Quote Of The Day #51

“If you want to understand any problem in America, you need to focus on who profits from that problem, not who suffers from the problem.”

 

A fascinating quote that reveals a truth that dates back to at least the late Roman Republic. The orator Cicero asked the question “Cui bono?” which means “who benefits?” Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the Soviet Union, asked the question “Who, whom?” by which he meant which class of people (capitalists or the working class) would dominate society. Anyone even vaguely familiar with this blog will know that it is my contention that the Establishment in the UK (indeed, in the West in general) only care about money and much of what passes for political debate is theatre designed to disguise the fact that 99% of the benefits of economic growth accrue to 1% of the population.

 

Amos Wilson was an American theoretical psychologist and author. He believed that the difference in power between different groups in US society not simply racist attitudes was responsible for the continued impoverishment of black Americans. He believed it was necessary to transform society to end racism and oppression.

 

Who benefits from the ludicrous row over membership of the neoliberal European Union that has paralysed British politics for more than two years? Who will benefit if the UK does eventually exit the EU? And who will benefit if the UK remains part of the EU or, as some have argued, exits the EU but remains part of the single market? The people who gain the most from Britain’s membership of the EU are big business, the banks and the Establishment politicians they have bought and paid for. And the idea that leaving the EU is some working class revolt is belied by the fact that the most vocal supporters of Brexit are Boris Johnson (Eton and Oxford), Nigel Farage (Dulwich College), Jacob Rees-Mogg (Eton and Oxford) and Michael Gove (Robert Gordon’s College and Oxford). The Brexiters are simply Establishment neoliberals who think they can make more money outside the EU than inside.

 

An earlier incarnation of neoliberalism – Thatcherism – exposed the British working class to the full force of global competition. Nationalised industries, the utilities and the railways were sold off to the Conservative Party’s friends in big business, often for a fraction of their true worth. This is theft. If I stole your car and sold it, the police would come and take it from that third party. There would be no talk about the rights of the person who bought stolen goods. The Blairites who ruled the UK between 1997 and 2010 were no better; ludicrously overpromoted ‘working class hero’ John Prescott claimed there was no money to buy back the railways. I saw on the news yesterday that the aforementioned Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, is bringing in the privatised water companies for a telling-off. The only thing that would force these companies to actually invest in fixing water leaks would be the words ‘nationalisation without compensation.’ Ditto the railways, if only to see the look on Richard Branson’s face, a man whose nice-guy, hippie image hides one of the most ruthless and rapacious capitalists of our times.

 

The Guardian newspaper – along with their chums at Jimmy Savile House one of the main spreaders of ‘fake news’ in the UK – wants you to believe that the Brussels nomenklatura have the interests of ordinary voters at heart. They want you to believe that the organisation that together with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank deliberately destroyed the economy of Greece and continue to subject the people of that unhappy nation to brutal austerity really care about you and your children’s future. Give me a break.

 

Nothing, repeat nothing, I have written is in favour of the UK leaving the EU. I still believe the vote of June 2016 was a mistake but that was what the majority voted for despite a massive campaign in favour of Remain by a significant proportion of the Establishment. So desperate are the Remain wing of the Establishment to stay in the EU that they are forced to use the head of Amazon UK to warn the plebs about the dangers of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. Amazon is a company whose refusal to pay taxes, zero hours contracts and exploitation of immigrant workers should be the focus of anger from leftists not one whose ongoing desire for the cheapest labour costs possible should be praised.

 

There is no left worthy of the name in much of the West. What we have is two wings of the same Establishment at war over the spoils of a plutonomy that continues to give the vast majority of the proceeds of economic growth to a vanishingly small minority of super-rich parasites.

 

Cicero was right about the Roman Republic, Lenin was right about early 20th century Russia and Dr Wilson was right about the United States. The neoliberal scum who rule us only care about money and will do anything, say anything, destroy anyone to ensure that they and theirs continue to reap the full benefits of the rigged economy they have created.