A recent case in Greece gives another proof for the fact that the neoliberal establishment becomes increasingly authoritarian

globinfo freexchange

Political heat rose for one more time in Greece on the occasion of the recent bomb-attack against the former Greek PM Lucas Papademos.

The political opposition, mainly through the neoliberal right party, New Democracy, attacked the current government, and mainly SYRIZA, for its stance to criticize Papademos administration as being a non-elected government, imposed by Greece's creditors from November 2011 to May 2012.

Such political attacks have become a routine case from the side of the old political establishment (mainly the Right New Democracy and the Social-Democrats PASOK), constantly accusing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) that encourages terrorism.

This time, however, the neoliberal establishment in Greece went one step further. In one of the biggest TV channels which belongs to a top Greek oligarch, some neoliberal pundits called for censorship against Facebook and Twitter users who expressed negative views against Papademos. Moreover, one of them, called for prosecution against nearly 10,000 users! The social media and various independent blogs fired back, pointing that these pundits have come to the point of requesting Erdogan-type practices!

This is a picture of a regime that becomes increasingly authoritarian. We can imagine a 1984-type future where censorship could come at any time, against anyone who dares to criticize even an unelected banking puppet, like Papademos. With the pretext of terrorism, repression measures and militarization of urban centers becomes something common and people are getting used to it. In the authoritarianism of the future, people could become suspects of terrorism just for criticizing someone, even if that happens before any attempt against him.

The neoliberal regime in the West and elsewhere becomes increasingly authoritarian, exactly because the old political establishment which represents it, starts to collapse almost everywhere. Because its brainwashing mechanisms start to collapse too. Authoritarianism is the last resort of the elites when the old tricks don't work anymore. It happens right now in Brazil, for example.

Recall that, the former president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, came up with the idea, back in 2011, that the then Greek PM George Papandreou could be replaced by the technocrat Lucas Papademos, as eventually happened, when Papandreou "dared" to think to hold a referendum on the acceptance of the terms of the eurozone bailout deal with Greece, and that, Papademos worked with Goldman Sachs when Greece was trying to get its debts levels down so it could swap its currency from the drachma to the euro. It later transpired that that cross currency deals negotiated between Greece and Goldman had helped mask Greece’s true levels of debt and contributed to the current crisis in the eurozone.