Mark Fleming-Williams — China: The Next United States?

Stratfor's economic assessment of US-China rivalry.

EconMatters
China: The Next United States?
Mark Fleming-Williams, Stratfor Global Intelligence

Wikipedia — Inverted totalitarianism

Inverted totalitarianism is a term coined by political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in 2003 to describe the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin believes that the United States is increasingly turning into an illiberal democracy, and he uses the term "inverted totalitarianism" to illustrate the similarities and differences between the United States governmental system and totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.[1][2][3][4] In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, inverted totalitarianism is described as a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and where economics trumps politics.[5] In inverted totalitarianism, every natural resource and every living being is commodified and exploited to collapse and the citizenry are lulled and manipulated into surrendering their liberties and their participation in their government by excess consumerism and sensationalism.

Contents
1 Inverted totalitarianism and managed democracy1.1 Managed democracy2 See also3 Notes4 References5 External links

See also
SuperpowerCorporatocracyNeoliberalismIlliberal democracyTotalitarian democracyAmericanism (ideology)Prison-industrial complex

Inverted totalitarianism
Wikipedia

Pepe Escobar — The Birth of a Eurasian Century

A specter is haunting Washington, an unnerving vision of a Sino-Russian alliance wedded to an expansive symbiosis of trade and commerce across much of the Eurasian land mass -- at the expense of the United States.

If you've been following the links I have been putting up on geopolitics, geostrategy, the Great Game, Mackinder's heartland theory, Spykman's rimland theory, and Brzezinski's grand chessboard, you'll immediately see why that sentence is setting off alarm bells in the National Security Council and the Pentagon, as well as NATO HQ. The significance of Ukraine and the Crimean naval base will also be clear to you, as well as the US Asian Pivot in order to encircle Russia and China to the East by NATO and to the West by the US Seventh Fleet.


What difference does this make economically? Let me count the ways. Theh first thing that obviously comes to mind is, of course, military expenditure. But infrastructure is also key in developing the potential of the land mass, as Escobar explains about Pipelineistan and the new Silk Road that China has embarked upon.


Unfortunately, Escobar is out of paradigm with MMT and miscontrues the effect on the USD, although this doesn't seriously impair the kernel of his analysis.

While we watch the spectacle unfold, with no end game in sight, keep in mind that a new force is growing in Eurasia, with the Sino-Russian strategic alliance threatening to dominate its heartland along with great stretches of its inner rim. Now, that’s a nightmare of Mackinderesque proportions from Washington’s point of view. Think, for instance, of how Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser who became a mentor on global politics to President Obama, would see it.

In his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski argued that “the struggle for global primacy [would] continue to be played” on the Eurasian “chessboard,” of which “Ukraine was a geopolitical pivot.” “If Moscow regains control over Ukraine,” he wrote at the time, Russia would “automatically regain the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia.”

That remains most of the rationale behind the American imperial containment policy -- from Russia’s European “near abroad” to the South China Sea. Still, with no endgame in sight, keep your eye on Russia pivoting to Asia, China pivoting across the world, and the BRICS hard at work trying to bring about the new Eurasian Century.

On geopolitical and historical terms it is rather implausible that war can be avoided given this scenario, unless "this time it is different," or there's a miracle. The Western alliance is not going to be sitting still as this plan unfolds, and the overwhelming military force and economic might still lies with the Atlantic powers and Japan.

However, the notion that a collapsing dollar will take all this down is nonsense. Escobar is off the rails here.

In addition, the onset of climate change threatening both geographical change and resource shortages makes increasing conflict practically a certainty.


Looks like we are setting up for another round.

TomDispatch
The Birth of a Eurasian Century
Pepe Escobar