Neoclassical Economics and Neoliberalism as Neo-

Imperialism

James M. Craven/Omahkohkiaayo I’poyi

Presentation to
Institute of Marxism Research of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
August 11, 2009
A Poem Capturing the Essence of
Neoclassical Economics, Neo-liberalism
and Imperialism
Those who take the meat from the table,
teach contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined,
demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry,
of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss,
call ruling too difficult,
for ordinary folk.

(Bertolt Brecht)
 What is Imperialism?
 “If it were necessary to give the briefest
possible definition of imperialism we should
have to say that imperialism is the
monopoly stage of capitalism. Such a
definition would include what is most
important…”
 “But very brief definitions, although
convenient, for they sum up the main points,
are nevertheless inadequate, since we have to
deduce from them some especially important
features of the phenomenon that has to be
defined.”
(V.I. Lenin, Imperialism The Highest Stage of
Capitalism”)
 Defining Features of
Imperialism
 “And so, without forgetting the conditional and relative
value of all definitions in general, which can never
embrace all the concatenations of a phenomenon in its
full development, we must give a definition of
imperialism that will include the following five of its basic
features:

 (1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a

high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in
economic life;
 (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation,
on the basis of this “finance capital”, of a financial oligarchy;
 (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of
commodities acquires exceptional importance;
 (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations
which share the world among themselves, and
 (5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest
capitalist powers is completed.

(V.I. Lenin, “Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism”)

Imperialism is a System and Not

Simply a Set of Policies

“In the matter of defining imperialism,

however, we have to enter into
controversy… The fundamental ideas
expressed in our definition of imperialism
were very resolutely attacked by Kautsky…
when he said that imperialism must not be
regarded as a “phase” or stage of
economy, but as a policy, a definite policy
‘preferred’ by finance capital; “
(V.I. Lenin, Imperialism The Highest Stage
of Capitalism)
 "Money to Get Power.
Power to Protect Money"
Slogan of the Medici Family
The Core Imperatives:“Logic” of
Capitalism and Imperialism
 Imperial Superstructure
“The non-economic superstructure
which grows up on the basis of finance
capital, its politics and its ideology,
stimulates the striving for colonial
conquest. “Finance capital does not
want liberty, it wants domination,” as
Hilferding very truly says. “

(V.I. Lenin Imperialism The Highest

Stage of Capitalism)
Imperial Overreach and the
Global Decline of America

"Our power, then, has the grave liability of

rendering our theories about the world
immune from failure. But by becoming deaf
to easily discerned warning signs, we may
ignore long-term costs that result from our
actions and dismiss reverses that should
lead to a re-examination of our goals and
means.“
(Republican Congressman Henry Hyde)
Imperial Expansion Spiral
Imperial Overreach and Decline
 Pillars of Neo-liberalism
 Fiscal Policy discipline;
 Redirection of public spending from subsidies ("especially indiscriminate
subsidies") toward broad-based provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services
like primary education, primary health care and infrastructure investment;
 Tax reform – broadening the tax base and adopting moderate marginal tax rates;
 Interest rates that are market determined and positive (but moderate) in real
terms;
 Competitive exchange rates;
 Trade liberalization – liberalization of imports, with particular emphasis on
elimination of quantitative restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade protection to
be provided by law and relatively uniform tariffs
 Liberalization of inward foreign direct investment;
 Privatization of state enterprises;
 Deregulation – abolition of regulations that impede market entry or restrict
competition, except for those justified on safety, environmental and consumer
protection grounds, and prudent oversight of financial institutions; and,
 Legal security for property rights.
  Restraint on Unions and Unionization
 Tight Money Policies (anti-Inflationary even at expense of higher unemployment)
Pillars of Neoclassical Economics
 The first meta-axiom of neoclassical
economics: methodological individualism

   The second meta-axiom of neoclassical

economics: methodological instrumentalism

 The third meta-axiom of neoclassical

economics: methodological equilibration

 Source: Arnsperger, Christian and Varoufakis, Yanis,

“What is Neoclassical Economics?”, Post-autistic
Economics Review Issue 38, July 2009
 Methodological Individualism
 Individual (buyer, seller, owner) is the focus of all
analysis;
 Whole (Macro) = Sum of its parts; Micro  Macro;
 Strict Separation of Structure from Agency: Micro 
Macro but no concept of Macro  Micro;
 Form of “methodological reductionism” or the
notion that all large entities may be explained by
reference to smaller ones;
 No place for social class, race, ethnicity, gender,
history, state of society or type of system in
decision making;
 Collective action is simple aggregation of actions of
“rational” utility-maximizing individuals.
 Methodological
Instrumentalism
 All human behavior is preference driven with all preferences
reduced to ultimate goals of utility maximization and
minimization of pain, costs, uncertainty and risk;
 Homo Oeconomicus Model (Evolving)
a) Perfectly Rational to Bounded Rational
b) Maximizer now Satisficer of Total Utility and Profits;
calculates on the margin to maximize in Toto
c) Preferences: given Exogenous; now adaptive Endogenous

