austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

292 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
1995), such as invasions by aliens and other nonsense reported in publications like the
National Enquirer (Associated Press, 1999b). However, despite the CIA's disinfonna·
tion campaign, it has not been possible to totally dupe Americans. For instance, surveys
indicate that the majority of Americans believe that the CIA has engaged in various
actions against its own people, such as murdering President Kennedy and importing
narcotics (Scripps Howard News Service, 1997). In addition, even though the CIA is
able to use bribes, extortion, and arbitrary mention of "national security" reasons to
purge any damaging evidence from being admissible in court (Stich, 1994 ), some con·
spiracies between the CIA and organized crime (such as the assassination of Manin
Luther King Jr. in order to stop his anti-war activities during the Vietnam War) have
been proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court (Associated Press, 1999g).
5. Even the very limited choice provided by West Gennan elections tends to be controlled
by money, marketing, and personalities (Schumacher, 1998). Some of the money
used to finance the "election" of conservative political leaders like Helmut Kohl (the
"unification" chancellor) has been contributed illegally and secretly, and Kohl himself
would rather pay a multimillion dollar fine than reveal the actual source of the money
(Wall Street Journal, 2000d). Although I have not been able to provide any documenta­
tion to support the claim (and so it may not be true), I heard from one Neonazi several
decades ago that Kohl (who was not yet chancellor at the time) was being financed (and
controlled) with Nazi money in the 1970s. This hypothesis is consistent with some of
the rumors that have been publicized indicating the West German secret police as the
source of some of the money, especially since some contributions to Kohl's party have
been documented to have been bribes to facilitate German weapons exports (Schulte,
2000), and since the West Gennan secret police has long used both weapons smuggling
and Nazi money to fund its operations (Schmidt-Eenboom, 1995). Also magnifying the
shadiness of the affair has been an official accusation that a good attorney friend � f
Kohl's has been helping drug traders, dictators, and the Russian mafia launder their
illegal money through Liechtenstein (AFP, 2000).
6. The USA has continued to influence West Gennan politics via CIA propaganda
and manipulation (Agee and Wolf, 1975). Political machinations (whether contro!lcd by
outside powers or domestic capitalists) have long characterized capitalist countnes and
ensured their continued rule, as documented by Zinn ( 1995). For instance, in order to
deflect anention away from any proposals for a more complete redistribution of wealth
and power away from the rich, capitalists are motivated to channel disagreement and
conflicts into issues relating to how to divide up the tiny amount of wealth not own�
by the rich few, and racism often results, as poor and middle class whites struggle Wit�
others for a larger share of the tiny portion of the pie allotted to them (Strobel an
Peterson, 1999). Besides detracting discussion away from more important issues to l�ss
important ones, many capitalist "democracies" are also very effective in concentrating
public attention on candidate personalities as opposed to real issues (Foerstel, 2000).
By doing so, politicians who promise to undertake policies less attractive to voters often
win elections because of their charisma or personality, or because enough dirt on opposing
candidates is either dug up or fa bricated to make them undesirable for many voters.
In addition, representative "democracy" (as opposed to direct democracy whe ": the
people directly vote on important issues) creates the potential for candidates to e � th � r
camouflage or lie about the true policies they intend to carry out, with one survey mdl-
NorES 293
eating that over 800/o of the American people believe that their leaders don't tell the
truth (Zinn, 1995). This fact creates a further distraction from the issues, as many vote
for those who are thought to be most honest in keeping their promises, regardless of
the actual content of their policies. This "democratic" system often results in elections
rqmenting nothing more than a choice between rival rich factions, which use their
wealth to manipulate voters to give them control of the government so that they can
obtain even bigger relative shares of the aggregate pie (Copeland, 2000). As a result of
this manipulated political system, the winner of the 1998 Fulbright prize for "Interna­
tional Understanding" has stated that many people in capitalist "democracies" have lost
faith in the political process (and no longer vote) because they perceive little difference
between the policies of different candidates (or political parties) and "feel that the really
illW,lOrtant issues are not in their power to decide" (Azocur, 1998).
7. As previously mentioned in Chapter I, one reason why the USA and other indus­
trialized capitalist countries were wealthier in 1917 is the long history of imperialism,
colonialism, slavery, and other fonns of exploitation (enforced by technologically
advanced military forces). One of the most important forms of exploitation (imperial,
colonial, or otherwise) was carried out using unfair trade practices that were militarily
enforced to extract resources from countries for low compensation and that even reduced
lrCIS like India and China which were previously relatively rich (with China actually
having had a higher standard of living per capita than that of Europe in 1800) into
abject poverty (Smith, 2000). Also contributing to income disparities between countries
was the fa ilure of many nations (such as Russia} to replace their inefficient feudal sys­
tQDS fast enough (Meurs, 1999}. The relative wealth of the Western countries continues
� � by further exploitation in the fonn of destructive unfair trade policies that
inhibit the ability of less developed countries to compete in industries where they have
1 comparative advantage (Wochenpost, 1992a). A general discussion of neocolonialist
exploitation can be found in Morgan ( 1992}, while Smith (2000} provides a much more
CO!nprehensive analysis of the issue. Ways to overcome neocolonialism can be found in
Mwpby (1992a) and are further analyzed in Chapter 5.
8· Despite the very negative effect that this treatment had on the East German econ­
:r 111 association of West Gennan bankers estimated East German GNP per capita
.� to � the eighth highest in Europe by 1989 (Berliner Mo rgenpost, 1990),
�-_Even fairly �ch capitalist countries, which have incomes very close to that of
-._..
, tt remamed significantly Jess than that in West Germany.
::S for l � ving, are faced with severe legal restrictions against obtaining a job in t�
richest countnes (and whose citizens, instead of being offered sizable government
'-s . countnes because of visa and citizenship requirements}, � suffer s � bs�nt1 � l
.,._,'" we!l � ucated. costly "human capital" as a result of the nchest countnes �st-
_ P'Ovtdmg enonnous financial incentives for the best talents from the less nch
�to leave. A good example is provided by the large number of engineers from
rtlatrvely rich Canada who take jobs in the richer USA (Brenner, 1999).
lo
Although ·
aenr;.,.
� for � oting against the system has also been somewhat difficult in the past in
. It was
· E
_ somewhat cumbersome to cast a vote against � tern tn ast
�
Y ( w htch requtred having to draw a line through each candtdate s name), the
A. For tnstance, I personally have made three efforts to register a write-in vote