working better than anyone ever thought possible; to the degree that, this current U.S. cultural-historical-political moment in history has to be considered as a “best case scenario” by the elite Princes of the day. I mean for them, business is booming! But for the rest of us, we are growing tired of these games and these chains. The double-edged tactic of racism that executes not only economic and political exploitation, but also creates human division, separation, and disconnect has been discovered and stripped naked. It is being seen for what it is, much like this new global capitalist takeover. Resistance is happening. The class lines, the race lines, and the gender lines are being torn away and I’d like to think that a new day is emerging. People are seeing the importance of unification.
A new day…existentially I have to believe this, or what’s the point!? And here we are - working for this new day, studying, communicating, stock-piling our own ammunition. It’s what needs to be done right now. As Lenin said, “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.” It will not be easy. I am not naïve and I will be dead when this new day breaks most likely. And that is fine. But when the people unite to return their chains to the rightful owners of such property, and their consciousness permits this and welcomes this…Then a new sun will rise, and it’s nice to think we’d get it right then.