1995 And All That

Restoring grants and scholarships and lowering tuition could be initiated with the stroke of a pen. Rescinding corporate welfare, cutting back on defence spending, and eliminating pork-barrel projects would be complex but legislatively attained.

Stopping the war meant unconditional surrender. It meant abandoning the doctrine that had become the world religion Theo-economy. Under this doctrine the economy is God, and finance its philosophy. Though the religious foundation of the doctrine was not usually acknowledged by the faithful, its true nature had been experienced and preached by its mystics and apostles. It was Calvin Coolidge who said : The man builds a factory builds a temple. And the man who works there worships there.... The business of America is business.

Theo-economy had taken root in the industrialised West. Its missionaries, as zealous as their earlier counterparts, had proselytised it universally.

By 1995, with the end of the Cold War, the entire world had embraced the faith. Political beliefs and foreign policy agendas that had once dictated national policies and initiated wars gave way to pure Theo-economic considerations.

Foreign relations:

Money talks, Policy walks

Everyones been saying for a long time foreign policy is becoming economic, but like everything its taken a while for the message to sink in around here, the former Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, said just before he left town [Washington] last month, (NYT, 1/15/95)

After Treasury Secretary Bentsen left town, his replacement, Robert Rubin, drove the message home: The future prosperity and security of the United States requires that our nation remain engaged and lead globally in opening markets, in promoting development, in assisting economies in transition and in dealing with global financial problems.

Trades Bottom Line:

Business over Politics

For the first time in this century, the government has regularly put promotion of business interests at the top of its foreign policy agenda.

Everyone acknowledges that economics now plays a central role in foreign policy that battle is over, one of Mr Clintons top economic advisors said the other day. What no one has really grappled with is what happens when commercial interests push out other interests. (NYT,7/30/95)

Actually, what happens when commercial interests push out other interests had been grappled with in the past. Abraham Lincoln said: The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy. More insolent than autocracy, More selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future, a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned. An era of corruption will follow and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.

The era of corruption took longer to establish than Lincoln envisaged. But he had accurately predicted the results of Theo-economic rule. Human rights, political liberties, social justice, and individual freedoms became closet issues. What Lincoln could not foresee was the Rain of Terror the Theo-economic holy war waged on the environment.

The millions massed in the streets at the millennium were calling for an end to the Envirowar. The march ended. The vigil was over. The message was clear.

Not many realised that peace-and a return to planetary health-meant abandoning the articles of the religious faith that had won the unshakable allegiance of virtually every government on Earth. This was not to be accomplished with a pen stroke, not even through top-to-bottom reengineering of government policy.

But people were changing their ideas. When ideas change, everything changes. The articles for a new faith had been drawn.

But it would take tumultuous and troubled decades before the embracing ideals of the new patriotism superseded and supplanted the Theo-economic priesthood and its metafinanciers.

Trendpost: The successful businesses of the Global Age will practise a compassionate capitalism. Money will be made by individuals and firms capable of producing and marketing products and services that satisfy a world with changed values. Products that address real physical, emotional, and artistic (quality-of-life) needs and do not destroy the earth in the process will be in demand.