The Liberal Virus: Permanent War and the Americanization of the World

Rating:
Summary: A Socialist-Minded Alexis de Tocqueville
Review: "The Liberal Virus" by Samir Amin is a concise and searing indictment of neoliberal economics and American imperialism but also offers hope and guidance to securing a more hopeful future. Like a socialist-minded Alexis de Tocqueville, Mr. Amin's internationalist perspective allows him to peer into American society in order to dissect it clearly, intelligently and persuasively. The result is a penetrating analysis that helps us understand how the U.S. has become the violent purveyor of an "obscolescent" form of capitalism that humanity must resist or else risk its continued descent into barbarism.

Mr. Amin begins by debunking the liberal vision of U.S. economic and cultural triumphalism as mere ideology and media propaganda, arguing that America's privileged position is due mainly to the exercise of political power backed by military force. Drawing on Marx, the author presents an alternative view that stresses class conflict and the role of the state, which uses its power to enforce the accumulation of wealth for the benefit of American capital. With the European Union and Japan as junior partners in this project, "apartheid on a world scale" has ensued for the people who who realize little benefit from this system in the global South.

In tracing the origins of liberalism, Mr. Amir connects the history of America's settlement by extremist religious sects and the practice of genocide and slavery to explain how Americans have tended to mix racism, violence and selfish individualism with capitalism in an uniquely barbaric form. Interestingly, the author turns the tables on the myth of "New America" and "Old Europe", positing that the American presidential system precludes the diversity of opinion found in European parliamentary politics, thus stifling debate and making it easier for neoliberals (conservatives) to prevail. Today, the admixture of fanatic religiosity and military strength presents a frightening image to the world of a U.S. that is controlled by "neo-Nazis" dedicated to preserving America's privileged economic position at all costs.

In the final chapter, Mr. Amin proposes strategies for how the world might restructure to go beyond capitalism and resist U.S. domination. The author believes that Europe must provide leadership by establishing its own alliances in a way that creates solidarity with the South and allows "progressive and humanist" values to flourish. If technology can be pressed into the service of human needs and not profit, the author hopes that a new "people's internationalism" can emerge to bring about an era of peace, prosperity and equality for all.

In the end, "The Liberal Virus" helps us understand many uncomfortable truths and the changes that need to be made if we wish our country to become a positive force in the world. I highly recommend it to all.

Rating:
Summary: A heated and focused warning
Review: The Liberal Virus: Permanent War And The Americanization Of The World by Samir Amin (Director, Third World Forum, Dakar, Senegal) is a political deconstruction of the principles that define human beings via their economic existence only and fuel America's global expansion and even war to serve the interests of its capital. Defining "liberalism" as the philosophy and ideals that motivate such far-reaching, heavy-handed, money-driven governmental policies, The Liberal Virus is actually a heated and focused warning against the harm caused by such blind and overextended interference in other nations. Arguing that democratization is an ongoing process, fundamental to human social evolution, rather than a fixed constitutional formula, and calling for a new compromise between capital and labor that emphasizes the importance of solidarity and reconstructs an internationalism that does not divide and conquer neighboring regions, The Liberal Virus is actually a razor-keen warning of how wrong-headed intervention can be as poisonous as imperialism once was.