The current ascending populism is a reaction to the heavy handedness of global dominant interests. These interests impose and enforce their desires (on all and sundry), amongst many ways, through the overt/covert operations of their powerful states. The ‘deep state’ plays noticeable role in this regard. To recall; by the deep state we mean, the military-intelligence-industrial-banking-media-complex of the (mostly) powerful states of the world system. To be sure, the current global status quo is the reign of the elites, or ‘elitism’ for short. Its nemesis is the rising ‘populism.’ The confrontation between these two camps might well end up shaping the disintegrating phase of our modern world system, which has been around for over half a millennium!
The current divisive ‘elitism’ is the manifestation of late modernity, which is grounded on the ambitions of monopoly capital/crony capitalism and its attendant lopsided governance. Reductionist neoliberalism anchors its economic ideology. By and large, elitism is a socio-political diktat privileging those who believe they are in the know. All institutions of our world system effectively operate under this well-established regime. From institutions of learning to that of global governance (economic, political, cultural, etc.), all conduct their affairs by abiding to the logic of the elites. NATO, WB, IMF, EU, WTO, etc., are some of the institutional tools of global elitism. Inequality, instead of equality, undemocratic, instead of democratic, disempowerment instead of empowerment, etc. are some of the visible features of the reigning elitist global order, however camouflaged these obvious dispensations are (by TPTB=the power that be)! Current elitism is based on the greed system. If truth be told, it has little appeal to the global sheeple. If humanity is honestly allowed to express its wishes, hopes, fears, etc., it will definitely opt for a more holistic life than what is currently delivered by the reigning hyper elitism. By contrast, the misguided elitism of our day doesn’t really have a clear picture of what life is and should be, outside of the universe of accumulation. Existing elitism is possessed by the now and now! For instance, what the cumulative effects of our incessant manipulation of nature will bring to life and the planet itself is not a burning issue to existing elitism!
The destructive nature of the current elitism has yet to be (fully) exposed by the ascending ‘populism.’ As we said earlier, elitism’s irrational behavior, particularly in regards to natural resources, ecosystems, life and the general well being of our blue planet is abysmal! It is like a kind of mission to nowhere. At the end of the day, this dead end objective cannot appeal to any human, let alone the global levelheaded sheeple. Critical thinking is systemically shunned (by the global elitism) so that sugar coated anti-life discourse can go on unabated. Nonetheless, the old trick of numbing/indoctrinating the sheeple seems to run out of steam. Even the power that be (TPTB) of the industrially advanced states of the OECD (rich countries) are facing this backlash from their increasingly agitated sheeple. Many pretexts are being used to challenge the heavy handedness of institutions like EU, NATO, etc. Brexit itself is a populist reaction to EU’s preponderance. Greece, Spain, Germany and many of the east/central European countries are having vibrantly ascending populism eager to challenge the elitist status quo. Only last week another of the OECD country went populist, so to speak. Mexico elected, by a wide margin, an avowed socialist to its highest office. Over ten politicians are killed on a monthly basis, in Mexico! One wonders why?
To go forward, populism has to rethink many of the things the world has been taking for granted, under the current reign of destructive elitism. Populism should be everything that the current elitism is not! For example, stupid economic doctrines, like infinite growth on a finite planet, must be discarded. We believe, the ideology of the new populism must be derived from the following two foundational principles. Respect for all life and life support systems! Peace and equity for all! To some extent, justice and other democratic notions are espoused (mostly) to secure the above lofty objectives. We also believe, the dynamic dichotomy of left and right populism can be managed as long as we adhere to the above basic principles. For example, we now have a coalition of left and right populists running one of the G7 countries–Italy! Be that as it may, some serious debates need to be conducted (on a continuous basis) before conclusive assessment can be made about the rising populism of our time.
This was first published in July 2018
