Letter
The ‘Hotel California effect’ of fealty to the US
Much of the discussion in this journal suggests that when it comes to important questions of foreign policy that impinge on the US, Australia has choices.
Your readers may well know that Chomsky likens the way in which the US conducts its international relations to how the mafia operates. He refers to it as “The Mafia Doctrine”.
An important consequence of being a (lesser) member of the (Mafia) gang is that when it comes to obedience to the don, gang members who break the rules are treated the same as or worse than anyone else, as I have explained at greater length elsewhere.
What I have called “the Hotel California effect” severely limits what gang members can do without permission.
This means of course that you cannot wake up one morning feeling bright and sparky in the refulgence of a new dawn and suddenly decide that “all this murder and mayhem are not for me, I’m out of here” – that is, unless you are prepared to incur the Godfather’s wrath (note that the hypocrisy of a sudden change of heart would not matter as you have become inured to all of the double dealing).
— Peter Blunt from Siem Reap