• by Ignacio Ramonet
• Wednesday, October 19, 2011
• Inter Press Service

The social repercussions of the current economic cataclysm are of an unprecedented brutality: in the European Union, there are more than 23 million unemployed and 80 million poor. The young are the primary victims, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of "Le Monde diplomatique en espanol".

In this analysis, Ramonet writes that the financial powers (the "markets") have taken control of political power and this has rattled the people. No one can understand the inertia of the governments in the face of this economic crisis. The people are demanding that politicians step in and do what they are supposed to do: right the wrongs. But it won't be easy because economics moves at the speed of light while politics creeps along at a snail's pace. The current leaders fail for foresee anything. Politics proves impotent. The state as protector of the people no longer exists. There is a crisis of representative democracy.

In reality we are suffering not through a crisis but rather an accumulation of crises so closely interwoven that it is impossible to make out cause and effect. The effects of some are the cause of others and together constitute a real system. In other words, we are facing a systemic crisis of the western world that is affecting technology. economics, trade, politics, democracy, war, geopolitics, the climate, the environment, culture, values, family, education, youth, and more.

(*) Ignacio Ramonet is editor of "Le Monde diplomatique en espanol".

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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