Roberts would not describe himself as a "Globalist." That term has been perverted by "free-traders," misled and misleading academic and media mouthpieces and "fools." (Yes, PCR can be that blunt. He names names, doesn't pull his punches, and doesn't mince his words.) Not a "globalist," but clearly this erudite, well-traveled man (educated at Georgia Tech, the University of Virginia, the University of California, Berkeley, and Oxford University) has spent his life figuring how this complex puzzle of our world is put together, how various factors interact. Part One of this compact book discusses "Problems in Economic Theory"; Part Two is entitled "The New Dispossession" (including, "The Myth of Benevolent Globalism"); and Part Three is "The End of Sovereignty." The last part--the shortest at 16 pages--is a kind of fillip to shake us out of our media-induced fantasy-world of foreign threats (recall George Bush: "they hate us for our freedoms"!) to show how US socio-political-economic policies have impacted our world, especially our "allies" in Europe. In the name of "democracy," "free-trade, " and "laissez-faire capitalism," we have pressured and undermined the sovereignty of European Union states. We did it subtly, and not so subtly, by militarizing the EU under the cover of NATO. We exploited legitimate fears of the Warsaw Pact nations; and when the Warsaw Pact dissolved with the moribund Soviet Union, we inflated new boogeymen to fill the empty spaces of our imaginations.
We have been the global hegemonic power--the so-called "single super-power" thanks in large measure to our military might and the fact that the US dollar is the world's "reserve currency." We can pay our debts by printing more dollars.
But, other nations, rising economic and political-military powers, probe the sanctity of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), led by China and Russia, explores new ways to balance their payments for goods and services. So does Iran, an associate member of the SCO. The Greek populace riots against "austerity" programs imposed by EU elites in Brussels. Looking ahead, Roberts foresees greater cooperation between Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, and resource-rich Russia. The "New World Order," covered by a tattered Stars and Stripes, is crumbling like the once-grand opera house in the decrepit city of Detroit!
It is a contagion. In the words of Zorba the Greek, "the whole catastrophe!"
Roberts' book is a singular warning. He recapitulates, implicitly or explicitly, arguments about the nature of the state and democracy that have been with us since the time of Jefferson and Hamilton--and long before then in the Roman republic and in Greece's brilliant, but tragically flawed, ancient democracy. These are arguments about the consolidation of power, the privileges of power, the efficiencies of the state and the community, and the sovereignty and dignity of individuals.
"Hell is other people," Sartre told us in "No Exit." We must deal with the nature of the beast in the Labyrinth--and in the human heart if we are to find our way out of the current imbroglio. There is this fragile, tenuous hope: If we are alert, informed, brave, and wise about the infinite capacity for human folly and corruption, we may find safe passage. That, of course, is a very big "if"!
Gary Corseri has published his work at hundreds of websites and periodicals worldwide, including OpEdNews, Counterpunch, The Village Voice and The New York Times. He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, edited a literary anthology, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has taught at US public schools and prisons and at US and Japanese universities. He has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library. Contact: Email address removed .
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