The international media portrays the troika of North Korea, Iran and China as enemies of the USA but it never divulges that American armed forces’ blood keeps the machines of US military-industrial complex running. The sole superpower is, covertly, controlled by its mighty war industry that, frequently, plunges it into new conflicts to continue arms’ sale. Its corporate world is facing a new global challenge in the shape of China-US trade war. The hegemonic corporate influence is not limited to the USA but the whole world is in the grip of global corporate entities that, even, dominate governments, media and democratic institutions. The fall of communism has, further, strengthened this hegemonic control as multinational companies’ share in global GDP is risen to more than 32 percent.
Capitalism also invented catchy slogans and developed institutions to retain a complete hegemony over society. Democracy is its most famous and widely accepted phenomenon. Rousseau’s ‘eat the rich,’ Marx’s ‘proletariat of the world, unite’ and French Revolution’s slogan, ‘live free or die’ have, either, long been dead or forgotten but trading forces are omnipotent everywhere due to their ability to transform according to changing needs.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, western thinkers had propagated the concept of welfare states with media as a powerful watchdog to cool down aggressive criticism against capitalism. Today, multinational corporations have full sway over every economic activity and advertising has widened their role to fulfil human needs.
After the second world war, the bipolar world was, somewhat, safe from capitalism due to the presence of communist block led by defunct USSR. The USA had then used democracy as a weapon against communist block during the cold war and the same tactics have been employed against China in Hong Kong. After the fall of USSR, the capitalist world has dominated the global economy through MNCs.
Different thinkers and intellectuals had realized this looming threat much earlier. The World Wide Fund’s Canadian President, for example, had said in 2011 that it was incredible until a few decades ago that NGOs and multinational corporations would become business partners. Today, they are! For example, Nestlé’s and Apple, the World Wide Fund and Coca-Cola and Chevron and Exxon Mobil have partnered. In fact, INGOs and MNCs have become a powerful tool in the hands of the capitalists. Global corporatizations have helped the capitalist states to become more powerful with the help of advanced technology. It is alleged that MNCs had financed the BJP’s last election campaign worth14 thousand crore Indian rupees to bring their prodigy into power. It also used ‘carrot and stick’ policy to destabilize the rebel states. Some INGOs’ discreet activities had posed serious security challenges and Pakistan had to boot out some 18 INGOs because of security threats in 2018.
Some intellectuals had dared to speak out against capitalism but after the cold war, capitalism has become an uncrowned king everywhere.
A capitalist may not enjoy the powers of the government but ensures that conducive policies are formulated through pliant politicians to help boost big businesses
Neither science nor religion could block the way of escalating materialism as media, which is mainly responsible for opinion-formation, is controlled by big conglomerates. A capitalist may not enjoy the powers of the government but ensures that conducive policies are formulated through pliant politicians to help boost big businesses. Thanks to the expensive election campaigns, a wide majority of the population could not dare to enter into the political arena.
Corporate democracy has given rise to robber-barons while giving very little to the masses. Pakistan’s tryst with democracy shows that Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari were both policy entrepreneurs who coined self-centric policies while real economic and industrial development was made in the first military dictator’s era. The pro-rich policies after the green revolution of the 60s, poorly planned nationalization of 70s and then privatization has made the state a paralyzed puppet in the hands of the big corporate bodies. The indulgence into the Afghan war in the 80s led to further catastrophe.
This collective decline resulted in increasing poverty, declining job-prospects and poor law and order. The ruling elite borrowed heavily and international donors used the leverage of loans for policy-tilt. The coterie of politicians and corporate fat-cows have hijacked the Pakistani democratic system. Today, people have started thinking against the prevailing exploitative socio-economic system. However, pro-democracy propaganda and intoxication of the capitalist system have suppressed such oddities to an extent.
The proponents of capitalism had long feared that religion could be a potent threat after communism. Therefore, anti-religion propaganda was administered to counter it. The religious leaders, instead of preaching revolt against the menace of materialism, have indulged the masses to spend thrifty to get God’s blessings.
In 2001, a literary magazine, Semiotext(e), had published a quarter-century of its finest articles. The title was ‘hatred against capitalism.’ The thinkers from France, America, Germany, etc. participated to cement the ideology. It was highlighted that if humans want protection, they should challenge the system by demonizing capitalism and democracy; or else, the capitalists will fuel their children in the chimneys of their factories. But who will bell the cat?
Famous thinker Edward W. Said had concurred that intellectuals should, ‘speak truth to power.’ There is not a single country that could claim a true democracy. The US war industry had forced Obama to renounce his promise of troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump, too, has failed.
On the other side, there is an equal number of fans of capitalism and democracy in today’s world. After enjoying both, the people have cemented staunch faith in their role in human development. Pakistan should develop strong democratic institutions to keep checks on its corporate sector and ensure that the fruit of democracy is enjoyed by all.
Arundhati Roy summed it up as under;
‘The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder.’
The writer is Lahore based public policy analyst)