Malaysian leaders insist that worsening conditions in the US will not affect the national economy. This view reflects a continuation of the vacillation of the prior five years, the on-again/off-again projection of financial independence from the US market. Malaysia has bought into the Western civilisation and its institutions, emulating all that is good and all that is bad.
The corruption of the Malaysian financial system, centered around government leaders, reflects even greater loss of integrity that is now being uncovered in the US. Although stated to be an Islamic country, the leadership in Malaysia is secular in its views, and displays a total indifference to Islamic values. Much that is said below applies with greater force to Malaysia, and Malaysia can expect to suffer to an even greater degree the consequences of its departure from Islamic values.
Western civilization is experiencing a concatenation of events. The public has lost faith in the major institutions. There is a widespread loss of credibility caused by departure from basic virtues on the part of trusted institutions. It takes the form of a crisis of confidence. The people have lost trust in the fundamental institutions of Western civilization. Feeling betrayed, they feel there is no hope for any meaningful reform. At the moment there is threat of widespread panic, as the financial markets shudder in a gigantic effort to avoid the chaos and panic that accompanies a freefall of values.
Three of the fundamental institutions of Western civilisation are democracy, the capitalistic financial system, and the Christian religion. Each of these deserves detailed attention.
DEMOCRACY
Democracy has lost its aura. In theory, it allows each citizen an equal vote in the affairs of government. The vote of the individual is operative at all levels of government, from city to federal government. In practice, the individual vote has become meaningless. The citizens watch in helpless dismay as candidates for office are nominated by forces beyond their control. person. The two party system has effectively destroyed any prospect that an independent candidate might run an effective campaign.
The election process now requires enormous sums, far beyond the financial ability of the ordinary citizen. Only millionaires are able to run for office, and often they are poorly qualified by ethics, education or intellect for effective representation. Rather than protection of the public interest, and a chance to serve one's fellows, candidates are more often motivated by personal ambition and a desire for fame and power, not to mention the opportunity to covertly profit from a position of public trust.
Selection for candidacy has become a contract to support the political party on all issues, even when those are clearly contrary to the express wishes of the constituency represented. Seeing this, the people feel betrayed, and a consequent loss of faith in the operation of the democratic system results.
Democracy is seen as a farce and a sham. This is true from the lowest level to the highest, as the elected representatives become more and more beholden to the power and wealth of corporate supporters. The votes of the people who elected them are meaningless, and the concept of democracy is degraded. Representatives, once in office, are seen to vote themselves high salaries and exorbitant perquisites, paid for from the public purse.
Complaints from constituents are ignored. The common voter is treated like a helpless, ineffectual nuisance, easily brushed off until the time for renewed campaigning comes around. Charging back from Washington to the home district just in time for local campaigning, the incumbents always have ready justification for their increased pay. Incumbents are seen to have a great advantage, and challengers, though brave and idealistic, usually lose. The loss of confidence in the democratic system is evident.
The President of the US has assumed unconstitutional powers. Those who occupy the office have become arrogant and insensitive, totally isolated from accountability to the general populace. Secrecy is the operating policy, hiding the information necessary for public oversight. Executive pomp and circumstance are used to conceal essential information about domestic and foreign affairs, while personal failures continue to generate disappointment.
Every president since Eisenhower has committed acts that call for impeachment. The character and morals of America's leaders is the shame of parents, who must explain profanity and office sex to their children. Many of the top executives are closely connected to major corporations, and their behaviour cannot withstand scrutiny. The same holds true for other members of the Executive branch. Elected representatives in the Senate and House conduct themselves in a profligate manner. The general lack of moral and ethical conduct by elected representatives has created a growing distress, a lack of confidence that the system can be salvaged.
Democracy, long regarded the most desirable of possible political systems, has fallen into disrepute. The democracy of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln has disappeared from the American scene. Many advocates of the democratic system decry the unhealthy influence of large corporations. Seeing how they have co-opted the electorate, corrupted their representatives and demeaned the entire electoral process.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower called attention to the potential of industrial-military lobbyists to corrupt democratic processes. That was over forty years ago, but no reform has been possible. The zeal to install this failed system in other countries is diminished, and a search for a more honest and trustworthy political system is in progress. Democracy, by its excesses, has damned itself.
Capitalism
The power of money to influence events has made it supreme in the West. Money has become the main measure of success. Money is concentrated in the hands of executives of major corporations, who abuse the trust of shareholders by accepting salaries and perquisites beyond any realistic need. The Board of Directors, rather than protecting the interests of the minority shareholders, approves these salary contracts because they themselves are part of a reciprocal arrangement. Board members are nominated by the executives, and pay them a large stipend for each monthly meeting.
