Dear Santa,
It may be too much to ask that there be peace on earth this Christmas. After all, peace is bad for the economy and your paycheck is dependent on the military industrial complex. The United States, the bastion of consumerist Christmas, is the world's leading trader of arms, and without constant war, our holidays would be less spectacular. Your sleigh, so filled with goodies headed toward Israel and Colombia and Taiwan, is using U.S. tax dollars to make arms manufacturers rich.
This war on terrorism is perfect. Suddenly there is a new enemy (which is not really new) against which we can rally American support for audacious military, political and financial policies, all while making George W. Bush one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history.
Sept. 11, another "day that will live in infamy," is serving to legitimate fast-track authority for free trade agreements, the missile defense plan and what some call the formalization of US imperialism. With terrorism, we can keep the public just afraid enough to allow for reduction of civil liberties and justify any aspirations the corporate world might have.
Best of all, terrorism is the gift that keeps on giving. Televise the successes of the intelligence organizations, legitimating their existence, while using military might and repression to create more terrorists that will in turn make the war on terrorism ever more necessary. Then make sure that the definition of terrorism excludes state-sponsored activities, thereby making it okay to use "any means necessary" to combat it.
So I'll scratch peace off the wish list.
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What about democracy?
Oh darn, the foundations of democracy are in the middle classes, and isn't it a shame that the neo-liberal economic policy is designed to destroy the middle classes. Studies show that democracy is substantive where there is real and independent economic growth. It is no wonder then, that most countries whose economies are based on natural resource extraction and cheap human labor are not substantive democracies. Neither is it surprising that here in the United States, where six corporations own more than 90 percent of the media, democracy is not substantive (those same corporations are involved in entertainment, news and arms production).
No democracy then, human rights?
What about your little elves in Latin America and East Asia, pumping away night and day to put pretty gifts under our trees? Will free trade compromise their governments' abilities to provide them protection from the unpredictable fluctuations of the market, or from the never-ending wage race to the bottom?
The environment, Santa?
I recall President Bush appointing pro-business lawyers and lobbyists to high-level environment-related jobs in the government, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. There was also something about the United States rejecting the Kyoto accords. In the developing world, the acquisition of loans is contingent on the loosening up of environmental restrictions, as well austerity policies. This is all good for you, Santa, because you will be able to produce more cost-efficient gifts without the environment to worry about. At least for now.
Amid all of this, inequality is increasing rapidly. The gap between this developed world and that one that is "developing" has grown enormously just in the last few decades. According to Niall Ferguson, in the 1960s the richest fifth of the world's population had a total income 30 times as great as the poorest fifth. In 1998, the ratio was 74:1. And this disparity does not represent the temporary growing pains of capitalism (like, lets say, the violent removal of peasant societies - temporary). The growing inequality is both the means and the end.
Oh Santa, former cousin of Saint Nick, now public relations man for Uncle Sam, what can I wish for this Christmas?
No world peace, no democracy, no equality, no healthy planet, hmmm.well, could you at least stuff some sitcoms and a bottle of Prozac in my stocking?
Merry Christmas to one and to all.
by Mike Wolff
Daily Lobo Columnist
