Since we are suckers for new ideas, the latest and somewhat broader definition of colonialism has captivated our imagination for the day. This new conceptualization is also throwing some light on our traditional understanding of colonialism. Here the focus is on newly emerging forms of domination. These came about, by and large, as a result of robotics, automation and informatics. If truth be told, the preponderance of the new ICT (Information and Communication Technology) or the colonialism it ushered, is much more overbearing than the directives of the overenthusiastic district commissioner of the mighty British Empire straddling the anthills of Africa’s dry land; even when ‘the sun doesn’t set on the British Empire’ was still an impressive factuality!
The latest version of colonialism is a bit different. It leverages products of modern technology to subjugate people in a protracted manner. Moreover, analyzing modern colonialism, oppressive as it is, might not be so straightforward if we are only to adhere to old methodologies. To start with, the received wisdom has effectively quarantined emerging analysis within the confines of old parameters as applied to traditional colonialism. At the dawn of the 21st century, where hypermodernity is the order of the day, such classic approaches might not be all that useful or even relevant. Ancient or old fashion colonialism was based, mostly, on specific coordinates of physical geography, constrained people’s (indigenous) movement, economic/social/cultural/religious discrimination and outright subjugation of natives by the conquering powers, etc., etc. These were the features that informed our understanding of earlier versions of colonialism. To be sure, ‘neocolonialism’, which is derived from old brutal colonialism by emphasizing soft approaches, i.e., employing more pacified forms of domination, is not what we will be dealing with today. We consider neocolonialism as the harmonization of old colonialism with the expediency of ‘flag independence’!
The informatics revolution that has drastically reconfigured the world economy, particularly since the advent of the Internet, has expanded its domain of dominion across the breadth and depth of the human universe, just like the old colonialists. Our old friend Charles Hugh Smith, in his characteristic perceptiveness and baldness, to say nothing about his extemporary coherence, has fired the first salvo. He defined the new colonialism as a state of being that is overwhelmingly disempowering. It is, he says, a condition where the natives have no power, hence no choice! Certainly, one can work within this descriptive general framework to validate even the old form of colonialism as well as its newer offshoot-neocolonialism! For instance, the overwhelming information overload) the average sheeple (human mass) is bombarded with is beyond imagination, literally! From the receiving end of this immense trash, the human animal blocks, rather instinctively, what is not immediately needed. This time honored and honed survival mechanism, both biological and social, is what keeps us going preserving our relative sanity! From the dispensing end, the production of the massive information on the global scale, incessantly simulated by non-human operators, (entities of the computer world increasingly leveraging ascendant artificial intelligence) seem to have gone way beyond the absorption capacity of the dominant species. Nonetheless, all these spell domination!
Unless our infatuation with overabundant information is tempered, mostly by refusing to comply with prevailing unhealthy fixation on anything automata, human oppression of all kinds will become the dominant feature of modern life! The effort to liberate the human soul from the increasingly evolving social formations that are inherently dehumanizing requires the untangling of prevailing narrative imposed on us by the new colonizers. The ‘techno-sphere’, to use Orlov’s apt characterization, must be subjected to the whims of the human animal and not vice versa. There will be visible large-scale battles between life preserving tendencies and life destroying trajectories taking place in the near future. As it stands, destructive trends are winning the current day-to-day battles hands down. Whether this side is destined to win the totality of the war in the long run, is something that remains to be seen! Nonetheless, we should have no illusion; the techno-sphere is not driven by the logic of reproduction-the reproduction of lives. Its logic doesn’t even take into account the most obvious fact of resource limitation, let alone understand the refined societal values of human civilizations. In its essence, the ‘techno-sphere’ is an exploitative system driven by its own logic of reproduction, amongst which, the neglect of all lives and the larger ecosystem form its core principle!
The US has a new insidious plan for Venezuelan oil
Cancelling sanctions relief and kicking out everyone else looks like a setup for an arranged marriage with Western oil giants
Six months ago, high oil prices in America amid Western sanctions against Russian oil and gas sent the Biden administration scrambling for more supply that it could control – and ideally profit from.
Washington couldn’t influence Russia and Saudi-led OPEC, or relent on the ideologically-driven sanctions idiocy, but it could at least maybe dial up or down the supply to mitigate domestic political fallout of any resulting price increases. So the White House considered the cards it could play, and offered Venezuela a deal to lift the American boot off its neck. It’s probably just a coincidence that the country happens to have the largest oil reserves on the planet – largely untapped.
