The Yeltsin Reset

 

As a consequence of Western propaganda, when the Soviet Union ended at the end of 1991, most of the newly independent Russian citizens probably anticipated a significant improvement in their standard of living. Movies and other media depicted the U.S. and Western Europe as consumer paradises of conspicuous consumption whereas the U.S.S.R. was stuck in economic inefficiency and stagnation. It is against this backdrop that Boris Yeltsin relied upon the advice of Jeffrey Sachs and his Harvard team of economic advisors. "Shock Therapy" was instituted whereby the Russian productive economy was privatized, essentially sold off on pennies on the dollar to foreign investors and future local oligarchs using borrowed money. The net result of all of this was a significant collapse of the productive Russian economy along with the immiseration of much of the people side by side with the creation of super wealthy oligarchs. Health and life expectancy plummeted. "Low birth rates and abnormally high death rates caused Russia's population to decline at a 0.5% annual rate, or about 750,000 to 800,000 people per year from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia#:~:text=Low%20birth%20rates%20and%20abnormally,1990s%20to%20the%20mid%2D2000s.&text=In%202018%2C%20the%20UN%20claimed,to%20132%20million%20by%202050.    

It is no coincidence that the COVID pandemic is being heralded as a great opportunity to restructure the global economy and to "build back better" in a World Economic Forum promoted "Great Reset." Curiously, there are a significant number of people who can't seem to comprehend that this pandemic was created as a pretext for restructuring a no longer viable global political economy. The era of mass consumption consumer capitalism is over. The elite plan for a form of totalitarian neofeudalism is being implemented. This is a form of structural adjustment not very different from what the West through the IMF and World Bank have imposed upon the Third World for the last 70 years. This structural adjustment is being misrepresented as a response to a uniquely deadly virus in order to permit the managerial and technocratic elites to justify what is happening. It is analogous to an internal "humanitarian intervention." The fat-cats are destroying the lives and future hopes of the bottom 50% of society in order to "save lives." And make no mistake, the destruction of small businesses along with a dramatic increase in poverty, homelessness and despair is being hidden in plain sight by a media fully committed to this restructuring. Yet, the reality is there for those who choose to look rather than pretend not to see. And while this restructuring will definitely enhance the power and privilege of the 1%, this elite planned era of never-ending medical martial law, hyper-surveillance and mass debt servitude will be a dark dystopia for the majority. Also, make no mistake, pandemics as a means of social control are here to stay. So, forget about returning to the "old" normal. Not going to happen. 

This transition to totalitarian neofeudalism is being sold as a Great Reset. We are building back better. Better for who? This is an elite promoted scenario. Anyone who thinks that the 1% is motivated by concern for the 90% (not the 99%), much less the bottom 50%, needs to re-examine their perception of reality. One needs only to review the consequences of Western colonialism and neocolonialism on the Third World, along with the brutal militarism required in order to enforce compliance, to understand that the global 1% is the enemy of the bottom 90%, particularly the bottom 50%. The Western middle class was spared the consequences of this because most of the bottom 50% (60%?, 70%?) live in Third World countries and are out of sight and out of mind, liberal consciences soothed by Western mythology and media propaganda. As Harold Pinter said in his Nobel acceptance speech: "It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis." 

Thanks to neoliberal globalization, the various national elites and national corporations have become global in perspective and impact. Social hierarchies are now globalized with the global elites meeting regularly to plan how to deal with the rest of us. That the Davos elites are meeting virtually in support of the pandemic narrative should surprise no one. The "Great Reset" is a plan for increased elite security and control of the masses as we transition from the hydrocarbon era. It is a slick attempt to exploit serious environmental problems to misrepresent the "new normal" as eco-friendly. It is not. Also, it misrepresents this new world order as a high tech paradise. A more accurate description would be a dystopia. The notion of a "fourth industrial revolution" is absurd considering the very real energy constraints required if any humans are to survive the coming climate catastrophe. The push for electric vehicles would create a demand for electricity which could not possibly be met sustainably. Rather, this is a stealth attempt to revive nuclear power by creating demand. Please note that the pandemic restrictions have already more-or-less eliminated small business and much of the middle class. What remains are the fat-cat lords of capitalism and the corporate great lords of capitalism ruling analogous to feudal lords with functionality replacing geography. Mass consumption is out (and rightly so), financial dependence, debt service and conditions of employment or universal basic income are in. The entire system cannot last long simply because the environmental problems are so severe that civilizational collapse is on the horizon. Sounds crazy, but this is where we are at thanks to our psychopathic rulers/owners who even now prioritize personal power accumulation above all else. I suspect that this restructuring of the global political economy is designed firstly to deal with our inappropriate financial system and secondarily to provide the elites with some stability and security during the chaos soon to come. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

A final word about The Great Reset and the environment. The Great Reset exploits the looming environmental catastrophe and public concern through what amounts to green washing. The "fourth industrial revolution" is portrayed as a solution to global warming by transitioning away from fossil fuel driven cars to electric cars, for example. Supposedly, this will get us to net carbon zero. Two problems. The first is that net carbon zero utilizes the carbon trading scam to achieve its goals on paper. Actual significant reductions in carbon emissions are illusory. The second and more significant is that electric cars per se will not reduce energy consumption, an essential component of reducing actual carbon emissions. Let me cut to the quick. There are two essential components of a sustainable society. The first is radical energy conservation. Renewable energy sources are totally incapable of supporting our current energy intensive system. The second is to emphasize local autonomy and small scale technology. The Great Reset is essentially being sold as a glitzy, high tech version of globalization. Corporate globalization is not sustainable, period. Yet, by conflating the Great Reset with environmental objectives, environmentalism per se is de facto being discredited. Sadly, liberal environmentalists are already on the COVID/Reset bandwagon, while a significant number of pandemic resisters are global warming deniers. Yet another nail in humanity's coffin. 

Not only is the Great Reset not eco-friendly, but the fat-cats who are pushing it are of a kind with those who have created the mess we are now in. From increased auto and air travel, to fracking and unsustainable agriculture, to destructive neocolonialism and neoliberal globalization, the global 1% have been conducting a de facto war against Mother Nature. Their reductionist mindset rejects the prospect of living in harmony with the natural world by setting limits and behaving responsibly. Their only priority seems to be acquiring more and more power usually in the form of money. Their only considered solutions to problems involve technological fixes to correct the problems caused by the last round of technological "innovation." And they routinely misrepresent reality in order to achieve their objectives, usually at the expense of the 90%, but almost always at the expense of the 50%. They have created a totally unsustainable political economy and are now attempting to take us farther down a dead end road by restructuring the political economy to a form of totalitarian neofeudalism which may benefit them in the short run, but will be at the expense of the global 90%. And just as the Russian people deluded themselves that Uncle Sam was going to be their benefactor under Yeltsin, so too have the self-deluded embraced the PR spin of the Great Reset to imagine that the creators of systemic disaster have suddenly become altruistic and wise. PR spin is deception, not a solution. And the fat-cat elites calling the shots remain true to form. One would have thought this obvious, however, it is easy to believe what is convenient to believe and the capacity for self-deception appears limitless. So it is that even as the global political economy is being restructured right in front of us (small businesses destroyed, unemployment and poverty skyrocketing, homelessness and tent cities proliferating), this is all being ignored to focus on COVID-19 and the pandemic. As Harold Pinter would say: it isn't happening even as it is happening. Incredible.