The Arab Spring and the European Summer

Following the Arab Spring and the revolutions taking place in various authoritarian States of the continent everybody thought that the flames of this turmoil are burning exclusively the under - developed countries and once again shook his head feeling sorrow for the poor African population. But the crack between the political administration and people is not a "privilege" of the African authoritarian regimes. 

The intensified inequalities in America illustrated by the Nobelist Stiglitz  combined with the economic depression and the long standing shaken public trust in the civil society organizations (the recent swine flu pandemic and the false alarm by the WHO is a good related example), the lack of accountability accompanied with the democratic deficit may easily turn the developed West to the next burning forest with riots, protests and clashes spreading allover. 

Greece, Spain and then London are the examples of what can happen reflecting the public feeling that the system fails them. The main common element shared by the angry western rioters is that they can't find any appropriate representation inside their present political arena. In fact they are not politicized in a way that a specific ideology used to inspire the youth in the past but they are despaired lucking any hope for a proper career as destined to live in lower living - standards from the past generations. 

The world economic crises underlined the complexity of the modern capitalism and the incapability of the administrations and institutions to address the problems effectively. The absence of political demands in the London riots contrary to the mainstream Media's claims that depict them as plain criminals underscores that they are not integrated into the existing political parties or ideologies. 

The division between the shοrt - sighted markets, the complexity of politics and the spontaneus reaction of the depressed polpulation are waving a canvas on which the future more violent touches is to paint. As the vision of the happy consumer is being buried deeper and deeper in the grave of the American dream it is still impossible to predict the consequences of the growing frustration on the future of the developed West.

Once Upon a Time in the West

Hate has become a part of the everyday culture of American politics.

Πηγή: Spiegel

By Jakob Augstein

08/04/2011

This week, the United States nearly allowed itself to succumb to economic disaster. Increasingly, the divided country has more in common with a failed state than a democracy. In the face of America's apparent political insanity, Europe must learn to take care of itself.

This week, the United States nearly allowed itself to succumb to economic disaster. Increasingly, the divided country has more in common with a failed state than a democracy. In the face of America's apparent political insanity, Europe must learn to take care of itself.

The word "West" used to have a meaning. It described common goals and values, the dignity of democracy and justice over tyranny and despotism. Now it seems to be a thing of the past. There is no longer a West, and those who would like to use the word -- along with Europe and the United States in the same sentence -- should just hold their breath. By any definition, America is no longer a Western nation.

The US is a country where the system of government has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite. An unruly and aggressive militarism set in motion two costly wars in the past 10 years. Society is not only divided socially and politically -- in its ideological blindness the nation is moving even farther away from the core of democracy. It is losing its ability to compromise.

America has changed. It has drifted away from the West.

The country's social disintegration is breathtaking. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz recently described the phenomenon. The richest percent of Americans claim one-quarter of the country's total income for themselves -- 25 years ago that figure was 12 percent. It also possesses 40 percent of total assets, up from 33 percent 25 years ago. Stiglitz claims that in many countries in the so-called Third World, the income gap between the poor and rich has been reduced. In the United States, it has grown.

Economist Paul Krugman, also a Nobel laureate, has written that America's path is leading it towards the "status of a banana republic." The social cynicism and societal indifference once associated primarily with the Third World has now become an American hallmark. This accelerates social decay because the greater the disparity grows, the less likely the rich will be willing to contribute to the common good. When a company like Apple, which with €76 billion in the bank has greater reserves at its disposal than the government in Washington, a European can only shake his head over the Republican resistance to tax increases. We see it as self-destructive.

The same applies to America's broken political culture. The name "United States" seems increasingly less appropriate. Something has become routine in American political culture that has been absent in Germany since Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik policies of rapprochement with East Germany and the Soviet Bloc (in the 1960s and '70s): hate. At the same time, reason has been replaced by delusion. The notion of tax cuts has taken on a cult-like status, and the limited role of the state a leading ideology. In this new American civil war, respect for the country's highest office was sacrificed long ago. The fact that Barack Obama is the country's first African-American president may have played a role there, too.

The West, C'est nous

There's no deliverance in sight. One can no longer depend on politics in America. The reliance of Congress members on donations from the rich has become too great. Nor will there be any revolutionary storming of the Bastille in America. Popular anger may boil over, but the elites have succeeded in both controlling the masses and channeling their passions. Take the Tea Party, which has enjoyed godfather-like bankrolling from brothers and billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch and found a mouthpiece in Rupert Murdoch's populist, hatred-stirring Fox News.

From a European perspective, it all looks very strange: it's a different political culture. There are other rules at play, different standards. More and more we view America with the clear notion that we are different.

Still, America's fate should serve as a warning: We must protect our political culture, our institutions and our state. The success of Thilo Sarrazin, with his anti-Muslim message, shows that even Germany isn't free of the kind of cultural coldness that can eventually ossify the vital functions of the political system. Our society has already made significant and deplorable steps on the path towards growing inequality and de-democratization.

Nevertheless, at least one good opportunity springs from America's fate: The further the United States distances itself from us, the more we will (have to) think for ourselves, as Europeans. The West? That's us.