There’s also the added bonus of rapprochement to counter China and Russia’s advances in Washington’s backyard, or mitigating the influx of migrants from Venezuela to the US as a result of people fleeing a country struggling under a seemingly endless embargo.
So Washington turned to the same Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro whom it indicted on “narcoterrorism” charges in 2020 – the same guy the US spent years delegitimizing by promoting another Venezuelan politician as the “real” president of the country. But instead of black-bagging him to collect the $15 million bounty they’re offering for information leading to his capture or conviction, the Americans made a deal with him.
Thanks to the US, Maduro had a few problems, but maybe those could go away, if he’d be willing to play ball with America on its own terms. American oil giant, Chevron, scored a license to pump Venezuelan oil in November 2022 – a month after the sanctions waiver was implemented – and in exchange, the US would unblock some of Caracas’ oil sale cash that had been confiscated as a result of US sanctions. Until now, the US simply allowed Venezuelan state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to export oil to the US market while invoking sanctions to seize its profits through PDVSA’s American subsidiary, Citgo, confiscating billions in Venezuelan oil revenue. Where did all that cash go? To fund Washington’s regime change puppets, back when the entire Western world was referring to handpicked Juan ‘Who?’ Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
But since the Guaido project flamed out and Maduro was still in charge when the Ukraine conflict upended global oil markets through Western sanctions lunacy, the US sucked up any pride that it may have had left and said that it would let Venezuela get its hands on some of its own cash. Suddenly, Chevron was back plundering Venezuela’s black gold in exchange for Maduro promising to play nice in national elections. Just last month, Chevron announced a new drilling plan for Venezuela in a joint venture with PDVSA, with the goal of increasing output by 35% year-on-year by bringing new wells online. And a month before that, Chevron ramped drilling back up in the Orinoco Belt.
Six months later, Washington has now let the sanctions waiver expire, and any temporary business licenses to operate in Venezuela along with it. Not that Chevron has much to worry about. The Biden administration has underscored that oil companies’ continued licensing would be considered on a case-by-case basis. Which sounds like a convenient way for Washington to keep the market for itself, or at least decide who gets access. Everyone else gets scared off by sanctions.
Using sanctions as an instrument to control the global playing field isn’t new. It’s just getting harder to do amid increasing options as the rest of the world diversifies away from a Western-dominated global order. In February 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Russia’s Rosneft state oil company on accusations that it “brokered the sale and transport of Venezuelan crude oil” – something that the US will no doubt be cool with American competitors doing. “The United States is determined to prevent the looting of Venezuela’s oil assets by the corrupt Maduro regime,” then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, as the US was literally looting Venezuela’s oil assets and withholding the profits.
So what did Maduro do to give Washington an excuse to slap sanctions back on? Apparently it has to do with the disqualification of opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado from the presidential elections, set for July 2024. Disqualified by the Supreme Court for 15 years, Machado (whose candidacy has since been replaced by that of a former diplomat) is accused of involvement with “the corruption plot orchestrated by the usurper Juan Guaido,” and the marginalizing of the country which led to “dispossession of the companies and wealth of the Venezuelan people abroad, with the complicity of corrupt governments.” Machado did thank Israel for intervening in Venezuelan affairs by recognizing Guaido as the Western-selected interim president, and has argued in favor of the country’s National Assembly invoking an article that would allow it to authorize foreign missions inside Venezuela, arguing in favor of a “responsibility to protect” — the same provision that led to regime change in Libya under the slippery pretext of “humanitarian” intervention.
Washington wants Venezuelan elections to be as democratic, free, and fair as its own. Which are super clean. Just ask former presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, who was railroaded in the 2016 primary by the Democratic National Committee in collusion with the campaign of his rival, Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, according to leaked documents posted online. Anything that Washington perceives to fall short of this stellar standard gives it an excuse to move the goalposts – once its own have had a chance to score some touchdowns.
While democratic failings are cited, maybe the waiver cancellation now has more to do with the fact that US oil prices have fallen, production has skyrocketed at home, and domestic demand is now low. Perhaps Venezuela’s untapped oil potential was too much of a good thing, and there wasn’t any point in demanding that Maduro set a table for everyone to dine when he could just be having a romantic tête-à-tête – or more like an arranged marriage – with Washington’s favorites. The party’s over for everyone else and they’re now kindly being asked to leave before the cops (or OFAC) show up.
