ZAIBATSU & WESTERN OLIGARCHS’ ALLIANCE CRAMBLES, WAR LOOMS!

ZAIBATSU & WESTERN OLIGARCHS’ ALLIANCE CRAMBLES, WAR LOOMS!

Erle Frayne Argonza

Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat! Good afternoon to you all!

Just about a few weeks back, the world was shocked (as per media sensationalism) by the failures of new Toyota models on the road, leading to deaths of over twenty (20) riders in the USA. Within hours of the news, panic arose among riders, congressional investigation began, and Toyota was compelled to pull back 7-digit cars-in-use from the roads for retrofitting works.

The world watched as Toyoda-san, scion of the Toyota zaibatsu founder, wept before the congressional committee that investigated the fiasco and near-to-maelstrom in the markets caused by it. I wished I could have extended commiseration to Mr. Toyoda, but knowing the cold-blooded greed of the oligarchs made me adopt the scientific attitude of detachedly observing a species exhibiting behavior under duress.

My take of the matter, which some economists and investments analysts in the USA incidentally confirm, is that an organized bashing of oligarchs of Asian origin the West is in progress. Using typical Freud-type analysis, I’d say the bashing is very large-scale, with the Toyota- and Hyundai-bashing representing merely the tip of an iceberg, or better still a mere scratch in the skin surface.

My preliminary thought on the matter is that the Anglo-European oligarchy, led by the greedy financiers whose notoriety in looting the portfolio & derivatives markets led to the recent global financial meltdown, is calling it quits with their long-time partners from East Asia. The marriage is over, and so we better expect de-mergers and hostile take-over by the Western oligarchs of the assets and/or enterprises of their East Asian counterparts.

To recall, after the World War II, humanity was confronted with a new polarization forged as the Cold War between capitalism and communism. New spheres of influence have to be crafted pronto by the world powers, with the West securing Japan’s zaibatsu loyalty through sticks (force, de-militarizing Japan) and carrots (permitting Japan to achieve industrial prosperity, but subordinated to the West).

The zaibatsus (Japan), chaebols (Korea), emerging oligarchs of Taiwan and the Far East, zamindars (India), and more, or those landlord-gentry elites who were enticed to invest in industries and emerging commercial enterprise, sooner or later found no better recourse than to ally themselves with Anglo-European oligarchs (bankers, financiers, industrialists, rentiers) in order to preserve family wealth and elevate these to new levels.

Fast-forward to the 1980s, when the zaibatsus reached their peak of prestige brought about by the gigantic strides of Japanese firms, globalization became the buzz-word as Japanese technocrats cajoled the West into creating a borderless world economy. Zaibatsus thus made headway in their merger schemes with Anglo-European businesses, and nary a conglomerate in the West refused the sweet offers of the likes of Sony and Toyota to name some representative East Asian champions.

The last of such waves of mergers and ‘Asian offensives’ in the west saw the Indian tycoons such as Mittal investing heavily in the western backyards, and merging with western businesses when opportunities do open up (e.g. Mittal steel). Asian emerging markets’ own companies followed through this wave, with the likes of San Miguel Corp of the Philippines buying NatFood of Australia at one time (before reselling/divesting).

It seems that the ever-predatory financiers of the West will have nothing like a permanent alliance with the Asian taipans & nascent oligarchs. Just like in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies among global corporate owners. What is nasty about the matter is that the western oligarchs are showing their fascistic, if not racist propensities too soon.

The Toyota-bashing will sooner or later find its equivalent in other industrial and commercial concerns. The goal of the western financiers is to eventually take over the eastern assets, such as what the Mittal steel exemplifies, where Lakshmi Mittal is but the nominal controlling shareholder of a steel giant that is actually now owned and controlled by the pals of George Soros & House of Rothschild.

Whether the zaibatsu-bashing will sooner or later lead to a crack in the Trilateral Commission—created by the same predators to consolidate the wealth and powers of the Northern oligarchs (West + Japan)—remains to be seen. The zaibatsus won’t take slights that easily, and surely enough they won’t take betrayals from their Western counterparts lightly.

The zaibatsus possess enormous quantities of precious wealth that the Western financiers (whose wealth is largely useless debt papers and bills) could only salivate upon: gold bullions. Such bullions were amassed by the Imperial Japanese state in Asia during the heydays of militarist onslaughts (‘36-‘45). Stashed safely inside underground bunkers and cross-island tunnels, they were utilized to bankroll the industrialization of Japan (by zaibatsus, with Emperor Hirohito’s blessings). These must must be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars today, if we estimate them to be at least two (2) million tons.

