EDITORIAL
Obama's Speech Fumbles Elite Themes
By Anthony Wile - May 21, 2011

The speech on the Middle East given by Barack Obama the other night was yet more evidence of how the power elite is having a good deal of trouble implementing its dominant social themes in the 21st century. The speech itself was supposed to be another "historical" moment for Barack Obama. Instead it turned out to be just one more dreary, uncompelling catalogue of American policies in the Middle East. In a fast-moving news environment, the speech came across as reactive – and its policies unpersuasive.

The US President did make some dubious news. He announced he was shoveling some cash toward Tunisia and Egypt and, more importantly, he suggested that Israel return to its 1967 borders as it pursued peace accords with the Palestinians. This elicited yet more wearisome reactions. "President Obama has thrown Israel under the bus," said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the speech a "disaster." How predictable. The "protect Israel against the Arab world" meme is one we've heard repeatedly for decades.

Obama made much of the US commitment to spreading democracy in the Middle East – and this too is an ancient elite theme, that the US must lead the way for the world when it comes to moral uprightness.

Unfortunately, Obama didn't mention that both Egypt and Tunisia had been destabilized at least in part by CIA trained youth movements like the AYM. Since many are aware of this – as it has been reported in the mainstream and alternative press – he comes across as hypocritical rather than committed.

He elaborated a good deal on Syria and Libya, reinforcing the idea of America as the protector for citizens who are being oppressed by their governments. But then he hardly referred to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia at all – and both countries have been jailing and torturing democracy supporters with depressing frequency. Obama didn't mention Yemen, either, even though Yemen's stubbornly murderous President Saleh has shot and killed numerous democracy protesters in the past few weeks and incarcerated many.

The absence of any serious mention of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or Yemen begins to clear up a good deal of mystery surrounding these protests. Some countries are apparently to be destabilized by these Anglo-American inspired youth movements while others are not. It is apparently at least in part an effort to winnow out Middle East rulers that operate independently of power elite control.

In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria (and the Ivory Coast too), "strongmen" did the West's bidding on their own terms. That evidently wasn't good enough. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are virtual proxies for the US. If the US ever withdrew its support for the Saudi regime, it would likely topple quickly. Not so in Libya or Syria. So the elite attacks. The Anglo-American power elite is centralizing world governance.

The Middle East, with its independent Islamic governments and unpredictable polices apparently needs to be more tightly controlled if true world government is to be initiated. Obama's speech is enlightening but not probably in the way he meant it. Like bin Laden's endless dying, the memes of the elite are increasingly obvious and unpersuasive. Anyone who studies them can start to predict them.

Assange for example. The increasingly wearisome Julian Assange – whom we believe is probably not what he seems – has released classified State Department files that show, according to the Washington Times, how "enhanced" interrogations of hundreds of captured operatives at secret overseas prisons and at the Cuban prison "amounted to one of the most successful intelligence operations in history." WikiLeaks has turned from a defender of the oppressed into a defender of oppression. Do we really need an "open source" news entity promoting torture?

The failure of 21st century memes to credibly impress is bound to have an increasing impact on the way the West (and the world) works over time. Way back when the Gutenberg Press was doing damage to establishment verities, the power elite apparently answered with a series of wars. It begins to look as if the Anglosphere elites are doing so again. The similarities around the world are startling, and this is how the Western elites work in my view. Events are replicated, nation-to-nation. Chaos is enhanced as a means of control.

In this case one of the weapons is so-called austerity. While the West – and the PIGS – are getting all the attention, "austerity" measures are jumping from country to country. Job cuts are taking place throughout South America and in Asia too. Food prices are going up and price inflation generally is becoming a problem. The results fan the flames of resentment and send people out into the street.

There is no doubt in my mind that the elites want a level of chaos. As the Internet exposes elite memes, the elites fight back by sowing confusion. Riots are part of the recipe, as are controllable wars – and even quasi-illusory enemies such as al Qaeda, which Obama also mentioned. Perhaps all this is leading up to the "big one" with Iran. In any event, military tensions with China and even Russia are to be encouraged. People are to be distracted from understanding the underlying causes of the Internet Reformation by sour economies, rising prices and an ever-morphing war on terror.

The trouble with this sort of activity is that truth and understanding can easily spiral oppressors plans out of control. Apparently it did so back during Gutenberg press era when elite meddling spawned the Protestant Reformation, several revolutions and eventually the Age of Enlightenment. It is doing so today, in my view. The US is obviously uncomfortable with the continuance of the youth revolutions spawned in Egypt and Tunisia. These revolutions were supposed to be "over" by now. They were intended to lead to controllable regimes of one sort or another but have done no such thing as of yet. In fact, they have spread to allies that the West does not seem to want destabilized, such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is significant. If Saudi Arabia is undermined politically and militarily, so is the dollar reserve currency that serves as a lynchpin for the world's economy. We've suggested in the past that the elites want to destabilize the dollar in order to introduce a global currency, but not perhaps so fast or so soon. Yet, they may get their wish sooner than they think.

The elites in my view are losing control of the dominant social themes that they used so effectively in the 20th century. People are simply less apt to believe what they are being told. This can be seen in a number of venues and in a number of ways. Institutions that used to be respected are now less so. So-called social and historical truths are increasingly questioned. Unbrookable power is doubted. And the Internet Reformation has only just begun.

Having unleashed the revolutionary fervor of "youth," how exactly do the elites know where it will stop? There was just yesterday yet another demonstration in Saudi Arabia and President Saleh, America's man in Yemen is on his way out even though NATO and the West were apparently depending on him to promote the "war on terror" in his region. If these rolling revolutions reach and destabilize Saudi Arabia, the world will truly become a different place. Obama will even have a chance to give an original speech. He may not like it.

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