7) What if corporations can hijack national identity? The nature of US debt and the reality of corporate empire building in the 21st century

I’d like to get stuck into the elephant in the room following my last post and my posts on Identity.  I have raised the possibility of a "US agenda" without mentioning many specifics or linking claims to groups with interests, and I've given out links to sites that address the sub-issues and sites that are arguably a bit sensationalist.  I've also touched on the fact that the issues governing running for office in United States are largely presented as cultural, religious and socio-economic.  Media propaganda, pop-culture, human nature and perhaps a little bit of spin-doctoring entrench these factors into western society and provide means through which this culture can be well managed in a not too sinister fashion. 

Regarding the heading of this post, of course the US is in Debt, but it doesn't matter if it can adjust the world and it politics or resources to fit its means.

In the colonial, pre-war and world war era’s empire building was based primarily on controlling the land and factors surrounding resources of value.  Nations would covet these valuable resources such as metal ore, minerals, precious metals and gems, chemicals, timber, coal, foods and fertile ground, marine and fishing related, peat, granite etc etc etc. Note that I purposefully left out oil and natural gas for now.

Nations often even invent political reasons to gain access to these riches.

In the cold war in the nuclear age, fear of global destruction was a new factor and tempered the earlier grab for riches with an ideological standoff and a battle for support and global sentiment became much more important.

Let’s appreciate one thing upfront: The United States with its corporate/lobby/governmental interchangeability has by far the most sophisticated, effective, successful and precursory methods of dealing in these matters.  Anybody who takes a superficial glance the illusion of financial difficulty the US is in has little appreciation for the reality of how the world works.

The Soviet VS USA battle to emerge as the world’s sole superpower has allowed the US powers to understand that threat of global destruction is too risky a situation to ever have to confront again, and this standoff needs to be prevented at all costs. How? Let me explain.

The emergence of China has long been anticipated, but China spent its most important development phase stuck in older economic attitudes discussed above, and that is reflected by its role in today’s global political stage.  Many have been surprised by US policy often facilitating this role, and the Chinese / American economic relationship based on debt and outsourcing of manufactured goods stimulated the Chinese drive for resources and manufacturing with cheap labour and well harnessed skills.  An increasing one dimensional economy depending on manufactured goods and trade has emerged.  The United States has been relieved of the need to control some types of natural resources and has managed through globalization to be the chief influencer of the world dollar based economic environment.  The fractional reserve method of money supply, forex and sophisticated western banking practices, now fairly global,  have ensured this.  One cannot make a case for a conspiracy in this regard as much as one can appreciate how US reaction has evolved with, facilitated or permitted certain Chinese policies regarding relationship with the USA on trade and foreign policy, and vice versa. 

What does this mean? This means that the US, and therefore the entire western world has become an essential customer for a China which is becoming increasingly dependent on the global marketplace to ensure its production and trade based economic model does not implode.  You don’t threaten your customer, you want your customer to prosper, and thus the Cold War scenario with China has been cleverly avoided, for now.  Managing China's relationship with Russia as the US puts the (lets face the inevitable) imperialist squeeze on the areas surrounding Russias Black Sea Crimean access areas of Ukraine, which have proximity to Russian oil, gas and gold reserves, will be fascinating to watch in terms of media spin wars in 2014/2015 RT/Fox News) 

This media clip makes a very good case for NATO blocking the Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe (not the dedicated pipeline to Germany) to encourage hostile sentiment towards Russia.

Meanwhile the US drive around its one required resource, energy (oil, and the next big energy resource, natural gas http://www.naturalgas.org/business/demand.asp) continues because of the role that will played in future global policy.  I will get there in future posts.

Here is an excellent article by David Johnson on the issues surrounding fracking: www.toomuchtoomany.co.za/blog/2013/5/6/when-should-we-start-fracking-in-the-karoo

Take a look at the world’s oil and gas reserves and US military action and try and reconcile the given political reasoning with the energy reserves and the picture emerges very clearly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_gas_proven_reserves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

That is enough for now, in order not to lose anyone I will have to address other themes in future posts before finishing this theme.