This book must be read. It is easy to read, like a spy novel. It is hard to read, like looking at a corpse.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins [Penguin 2006: paperback]
We are all dead if we do not realize that what seems to be ignorance, or myopia, or simple stupidity at the highest levels of our government is in reality intentional. The immense debt of the Third World, for example, was foisted upon them in the name of development, but for the purpose of Empire. The writer of this book John Perkins was one of the men who did it.
Knowing and understanding this removes the veil of good intentions and strips the pretense away from the predator culture. We all knew it was absurd, but this proves it beyond a doubt. It leaves Dick Cheney and the Bush Family and the Weinbergers and Shultzes and Bechtels and Halliburtons and Texacos on stage, naked and without their masks. Their posturing and pretensions become absurd, like a Japanese Nô Play performed in the nude, with pot bellies and tiny hangy down things bare to the world.
The predator corporations, the international banks, and the empire builders in government combined and colluded in one financial scheme after another. To what end? By demanding domination rather than dealing with other nations on the basis of mutual respect and cooperation, they have created a corruption no less dysfunctional than that of the Soviet Union's command economy.
The so-called free, open and efficient markets are not. We have alienated and enraged those with whom we need to partner. We have exploited and despoiled the resources we as a planet need to survive.
How much more effective and convincing this message is when displayed graphically, as in this book, then when summarized as in my polemic. Chilling, but motivating. In the extreme.
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