Whereas the western financiers cannot operate alone as they have to collaborate with each other (e.g. Venetian, Dutch, German, English financiers coming together in gigantic trusts), the zaibatsus can go it alone and wage business offensives using their enormous assets. The same zaibatsus can also finance wars so facilely, such as they’ve done for the USA’s wars in Iraq (early 90s & 2001-02).

The zaibatsus can always choose to go their own way, foment new militarism in Japan, and create a new sphere of influence that can rival the western powers’ (if one can call bankrupt states in the West as powers). Note that at this time, within a span of less than a year, Japan can create nukes arms and unleash its version of the Tesla Earthquake Machine (TEM), simply by employing networks of yakuza and global mafia families to get their WMDs to terror groups, while reserving their own military assets for more ambitious confrontations.

How the latest brickbats between the western oligarchs and zaibatsu-Asians will figure in the forthcoming Philippine elections is something worth observing by strategic research analysts. Whether the Philippines remains in the sphere of influence of the western oligarchy, or move closer to zaibatsu orbit via covert maneuverings, will be contended in the next polls.

The Philippines may decide to install a nationalist government, and stay clear from the line of fire between two potential oligarchic adversaries. And, hopefully, the new government in Manila will sharpen its observation of changing oligarchic templates, and position itself to forge the ASEAN into a regional power later free from encumbrances with the aforesaid contending oligarchic factions.

[Philippines, 23 March 2010]

RP MAIN TARGET OF GLOBAL OLIGARCHY’S MACHINATIONS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day! Magandang araw!

The global oligarchy, alternately called New World Order (NWO) or ‘Committee of 300’ or Military-Industrial Complex, is again hatching a contingency move across the planet. Little do East Asians know that the same elites have moved closer to home to fulfill their latest catastrophic plan, as exemplified by my Filipino compatriots who are as somnambulistic as the herds of the planet.

As already alluded to in earlier articles, the global oligarchs are using the 2010 elections in the Philippines to mask their plan. Being both scientist and mystic, I have the privilege to use both empirical-analytic and mystical-paranormal methods to buttress my claims, and in this note I’d share some of my meditation visions about their plot.

Over the last three (3) years or so, I articulated about the coming collapse of the global economy, the attempt to unify Europe under a neo-Bonapartist state, the modus Vivendi of the EU & US to install a 4th Reich, and the launching of a 3rd World War. The oligarchs & military-technocratic-political subalterns have hatched the plan apparently fairly well, through their organizational platforms –Bilderberger Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Royal Institute for International Affairs, and NATO.

The global economic collapse already took place, while its flames still rage strongly in the USA-Europe-Japan trilateral zone. However, the plans to install a Bonapartist Europe, a 4th Reich, and launch a 3rd World War (via Sunni vs Shiite conflict) have been stalled. To simplify the matter, saner and more enlightened leaders inside the states, markets, and civil societies of the trilateral zone have prevailed, and have effectively neutralized or at least delayed the elites’ evil plans.

Indubitably, the oligarchy is terribly alarmed at the audacity and effectiveness of the opposition mounted against them. Alarmed more so to find out that the opposition is uncoordinated, launched as they are from more circumscribed interests of nations and social sectors fighting for survival against the predatory onslaughts of the greedy elites.

It isn’t difficult to realize that a determined predatory force will fight tooth and nail to maintain its ascendancy worldwide, and will plan a contingency move anew. Where the next focused target lies is everyone’s guess. Would it be Latin America? East Asia!? Africa?

RP is home to the hyperspace portal serving as short-cut to galaxies, and this portal (per my visions) has been re-opened by Light Forces after being closed for a long time. Any predatory force fighting for its survival, in the light of the entry of a 3rd Force (galactic fleets of higher dimensional order and superior firepower) arriving en masse on Earth, would be forced to reckon with the Philippines first of all as a possible escape route (NASA program’s being revived for this classified purpose to bail out the elites to other planets and star systems).

Philippine nationalism is also rising, and this has to be check-mated once and for all in the oligarchs’ perception. This nationalism is intersecting with the rise of the ASEAN as a region-state, and it won’t be long before the Philippine nation and its neighbors will realize that their region was formerly the Majapahit Empire, that they were thus duped by the Western powers into believing for some time that they were separate nations and states (nations crafted by the same powers). They are one nation, and they will prevail.

