William Bowles – Essays
-
Capitalism first – climate last By William Bowles
I think it should be pretty clear to all by now that regardless that the ruling elites of the planet know what’s in store for humanity, they do not intend to take the necessary steps to reverse the slide toward chaos. Yeah sure, lots of hot air to add to an already over-heated atmosphere but… Continue reading
-
Book Review: Capitalism – past its sell-by date? By William Bowles
Historically, it has been the CIA which up until the 1990s did the dirty work for US imperialism as the record clearly shows. However, the CIA’s record in overthrowing foreign governments is far from being a success story. A new strategy was needed, and one which was untainted with the ‘dirty tricks’ label of the… Continue reading
-
We are the Snails on the Slope By William Bowles
Are we the equivalent of the Snail on the Slope, intent on hanging on to what we think are our advantages even as we destroy the very basis of them just as the colonisers destroyed the forest that sustained life? We cannot say that we don’t see or know what is going on, we have… Continue reading
-
WOT is to be done? By William Bowles
Y’know, I’ve been at this for what seems like a bloody lifetime, my first electronic missive hit the ether about 1983 when I started up an occasional column called ‘New York Online’ which for my sins spawned an eight-year long electronic journal of the same name running on my first Mac using a system most… Continue reading
-
Crisis Management By William Bowles
Perhaps the most difficult thing to do when dealing with current events is to establish the link between economics and politics. Thus the corporate press never, ever present an event, the invasion of Iraq for example as having any connection with economics, indeed any attempt to do so is ridiculed (eg it’s not all about… Continue reading
-
Leaving the scene of the crime? By William Bowles
The Independent’s front page head for Wednesday 25 October proclaimed loudly “We’re out of here” purportedly the words of General George Casey, the US’s head military honcho in Iraq. Of course the devil lives in the small print as any reading ‘between the lines’ reveals. And in any case, Casey’s comments are designed precisely to… Continue reading
-
Book Review: Israel and the US – Two nations under one flag? By William Bowles
There is perhaps no better example of the corrosive and divisive nature of racism as a weapon of imperialism than the debate (such as it is) about the power of the (misnamed) ‘Jewish Lobby’ and its relationship to or influence over US imperial strategy. I say misnamed because in reality it should be called the… Continue reading
-
A beginner’s guide to creating a ‘crisis’ By William Bowles
Poor old North Korea, the latest bogeyman, its leader variously described as a tyrant, psychopath etc, etc. is once more the focus of Western ire. Now in all likelyhood the reason is because things ain’t going too well in Iraq or Afghanistan and the Iranians have told the West to shove it, so isn’t it… Continue reading
-
Been there – done that, so it’s time to do it all over again By William Bowles
If Queen Victoria was on the throne today I’m sure she would find the current situation comfortingly familiar and no doubt would be issuing proclamations about ‘our brave boys over there’ and the usual crop of medals would be flying out of her very royal hands along with all the usual platitudes about defending ‘civilisation’… Continue reading
-
Lies by Omission By William Bowles
6 October 2006 “An increasing number of people see a dark cloud hanging over Europe. They fear that the birthplace of the Enlightenment and the cradle of free speech is being silenced by the growing assertiveness of an intolerant strain of Islam.” — The Independent Editorial, Wednesday, 4 October 2006. The London Independent’s editorial headed… Continue reading
-
NATO’s Inferno By William Bowles
I know I shouldn’t be surprised but nevertheless I am. Surprised firstly that I live in a barbaric culture that has been able to masquerade as civilised and secondly, that it has been able to persuade the world that it possesses civilised credentials in the first place. And thirdly, that it has been able to… Continue reading
-
Book Review: Illusion and Reality By William Bowles
Around 1990, when I was living in New York, I, along with two or three other people were invited to an evening at the North Korean Mission to the United Nations where we were plied with a meal of amazing and delicious Korean cuisine followed by an interminable and utterly boring (to my jaded, Western… Continue reading
-
Confusion in the ranks By William Bowles
Do you believe in synchronicity? Yeah, I know it sounds like some mystical new age crapola, but it is a fact that the creative process is driven by—well who knows what—quantum physics? All those impossible entities whizzing around (metaphorically speaking) in our brains that make connections, driven by an impossible number of combinations that we… Continue reading
-
About that sweatshop in your head By William Bowles
12 September 2006 Anybody who has read Joe Bageant’s excellent cries of rage[1] here will surely sympathise with the guy, stuck as he is firmly in the craw of a totally insane beast. The question is, who will choke first? As of writing, all bets are off. Yet before I go off half-cocked it’s worth… Continue reading
-
Desperate times – desperate measures By William Bowles
One thing is abundantly clear, the empire is in deep shit and like any cornered animal, they are extremely dangerous. The ‘terror alert’ is indicative of just how desperate they are risking even the destruction of the airline industry in order to put the frighteners on the populace. But has it worked? On one level,… Continue reading
-
It’s that’s time again – for another ‘terror plot’ By William Bowles
It’s amazing really that nobody sees the paradox of Home Secretary Reid calling for the abolition of what’s left of our civil rights in order to preserve them but then there’s nothing logical about the ‘war on terror’, it is itself a contradiction of terms. Continue reading
-
Woof-Woof! The bite is far worse than the bark By William Bowles
Consider if you will that the US has, for the past 100 years pursued a policy that would enable it to ensure global dominance through the ownership and control of vital energy supplies and as a result enable it to dominate the world’s economy to the benefit of its own capitalist class. This policy has… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 