Hence, beneath the shell game of “democratic institutions” such as Congress and the ‘European Union’ and the ‘G-7’ and so forth, paradoxically, the underlying truth about the Washington-led international system is that the entire system is based on a lie. And in turn, from the very top all the way down to the very bottom, the entire system is filled with fraudsters, hypocrites, and liars. And as Vaclav Havel said: “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living the truth. This is why it must be suppressed more severely than anything else.” And as one expression puts it: “If you want to make a conservative angry, tell him a lie; if you want to make a liberal angry, tell him the truth.”
Another paradox is that by describing the Soviet system of the 20th century, Havel actually described the system in which we find ourselves today in the United States:
“The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his or her ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.”
Another paradox of the American system is that the basic assumption wielded by America’s “Professional Managerial Class” (PMC) – which is that this class is somehow endowed with miraculous abilities and is somehow able to govern better than regular people – is outright negated by the reality of their sheer inability to govern properly. As Lord Acton said: “The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.” In fact, the PMC’s inability to preserve a post-Cold War peace and stability in the international system – which arguably was their sole responsibility and task after the Cold War – is now a destabilizing factor in the Western world. As Havel said: “I have said it so often: if the West does not stabilize the East, the East will destabilize the West.” And as common sense and logic dictates, lies eventually catch up to the ones telling them and living them.
Adam A. Azim 