Lastly, there are the huge hoards of gold the country possesses. No, the hoard doesn’t belong to the Marcos family, but comes from diverse sources. A large amount of the bullions were a heritage of the Majapahit Emperor and passed on to descendents, many of whom are Filipinos. Some other large hoards remain unearthed, but lie secured deep within the surface, created a long time back by friendly forces—underground civilizations (cities) and elemental life-forms (certain forces possess the alchemical powers to convert ordinary stones into gold). I’ve done meditation visions before on the gold hoards, and was almost overwhelmed at the sight of the precious metals filling up large bank vaults specially designed for them (these are the bullions traceable to the Majapahit princes).

The oligarchs’ financial empire—created through liberalization, deregulation, privatization, globalization, and bubbled through legitimized looting and swindling—is now eroding rapidly, and it won’t be long before massive risings across the globe may lead to the overthrow of the oligarchic puppet states, confiscation of properties (watch oligarchs’ assets sequestered in Russia), and decapitation of the perceived criminals and their subaltern war criminals. Before the total collapse of the NWO’s global empire happens, drastic moves have to be done. The predators badly need the gold to bankroll their assets and sustain ascendancy of power.

Amid all the synergized anarchy-–or synarchy—across the globe perpetuated by the same predatory oligarchic families, moves are now being made to get the Philippines at all cost. The Pentagon’s men are moving to possibly install puppet generals to power in a failed election scenario, while the Anglo-European financiers eye the installation of liberal candidate Noynoy Aquino and crocodile factions to power.

Meanwhile, very surreptitiously crystalline receptors were installed in Luzon notably the Laguna Lake area, under the guise of ecology projects. I was able to monitor this move through visions, even as I was almost duped by a Caucasian lady who contacted me through email to join their installation of ‘healing crystals’ in a lakeshore town in Laguna (the lady’s name and email messages are still with me). These receptors will be used to re-echo submarine earthquake vibrations detonated by possible combination of nuke and Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM.

It is a likely eventuality that a quake can be calibrated to yank the Marikina fault a bit that can ruin Manila into flattened debris. Producing 1/3 of the nation’s wealth, a flattened Manila means total devastation to the nation that is struggling hard to end mass poverty and achieve development maturity by 2016 or so.

The devastation of the Philippines via submarine nuke and TEM could also distort or warp the electromagnetic field or EMF of the islands and keep the cross-galactic Light Forces at bay, at least for a while. This will give the elites a window of opportunity to escape thru another route, as the galactic reinforcements will take a bit longer to traverse space via longer routes.

The possibility of a Galactic Force or G-Force intervening for Earth humans or Terrans, whom they possibly bred several millennia back, is becoming more manifest by the day. World powers are being urged to reveal their classified research information about the matter, yet they refuse to do so, even if the Vatican itself (via its department of UFO studies headed by a cardinal) already did its subtle message for the UK, USA, and Russia to broadcast the revelations (Vatican already released its report about alien bones and skull in its collection). The elites are obviously scared of this G-Force and are planning to hide underground and/or escape by space.

Just exactly what will happen to this broad contingency plan is worth our watch. Let us begin monitoring, and sharing information about the matter. Meanwhile, my fellow Filipinos sleep, amid murmurs of catastrophe.

[Philippines, 23 March 2010]

BEIJING OLYMPICS: LAST GAMES, AS WORLD WAR III COMES

Erle Frayne Argonza

Good afternoon from Manila!

I’m sure that the euphoria of the recently concluded Beijing Olympics is still with most of us. I have no better wish for now than to see that euphoria last for a longer time, and make everyone anticipate the next games. My own country is hungry for a Gold medal, and I already said my piece about the matter (i.e. sports science can make Olympics gold medalists for us).

This note is a sports forecasting briefer. It’s not about the typical forecasting of the outcomes of specific events and the overall medals that countries can make from out of the aggregate medals—especially gold—accruing from those events. It is about the big possibility that the Beijing Olympics could be the planet’s last, that thereafter no more Olympic games will be in the offing for a long while. That London games for 2012 is a chimera, it will be cancelled most likely as London will sustain damages from the coming conflagration.

