TORONTO—I met with Sheldon S. Wolin in Salem, Ore., and John Ralston Saul in Toronto and asked the two political philosophers the same question. If, as Saul has written, we have undergone a corporate coup d’état and now live under a species of corporate dictatorship that Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism,” if the internal mechanisms that once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible remain ineffective, if corporate power retains its chokehold on our economy and governance, including our legislative bodies, judiciary and systems of information, and if these corporate forces are able to use the security and surveillance apparatus and militarized police forces to criminalize dissent, how will change occur and what will it look like?

Wolin, who wrote the books “Politics and Vision” and “Democracy Incorporated,” and Saul, who wrote “Voltaire’s Bastards” and “The Unconscious Civilization,” see democratic rituals and institutions, especially in the United States, as largely a facade for unchecked global corporate power. Wolin and Saul excoriate academics, intellectuals and journalists, charging they have abrogated their calling to expose abuses of power and give voice to social criticism; they instead function as echo chambers for elites, courtiers and corporate systems managers. Neither believes the current economic system is sustainable. And each calls for mass movements willing to carry out repeated acts of civil disobedience to disrupt and delegitimize corporate power.

“If you continue to go down the wrong road, at a certain point something happens,” Saul said during our meeting Wednesday in Toronto, where he lives. “At a certain point when the financial system is wrong it falls apart. And it did. And it will fall apart again.”

“The collapse started in 1973,” Saul continued. “There were a series of sequential collapses afterwards. The fascinating thing is that between 1850 and 1970 we put in place all sorts of mechanisms to stop collapses which we can call liberalism, social democracy or Red Toryism. It was an understanding that we can’t have boom-and-bust cycles. We can’t have poverty-stricken people. We can’t have starvation. The reason today’s collapses are not leading to what happened in the 18th century and the 19th century is because all these safety nets, although under attack, are still in place. But each time we have a collapse we come out of it stripping more of the protection away. At a certain point we will find ourselves back in the pre-protection period. At that point we will get a collapse that will be incredibly dramatic. I have no idea what it will look like. A revolution from the left? A revolution from the right? Is it violence followed by state violence? Is it the collapse of the last meaningful edges of democracy? Is it a sudden decision by a critical mass of people that they are not going to take it anymore?”

This devolution of the economic system has been accompanied by corporations’ seizure of nearly all forms of political and social power. The corporate elite, through a puppet political class and compliant intellectuals, pundits and press, still employs the language of a capitalist democracy. But what has arisen is a new kind of control, inverted totalitarianism, which Wolin brilliantly dissects in his book “Democracy Incorporated.”

Inverted totalitarianism does not replicate past totalitarian structures, such as fascism and communism. It is therefore harder to immediately identify and understand. There is no blustering demagogue. There is no triumphant revolutionary party. There are no ideologically drenched and emotional mass political rallies. The old symbols, the old iconography and the old language of democracy are held up as virtuous. The old systems of governance—electoral politics, an independent judiciary, a free press and the Constitution—appear to be venerated. But, similar to what happened during the late Roman Empire, all the institutions that make democracy possible have been hollowed out and rendered impotent and ineffectual.

The corporate state, Wolin told me at his Oregon home, is “legitimated by elections it controls.” It exploits laws that once protected democracy to extinguish democracy; one example is allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions in the name of our First Amendment right to free speech and our right to petition the government as citizens. “It perpetuates politics all the time,” Wolin said, “but a politics that is not political.” The endless election cycles, he said, are an example of politics without politics, driven not by substantive issues but manufactured political personalities and opinion polls. There is no national institution in the United States “that can be described as democratic,” he said.

The mechanisms that once allowed the citizen to be a participant in power—from participating in elections to enjoying the rights of dissent and privacy—have been nullified. Money has replaced the vote, Wolin said, and corporations have garnered total power without using the cruder forms of traditional totalitarian control: concentration camps, enforced ideological conformity and the physical suppression of dissent. They will avoid such measures “as long as that dissent remains ineffectual,” he said. “The government does not need to stamp out dissent. The uniformity of imposed public opinion through the corporate media does a very effective job.”

