by John Young
(From the http://localag.wordpress.com)
In other words, for who knows how long, our nations have not been controlled by the people we *think* control them — be it parliaments, or kings. Instead, our nations have been controlled by national oligarchies.
When folks think about an "interconnected world" or a "global economy," they usually think about how they can get Chinese stuff really cheap, or how illegal aliens just keep pouring over our borders unabated.
But there is more to it than that.
Many semi-Utopian thinkers have long labored for an interconnected world for many reasons; but mainly because a financially interdependent world is less prone to shooting wars between major powers. Fewer shooting wars translates into more money for these semi-Utopian thinkers who usually work for a Federal Reserve branch, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or some similar shadowy entity in their country of residence.
Financial interdependence makes shooting wars less likely for fairly obvious reasons: if someone owes you money, you don’t want to destroy his ability to pay you back. Likewise, if someone is sending you lots of money or lending you money when you need it, you certainly don’t want him to come to harm. And thus peace is achieved — not because of some sort of practical idealism, but because of a confluence of hard-core self interests.
The core premises behind this set of ideas are extremely revealing because they don’t take into account the interests of nations or societies — but rather a very small subset of the nation, a very small economic oligarchy — whose interests are very different from those of the overwhelming preponderance of the population of that nation. Thus it is revealed that the economic interdependence seen as a "social good" because it can prevent wars between great powers primarily serves the interest of an international oligarchy.
What this situation implicitly admits is something very few people have truly stated, to wit: that nations generally go to war to extend or defend the economic interests of its own economic oligarchs. When it is no longer in the best interests of those oligarchs to go to war, nations no longer engage in war. In other words, for who knows how long, our nations have not been controlled by the people we *think* control them — be it parliaments, or kings. Instead, our nations have been controlled by national oligarchies.
Now, these oligarchies have become international — think of folks like George Soros as an example. And because they have become international, wars between great powers are no longer in their best interests. Instead, wars take place in other arenas.
At its most basic level, the consolidation of international oligarchies now creates a problem in which nation states have extreme difficulty, even if well-intended, in pursuing the best interests of their citizenry. They have always had to balance their national oligarchies, but international oligarchies are a far more difficult matter with which to contend.
So what does this have to do with food and gardening?
Quite a lot.
It turns out that China is rapidly depleting its groundwater so that in just a couple of years it will need to import grain from the United States.
This demand will cause the price of grain to rise into the stratosphere in the United States.
IF our government were capable of acting in the interests of Americans, it would refuse to export the grain. But, because of financial interdependence in which our government depends upon China to float the national debt, our federal government will not be ABLE to say "no." Thus, that grain will be sold to China and you can expect the cost of food here to climb dramatically.
So what I’m saying here is: start that garden. There is no time like the present. Let me tell you, when you are already hungry is NOT a good time to learn how to grow your own food.