World War III is about to break out soon, and I am of the opinion that if this war will happen, it will last for at least thirty (30) years. It will be likened to the 30 Years War in Europe (1618-48), a great war that (a) totally devastated the economies of the contending war parties and (b) redefined territories along boundaries that constituted the modern nations of today (via Treaty of Westphalia). In like vein, this World War III will be concluded with a treaty that will see the disappearance of nations and the finalization of the territorial boundaries of regions-states and city-states that will replace nations-states.  

As war rages across the globe, the possibility of training athletes for the Olympics will be nil. Bankrupt or near-bankrupt states will be needing funds as logistics for its own war participation pursuits, and cannot prioritize athletics or related cultural-leisure engagements that appear to be trifle in a war situation. However, athletes and entertainers will have a great time performing before war-weary combatants during lull moments of violent confrontations.

The nearest to the Olympics games would be, if ever, regional games. These games will be performed by member-countries of regions that would be least affected by the war, or which will not serve as major warfronts. As to which regions these will be, it is not easy to forecast for the moment. The main warfront will be the Iran-Middle East area, where it will start (it is just months’ away from hereon). Other possible affected areas would be (a) North Africa (spill over area of the battles), and (b) Central Asia (former Soviet states will be polarized in their alignment). Europe would most likely see a flooding of migratory waves of Arabs, Iranians, Berbers, Central Asians, and Africans who will escape the war and move by waters and land to reach the ‘promised land’ of totalitarian Europe.

Possibly conflicts in (a) Northeast Asia and (b) between China &Taiwan will be experienced. The ASEAN and Australia-New Zealand may not turn to battle grounds, and can therefore launch friendship missions via international athletics. If South America won’t be a warfront, then perhaps the countries here can hold their own version of international games.

But most likely there will be no global athletics such as the Olympics. Ditto for specific events of world athletics, for example: WBA-WBF-WBC-IBF boxing fights, world basketball, and world soccer.  A dreary, dreadful planet this one will be when the conflagration spreads across the globe, and made dreary many times over by the lack of leisure & sports events that could pep up and lighten up the psyche of crowds.

The return of the Olympics will be contingent upon the cessation of hostilities among war parties. As to when that time will come, no one knows exactly. What is most observable is the trend that no one single world power, since after World War II, was able to win a war outside its boundaries (save for that negligible “war” calisthenics between Argentina & Britain over a non-descript island populated largely by birds and very few homo sapiens). Even today, the USA is losing in Afghanistan and Iraq, so what will make us forecast safely that the USA can win a major war anywhere in the planet…

The war will drag on for many years, taking us across the 2030s till probably 2040. That’s when some sane people, most especially the leaders of that time who will come from today’s generation of infants and school children, will declare an end to hostilities. To instill order at that time, authority will be hyper-centralized in totalitarian state formations representing (a) city-states and (c) region-states that are beholden only to (c) the totalitarian ‘technotronic’ capitalist world-state…That’s when the Olympics can be returned.

Meantime, enjoy your euphoria, and enjoy it to the max. For you will not see an Olympic game again in a very long time.

[28 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]   

4TH REICH IS A TRANS-ATLANTIC 2-HEADED TOTALITARIAN MONSTER

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Good morning, Fellows across the globe!

Let me continue to write awareness-raising materials about peace, cooperation and development, by focusing on the machinations of the financier oligarchs. The Empire is rising again, the logic being that it is a most fit governance machine for global oligarchic games and forthcoming conflicts.

Guessing gamers have been busy releasing speculations about the next financiers’ great war, and the state machinery that will undertake it. Lacking sophistication in political economy, the guessing gamers end up with superstitious sloganeering and fear-mongering, or reactive behaviors that hardly possess merit and serious attention by the more adroit minds of younger generations.

Following the historic patterns of Empire formations, it has always proved fruitful to wage synchronized conflicts and fatten the oligarchic purses in the process, if an empire formation would do the hot-work jobs for the oligarchs. The last Empire that did the massive aggression for the Anglo-Dutch oligarchs was dubbed as 3^rd Reich by its created abomination, Hitler & Nazi movement.

The same Anglo-Dutch financiers, who control at least 80% of the world’s total financial flows, are itching to create a 4^th Reich totalitarian state. It is time for a great war, the result of which will flatten the economies and enterprises of contending nations. The wrecked enterprises will then be bought at dirt cheap price by the same oligarchs, and the flattened economies funded back to life by the same financiers.