The state has obliterated privacy through mass surveillance, a fundamental precondition for totalitarian rule, and in ways that are patently unconstitutional has stripped citizens of the rights to a living wage, benefits and job security. And it has destroyed institutions, such as labor unions, that once protected workers from corporate abuse.

Inverted totalitarianism, Wolin has written, is “only in part a state-centered phenomenon.” It also represents “the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry.”

Corporate power works in secret. It is unseen by the public and largely anonymous. Politicians and citizens alike often seem blissfully unaware of the consequences of inverted totalitarianism, Wolin said in the interview. And because it is a new form of totalitarianism we do not recognize the radical change that has gradually taken place. Our failure to grasp the new configuration of power has permitted the corporate state to rob us through judicial fiat, a process that culminates in a disempowered population and omnipotent corporate rulers. Inverted totalitarianism, Wolin said, “projects power upwards.” It is “the antithesis of constitutional power.”

“Democracy has been turned upside down,” Wolin said. “It is supposed to be a government for the people, by the people. But it has become an organized form of government dominated by groups that are only vaguely, if at all, responsible or responsive to popular needs and popular demands. At the same time, it retains a patina of democracy. We still have elections. They are relatively free. We have a relatively free media. But what is missing is a crucial, continuous opposition that has a coherent position, that is not just saying no, no, no, that has an alternative and ongoing critique of what is wrong and what needs to be remedied.”

Wolin and Saul, echoing Karl Marx, view unfettered and unregulated capitalism as a revolutionary force that has within it the seeds of its own self-annihilation. It is and always has been deeply antagonistic to participatory democracy, they said. Democratic states must heavily regulate and control capitalism, for once capitalism is freed from outside restraint it seeks to snuff out democratic institutions and abolish democratic rights that are seen—often correctly—as an impediment to maximizing profit. The more ruthless and pronounced global corporate capitalism becomes, the greater the loss of democratic space.

“Capitalism is destructive because it has to eliminate customs, mores, political values, even institutions that present any kind of credible threat to the autonomy of the economy,” Wolin said. “That is where the battle lies. Capitalism wants an autonomous economy. It wants a political order subservient to the needs of the economy. The [capitalist’s] notion of an economy, while broadly based in the sense of a relatively free entrance and property that is relatively widely dispersed, is as elitist as any aristocratic system.”

Wolin and Saul said they expect the state, especially in an age of terminal economic decline, to employ more violent and draconian forms of control to keep restive populations in check. This coercion, they said, will fuel discontent and unrest, which will further increase state repression.

“People with power use the tools they have,” Saul said. “As the West has gradually lost its economic tool it has turned to what remains, which are military tools and violence. The West still has the most weaponry. Even if they are doing very badly economically in a global sense, they can use the weaponry to replace the economics or replace competition.”

“They decided that capitalism and the market was about the right to have the cheapest possible goods,” Saul said. “That is what competition meant. This is a lie. No capitalist philosopher ever said that. As you bring the prices down below the capacity to produce them in a middle-class country you commit suicide. As you commit suicide you have to ask, ‘How do we run this place?’ And you have to run it using these other methods—bread and circuses, armies, police and prisons.”

The liberal class—which has shriveled under the corporate onslaught and a Cold War ideology that held up national security as the highest good—once found a home in the Democratic Party, the press, labor unions and universities. It made reform possible. Now, because it is merely decorative, it compounds the political and economic crisis. There is no effective organized opposition to the rise of a neofeudalism dominated a tiny corporate oligarchy that exploits workers and the poor.

“The reform class, those who believe that reform is possible, those who believe in humanism, justice and inclusion, has become incredibly lazy over the last 30 or 40 years,” Saul said. “The last hurrah was really in the 1970s. Since then they think that getting a tenured position at Harvard and waiting to get a job in Washington is actually an action, as opposed to passivity.”

