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Originally Posted by roachboy
so let's start looking at the ideology.
first, it is simply not the case in places which are not the united states, that this ideology has no name, nor is it assumed that a worldview structured by this ideology corresponds to reality. in most of the southern hemisphere, neoliberalism is transparently what it is: simply a mask for new forms of american domination (see above).
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On what basis do you support the notion that the US wants "domination", I think we want access to the oil at a far price.
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if you endorse this ideological framework, it follows that you have to endorse its consequences....that is the whole of ongoing efforts to maintain subordination in south america by way of the imf/world bank "structural adjustment" pathways to debt peonage and social disaster in the name of "free trade" or "market liberalization..." generally, the way of doing this is to invoke the "long view" as if neoliberalism has some monopoly on it.
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If Venezuela starts selling oil to China and India are you going to suggest those countries have the same motives as the US, why or why not?
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so you'd have to endorse the actions of the imf in south america, for example-----that institution that has been turned on an adhoc basis from its functions in the context of bretton woods into a kind of nozzle for spraying the pseudo-logic of neoliberalism abroad in the world, generating social and economic crisis in the name of resolving social and economic crisis, reinforcing and solidifying neocolonial economic arrangements in the name of freeing southern hemisphere countries from neocolonial economic arrangements, conflating openning commercial contexts with enabling american domination.
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How does the US dominate the region? Don't the countries in that region have free opportunity to exploit their resources on the world market and exclude the US - like let's say Cuba?
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it's easy to believe that the imf/worldbank/bank of the americas system functions in ways that are consistent with the claims of neoliberal ideologues if you refuse to look at actual information about the *consequences* of these policies and actions, preferring instead to wrap yourself in the internal rationale for implementing them in the first place. but if your thinking about neoliberalism extends only as far as the ideology itself, and does not extend to thinking consequences--and this is all too routine for the free-marketeers in general--it is hard to imagine the basis for claims to monopolize "the long view"...
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Taking a shot at the "long-view"? Do you not believe the long-term needs for capital investment are real? If so, what are they in the context of Venezuela?
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fact is that the imf/world bank/bank of the americas system had engendered little but the exacerbation of the worst features of capitalism. the twist is that these features are now firmly aligned with the image of the united states itself simply because american policies opened these spaces up to/for them.
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Do you conclude that the US and US capitalism is primarily responsible for the conditions in Latin America, the good and the bad or just the bad?
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the only difference between this an earlier forms of neo-colonial domination is that this time the americans sell their domination as freedom itself, and in the process reduce that language to ash.
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Are we selling it? Implying there are willing buyers. Or, are we forcing it on people? Implying the domination you suggested earlier? Now you have me confused.
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so chavez undertakes a pretty ambitious project outlined above--working to break the domination of these american institutions that by default have for the past 30 years set the ideological tenor for the delerium that is globalizing capitalism by breaking the hold exercised over southern hemisphere countries using the instrument of debt.
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If Venezuela holds Argentinian debt that is o.k., but if the US hold Argentinian debt thats a problem - seems like a contradiction, please clarify. I see debt as debt, regardless of who holds it.
On a side note perhaps Venezuela would be better off investing the money in the proposed pipe-line, oil rigs, new wells, etc.
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and while the longer-term consequences of this debt transfer are not evident at this point (e.g. whether there are strings attached as there always are from us sourced loans), the move itself is a real threat to the primary mechanism the us has been using to enforce its regime in south america and as such is a blow directed at one of the primary bases of american political and economic power in the region.
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Perhaps the country acquiring the debt has some responsibility in regard to the consequences. How about that? Or, is that a non issue, since it doesn't support your view that the US is evil.
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**that** is why the american right hates hugo chavez.
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Cite one source where someone on the right has used the word "hate" when talking about Chavez or Venezuala - and I will fill-up at Citco for the next month, otherwise I will continue going to any other gas station but Citco.