d) Egoistic or Self-interested and competitive Individual

e) Preferences independent of influence of others or contexts
now, via Game Theory, allows adaptation to past outcomes
and context.
f) From perfectly informed on all information necessary for
rational choice to asymmetric information
g) from pure competition to imperfect competition
 Methodological Equilibration
 Axiomatic imposition of equilibrium as focus of analysis
 Questions about how, how likely equilibrium could occur
in the real world never dealt with. Equilibrium merely
and summarily asserted as neoclassical theory cannot
demonstrate how some equilibrium could/would
naturally occur out of competitive interactions of the
instrumentally rational choices of “economic agents”.
 Economy can be analytically detached and analyzed
independent of the other dimensions of society (pure
Economics instead of Political Economy)
 Economy as a Morphostatic and not Morphogenetic
system.
 Equilibrium focus has rhetorical intention. (Who goes to
the psychiatrist looking for more disequilibrium in their
lives?)
(Source Henderson, Hazel, http://www.hazelhenderson.com/visual.html; reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine)
 Rhetoric of Neoclassical
Economics
 “However, since 1870, triumphant marginalism has
set itself the task of working out an economic
science that is ‘pure’, or, more precisely,
independent of all other social sciences. This ‘pure’
economic science must necessarily be a historical,
since the laws it seeks to discover have to be true
whatever the economic and social system may be.
Abandoning the universal outlook of Marxism,
breaking down the bridges that the latter had laid
between the various branches of social science it its
attempt to explain history, neoclassical economics
was led to become, first and foremost, an algebra
of logical deductions from a certain number of
axioms based on a sketchy psychology of ‘eternal
man’.” (Samir Amin, Accumulation on a World
Scale, p. 5)
 How is Neoclassical Economics
Used in Service to Imperialism?
 Analysis free of history, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and
power (the real world)
 Focus on human’s relations with things (Scarcity v Wants) and
not on human relations among themselves in the course of
producing and distributing means of subsistence
 Focus on mythical equilibrium in a system doomed to chronic
disequilibrium, crises and eventual implosion
 All exchanges assumed by Neoclassicals and Neoliberals to be
voluntary and mutually beneficial otherwise would not have
occurred; whereas imperialism is all about unequal and
involuntary exchanges and outright plunder—all assumed
away a-priori
 Ideology of universal harmonies based on mere tautologies
with real world forms of exploitation defined or assumed away.
 Hypothetico-deductivist; anti-empirical
 Bad career move for economists who reject it; Dominant
Paradigm
 Early 20th Century
Imperialism:“Gunboat
Diplomacy”
 "I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during
that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big
Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a
gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico
safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a
decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I
helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the
benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International
Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the
Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped
make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In
China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way
unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few
hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I
operated on three continents."[28]“
 (Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC, three-times
nominated, twice awarded, the Medal of Honor. Single-handedly
infiltrated and exposed a plot by big capitalists to overthrow President
Roosevelt in 1934 and set up a fascist dictatorship in America)
Latter 20th Century Imperialism:
Social Systems Engineering
 "I don’ t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to
the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the
Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." (Henry Kissinger);

 "Not a nut or bolt shall reach Chile under Allende. Once Allende comes to power
we shall do all within our power to condemn Chile and all Chileans to utmost
deprivation and poverty." (Edward M. Korry, U.S. Ambassador to Chile, upon
hearing of Allende"s election)

 "Make the economy scream [in Chile to] prevent Allende from coming to power
or to unseat him" (Richard Nixon, orders to CIA director Richard Helms on
September 15, 1970)

 "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It would
be much preferable to have this transpire prior to 24 October but efforts in this
regard will continue vigorously beyond this date. We are to continue to generate
maximum pressure toward this end, utilizing every appropriate resource. It is
imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that
the USG and American hand be well hidden..." (A communiqué to the CIA base in
Chile, issued on October 16, 1970.)
 Interview of Zbigniew
Brzezinski
National Security Adviser in the Carter Administration

Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs
["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid
the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet
intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to
President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that
correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to
the Mujahedeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet
army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly
guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979
that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the
opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote
a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion
this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
 Brzezinski Continued
 Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you
yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly
increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended
to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people
didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret
anything today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of
drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day
that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now
have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost
10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a
conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the
Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [intégrisme], having
given arms and advice to future terrorists?
 Brzezinski Continued
 B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or
the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the
liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated:
Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to

Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a
rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading
religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in
common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco,
Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism?
Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
[This interview was published in French in Le Nouvel Observateur
(France), Jan 15-21, 1998, but it is believed not included in the edition
sent to the United States. Translation from original French by Bill Blum,
author of "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World
War II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower".]
 21st Century Imperialism?
"When all the intelligence was sorted,
weighed and analyzed, Tenet and Pavit
agreed there were three major threats to
American national security. One was
Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist
network...A second major threat was the
increasing proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction...Third was the rise of China,
especially its military, but that problem was
5 to 15 or more years away.”(Plan of Attack
by Bob Woodward, p.12)
An Allegory About Neoliberalism
How and For Whom it Really
Works
 Imagine a race between two runners. Imagine that
Runner A is held back while Runner B is advanced
80% of the way around the track toward the finish.
Now imagine that Runner A is suddenly released to
run the race, with no reference to having been held
back or why, and, only when Runner B is only 20%
away from the finish of the race, is Runner A then
turned loose to “compete” in the race. Suppose
Runner A is even told by Neoclassical theoreticians
that if he does not win the race, that he is now
totally “free” to run, this will be taken as
“evidence” of Runner A’s own inferiority, laziness
and lack of fitness to run the race.” And suppose
further that the rules of the race only apply to
Runner A while the “referees” of the race are in the
employ of and/or related to Runner B.
Now Extend The Previous
Allegory
 Suppose the winner of the previous race (any question who
that will be?) starts out in Race II at a position 90% ahead of
the start line or 10% from the finish line while the loser of the
previous race, Runner A, starts at the start line or say even
10% ahead of the previous start line, and each is told again,
that he or she has an “equal opportunity” to run the race. Any
question who will win race 2?

 Now imagine that this race has life and death consequences on
many innocents and even the fate of the planet hangs on it.

 Inequalities, are self-reinforcing and self-reproducing especially

in market-based systems, where access to political power,
information, specialized technologies, patents, copyrights,
guanxi etc are all commodities for sale to some and denied to
others who either lack purchasing power and/or are subject to
embargos.
 Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Fiscal Policy discipline:
a) Slashing Social Programs and Safety Nets for the
Poor (increase labor-power market surpluses puts
downward pressure on real wages while increasing
productivity)
b) Government expenditures to socialize costs and
risks of foreign enterprises whose profits remain
privatized, centralized, concentrated, and
transferred out.
c) Priority on export and other earnings on foreign
debt repayment and debt rescheduling;
d) demand-pull inflation mitigation seen as top
priority over reduction of unemployment;
e) deficit and debt peonage acts as fiscal
straightjacket
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Redirection of public spending from subsidies
("especially indiscriminate subsidies") toward broad-
based provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services
like primary education, primary health care and
infrastructure investment

c) Particular focus on development (uneven and unbalanced) of

infrastructure in service to foreign capital (plant to port)

e) Draconian Cuts in Social Safety Net Expenditures

g) Development of Economic Zones or Enclaves oriented toward

metropolitan economies and creation of derivative demand for
imports of high-tech and high value-added commodities from
metropoles and exports of low-tech and low value-added semi-
manufactures or raw materials to the metropoles
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Tax reform – broadening the tax base and
adopting moderate marginal tax rates;

c) Increasing uses of regressive taxes (sales and value-

added) and decreased use of progressive taxation in
general and marginal tax rates of upper brackets in
particular

e) Tax regimes are moderately progressive de jure (on

paper) but regressive overall de facto (in fact)

g) Increased use of tax shelters, loopholes, tax code

complexity and accelerated depreciation etc for upper
income brackets and corporations. (increases demand
for foreign consulting and finance capital services and
hides regressive nature of tax code)
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 NED and the “Infrastructure of ‘Democracy’ “