The question is, just exactly what oligarchic state formations to employ? The EU and USA each produce over 22% of the world gross product, or altogether produce 45% of GDP. The Anglo-Dutch financiers, on the other hand, control over 80% of the global financial flows. Using such data, it is very easy to see the congruence of continental economies and financier interests.

In my analysis, using a combination of institutional analysis and political economy, the combined EU-USA force would be excellent for creating the draconian 4^th Reich. Of course, the possibility of a North American Union can be examined, but such a Union doesn’t have the purse power to leverage political strength, do understand this. On the other hand, the EU cannot impose its will on the USA without public dissent being aroused to hell fires, and so no USA-EU political integration is in the offing.

The web of institutional arrangements will see a mega-alliance of USA-controlled North America and a Brussels-based European Union. The trans-Atlantic alliance is a last-ditch effort of the same financiers to exhibit muscle power over the planet, and only the USA-EU  axis remains as the loyal consenter to the financier machinations.  Japan can still veer away from the axis, while the emerging markets’ giants—China, India, Brazil—are beyond the ambit of such machinations.

The institutional plan calls for the implementation of the final treaty in Europe, the Lisbon Treaty, that will see the advanced unification of the continent. Synchronically, a North American Union, with a common currency called Amero, will replace the NAFTA, complete the political unification process, and form the American bulwark of the new fascist axis. That done, the 4^th Reich will be in place, rock-solid in armaments and awash with liquidities for more ambitious, gigantic war efforts.

Part of the governance innovations will be to abolish nations in both continents. Region-states will rise to replace the nations, each region being almost of equal population and size. With no more nations in Europe, the nuclear arsenal of France and UK will be placed in the custody of Brussels, thus transforming Brussels into a nuclear power overnight.

Transformed into police states, both continents will then wage population-control campaigns in the neighborhoods. Gangster groups will logically be deputized to augment police in searching for guns, drugs, insurgent evidences, terrorist cells, petty criminals, and other perceived enemies of the state. Those young ones engaging in binge drinking and sex orgy parties will also most likely be apprehended.

To accelerate public compliance toward the new order, riots can be engineered in cities across both continents. Food price hikes, oil price hikes, massive unemployment, social welfare cuts, overnight hyper-inflation are the most contentious issues that easily inflame quiet neighborhoods into angry urban mobs. Any high school student taking up a subject on sociology can very facilely see this possibility today. It has already been tried and tested across the globe in fact most recently.

While the continental backyards are being provided draconian order by police forces, the military assets will then flex their muscles for huge wars overseas. To ensure that competing regions and continents will be mowed down fast, inter-regional wars will be engineered. The Sunni-Israel versus Iran-Shiite war is now on the pipeline, waiting for a go-signal, a conflict that will see the weakening of the Semitic military establishments and economies, thus paving the way for less costly involvement there.

Other continents will surely see their own war fireworks fanned to the maximum most likely. It would be an instructive work to analyze and forecast the shaping of events there. For instance, the China-Taiwan and inter-Korean conflicts may ensue again on their 2^nd phases. Japanese aggression may also be pursued on a 2^nd phase, which could see the Japanese islands devastated with nukes combined with the Tesla Earthquake Machine to put an abrupt end to its zealous militarism.

To cap the article, it is a Trans-Atlantic 4^th Reich that is now fast rising. How fast the citizens of both America and Europe can neutralize the abominations now shaping up in their backyards remains to be observed. One this is sure here: it doesn’t matter who will be president of the USA or EU. The financiers and their paid technocratic-political subalterns have already ensured that the oligarchy is in control of the situation.

[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]  

BUILD STRONG NATIONS AMID GLOBALIZATION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

[Writ 22 March 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

 

In my meaty article on New Nationalism, I advanced fourteen (14) contentions in substantiation of what neo-nationalism is.

 

The first basic contention is that the nation-state can thrive and grow amid globalization. In other words, globalization shouldn’t lead to the destruction of nation-states. The trend since the start of massive implementation of liberal reforms leading to global integration of markets has been, in fact, the destruction of nation-states. This trend has to be stopped now.

 

There is really no reason to destroy the nations just so that our global community can be integrated. In the Philippine experience, nationalism has been a positive, progressive force that had united close to 100 ethno-linguistic communities. The Philippine nation had just lately crystallized, with a national identity now in shape though in moderate level, a phenomenon that took over 200 years to build.