“One of the things we have seen over the last 30 or 40 years is a gradual silencing of people who are doctors or scientists,” Saul said. “They are silenced by the managerial methodology of contracts. You sign an employment contract that says everything you know belongs to the people who hired you. You are not allowed to speak out. Take that [right] away and you have a gigantic educated group who has a great deal to say and do, but they are tied up. They don’t know how to untie themselves. They come out with their Ph.D. They are deeply in debt. The only way they can get a job is to give up their intellectual freedom. They are prisoners.”

Resistance, Wolin and Saul agreed, will begin locally, with communities organizing to form autonomous groups that practice direct democracy outside the formal power structures, including the two main political parties. These groups will have to address issues such as food security, education, local governance, economic cooperation and consumption. And they will have to sever themselves, as much as possible, from the corporate economy.

“Richard Rorty talked about how you take power,” Saul said. “You go out and win the school board elections. You hold the school board. You reform the schools. Then you win the towns. And you stay there. And you hold it for 30 to 40 years. And gradually you bring in reforms that improve things. It isn’t about three years in Washington on a contract. There has to be a critical mass of leaders willing to ruin their lives as part of a large group that figures out how to get power and hold power at all of these levels, gradually putting reforms in place.”

I asked them if a professional revolutionary class, revolutionists dedicated solely to overthrowing the corporate state, was a prerequisite. Would we have to model any credible opposition after Vladimir Lenin’s disciplined and rigidly controlled Bolsheviks or Machiavelli’s republican conspirators? Wolin and Saul, while deeply critical of Lenin’s ideology of state capitalism and state terror, agreed that creating a class devoted full time to radical change was essential to fomenting change. There must be people, they said, willing to dedicate their lives to confronting the corporate state outside traditional institutions and parties. Revolt, for a few, must become a vocation. The alliance between mass movements and a professional revolutionary class, they said, offers the best chance for an overthrow of corporate power.

“It is extremely important that people are willing to go into the streets,” Saul said. “Democracy has always been about the willingness of people to go into the streets. When the Occupy movement started I was pessimistic. I felt it could only go a certain distance. But the fact that a critical mass of people was willing to go into the streets and stay there, without being organized by a political party or a union, was a real statement. If you look at that, at what is happening in Canada, at the movements in Europe, the hundreds of thousands of people in Spain in the streets, you are seeing for the first time since the 19th century or early 20th century people coming into the streets in large numbers without a real political structure. These movements aren’t going to take power. But they are a sign that power and the respect for power is falling apart. What happens next? It could be dribbled away. But I think there is the possibility of a new generation coming in and saying we won’t accept this. That is how you get change. A new generation comes along and says no, no, no. They build their lives on the basis of that no.”

But none of these mass mobilizations, Saul and Wolin emphasized, will work unless there is a core of professional organizers.

“Anarchy is a beautiful idea, but someone has to run the stuff,” Saul said. “It has to be run over a long period of time. Look at the rise and fall of the Chinese empires. For thousands of years it has been about the rise and fall of the water systems. Somebody has to run the water system. Somebody [in modern times] has to keep the electricity going. Somebody has to make the hospitals work.”

“You need a professional or elite class devoted to profound change,” Saul said. “If you want to get power you have to be able to hold it. And you have to be able to hold it long enough to change the direction. The neoconservatives understood this. They have always beenBolsheviks. They are the Bolsheviks of the right. Their methodology is the methodology of the Bolsheviks. They took over political parties by internal coups d’état. They worked out, scientifically, what things they needed to do and in what order to change the structures of power. They have done it stage by stage. And we are living the result of that. The liberals sat around writing incomprehensible laws and boring policy papers. They were unwilling to engage in the real fight that was won by a minute group of extremists.”

“You have to understand power to reform things,” Saul said. “If you don’t understand power you get blown away by the guy who does. We are missing people who believe in justice and at the same time understand how tough power and politics are, how to make real choices. And these choices are often quite ugly.”

 

 

 

The Government-Corporate Complex Takes Complete Control Of The USA

The Real 800 Pound Gorilla That Controls The Realm

StateoftheNation2012.com

No one can deny the effects that the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) has had on the United States of America.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower aptly warned the world what would inevitably develop when any nation commits itself to a perpetual war economy. Or, maintains such a large military during peacetime.