 The National Endowment for Democracy: Revisiting the CIA Connection

 The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was established in 1984 with bipartisan
support during President Reagan’s administration to “foster the infrastructure of
democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities” around
the world.[8] Considering Reagan’s well documented misunderstanding of what
constitutes democratic governance,[9] it is fitting that Allen Weinstein, the NEDs first
acting president, observed that in fact “A lot of what we [the NED] do today was done
covertly 25 years ago by the CIA”.[10] So for example, it is not surprising that during
the 1990 elections in Nicaragua it is has been estimated that “for every dollar of NED or
AID funding there were several dollars of CIA funding”.[11]

 By building upon the pioneering work of liberal philanthropists (like the Ford and
Rockefeller Foundations’) – who have a long history of co-opting progressive social
movements – it appears that the NED was envisaged by US foreign policy elites to be a
more suitable way to provide strategic funding to nongovernmental organizations than
via covert CIA funding.[12] Indeed, the NED’s ‘new’ emphasis on overt funding of
geostrategically useful groups, as opposed to the covert funding, appears to have leant
an aura of respect to the NED’s work, and has enabled them, for the most part, to avoid
much critical commentary in the mainstream media.
 ("Democratic Imperialism": Tibet, China, and the National Endowment for Democracy by Michael Barker)
Dispersion of“Freedoms”De jure
 Concentrated Power De facto
Siemens, one of the biggest industrialists
and “financial kings” in Germany, told the
Reichstag on June 7, 1900, that “the one-
pound share is the basis of British
imperialism”.[5] This merchant has a much
deeper and more “Marxist” understanding
of imperialism than a certain disreputable
writer who is held to be one of the founders
of Russian Marxism[21] and believes that
imperialism is a bad habit of a certain
nation....” (V.I. Lenin Imperialism The
Highest Stage of Capitalism)
 Dejure Dispersion of Ownership 
Concentration of Control De facto
 It is characteristic of capitalism in general that the ownership of capital is separated from the
application of capital to production…

 “The head of the concern controls the principal company (literally: the “mother company”); the
latter reigns over the subsidiary companies (“daughter companies”) which in their turn control
still other subsidiaries (“grandchild companies”), etc. In this way, it is possible with a
comparatively small capital to dominate immense spheres of production. Indeed, if holding 50
per cent of the capital is always sufficient to control a company, the head of the concern needs
only one million to control eight million in the second subsidiaries. And if this ‘interlocking’ is
extended, it is possible with one million to control sixteen million, thirty-two million, etc.”[3]

 As a matter of fact, experience shows that it is sufficient to own 40 per cent of the shares of a
company in order to direct its affairs,[4] since in practice a certain number of small, scattered
shareholders find it impossible to attend general meetings, etc. The “democratization” of the
ownership of shares, from which the bourgeois sophists and opportunist so-called “Social-
Democrats” expect (or say that they expect) the “democratization of capital”, the
strengthening of the role and significance of small scale production, etc., is, in fact, one of the
ways of increasing the power of the financial oligarchy. (V.I. Lenin Imperialism the Highest
Stage of Capitalism)
Stock DispersionSmaller %s of
Total Stocks Needed for Control of
Assets
Political Pluralism (De jure) + “Vote”
Dispersion Oligarchy and Plutocracy
 As a matter of fact, experience shows that it is
sufficient to own 40 per cent of the shares of a
company in order to direct its affairs,[4] since in
practice a certain number of small, scattered
shareholders find it impossible to attend
general meetings, etc. The “democratization”
of the ownership of shares, [“votes”] from
which the bourgeois sophists and opportunist
so-called “Social-Democrats” expect (or say
that they expect) the “democratization of
capital”, the strengthening of the role and
significance of small scale production, etc., is,
in fact, one of the ways of increasing the power
of the financial oligarchy. (V.I. Lenin op cit)
Multiple Political Parties and Voter
CynicismLess not More
“Democracy”
 Take the U.S. 2000 Presidential Election
decided by one vote (buy the U.S. Supreme
Court 5-4) with three of the U.S. Justices
(Scalia, Thomas and O’Connor) who voted for
Bush, in violation of 28 USC 455 which
demanded their recusal from the case for clear
conflicts of interest which they refused to obey)
With 50% of age-eligible potential voters
voting, for two parties that have only nominal
differences, and with the winning candidate
getting 50% of the votes, that candidate wins
with only .50 x .50 or 25% of age-eligible
population voting for him or her. With three
parties, as with Clinton in 1992, his “mandate”
was even less.
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Competitive exchange rates;