 

There is no way that we can allow the massive destruction of nations today just in order to whet the appetites of the global oligarchy and their transnational corporations or TNCs for control over the world’s resources and labor. The conservation of nations must be a pre-requisite to building the ‘peace condition’ nationally and globally, guided by the principle of ‘dialogue of civilizations’.

 

On the other hand, amid the failings of globalization, we simply cannot go back to the past and destroy the integration efforts altogether. We can still move on towards a more progressive globalization that serves the interests of nations rather than the global oligarchy. Nations can derive benefits from integrated markets, we can’t overstress the risk-side of globalization at the expense of the benefit-side.

 

Somewhere along the line, the striving for stronger nations must cohere with the collective efforts for integrated markets. Later on, nations would compose an integrated political entity, the global state with its own global institutions.

 

Below is the excerpt from the New Nationalism article regarding the nation-state.

 

Strong nation can thrive & grow amid globalization.

 

The nation can continue to exist, even become strengthened, while it sails deep into the middle of the ocean of globalization. The two are not necessarily contradictory. Nationhood can continuously be pursued, patriotism can move ahead while paddling astride the powerful waves of globalization. For as earlier stated, globalization holds the promise of growth through the vast opportunities it has opened. Nations must strive to concur cooperation with other nations to extend the scope and limits of the opportunities, while at the same time build internal opportunities to further optimize inducements for investments.

 

Just recently, our entrepreneurs and professionals made waves through the international awards they respectively received, such as Tan Caktiong (top entrepreneur) and F. Palafox (the only ASEAN architect to make it to the world’s Top 200 architects), signifying the high level of competitiveness our compatriots are capable of achieving. Such sterling achievements surely inspire us to continue to strengthen nationhood and to forge new areas of cooperation and growth-inducing endeavors. While forces exist that work to tear the nation asunder, forces are likewise growing that lead to the nation’s strengthening. We should all work hard to make sure that the latter forces prevail, while neutralizing and diminishing the potencies of those forces that destroy nationhood.

THE OLIGARCHY QUESTION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

BACKGROUND

 

The following statements are excerpts from the article E. Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work.” This article is my humble contribution to the current efforts at formulating policy frameworks for development and growth within the context of a globalizing world. The basic contention of neo-nationalism is that it is sacrosanct to conserve and advance the interests of nation-states, however this should also take note of the opportunities that a globalized economy and world community can offer.

 

It differs much from Old Nationalism which views anything outside of the nation-state as suspect and anathema to growth. Old nationalism for instance regales at the advancement of ‘national champions’ of enterprises, whereas new nationalism recognizes the obsolescence of these enterprises and the intermeshing of ideas from diverse nations within the content grid of commodities. Old nationalism is predisposed to extremes of maximum dirigism or interventionist policies, whereas new nationalism brings one to a balance of sustaining a market, albeit a ‘social market’, but retains a certain set of state intervention for advancing the general welfare.

 

THE OLIGARCHY QUESTION

 

What should the nation do to the oligarchs? Remember that the constitution and strengthening of the nation-state, as clearly indicated by historical accounts, involved the class factor, to wit: the various middle and lower classes forged a united front to overthrow the trilateral alliance of the monarch-nobility-priesthood. Nationhood was and will always be a struggle against predatory oligarchs, as exemplified by the violent overthrow of the gentry (monarchy, priesthood/Church, nobility) to be able to advance the gains of the French Revolution. Likewise did the socialist revolutions in various countries resulted to the strengthening of the nation-state, a strengthening that was achieved precisely through the institutional decapitation of the oligarchy, the physical elimination of many of its members and the seizure of their assets.

 

In the Philippine case, the oligarchy is represented by (a) the landlord-capitalist oligarchs  and (b) the Catholic Church. The landlord-capitalists were the products of the commercial era of the 19^th century up through the industrializing era of 20^th centry, while the oligarchic Church exists as a carry-over from the feudal Hispanic era. On the one hand, the landlord-capitalists have begun to preach ‘corporate social responsibility’ coupled with Santa Claus dole-outs handed over to ‘shirtless folks’, many of whom are shanty residents. On the other hand, the Church has been preaching a ‘preferential option for the poor’ as mandated by the post-Vatican II doctrines, coupled with ‘basic ecclesial organizing’ among communities aimed at contributing to ‘social capital’ and empowerment. The question is, do such sets of actions coming from the oligarchy suffice to redistribute wealth and contribute to poverty alleviation?

