{"id":36297,"date":"2013-11-11T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=36297"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:21:14","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:21:14","slug":"the-debtors-war-a-modern-greek-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/11\/the-debtors-war-a-modern-greek-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Debtor\u2019s War: A Modern Greek Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early on Thursday, 7 November 2013<\/a>, Greek riot police stormed the offices of Greece\u2019s main public broadcaster, which had been under a five-month occupation by workers who opposed the government\u2019s decision to shutdown the broadcaster, firing thousands and destroying a major cultural institution. The broadcast seems to have come to an end.<\/p>\n

The long and painful Greek tragedy continues, where society and culture are gutted, people impoverished, driven into a deep depression, with growing political and social conflicts, the rise of fascism, detention camps filled with immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, trying to escape the dictators we arm, or the wars we support, with suicide rates spiking, health and well-being deteriorate, services and support vanish, and all the people are left to be punished, humiliated, oppressed and destroyed\u2026 These are called \u201csolutions\u201d to an economic crisis, on the road to \u201ceconomic recovery\u201d\u2026 think about that for a moment.<\/p>\n

Why is this done? Because some of the world\u2019s largest banks demand it. The same banks that created the global financial crisis, and the European debt crisis, and the global food crisis (which drives tens of millions more people into hunger, and makes the banks richer in the process)., and which launder hundreds of billions of dollars in drug money, profit from arms sales, war and terror. Those banks want the people of Greece (and Spain, and Italy, Portugal, and Ireland, and everywhere, always, across the world) to pay the interest they feel they are owed.<\/p>\n

Let me put this simply: a computer screen somewhere, at some big bank, says that some country owes that bank a certain amount of money, and thus, the people of that country must suffer and even die, so that the government can afford to pay back the bank. That\u2019s what government\u2019s are for, right? To serve banks\u2026 right?<\/p>\n

Greece needs to pay the bank, because the bank and all the bank\u2019s friends (what we call \u201cfinancial markets\u201d) have decided to punish the country of Greece by betting against the ability of the country to repay its debts, to crash its credit rating, making its ability to borrow and spend increasingly expensive and impossible. Now Greece is basically broke. Greece needs money, so it turns to the EU, the European Central Bank, and the IMF for \u201cassistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

They demand that Greece \u2013 in return for the loan(s) \u2013 impoverish its population, cut all social services and health care, education, anything of benefit to the population \u2013 destroy it! \u2013 because it\u2019s \u201ctoo costly.\u201d These are called \u201causterity measures.\u201d Then, ensure that the newly-impoverished population has all their \u2018benefits\u2019 withdrawn, which were promised to them through the \u2018social contract\u2019 between the population and the government (essentially, a social agreement between people and the state which legitimizes the state\u2019s ability to rule over them). These things must be destroyed. So things like pensions, social security, labour rights and regulations, protections and safety, industries, resources, services and anything that again benefits the population, must be dismantled and sold for cheap to foreign banks and corporations. All must be dismantled to ensure that the newly-impoverished population and country can be effectively and efficiently exploited by cosmopolitical corporations. These are called \u201cstructural reforms,\u201d presumably because they \u2018reform\u2019 the very structure of society.<\/p>\n

Then, with the combination of impoverishment and exploitation, comes the saintly glow of the all-encompassing human desire and civilizational drive \u2013 our goal and purpose as a species on this planet, what our societies are organized by and for \u2013 the highest stage of humanity: \u201ceconomic growth.\u201d Who wouldn\u2019t want \u201cgrowth\u201d? Well, unless we\u2019re talking about something like a wart, rash, infection, inflammation, or a tumour, everyone wants \u201cgrowth\u201d, right? Even if it\u2019s at the expense of entire societies and populations of actual individual and living human beings, like any single one of us. Just so long as they suffer for \u201cgrowth,\u201d all will be well and happy.<\/p>\n

So what does \u201cgrowth\u201d mean? It means that the banks and corporations \u2013 which worked with government agencies and officials in creating the global economic and financial crises in the first place \u2013 now have the ability to reap the benefits of destruction: massive profits, and growing global power. Large corporations have more money than most countries on earth. Their power is protected by the state, their influence unquestioned, their domination of the world\u2019s resources, materials, culture and society is rapidly advancing, and they are \u2013 institutionally and ideologically \u2013 totalitarian. So what\u2019s not to love, really?<\/p>\n

They want it all. Profit and power. Our world is dominated and being re-shaped by a tiny global financial, corporate, political and intellectual elite. And all must suffer so that they can have what anyone in their position would want to have: more, they want it all. And they want you to just shut up and let them take it all. If you have a problem with that, well, that\u2019s what riot police, prisons, and fascism are for.<\/p>\n

This is why Greece must suffer. This is why we hear the unholy trinity economic mantra of: \u201causterity,\u201d \u201cstructural reform,\u201d and \u201ceconomic growth.\u201d The modern Greek Tragedy of \u2018The Debtor\u2019s War\u2019 is driven by the tyrannical trio known as the \u2018Troika\u2019: the European Commission (of unelected, unaccountable supranational elite technocrats who serve the interests of global corporate and financial power), the European Central Bank (of unelected technocrats and economists who serve the interests of \u201cfinancial markets\u201d and the big banks), and the IMF (of unelected technocrats and economists who serve global financial and corporate interests). This institutional \u2018Troika\u2019 (the EC, ECB, and IMF) demanded the implementation of the ideological \u2018Troika\u2019: austerity, structural reform, and economic growth.<\/p>\n

Together, institutionally and ideologically, they wreak havoc upon humanity.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the most completely INSANE point in human history; the all-or-nothing. Welcome to reality.<\/p>\n

Now please, kindly help change it.<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Andrew Gavin Marshall is a 26-year old researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada. He is Project Manager of The People\u2019s Book Project, chair of the Geopolitics Division of The Hampton Institute, research director for Occupy.com\u2018s Global Power Project, and hosts a weekly podcast show with BoilingFrogsPost.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 andrewgavinmarshall.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Large corporations have more money than most countries on earth. Their power is protected by the state, their influence unquestioned, their domination of the world\u2019s resources, materials, culture and society is rapidly advancing, and they are \u2013 institutionally and ideologically \u2013 totalitarian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}