Western political establishment has lost its moral compass

Missing moralities

The corrupt nature of elite power is systemic and detrimental in its effect on democracy. The corruption rankles not only with much of the economically disenfranchised of western society, but more savagely with those communities and nations of the southern hemisphere – also economically disenfranchised, who not only have to contend with the residual and historical effects of European colonisation, but with the insidious imperialism of the US neo liberal/neo conservative hegemony, that has followed it.

Wherever and when ever political and financial corruption is rife (and it is after all, a historical and global issue that at one time or other, riddles all power regimes to varying degrees), most walks of society do not dare to tread: the elite for fear of losing power; the subjugated – for fear of the consequences of usurping it.

The ruling elite and their acolytes are perpetually ‘en garde’ – defensive of the privileges and position which come with the mining and exploitation of the masses. This is the rationale of corporate capitalism’s extractive economic system, in which the elite’s overinflated egos are so heavily invested.

For quite obvious reasons the elite are the people least likely to challenge the system and the most vehemently resistant to genuine progressive political and social change, even though political and social entropy means that they are doomed to lose their power. This is a fact of which they appear to be in denial, for they are addicted to the idea of power and they reason that its illusion must be maintained – to the world, to themselves, and to each other.

‘The addictive effect on the power holder promotes the need to engage in efforts to hold on to and accumulate power. Ageing, envy, and fear both conscious and unconscious of retaliation for previous acts may contribute to power’s addictiveness.

'Efforts to hold on to power perpetually play a key in the practice of nepotism, factional struggle by powerful elites, cronyism, and dynastic succession.

‘….Powerful people are more likely to moralise, judge, and enforce strict moral standards on others while engaging in hypocritical or less strict moral behaviour themselves…’

(Taken from the report 'On power and its corrupting effects: the effects of power on human behavior and the limits of accountability systems' available from the American National Library of Medicine website.)

Theirs is a bid to hide a pathological vulnerability to the masses, from the masses, for as long as possible. But since the veil of illusions is being radically lifted from the peoples’ eyes by the critical thinking of independent media, the elite have lost credibility and control of the public consensus. Clearly threatening to implode upon themselves, the elite in the US dominated west are desperately hanging on to their delusions, while reacting in increasingly indiscriminate and violent ways in revenge for their impending loss.

They have no specific target. Everyone is their target. They are bitter and angry, chewed up by hate, projected on to anyone and every one, now including their European Allies. They are even threatening to invade the Netherlands in response to the International Criminal Court putting out an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for his genocide of the Palestinian people. (Built on American arms and British ‘Intelligence,’ this is the genocide supported by the USA and the UK and at least half of Europe).

Far from being the beneficent policeman of the world, the belligerent US State has a history of inciting wars and perpetrating violent acts of repression overseas. In response to democratic criticism of their domestic and foreign policies they are currently flooding the media with disinformation and enacting draconian laws inhibiting freedom of speech, and the right to peaceful political protest. They have the audacity to take democracy’s name in vain, but contradict and subvert every principle that democracy ever stood for.

In theory, the inviolability of political power has traditionally been perceived to be dependent upon the legitimate authority and competence of democratically-elected government. The competence of government is based, not simply on the political skills and acumen of the incumbent or incoming political party, but on broad public consensus that believes in the coherence and moral probity of the institutions of government, which give the political establishment its legitimacy.

In modern ‘two party’ democracies, whether a government is inherently competent or not, has always been the ball kicked about in the game of two halves played by members of the same establishment.

Public perceptions of government, formed largely by the mainstream media, pitch ‘selected’ facts and predetermined political prejudices of one party’s supporters, against the ‘selected’ facts and predetermined political prejudices of the other’s, in a game of kick about in which there can only ever be one winner – the makers of the game.

But it is pretty much now clear to see, that the game makers, the western political establishment – principally the plutocrats and lobbyists pulling the strings of the American Deep State, have lost all moral compass and political competence. The genocide they support must stop.

MARK WINDSOR