Vanguard - Communist Party of Australia Marxist Leninist

VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org

Dystopia and the Sacrosanct Elephant

Relating to or denoting an imagined state of society where there is great suffering or injustice “the dystopian future is a society bereft of reason”

There is a great deal written about the current lack of understanding in the general population regarding what is taking place nationally and within Australia. It is a case of an overload of misinformation that is driven by political and ideological persuasions in support of powerful economic interests.

We are in a dystopian situation that provides a basis for truly destructive social impacts, many of which are already in play. The following quote from Hannah Arendt, (14 October 1906 – 14 December 1975: German historian and philosopher) is pertinent:

A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subject to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.

There has been an increase in the questioning of truth and more specifically science. This process has placed science in the same category as other belief systems giving the impression it has no greater claim to an objective understanding of our world.

A defining characteristic of the scientific method is that it does not require a belief in preordained truths. It is based on the premise that truth is both objective and conditional (fallible). Objective because it is the outcome of the social application of the scientific method and conditional on the understanding that further application will either reinforce, qualify or disprove the current understanding.

The ongoing undermining of scientific evidence occurred during the initial stages of the Covid crisis. The leader of “the free world”, Trump, was a significant contributor to the false information around the disease and its potential impact and he had significant accomplices in the Australian political and media environments.

The major issue here is that if this scepticism is promoted at the highest formal level in society it does have an impact on the way citizens in general view what is happening and what constitutes informed decisions.

As has been pointed out by others, this constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.

The following are a few examples that show quite clearly how far this process of the discrediting of science and truth coupled with misinformation and lies has progressed, the negative impact this is having and the complicity of people in positions of power.

The US has recently voted a person to represent their country for a second time at the highest level who is a convicted felon, promotes false information and lies, has threatened the annexation of independent countries, has been defined as a misogynist, and has clearly aligned himself with the economic elite. At his inauguration ceremony there were three people on the dais, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos who have an estimated combined wealth in excess of the wealth of the bottom 50% of the US population.

In his inauguration ceremony there was hardly if any reference to the cost of living crisis, the existing and growing disparity in wealth, the housing crisis, the health system. All are major concerns for the general population.

He was voted into power by over 50% of those who voted. As has been pointed out in numerous articles, people did not believe they had a viable alternative.

The current leaders of government in this country and the opposition are complicit in the lack of objective analysis while providing an abundance of misinformation to the public. More on this shortly.

Misinformation has been a feature of the politicalisation of climate change and the denial of the role that non-renewable energy sources have played. The vast majority of scientists have acknowledged the impact of human induced climate change. Yet we still have established media services deliberately encouraging doubt about this development.

We have a situation where the president of the US is advocating increasing the use of non-renewable resources: “dig baby dig”. The same person is suggesting the annexation of other countries, Canada and Greenland. Some facts that relate to such a suggestion regarding Greenland:

• For over a decade, the US establishment and others have been discussing the break up of the Artic ice and the opening up of lucrative trade routes.

Trump is fully aware or the impact of climate change but is willing, together with his small group of super rich supporters, to encourage scepticism.

With regard to our current leaders, they are equally responsible for failing to engage the public in transparent, informed discussion. We can argue that the general population is not willing to contemplate fundamental change and readjustments to their lifestyle in order to counter the impending catastrophic impact of unchecked climate change. It is a nonsense argument and disguises the fact that the discussion, based on the available scientific information is not being promoted because our leaders are captivated and serve the interests of the financial deniers who are focussed on their own personal gains.

They will not engage the public in understanding the situation, what needs to be done and effecting mass mobilisation. For those who argued their hands were tied and that they would fail to return to government if they pursued such policies, the simple question is: now you have a massive majority following the election, what excuses will you employ to continue to do nothing on these issues?

The activities by the Israeli Zionist regime in GAZA have been assessed within the UN and the International Court of Justice has stipulated that the evidence provides a compelling case for genocide having been committed. It has issued a request for the arrest of Netanyahu and others to be tried for this and other crimes.

We had the leader of the “free world” advocating the removal of the Palestinians from Gaza and its redevelopment as a US owned playground for the rich. The ceasefire was broken by Israel supported by the US and the genocide of the Palestinian people is continuing based on an extended process of ethnic cleansing. Netanyahu and the Zionists are now planning the complete annexation of Gaza.

We have this conflation of antisemitism and opposing the genocide perpetrated by Zionism, led by Netanyahu. He could not achieve this without the previous backing of the Democrats led by people such as Obama, Biden and now the Republicans, led by Trump.

The lack of critical analysis and discussion from the media, including the ABC and our politicians demonstrates clearly whose interests they are willingly or forced to serve. In the case of our leading politicians, it is deliberate and they need to be held to account. To clearly understand what it means to re-elect the Labor government one only has to look at the ministerial changes and in particular the sacking of Ed Husic. Husic was clearly opposed to the complicit stance in support of the genocide in Gaza taken by the government.

For our Prime Minister to be unwilling to comment on Trump’s recent proposal regarding Gaza behind the statement that he is not willing to comment on other countries’ propositions beggars belief. Imagine if China was proposing such a development.

There are any number of issues that could be addressed in relation to the dystopian topic, one of the most obvious being the AUKUS agreement, entered into without public debate and with ongoing formal developments and commitments to which the general public are denied access.

The current situation is dystopian in that people do not have ready access to information that would enable an assessment of the truth, the history of what is happening and what has caused these outcomes and the impact that the adoption of certain positions will have on the future.

We are not in situation that engenders despair. It is essential that every effort is made to inform the public and ensure this dystopian environment cannot continue to develop. This is not just through progressive publications but engagement at all levels of society. Community engagement is essential as is involvement with social structures such as the unions, local government, etc. The important point with such engagement is not to institutionalise the problems through providing make-shift or temporary relief but to ensure people become aware of the need for fundamental change.

In discussing and working with others it is misleading to only focus on the individuals such as Trump and the role that media empires such as Murdochs play in the creation of distrust in truth and the ensuing dystopia. There are very definite short-term beneficiaries of a dystopian environment.

The developments within the US need to be analysed and understood in terms of the ongoing evolution of imperialism based on the intentions and outcomes of the meeting of some 44 countries in 1944 at Breton Woods and the subsequent development of the Marshal plan.

A recent address by the French senator, Claude Malhurst provides a very clear and accurate understanding of what these developments represent in terms of the geopolitical order engendered in effective US domination of the world economy and the nascent means of enforcing such domination. As he points out, the US has played the principal role in the development of this world Its implementation and management has required significant military involvement. For example, a conservative estimate of 20 million deaths associated with US direct and complicit involvement in conflicts, coups and wars in numerous countries is testament to the fundamental nature of this “program”.

Malhurst is critical of America’s abdication of its primary role and seeks significant increase in European military expenditure to ensure the “necessary security” is maintained. In other words, the imperialist capitalist world economy dominated by the US cannot enable other sub-imperialist countries access to and control of trade with other countries without the necessary military backup. This military capability has become a principal industry in the US (and other countries) and is itself predicated on the principles of profit and expansion while enabling the necessary coercive means of ensuring compliance with imperialist capitalism.