gs

How the Western “Community of Values” Has Evolved Over the Last 75 Years from a Social Market Economy and “Daring More Democracy” into Increasingly Totalitarian Societies and Growing Militarization: A Conclusion and an Assessment After 1945 and the catastrophic consequences of the Second World War, the guiding principle was “never again war,” and democracy became the dominant narrative, at least in the so called Western world. In Europe, slogans such as “We want to dare more democracy” and “We will give capitalism a social face,” championed by postwar politicians such as Bruno Kreisky, Olof Palme, and Willy Brandt, embodied the great hope of many Europeans for peace, prosperity, and social security for all. Even though life improved for many people in the Western world over several decades, the result we face today is sobering. With regard to the danger of a Third World War, particularly in connection with Iran and Ukraine, the threat is greater than at any time since 1945. I see the main reasons that led the West away from nearly all of its originally positive approaches after the Second World War as follows: First, there is a form of covert post colonialism that has led to wars and sanctions, costing the lives of 33 million civilians between 1971 and 2022. This figure does not even include the dropping of two atomic bombs by the Western powers. Seventy five years of Hollywood and a press that in recent years has deteriorated into court reporting for those in power have helped blind most people to the violations of international law committed by their own governments. The Hollywood style presentation at the United Nations regarding the Iraq War, planned by one of the world’s largest advertising agencies and carried out by the 17 year old daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, as well as reporting during the Yugoslav War about alleged concentration camps that were not fenced in, are only examples and could be multiplied a hundredfold with similar false flag operations. There is a popular joke that wherever the Western world brings democracy and women’s rights, it discovers oil and natural resources. Afghanistan truly became a synonym for this reality: after 20 years of war, the Taliban, whom the West sought to remove, returned to power. Incidentally, opium production flourished most during the Western occupation, while the Taliban have attempted to restrict it. Everyone can draw their own conclusions from that. As for economic developments, it is clearly evident that after authoritarian communism failed, the worst form of capitalism prevailed to the detriment of all: neoliberalism, and now perhaps a kind of technocratic, monopolistic, authoritarian feudalism, presented under the label of “our democracy.” Two examples illustrate the gap between the poor and the super rich: the 500 richest people on the planet earn as much in one year as 3.5 billion people combined, and less than one percent of the global population owns roughly half of all wealth. In the United States, this is certainly a consequence of the legal possibility, existing for around 20 years, of unlimited donations to politicians during election campaigns, along with the immense influence of the military industrial complex, which sponsors presidential campaigns costing up to 500 million dollars or more. As a result, more than 65 percent of members of the Senate and House of Representatives are millionaires or multimillionaires, and whose interests they represent may be left to the imagination of the reader. Another noteworthy characteristic of the so called model democracy of the United States is that, as we have known since Snowden, virtually everyone is monitored, while the President of the United States authorizes killings worldwide by drone strike without trial or due process. Obama even had a 16 year old US citizen killed in this way. Europe, which unfortunately follows the United States loyally in nearly everything, is on a similar path, though with some differences, as seen in countries such as Switzerland, Denmark, or Iceland. The European Union, originally launched as a peace project, has meanwhile become, in the author’s view, one of the strongest drivers of war on the planet, with significant German participation. People who expose war crimes, such as Assange, spend years in high security prisons within the EU, while journalists, authors, and activists who present alternative narratives regarding Ukraine are placed on EU sanctions lists. For those affected, this means economic and social destruction, censorship, confiscation of assets, and the loss of freedom of movement. The EU calls this “our democracy.” Unlike in the United States, politics in Europe is financed through party subsidies, which are also distributed to the press, as well as through lobbyists who donate in various ways. Votes are cast not according to conscience but according to party discipline, something portrayed as democratic. Whether the issue is Corona, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, or CO2, only the officially approved narrative is permitted. Newspapers, television, and radio no longer present differing opinions, but only the narratives prescribed by those in power. Anyone who deviates is labeled a conspiracy theorist, a Nazi, or unintelligent, and if they gain too much reach through podcasts or other media, they are deleted, censored, or, in the worst cases, sanctioned, as happened to Jacques Baud, a Swiss colonel placed on an EU sanctions list. Through internet surveillance systems, increasing pressure is being built within “our democracy” with the goal of consolidating everything into a single digital identity in order to monitor individuals more effectively and potentially deprive them of their livelihoods if they refuse to conform. Yet the transparency and control demanded of citizens are entirely absent among officials themselves, as illustrated by the Pfizer procurement dealings involving Ursula von der Leyen. I could add much more about the condition of our monetary and debt systems and about the alarming developments pushing us toward war, accompanied by propaganda that overshadows even Orwell’s darkest warnings. But given the acute danger of war, which in the author’s view is being deliberately fueled by the EU and especially by German politicians, together with recession and the threat of a coming depression, all those who have children and grandchildren, and all those who recognize at least part of the madness into which so called elites, their loyal writers, and dependent, brainwashed experts are leading us, should urgently take to the streets and do everything possible to avoid being dragged into war and to stand up for a genuine democracy and a social, peaceful coexistence. The alternative would be catastrophic, and anyone who does nothing within their means risks sharing responsibility.