Subject: RE: [HAB:] Democracy gets complex (2 of 4) [Ken]
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 21:46:24 -0500




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From: owner-habermas-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
[mailto:owner-habermas-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU] On Behalf Of Gary E Davis
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 11:47 PM
To: habermas-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: [HAB:] Democracy gets complex (2 of 4) [Ken]

G: There is no such animal:
http://www.trilateral.org/projwork/tfrsgen.htm

**There are two versions of the report - one published and the other
unpublished. My reference is here:
http://www.web.net/blackrosebooks/og.htm
This essay can also be found in the anthology The Anarchist Papers edited by
Dimitrios Roussopoulos (2002).

** An overview of Trilateralism can be found here:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Trilateralism/Trilateralism_overview.html
which is an excerpt from Trilateralism edited by Holly Sklar (I'm in the
process of getting a copy at the moment).

** Some choice passages:

"The Commission's purpose is to engineer an enduring partnership among the
ruling classes of North America, Western Europe, and Japan-hence the term
"trilateral"-in order to safeguard the interests of Western capitalism in an
explosive world."

"To put it simply, trilateralists are saying: (1) the people, governments,
and economies of all nations must serve the needs of multinational banks and
corporations; (2) control over economic resources spells power in modern
politics (of course, good citizens are supposed to believe as they are
taught; namely, that political equality exists in Western democracies
whatever the degree of economic inequality); and (3) the leaders of
capitalist democracies-systems where economic control and profit, and thus
political power, rest with the few-must resist movement toward a truly
popular democracy. In short, trilateralism is the current attempt by ruling
elites to manage both dependence and democracy-at home and abroad..."

"Trilateralism is the creed of an international ruling class whose locus of
power is the global corporation. The owners and managers of global
corporations view the entire world as their factory, farm, supermarket, and
playground. The Trilateral Commission is seeking to strengthen and
rationalize the world economy in their interest."

"In 1975 the Trilateral Commission released its book-length study, The
Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the
Trilateral Commission. Noam Chomsky best summarizes the theme: "Trilateral's
RX for Crisis: Governability Yes. Democracy NO."

"The 1960s are the point of departure for the trilateral analysis. J Samuel
Huntington, author of the chapter on the United States, describes this
period as the "decade of democratic surge and of the reassertion of
democratic egalitarianism." What must follow, as the trilateralists see it,
is the reassertion of elite rule and decades of public apathy. Thus,
domestic items on the trilateral agenda include: reducing the expectations
of the poor and middle class, increasing presidential authority,
strengthening business-government cooperation in economic planning, stricter
press self-regulation and government oversight, and pacification of rank and
file labor..."

> I vaguely remember that there was mid-70s report by the
Univ. of California, Santa Barabra, Center for the Study of
Democracy (which seems to now be defunct; maybe it moved to
UC Irvine) on the "ungovernability" of democratic
societies, which got a lot of media and academic attention
around that time. Trilateral Commission members Samual P.
Huntington et al. published _The Crisis of Democracy_ in
1975.

** Yes, that is, in part, the report that is mentioned above.

But that was not in the vein of Ken's remarks. It was about
the complexity of democratic societies vis-a-vis the
institutional realities of that recessionary time.
"Ungovernability" had become a buzzword in the mid-70s. 

** And official state policy ever-afterwards?

To say, as Ken does, that a liberal think tank (whether the
Trilateral Commission or the Center for the Study of
Democracy) would "recommend...restrictions on freedom of
the press [and] cutbacks in education" is not credible. 

** I guess you don't read / follow much Chomsky, eh?

ken



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