a) Translation, we believe in “free markets” when it

suits us and administered exchange rates or other prices
when that suits us.
b) The exchange rate of the U.S. Dollar has always
been about the political-hegemonic as well as economic
role of the dollar. The U.S. dollar has in many ways been
“overvalued” since Bretton Woods 1944.
c) falling dollar is supposed to stimulate exports unless
loss of general confidence in the dollar causes decreased
willingness to demand and hold dollars thus not only
dollar meltdown, but lacking dollar reserves, countries
decrease demand for U.S. exports and trade deficits rise
instead of falling with a falling dollar.
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
Questions: Trade liberalization –
liberalization of imports, with particular
emphasis on elimination of quantitative
restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade
protection to be provided by law and
relatively uniform tariffs

a) How about trade restrictions based on Cold

War mentalities and machinations such as
dual-use technology embargos, state-
sponsored consumer boycotts etc?
b) Who writes and [selectively] enforces the
laws?
c) How many hidden methods of protectionism
are routinely applied?
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Liberalization of inward foreign direct
investment;
Translation:
The U.S and others following neoliberal
prescriptions will only reinvest their profits if
given a free hand to determine where, when,
how much and in what sectors regardless of
the implications on overall growth and
development imperatives of the nation in
which the reinvestment is directed. Not only
does this undermine national sovereignty, but
it leaves room for all sorts of social systems
engineering schemes. This is demanded but
not practiced by the U.S. and some of its allies
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Privatization of state enterprises;
Fact:
The history of capitalism everywhere involves the
socialization of costs and risks of accumulation of capital
(which is not merely adding to capital “stock” but
expanded reproduction of the basic power relations and
structures and institutions of capitalism) while the
returns of accumulation remain privatized and
increasingly concentrated and centralized.
Privatization used to acquire and control social assets
cheaply as well as to hollow out the industrial and
manufacturing bases of potential competitors. Also
enhances roles of foreign finance capital in
recapitalization of newly privatized entities
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
Deregulation – abolition of regulations
that impede market entry or restrict
competition, except for those justified
on safety, environmental and
consumer protection grounds, and
prudent oversight of financial
institutions; and,
Fact:
No system, socialist or capitalist is
sustainable without regulation. The
question is the de facto and not de jure
nature of regulation and regulation by
whom and for whom.
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
Legal security for property rights.
a) In the U.S. according to a recent U.S. Supreme Court
decision, the state can exercise “Eminent Domain”
against the private property rights of one corporate
entity on behalf of another private entity under the
banner of social benefits.
b) Property rights are also routinely used as weapons:
patents and copyrights granted or assigned for imperial
power projection purposes and denied for the same
purposes.
c) All sorts of schemes de jure (on paper or in law) have
no correspondence to what exists de facto
(in fact)
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
  Restraint on Unions and Unionization
b)Increases in both relative and absolute surplus
value
c) Increased fear-based productivity
d)Decreased working class resistance to policies
e) Increased roles of labor aristocracy
f) Rollbacks in real wages, benefits, workplace
safety
g)Decreased worker resistance to imperial
adventures
h) Reductions in tenure and workplace job
security and due process rights
Pillars of Neoliberalism &
Imperialism
 Tight Money Policies (anti-Inflationary even at
expense of higher unemployment)

 While low inflation rates can favor consumers,

they favor recipients of property real incomes
(rents, interest, profits and dividends more).
When inflation rates are relatively low, lowers
interest rates for borrowing for investment,
reduces interest rates which drives up bond prices
and stock prices…

 Under the trade-off between unemployment and

inflation, supposedly reducing inflation via tight
money means higher unemployment. At present
the U.S. is pursuing unprecedented easy money
policies yet with rising stagflation (BOTH higher
inflation and higher unemployment).
“Soft,“Hard”and“Smart” Power
 

 PD User at 2009-04-18 11:22:37 Comment on 

Obama shows his smart power
 IP ： 97.120.92.★

 The only kind of "power" that is truly "smart", in the long-run, is that
which is non-hegemonic and does not subjectively seek the power it
objectively has. This is the "power" that comes from good example,
from non-hypocrisy, from modesty, from honesty, from being in the
real service of the people and from solid performance. When the U.S.
establishment, in both political parties, talk about "smart power", what
they really mean is not simply "smart"--and thus effective--
combinations of soft and hard power; what they really mean is more
effective forms of hegemonic power but that do not appear as nakedly
hegemonic and previously. But their focus is on power with reference
to "smart" only in terms of that which enhances their long-term ability
to apply either soft or hard power depending upon their tactical
imperatives which are about strategic hegemony. This imperial concept
of "smart" power, China has wisely denounced and rejected. The U.S.
and other nations that seek hegemonic forms of power, still have not
learned how illusory and self-negating such forms of power are.
 
