The Washington Consensus is Fraying

Over the weekend I finally finished reading R.P. Dutt's Fascism and Social Revolution (1934). It was lent to me by my next-door neighbor, whose son, a resident of Portland, had photocopied and spiral-bound it himself. It's a real eye-opener. The socio-economic conditions which led to the rise of fascism are very similar to those of today. There are huge differences too. But Dutt's thesis, that fascism is a last-ditch effort by finance capital to suppress contradictions of its own making after social democrat parties willingly pave the way for strongman rule, is as true today as it was in the 1930s.

The difference is that workers were much more militant and organized, both politically and economically, then than now; that, and there was much more of a vibrant press.

To give an idea, to provide support, for this widely shared feeling that the mainstream media has become even grosser in its parroting of its government overlords there is this passage from Caitlin Johnstone's "The Guardian Is Committing Journalistic Malpractice By Not Retracting This Claim":

The legendary Australian journalist John Pilger, whose work on the evils of war and imperialism has been an inspiration for generations of journalists like myself, stated in an interview earlier this year that there was a “purge” of antiwar writers from The Guardian some three years ago.

“But my written journalism is no longer welcome — probably its last home was The Guardian, which three years ago got rid of people like me and others in pretty much a purge of those who were saying what The Guardian no longer says anymore,” Pilger said on the Flashpoint radio show.

Since that time we’ve seen a relentless outpouring of pro-interventionist propaganda from The Guardian with headlines like “After Douma, the west’s response to Syria’s regime must be military“, conducting fact-free smear jobs on opponents of Syrian interventionism, and deliberately hiding all evidence which contradicts the pro-interventionist narrative. Day after day after day this toxic outlet advocates death, destruction and mass murder over peace and common sense, and those who have been permitted to rise within its ranks are the ones who understand that it is in the interests of their career advancement to march to the beat of the war drum.

The Washington Consensus is resistant to outright strongman rule buttressed by a renascent economic nationalism; it prefers the maintenance and extension of a globalized neoliberal corporate-managed trade architecture. A strong tell that this Washington Consensus is rapidly fraying is when the categorically pro-trade New York Times advocates restricting technology transfers to China based on national security.

Macron is the prodigal child of a fracturing Washington Consensus; hence all the pomp for his visit this week. Merkel is being served cold leftovers in comparison. The message is plain. Germany, possessing perhaps a deeper understanding of where the current path of great power conflict is headed, is drifting back to the East.