Daily Times

“Do not wait for the last judgment”, “Camus warns, “It happens every day”. The narrative for judgment without the pillows of illusion was in the air, and once narrative becomes a byword it does not take long for the bombs to follow. The modern imperialist tradition borrowed from a Biblical phrase of ‘with us or against us’ has fashioned into a pretense for a regime change in countries opposed to the US hegemony. The ‘weapon of mass destruction’ the first cry of horror raised by the imperialist warmongers  to wage a war against Iraq – a country under US  sanctions, where hunger hunted the infants, who died almost daily in dozens – was a far cry from the reality. For Madeleine Albright death of half a million infants was a price worth it, since Iraq had invisible, if not mythical, weapons of mass destruction. It was the beginning of the reshaping of the Middle East.

After leaving Pakistan and Afghanistan to the leprosy of slow Jihadi death and immersing Ukraine into the plague of fascism, it was time to inflict Libya and Syria with an ancient virus of freedom and democracy whose previous mutated forms helped the US to invade and destroy Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The American conditions are conducive to freedom that takes away everything barring a euphoric sense of an ‘American dream’ that never existed. It has one rationale; choose what the capitalist offers. The desperate need to extend the hegemony within the country and outside in the world is the historical necessity to realize capital. It has attained urgency, the imperialist powers now do not try to conceal or masquerade their designs.

“The more sand,” Sartre says, “has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we could see through it”. The hegemonic powers are fully conversant with the theme. If people have learned to see their nefarious designs through their translucent words and accept them calmly, then there is no need to sugarcoat them.

“Europe”, Camus says, “no longer philosophizes by striking a hammer, but by shooting the cannon” and ever since it has lost its domination, it shoots only on the snapping fingers of the US. The Western reason, Adorno suggests, dominates through integration and unification of thought; people develop instrumental reason and act accordingly. In the Western liberal democracies, under the influence of culture industry this integration of society is the triumph of repressive unification and it is similar to the one achieved under fascism. “It allowed Adorno to perceive early that under the dictate of instrumental reason, liberal capitalism was coming to be displaced by a more reified social order” (Bernstein).

The US employing the twisted logic of democracy has launched another coup; this time against the elected president of Venezuela, and nominated its marionette, a scarcely known figure as president. Maduro is popular and powerful but the US has pledged to throw billions of dollars against him. The ethical arguments cannot stem the tide of imperialism. One can recall Nicaragua of 1990, when Contra was unleashed against Sandinista. Reagan declared a tiny state a threat to the national security and after a massacre, Daniel Ortega, the popular president had to resign

The capitalistic recession and instrumental reason, to which Adorno alludes to, have prevailed upon the Western world where fascism is rearing its head. It has traveled from Europe to the countries of South America where leaders like Bolsonaro, espousing fascism, are in power. This has made the job of imperialism simple and swift, a state of smooth sailing when people desiring deception fall for a swindle offering them fleeting gratification. Finding the situation congenial the US has diverted the tide of its terror to its own backyard.

Venezuela has long been a thorn in the eyes of the US.  Chavez, unlike Allende, was more resistant to the might of imperialism. A populist leader, less radical than Allende, survived the first onslaught on his power at the beginning of his tenure. In those scary moments, assistance from Fidel Castro proved immensely helpful. Later the objective conditions helped him to advance his cause partially due to his charismatic figure and partially because of rising oil prices. The ‘pink’ tide that along with Chavez brought Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Peru, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Bachelet in Chile, and Kirchner in Argentine helped him to consolidate his power.

The US employing the twisted logic of democracy has launched another coup; this time against the elected president of Venezuela and nominated its marionette, a scarcely known figure as president. Maduro is popular and powerful but the US has pledged to throw billions of dollars against him. The ethical arguments cannot stem the tide of imperialism. One can recall Nicaragua of 1990, when Contra was unleashed against Sandinista. Reagan declared a tiny state a threat to the national security and after a massacre Daniel Ortega, the popular president had to resign.

Venezuela though can be a different story. It is the world’s topmost oil-producing country, and the world opposed to the US hegemony has already weighed behind it. Despite all allegations of corruption, Maduro has a populist appeal and apparently the army is backing him. Russia too has its stakes and Putin has supported him unconditionally. It will not be easy to dislodge the Maduro regime and the US and its allies, if not Axis, is fully aware of the fact. Despite massive Saudi help, they have failed to dislodge Assad, Maduro is much stronger than him and above all Russians are far more confident now as compared to the past.

The US is betting on chaos to prevail in Venezuela since destruction and reconstruction are the modes capital follows for its realization. The corporations must be salivating on the mere thought of having access to the largest oil resource. The destruction of Iraq and Syria has changed the dynamics of the Middle East. The Saudi dynasty is struggling to survive, and Russia has emerged as an important player in world politics. China, the biggest lender to Venezuela, will not watch the fiasco silently; after all the world’s resources do not belong to the US alone.

The Left is facing a curious imbroglio; it is fully aware of the extent and limitations of democratic struggle, which hardly dents the system unless it transforms into a revolutionary moment, which thus far has not happened. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the concept of ‘socialism in one country’ too has lost its appeal. Every Communist party is savvy to the fact that regardless of ideal conditions it cannot attempt a revolution alone in isolation of world proletariat, such an attempt would be hara-kiri. The revolution has to be a united effort in quite a few countries simultaneously or else the traumatic experience of Paris Commune can stare in the face again.

The electoral politics will remain a necessity for the Left since it is important to achieve minimum success not only to enhance the consciousness of the masses but also to win certain benefits for them, although joining hands with other capitalist parties to form the government is an altogether different proposition. Rosa has warned about such an arrangement because it would lead to the “partial conquest of the socialist party by the bourgeois state”. Pink tides are failures, they are giving birth to “a humanity” which under the “nonsensical continuation of domination, hungers for the compulsion and restriction”.

Venezuela and Maduro are less likely to survive the impending disaster unscathed. If they do, the first task would be a complete liquidation of the bourgeoisie, nationalization of means of production and raising a workers’ army. The last will be the most difficult but decisive step to rein in the hegemonic powers and to fathom the consciousness of the world proletariat.

Published in Daily Times, January 31^st 2019.