Worldwide revolts against
egocentric, greedy leaders
- but not in Lithuania

2011 has been the year when people around the world began to speak up. Leaders in many countries, be it in politics, finance or other areas, have this year been forced to realize that it no longer is possible to deceive their citizens. In some countries the protests have evolved into revolts, often bloody, in which state leaders have been forced to abandon their posts.

But people in Lithuania have not reacted like that, despite the fact that the downturn and tightening measures they have been exposed to probably have been the worst and toughest in Europe.

Here in this country the elderly people sit in their small, dark apartments and suffer themselves quietly through catastrophic difficult time after their already minimal pensions were drastically cut, while prices for heating, electricity and food continue to rise.

Nor do the young take to the streets to protest against the injustice they are exposed to. Instead, they pack their
suitcases and leave their home country. Many probably forever. 350 persons every day, I have been told.

“Before they realized what is going on and who was robbing them, the Lithuanian people got clubbed by PM Kubilius’ ambitious austerity policy and the younger ones started emigrating in catastrophic numbers, seeing no future in the country whose GDP was reduced (from a low post-Soviet level) by some 20% by the combination of the old nomenklatura rent-seeking policies and the global Great Recession. Lithuania is hollowing out, unfortunately,” wrote Dr. Val Samonis in an article here in VilNews last April, concluding that “the Greeks won, the Lithuanians lost!” See https://vilnews.com/?p=5117

“The Baltic states have discovered a new way to cut unemployment and cut budgets for social services: emigration. If enough people of working age are forced to leave to find work abroad, unemployment and social service budgets will both drop. This simple mathematics explains what the algebra of austerity-plan advocates are applauding today as the “New Baltic Miracle” for Greece, Spain, and Italy to emulate. The reality, however, is a model predicated on economic shrinkage as a result of wage cuts. In the case of Latvia, this was some 30 percent for Latvian public-sector employees (euphemized as “internal devaluation”). With a set of flat taxes on employment adding up to 59% in Latvia (while property taxes are only 1%), it would seem hard indeed to present this as a success story.”

This writes the professors Jeffrey Sommers, Arunas Juska and Michael Hudson in today’s VilNews, under the headline "The Baltic Tigers" False Prophets of Economic Austerity.” See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28085

Contempt for leaders implies social revolution
Incompetence leads to loss of confidence in directing classes

Here is another interesting article, by T.R. Fehrenbach in San Antonio express-news:

A large part of the world is continuing to show restiveness and rebellion toward the groups that run society.

Not just to governments, to which Europeans have become rather cynically apathetic — but to the entire “expert” structure of modern societies. Governments can always be changed by bullets or ballots, but distrust of and contempt for the directing classes implies social revolution.

Historically, several things have brought this about. In 14th century France, the failure of the feudality to protect the kingdom against the English created a vast, bloody peasant uprising. Nations that lose wars usually repudiate their ruling bodies. And sometimes proof of sheer incompetence may bring down the leading classes, whether chosen by birth, economic or military power, or election. In fact, if ruling classes precipitate their downfall, it proves their incompetence.
Incompetence is often more a spur than oppression. From my war experience, I know that troops would rather serve a capable SOB than a popular, wishy-washy commander. (You can cuss the first; the second may make you dead.) Nothing can destroy an army faster than loss of confidence in its leaders, and that goes for nations.

Which brings us to the question: Today, whom do we trust?

Politicians? The polls, where taken, indicate otherwise, from Europe to America. After all, no president, premier, secretary of the treasury or finance minister, nor any chief economic adviser or council predicted the current mess — and in the aftermath, all show symptoms of the Japanese disease, which causes governments to either not know what to do, or knowing, lack the bowels to do it.

Bankers and financial bigwigs? Since 1908 most people love neither them nor their shills and Wall Street analysts, for the reasons listed above. They have shown, in crisis, that their primary instinct is to save their own asses. This of course spawns cowardice in “the markets.”

Media, including pundits and script-readers? These put forth myriad versions of reality, guided more by their stomach juices than rational perception of what happened and who did it. Politicization has killed much trust in media. People no longer believe what they read in the funny papers, if they read them at all.

Economists? See politicians and bankers, above. They are the last to grasp what's going down (or will go down), and this dismal crew can't agree on much in any case. (Let me say in fairness that modern economies are too complex to allow working models or money games. If economists went back to basic economic principles — read Adam Smith — and abjured pet theories and half-baked panaceas, they might be worth paying.)

Clergy? The mainline, or mainstream churches are so caught up in populist neo-paganism (that is, modern culture), that they provide little relief or comfort.

Can any leading class be trusted? Polls show that Americans trust the medical profession (nurses over doctors) first and the military second. OK. These professions are the most vital to society, whose first duty is to survive.

Only incompetents would want to harass the first and down-size the second.


Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Incompetence-leads-to-loss-of-confidence-in-1920816.php#ixzz1g19JohO1