Spreadocracy

We constantly hear the refrain that we are “spreading democracy” as if democracy were a form of jam which we can spread over the bread of the countryside. In itself, this is a very dubious concept, given the slow evolution of democracy in places where it has thrived.

But let’s get real … we are spreading capitalism, with a thin coating of democracy, to ease the insertion of capitalism into the yet un-enrolled parts of the globe.

As usual, it’s “follow the money” when trying to understand the current Bush foreign policy.

Has everyone forgotten that Iraq had just switched from accepting US dollars to Euros for payment for its oil just before we attacked, and that switching Iraqi oil sales back to US dollars was one of the first things we did after we took over? Have we forgotten that Wolfowitz privatized all of the businesses in Iraq (including the successful health care system), not just oil, and then awarded contracts to US firms instead of Iraqi? (And BTW, what happened to that 9 BILLION dollars that went missing when Wolfowitz ducked out a day early? Oh, I forgot, they “didn’t have time for normal accounting procedures”.)

The fact that our own democracy has been completely taken over by corporate interests and that our current government no longer represents our wishes in any way, should make the concept completely clear. What we are spreading is consumerism cake with democratic frosting.

I haven’t been able to come up with a good name for this combo of global exploitation … Democracy and Capitalism ….democrapitalism, democratism, depatalism…any suggestions?