A rchive Date
[ 23-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[It's a hardy plant, this weed of socialism
By Mark Bonokoski
Sun Media OTTAWA
June 11, 2000
So just what is this Third Way, this theoretically warm but technically fuzzy form of 21st-century governance which had the big boys swooning in Berlin, and Jean Chretien quickly packing his bags to accept his belated invitation?
While its supposed western-world inventor, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, remained in London changing his newborn's nappies, U.S. President Bill Clinton was positively cooing over this melding of capitalism and socialism which will allegedly alleviate socio-economic disparity faster than ornamental fountains can be built in a certain prime minister's riding.
Every centre-left leader in the pack (which means most of them) - Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, Holland's Wim Kok, Italy's 58th PM since World War II, Guiliano Amato, as well as our own petit gar' from Shawinigan - nodded in agreement with Clinton's assessment, all behind closed doors of course, and then returned to their respective countries as apostles to the cause.
But what magic potion are they selling? Is it real or is it snake oil?
And, more importantly, is it Third Way or Third Reich, as one headline put it?
According to award-winning American journalist Richard Poe, editor of Front Page magazine, it is more the latter - a pile of Bill Clinton "gobbledygook" which will have "Big Business owning the economy (under capitalism) and Big Government running it (under socialism)."
How it will work, says Poe, is both simple and dangerous. "Corporations will be bribed into obedience through subsidies, tax breaks, customized legislation and other special privileges," he wrote in a piece for the online news magazine, Newsmax.com.
If it sounds familiar it's because it sounds like the musings which once begat fascism.
Once upon a time, the Soviet empire's Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to give it a run for its money under what he then called glasnost and perestroika - not capitalism and not communism, but something in the middle - and failed miserably.
Now Britain's socialist PM, and America's Democratic president, want to wrap it up in a prettier bow and call it the Third Way - with Chretien effectively suckered by Clinton's congratulatory plaudits that it is already working in Canada.
Gabbleflab
A few years ago, U.S. Vice President Al Gore used the same gabbleflab in a different way, telling Americans they could suck and blow at the same time if they adopted the Third Way protocol. In other words, Americans could have two or three cars in every garage and the country could still lead the world in clean air and the elimination of greenhouse gases if the Big Three automakers would only get onside and follow the instructions of government.
If it gets any crazier out there, the Third Way will become a mantra for all things involving big government and big business, much in the same way the glasnost grab bag became the misunderstood mantra in the demise of both communism and the Cold War.
While attempting to polish up his image after his debacle in the Middle East, our prime minister was quoted as calling himself a "radical Liberal," whatever that might be.
Third Wayers use the word "radical" to describe the reforms necessary to convert modern day governance to the Gorbachev-Blair-Clinton model - the revamping of social security and medicare, reducing urban poverty through economic empowerment, creating an education system for the Information Age and making the world once again safe for socialism.
Flower power
There is a certain flower power familiarity to all of this, of course. Make love not war. Hell no, we won't go. Give peace a chance. Make the rich pay. Down with capitalism. Power to the people.
What will certainly hinder the Third Way if it hopes to be successful is the usage of the one word which it must embrace. And that word, boogah-boogah, is "socialism."
When Third Way proponents met previous to the Berlin fete, then-Italian prime minister Massimo D'Alema reminded Clinton that his party was once the Italian Communist party, but formed a coalition government when it removed the scary bits and changed its name to the Democratic Party of the Left.
"These are words that in your civilization, in your history, would sound difficult to understand or to accept," said D'Alema, adding that "socialism" - a vital plank in the Third Way platform - was another word which would be seen as negative.
To which Clinton replied, "(And) for that reason, I'm not sure that I'd have you here right now, Massimo, if I were running for re-election."
Yes, as Clinton (and Chretien, too) so vividly illustrate, it is all well and good to change the world, but first let's get the priorities in proper order.
The Me Generation remains in character.
It doesn't want to give it up quite yet.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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