 

The maximalist solution is the one offered by Old Nationalism as a response to the question. The domestic Bolsheviks, whom we count among nationalists in the Philippine setting, are particularly hot on seizing the assets of the landlord-capitalists (‘comprador class’ as the Maoists labeled them collectively) and declaring these under state control. But the same (old) nationalists are silent about Church wealth, which is so enormous it is clear that Church oligarchism is a factor contributing to the ailments of our society. Is it because the Church had contributed immensely to the growth of the Left, by way of the politicization of many bishops, clergy, religious and ministers along the Maoist/Marxist way, and by the utilization of Church convents for such purposes? So now it seems that a Left seizure of power, if ever, is a surefire guarantee for perpetuating Church oligarchism, while landlord-capitalist wealth gets seized and declared as state assets, if not as Communist Party assets.

 

Neo-nationalism may very well consider the minimalist solution to the question. Sequestering assets by the large-scale and jailing/exterminating oligarchs may only be fruitful in the short-run. But if the value-base of possessive individualism, greed and predatory practices, including usury and rent-seeking, are not eradicated, oligarchs will again appear in the future, thus returning us all to where we were before, as billionaire oligarchs are now appearing by the dozens in post-Bolshevik Russia. “If you can’t beat them, join them!” is likewise unsound, as this is tantamount to capitulation to oligarchism. The minimalist way begins by declaring that oligarchs, when presented with sound options, can participate in the development game. With the strengthening of institutions, they will also begin to exhibit more accountability and responsibility, by first exhibiting truthfulness in their tax declarations and payments, henceforth fattening the public purse no end.

 

The structural landscape is now changing, and oligarchs are compelled by the exigencies of the times to recognize the winds of change. Gone were the days when oligarchs were as powerful as Zeus and His Olympian Entourage who can never be prosecuted for their crimes, inclusive of crimes of extracting unjust rent from people’s purses without public consent. As the Meralco case demonstrates, erring oligarchs do go punished, or at least the erring firm cannot just engage in criminal acts without being penalized. When civil society is strong and every kind of public interest group vigilantly watches the oligarchs’ acts with zeal, the Olympian stance of greedy oligarchs receive stunning blows by way of court litigations. Meanwhile, oligarchs in localities who commit heinous crimes, such as that of a former mayor in Southern Luzon, got jailed for such crimes, something that was unimaginable in the past. Institutions of justice are now galvanizing, thanks in part to a vigilant civil society and the synergy concurred by the state with it.

 

I would now boldly declare a forecast that in the long run, transcendent values would permeate the private sphere so greatly, resulting to greater compassion and the return to simple lifestyles. Eventually, the oligarchs will voluntarily share an immense portion of their wealth to the people, through stock sharing schemes, donating large stockholdings to social enterprises, and funding the equity components or even the working capital of social enterprise ventures. Other more exemplary acts will be in the offing too, benign acts that are truly redistributive and not just rhetorical clichés of ‘corporate citizenship’.

 

Correspondingly, a more radical organizational culture will crystallize, such that, during times of crisis, Big Business will no longer have to downsize in order to continue to gain profits and declare dividends. Rather, the remedial step will be to cut down on the working hours and temporarily cut down on wages and pay scales, so that no one gets unemployed in the process. That is because the personnel are also co-owners of the physical assets. Furthermore, as already suggested earlier, new accounting systems will arise that will more than highlight human assets as the most important assets in the agency, thus eradicating notions of downsizing or expelling people during crisis periods. The ‘corporate citizen’ will therefore become a living organism, unlike today when the concept is simply a strategy to evade taxes by diverting profits to corporate foundations.

 

Should we follow the Bolshevik way, it means that eventually the local Bolsheviks would become the new oligarchs. The Communist Party becomes the all-powerful economic Santa Claus owning vast assets, while the branches of government controlled by the Party, such as the army and parliament, will also respectively own vast assets, utilized for earning profits that will fatten the purses not only of the said organizations but of their CEOs’ as well. And when market reforms will be undertaken as Bolshevik dirigism can no longer be sustained, new capitalist-landlord oligarchs will emerge, blessed by the all-powerful partocrats with the mandate to “let a thousand millionaires bloom!” As the party oligarchy and the new landlord-capitalists enrich their purses, multitudes will continue to live the lives of paupers, homeless and jobless, cared by no one other than by howling winds of uncertainties and stray dogs who keep them company. Surely, this maximalist route is not the most pro-active route to counterveil against oligarchism, but is in fact a most reactionary route, the stuff of outdated Victorian-era vampire formulas of sucking rent from out of the toiling folks. 