The Board members select the external auditors, and cooperate or coerce them in concealing or delaying any information that would adversely affect the share price. The auditing firms comply because the fees they receive run into the millions of dollars. Many executives and Board members are given large blocks of the company stock, ostensibly to induce them to exercise greater diligence in the performance of their directorial and oversight duties.
Board members, and the corporate executives they shield, are generally able to protect the value of their shares through hidden methods, using put and call options and a technique known as "selling against the box." The cantilevering of shares and rights is accomplished by using the name of nominees (often close relatives or lawyers willing to perform this illegal service for a fee or percentage). These activities, when discovered, seldom result in prosecution, and although many people know the truth, none make a report.
Corporations, through contributions to elected representatives, are able to influence legislation in their favor. The representatives take the money, assuring themselves it is honest and ethical. Many times the money is donated to the party coffers, and thus the indirect bribe escapes the notice of the public. The members of the executive department move easily from corporate life to public life and back to corporate life. The ability of public servants to benefit from government contracts, especially in the military spending budget, is legendary. The helpless public must pay the bill, often inflated beyond reason.
Many corporate executives are shown to be dishonest, using every stratagem to enrich themselves at the expense of the public (their customers and creditors) and the shareholders of their company. When caught red-handed, they are able to depart in slight disgrace with many millions in cash and pension benefits, all paid for by the powerless shareholders. The long and tawdry history of this abuse of the shareholder has undermined faith in the capitalist system of providing funding for corporations. People refuse to buy shares, and now desire nothing but to get the return of what they have put in. For most the experience will be a sad one.
Christianity
When Constantine met with the Christian bishops for two months at Nicea (325 CE), he forced them to accept the idea of the trinity. Those who disagreed were expelled or intimidated. The concept of God the Father assumed at that time all the trappings of the Roman Emperor, and the Trinitarian stance adopted then has been defended against all protestors to the present day. For the next twelve hundred years, anyone who questioned the concept of the trinity was branded an heretic, tortured into recantation or burned at the stake.
Martin Luther was the first to establish a successful protest movement, later transformed into a widespread call for reformation of the Roman Catholic Church. He had powerful patrons, and was able to escape persecution. The Church reacted to this challenge by establishing the inquisition, a procedure designed to extinguish any who dared to speak or write anything that differed from the official position of the church in Rome. Called the Counter-Reformation, it was a gruesome business of torture and imprisonment, a wholesale attempt at mind control. It continues to the present day, though in a milder form.
King Henry VIII, in a dispute over his request for a divorce, broke the English church away, forming it into the English Catholic Church or Church of England (the Anglican Church). He announced that henceforth all land and property belonged to the new church, and that he would be its head. The Bishops in England were forced to agree or be expelled from office. Further protesting groups arose, both in England and Europe.
The number of dissenting sects has grown so numerous, and new Protestant sects are organised so frequently that the fundamental tenets of the original Christian religion are now diluted beyond recognition. The spiritual guidance of Christianity waned, along with the strength of character and integrity it provides. The question of human origins opened a gap between those who chose Evolution (and Science) and those who remained faithful to their religious teaching. The loss of regard for irrational religion among the people increased, until finally, in the second half of the nineteenth century it was announced that "God is dead." The loss was barely noted outside religious circles.
Historians who have written about the rise and decline of civilisations, Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toynbee among others, conclude that loss of spiritual values is the major factor contributing to failure. Translated, this means that truth and honesty are no longer serious matters, and that ethical and moral standards are subsumed in the pursuit of wealth, power and pleasure. The loss of personal integrity is accompanied by a decline in the standards of beauty. Music becomes cacophony, harmony is lost in raucous amplified percussion. Lyrics deteriorate into insult and profanity, and no attempt at a melodic line is apparent. Dance becomes more awkward individual exhibitionism than coordinated movement. Art no longer pursues beauty, escapes comprehensible meaning, becomes fanciful and detached from any reality beyond a drug-induced trip into personal fantasy.
Conclusion
The lack of strength that accompanies a denial of the spiritual (and emotional) nature of Man, is a harbinger of irreversible change. The funds set aside by individuals for a secure retirement will continue to disappear, as the general public rushes to redeem what remains. Some await a "bottom," as though its appearance signals certain safety. But when the basic institutions of a society lose credibility, there is no bottom. The survival of the society itself is in doubt.
Those who have managed to retain a spiritual orientation, free from the contradictions of irrational religion, and those with the humility and courage to seek salvation in a spiritual avenue, will survive. The stress of meeting mortgage and car payments, caused by excessive credit card debt with its compound interest, will increase in proportion with continuing financial loss. There will be more suicides. Attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings will increase. This last, however, opens a bright window of humility and a return of hope. Eventually, courage will return, and with it a better, happier world, free of destructive materialistic pursuits.
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