The Nobel Peace Prize 2012

The European Union has just received the Nobel Peace Prize. What does this signify?

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries the world as a whole sees what looks like a repetition of the last 2 centuries of the pre-Christian era in the Mediteranean world. This has been pointed out by many before, but needs to be known in broader circles. Only by seeing the parallels we can hope to avoid doing the same mistakes.

China during the period of the Warring States (around 475 – 221 BC) is another frightening parallel. But even though the inter-state fights of this period has very many parallels with our time, the Greco-roman world has the advantage as comparison to our time, that the intra-state political systems look more like ours than do the internal conditions within the Chinese states before the unification in 221 BC, at least according to our knowledge.

The parallels between on the one side Western Europe and the USA and on the other The Hellenistic World and Rome are too obvious to be overlooked. Like Rome the USA nowadays are dominating the rest of the known world more and more. The means of Rome were quite direct military and crude even towards civilized nations. In 146 BC Cartago and Corinth were simply destroyed and the inhabitants killed or sold as slaves. Foreign rulers were driven through the streets of Rome, mocked by the mob and then maybe even strangled.

Often the conquerors were private military leaders like Scipio, Marius or Pompejus. These persons could alter the destiny of whole nations, change borders or dissolve kingdoms and indeed lead kings in humiliating triumphs.

Today similar conditions exist. But even though history repeats itself, history never repeats itself in exactly the same way. The USA in most cases only use crude military means in the Third World. And leaders are not drawn through the streets of Washington or New York. The mob today is only occasionally on the street, but rather at the end point of a TV transmission or in the nodes in The World Wide Web, nodes from where the mob members can interact bidirectionally with each other and with the victims of mob persecution. Of course also the written tabloid press is a part of this. Two thousand years ago the street mob was led by politicians and demagogues, also on the street. Today the mob rulers are politicians using the media and the net and the medias themselves like TV stations and press publishers and by self styled mob leaders on the net. Like the so called trolls.

Third World countries like Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq were simply invaded and heir leaders often drawn to court and judged or like Saddam Hussein even executed. The mob howling and cheering through the media and the internet.

Strauss-Kahn from the rich world suffered the same treatment until he was saved by an untrustworthy victim.

But most often the American dominance towards the rich world is of a media, cultural and economic political nature. Europe or more precisely the EU is mocked in the American media both for bureaucracy, inflexible rigid policies, state control, taxes and social welfare of a "socialist style".

The more real control corresponding to the roman legions today is the American economic dominance coupled with some de facto dictatorial control. To the last count things like the American use of the Swift Network to control economic transactions in Europe, the overflying of European countries with prisoners, often arrested illegally on non American ground on pure suspicion of terrorism.

The Rating Agencies are mocking European states. Degrading them at will. Often it seems almost for fun. Like when Rumors were spread that France would be rated down, something which caused massive speculations and was then demented!

Today these agencies play a role corresponding to the role of private roman military leaders. They hold the destiny of whole nations in their hand. Countries like Greece, Italy and Spain are graded down to nothing by these private institutions. Richer nations are gradually rated down as well. For every down-grading the economic problems just get worse because of bigger problems getting loans and because of greater interest rates for the loans. Not very helpful. The downgraded countries are losing autonomy and if not put under administration from the EU, they are controlled by the markets.

These countries are understandably hurt in their pride and protest. But in vain. The agencies just laugh it seems. The EU talks about a European rating agency. But such an agency created by the EU would most likely also be regarded as a joke in the USA. Probably it would itself get the note” junk status”.

Because of all this the Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU. The USA and the markets only look at and counts economics and things which for a superficial look can be made fun of or portrayed as “socialist”.

Rightly the Nobel Committee points to other values. Peace creation and maintenance through cooperation between and union of nations is of an immensely greater value than petty market speculations striving only for profit.