We could say
that the latest film of Adam Curtis, 'HyperNormalisation', is an
update of some of his previous films, which is enriched with the most
recent global events and developments. The new film presents also
interesting stories about some key figures in the development of
cybernetics and the modern perception of non-linear politics.
A special
"chapter" is dedicated to an interesting story on how the
banksters managed to take over New York back in 1975. This story is
very important because it is focusing on the details of the rise of a
new era in which the power of the banks and the financialized markets
completely dominated over the political power until today.
In 1975, New
York City was on the verge of collapse. For thirty years, the
politicians who run the city had borrowed more and more money from
the banks to pay for its growing services and welfare. But in the
early 70s, the middle classes fled from the city and the taxes they
paid disappeared with them. So, the banks lent the city even more.
But then, they began to worry about the size of the growing debt and
whether the city would ever be able to pay it back. And then, one day
in 1975, the banks just stopped.
The city
held its regular meeting to issue bonds in return for the loans,
overseen by the city's financial controller. The banks were supposed
to turn up at 11 a.m., but it soon became clear that none of them
were going to appear. The meeting was rescheduled for 2 p.m. and the
banks promised they would turn up.
What
happened that day in New York, marked a radical shift in power. The
banks insisted that in order to protect their loans, they should be
allowed to take control of the city. The city appealed to the
President, but he refused to help, so a new committee was set up to
manage the city's finances. Out of nine members, eight of them were
bankers.
It was the
start of an extraordinary experiment where the financial institutions
took power away from the politicians and started to run society
themselves. The city had no other option. The bankers enforced what
was called "austerity" on the city, insisting that
thousands of teachers, policemen and firemen were sacked.
This was a
new kind of politics. The old politicians believed that crises were
solved through negotiations and deals. The bankers had a completely
different view. They were just the representatives of something that
couldn't be negotiated with: the logic of the market. To them, there
was no alternative to this system. It should run society.
Today, we
witness this "logic" in its most brutal form, especially
concerning the European debt crisis. The destructive financialized
capitalism increases inequality, poverty, unemployment, destroys
welfare state, imposes austerity. In eurozone, the ECB dictatorship
imposed brutal, neoliberal measures through financial coups. The
example of Ireland is quite characteristic with the first silent coup there. The example of Greece is more
obvious, as the ECB dictatorship was forced to reveal its true nature
through an open financial coup in 2015, when the Greek Prime Minister
decided a referendum so that the Greek people should decide on
whether they would accept the brutal neoliberal measures.
However,
these are signs that the banking mafia starts losing control, as more
and more people understand that the free market "utopia" is
a fairytale.
Financialized
capitalism is about to end, but it seems that the system that will
replace it, will be even worse. The economic elites are working to
establish the global banking-corporate Feudalism, but more and more
people appear to be informed about this new reality. The battle
against this dark future will be continued.
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