 

As to the Church assets, which will be luckily retained in the advent of a delusional Bolshevik victory, the key is the Bishopric. Bishops are the power-wielders of the Church, and are necessarily the biggest obstacles to change within the Church. “In the long run, we shall all be dead!” declared Keynes than, and such will be the state of the bishops: the Old World bishops will be dead soon, as new generation bishops take their place. Not only are the same Old World bishops—due precisely to their feudalistic, sexist and Victorian-era prudish (pretending) mindsets—the stewards of the vast assets of the Church, their ranks are also replete with narratives of sexual misconduct, corruption and every type of scandalous misconducts from cryptic figures. Hopefully, the new generation bishops will go beyond mouthing ‘preferential option’ discourses to uplift the poor, and move soon enough to redistribute the vast Church assets by proclaiming their utilization for developmental purposes. Such assets can be used to collateralize credit as well as for loans that should be offered at very low interest rates, thus converting the Church into a ‘white knight’ at last.

 

Meanwhile, the Old Nationalists who are still waving the insurrectionary flag can still recoup by joining the legal stream, as some entrenched leaders of communist front organizations are now doing. Their party groups can join political society, while their mass movements and NGOs will continue to operate as civil society groups, and become part, hopefully, of those forces that will popularize to our people the ‘rule of law’ and ‘rule of reason’, in other words become authentic modernizing forces. Such is a very welcome move by the insurrectos, and is in fact the forecast pathway for the concerned rebel forces.

 

NEO-NATIONALISM TAKES CENTER STAGE

 

This paper now ends with a note on the prospects of neo-nationalism making waves. Note that Old Nationalism is the dominant discourse within the nationalist streams, and this fact is fully recognized in this paper. Old Nationalists will definitely have a hard time digesting the premises and contentions presented in this article. Being anchored on Western discourses, secular and materialistic to the extremes, the said articulators will have none of neo-nationalism save for viewing it as another exotic fad that will soon fade away. This is understandable. “Old dogs can’t learn new tricks!” goes the idiom, and this holds true in every sphere of human endeavor.

 

But one thing is sure at this juncture: New Nationalism is germinating right at the very center of state power, as the President herself expressed her subscription to and advancement of the new discourse. Surely, a coterie of like minds are gravitating around her, who are looking for an alternative to the neo-liberal frameworks that sorely failed, but who nonetheless find the extremist dirigism of Old Nationalism passé and repulsive. GMA’s reaching the helm of power signifies that nationalism has finally won amid over a century of struggle, as patriots of diverse ideological orientation won the previous electoral rounds nationwide. But a new phase of nationhood is coming into being, an evolving context that demands a corresponding new discourse to defend it and root it firmly.

 

Being one among those who strongly desire for an alternative framework, I am inclined to think that many potential articulators are waiting in the watersheds of civil society, political parties and state bureaucracy for the new discourse. Many of them began with the Old Nationalist frame but now find the old frame dilapidated and requiring gross recasting or replacement. My forecast is that it will take just about a minimal work to concur a synergy of efforts among these stakeholders. The moment that the synergy commences and gains momentum, neo-nationalism will quickly move into the mainstream, engulfing civil society, political parties and the state like wildfire. It may even serve as the new inspirational light of the business sector. And, who knows, maybe even church stakeholders, notably the bishops, would regard neo-nationalism as life-giving elixir-in-a-bottle floating amid wild seas intoxicated with every kind of antiquated ideological frames that have become inimical to national growth.

 

Such is the enormous prospect of neo-nationalist discourse gaining centerfold, that even the neo-liberal advocates might follow suit, taking its cue from the bandwagon effect of the new discourse that may take place in just about a couple of years from its inception. The neo-liberals are under fierce attack from everywhere, and are on the retreat, and the only graceful retreat for them is to find common grounds with the new discourse, even if they may not embrace the discourse entirely. After all, the (new) discourse does not seek to destroy the market, that it is inclusive as it appreciates the role of various stakeholders in the development game, from paupers and vagabonds to gentry and capitalists. The strength of the discourse lies precisely in this inclusiveness, a strength that makes it worth applying in the practical world.