“Soft,“Hard”and Smart Power
 Obama shows his smart power
 
 As an addendum to my previous comments above, Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton in recent U.S. Senate testimony, was
asked about "smart" power and was given a quote from some
source that said "smart power may use soft as well as hard
power, but it is anything but soft or weak." to which Hillary
Clinton noted that she had just taken or written down that
quote to use later. These folks still do not get it: all attempts in
human history at building hegemonic empires have failed;
simply, because of the rising and prohibitive costs and crises of
imperial overreach on the one hand, and the fact that
contradictions generated by and within imperial power
projections abroad, and by and within contradictions in the
home metropoles, are also dialectically tied together and feed
each other. The Government of China, and the Chinese People,
victims of imperial hegemony over many centuries, have
understood this and have wisely rejected any hegemonic
intentions or desires.
 Advice from my Father

Do not ever show up to a gunfight with a

knife.

Do not ever wind up the only honest person

in a dirty card game.
Neoimperialism is a New Face or
Mask of Imperialism Not a New
Essence
 PD User replied at 2009-05-01 12:59:57

 Any war founded on lies, engineered pretexts, cherry picked

intelligence and violations of the same international demanded for law
protection of that nation going to an illegal war of aggression, must be
stopped immediately with those who caused that war brought to justice
and the victims helped. There is no "winning" or "leaving with honor"
an illegal war, only staying and doing more crimes or leaving and
stopping the crimes; there is no middle ground. During the election
campaign he said he understood all of that and would begin immediate
withdrawal of U.S. forces. But the war in Afghanistan, and the cross-
border attacks in Pakistan are also illegal and founded on lies. The
Taliban were partly a U.S. creation as was Al Qaeda. And as for 9-11,
the broad masses of Afghanistan had nothing to do with it but are
suffering horribly, while those really responsible for 9-11 and other
forms of terrorism, remain relatively safe from military actions. It must
also be said, to be really honest, and that is terrorism is a set of tactics
and not a particular enemy; and if terrorism is defined as calculated
and/or highly likely forms of violence against non-combatants, then
what are the imperial embargos against Cuba or the imperial
encirclements and critical-resource-diverting (from development)
threats of nuclear annihilation against China?
 Hearts and Minds
 Cults (e.g. Falun Gong, Mormonism, Scientology
Moonies)
 Research in neurobiology, cognitive psychology,
evolutionary biology etc on “perception
management”, “manufacturing consent”, “thought
identification” mind control and manipulation;
 Culture Wars (journals, cultural exchanges, films,
news, Voice of America, mainstream religion
missionaries, NGOs, music, fashion styles, libertine
lifestyles, children’s books, teaching English in
China etc)
 Education (textbooks, university articulation
agreements, professor and student exchanges,
shared degree programs)
Talk at Tsinghua University
印第安美国教授的理想：
社会主义与资本主义
Socialism versus Capitalism: Who Will Win?

他从另一个世界走来
他像文革时期一样怀揣毛选
他要揭开美帝国主义的多重面罩
他从经济学分析资本主义的逻辑
 
 James M. Craven
  美国克拉克大学商学部主任，终身教授
Member of Blackfoot Indian Nation （印第安黑脚国）
时间： 2005 年 5 月 26 日（周四）晚 8 ： 20
地点：六教 6B-301
 What is your answer to the question
Socialism vs. Capitalism Who Will Win?
 My answer was I do not know but I do know which must
win if this planet and humanity are to survive—
Socialism.

Imperialism, Neo or Classical, will never tolerate,

because they could never handle, truly free, fair, open
and peaceful competition between systems—Socialism
vs. Capitalism.

Social Systems Engineering is about identifying and

then exploiting the key vulnerabilities of a targeted
nation for purposes of destabilization and overthrow of
regimes and systems; and to engineer the supposed
“proof” of the supposed “superiority” of Capitalism over
Socialism and the supposed “proof” of the supposed
backward and repressive nature of Socialism and
Communism.
Di guo zhu yi de mian zhao
he tang yi pao dan

"Evil is no faceless stranger

living in a distant neighborhood
Evil has a wholesome, hometown face,
with merry eyes and an open smile.
Evil walks among us, wearing a mask
which looks like all our faces.

(The Book of Counted Sorrows)