Call me paranoid because I am...

So, how did it come to pass that the US economic crisis suddenly came to a head forcing congress to take action when it was right up against its deadline to break so incumbent candidates could go home to run for re-election? And, in Canada, why did our PM suddenly feel the need to call for an election just a week or two before the meltdown happened? Did Harper know what was coming - thinking that Canadians would trust a Conservative government to steer the economic boat (or Noah's ark, as he put it) while conveniently trashing the Liberals' plan to move forward with a green economy - something Harper abhors? And, how is it that the brightest international economic minds who saw this coming were just ignored?

Further, why did the Paulson plan - porked up by congress - fail so miserably that now the US is basically nationalizing its banking system? Why did US congresspeople buy into a plan that Paulson admitted in committee might not work thus allowing the Bush administration to then put together more singularly authoritative patchwork solutions that might also fail?

What's going on here? And why did I have to waste my time learning economic terms that I never wanted to know about in the first place? And just who or what is really going to fix this colossal mess?

Am I the only one who feels like strings are being pulled somewhere behind the scenes by powerful people who have some sort of plan that we, the peons, have yet to find out about?

This isn't really about you and me or 'Joe the plumber' (no tax breaks for plumbers until they really tackle the butt crack epidemic). I think this is about the international powers that be rearranging the financial system in a way to give them far more political power and I don't think you have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that.

Just look at the history here: the secretive Bohemian Grove meetings, the sequestered, undemocratic, so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) gatherings, the exclusive APEC and G8 globalization conferences. What exactly are these politicians planning for our future and why aren't they telling us about it as they hide behind the cloak of 'national security concerns'? Is it really a stretch to think that there's something coming down the pike that the public will be powerless to avoid? How many people would have believed that the neocons' PNAC agenda would be fulfilled? Yet, here we are.

And where are we?

Canada has re-elected Stephen Harper (at least his is a minority government) who will just go along with whatever the economic powers that be dictate. The US presidential campaign has stifled the minority voices of dissent by exalting two candidates who are also more than willing to follow whatever Paulson and Bush want in terms of a fix even though these are Bush's final hours and his judgment has been abominable.

Unless those of us who seriously question the big picture monitor every single step and gravitate towards the voices who are warning us with loud, ringing alarm bells about what's really going on (those so-called scary 'radicals' who are always marginalized by the status quo), we will all be left following the hypnotic pied pipers of capitalism into yet another extremely disastrous era.

It's taken far too long for the majority of the US public to finally admit that Iraq is un-winnable and it will take even longer for it to accept the fact that the Afghanistan war and the so-called war on terror are black holes as well - especially considering the fact that both presidential candidates have promised to ramp up military efforts there, no matter what. And the sustained public outcry against torture? Where is it, exactly? Muted, just like all voices of dissent that dare to expose the war crimes of an administration that has bludgeoned the rule of law to the point that public complacency has now become acceptable - replaced by the idea that if we just show up and vote, everything will change. That's not enough. It never has been.

So, in the end, will we just allow ourselves to float dreamlike through this restructuring of the global economy hoping it all works out in the end? Or will those of us who have very justifiable paranoia about these massive shifts in policy - just as we did when the Bush Doctrine came to be realized - continue to provide some consciousness to this situation?

Seek out the dissident voices and pay attention. I may still not completely understand what a credit default swap is but I sure do know what it feels like when I'm being screwed over. How can anyone who's lived through the last 8 years not? We may not know the destination but that doesn't mean we shouldn't watch the map that's being laid out before us very carefully.

“Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts.”
-William S Burroughs