However, very few understand that the MIC was only one component of a much larger complex now known as the Government-Corporate Complex.  Truly, it is the Government-Corporate Complex (GCC) which poses a much greater threat to world peace and social order, global financial security and economic stability, as well as the integrity of the biosphere and environmental protection.

Was the Military-Industrial Complex actually a red herring?

Studying the MIC as a microcosm of the GCC can be quite instructive and revealing about how the much bigger GCC entity operates throughout the world today. It it true that even in times of relative peace, the MIC does everything within its power to ensure it’s prosperity, just as the Department of Defense (read War) does everything to ensure its survival during periods without war.  In so doing, the MIC has been hard-wired from its very inception to guarantee the millions employed by the countless defense-related industries and services a paycheck, no matter what the prospects for war-making.  Which is one of the primary reasons why so much enthusiastic support for all things military has always reigned supreme in the political process of the USA.  And so it will for the foreseeable future. 

However, there is a much more profound reason about how and why the USA was destined to become the “Military Arm of the New World Order“.  The very notion of the Military-Industrial Complex was first publicized as both a diversion away from as well as an unwitting clue about the “real 800 pound gorilla” that has been clandestinely flexing its muscles across the planet for many decades, if not centuries.

“800 pound gorilla” is an American English expression for a person or organization so powerful that it can act without regard to the rights of others or the law. The phrase is rooted in a riddle:

“Where does an 800 lb. gorilla sit?”

The answer:

“Anywhere it wants to.”

This highlights the disparity of power between the “800 lb. gorilla” and everything else.

The term can describe a powerful geopolitical and military force, or, in business, a powerful corporate entity that has such a large majority percentage of whatever market they compete within that they can use that strength to crush would-be competitors.  (Source: Wikipedia)

When The Government Colludes With The Corporate Titans –> FASCISM

With the chartering of the very first corporations in the USA came the purposeful and inexorable development of the Government-Corporate Complex.  Today, the resulting fascist corporatocracy exerts its power in civil society throughout every sphere of life.  In matters of law and order, and war and peace, this “800 pound gorilla” acts with an impunity that rivals the imperialism of Rome*.

The ever-present fasces of the Roman Empire were paraded throughout the far reaches of the empire, wherever naked and brutal force was required to keep the newly conquered kingdoms and tribes in check.  The very same “bound bundle of wooden rods with protruding axe-blade” sits right on the front wall behind the podium (two fasces on either side) in the main chamber of the US House of Representatives in the nation’s capital.

*The term fascismo is derived from the Latin word fasces.^[15] The fasces, which consisted of a bundle of rods that were tied around an axe,^[16] was an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of the civic magistrate.^[17] They were carried by his lictors and could be used for corporal and capital punishment at his command.^[18][19] The word fascismo also relates to political organizations in Italy known as fasci, groups similar to guilds or syndicates.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Just in case you can’t identify the two fasces on either side of the podium, here’s some assistance.

Doesn’t this beg the question as to why such a prominent symbol behind the speaker’s podium in the House Chamber is the same as that of Imperial Rome?

In case you can’t recognize the various elements in the fasces, each one has a quite imposing axehead protruding from the very top of the bundle of sticks.  The entire ax can be seen clearly in the photo below.

We don’t mean to belabor this subject, but the fasces does represent the manner in which the US Federal Government now imposes its will on its citizens at home, as well as on numerous conquered nations abroad.  In short the current and previous US Administrations have been viewed in the same light as those of the hegemonic British Empire, as well as the Imperial ‘Holy’ Roman Empire.

The Constitutional Republic of the USA, in fact, has deeps roots sunk into both of these centuries-old forms of governance, as we are all instructed as young students.  What is not taught, however, is the extent to which the actual power structure of the US Government mimics the most tyrannical aspects of Imperial Rome and despotic tendencies of the more recent British Empire.

This 800 Pound Gorilla Really Knows How To Swing An Axe

Perhaps it is now much easier to comprehend the quite formidable foe of the people which results when the government works in close tandem with the corporate sector.   Truly, these two entities do represent a fearsome tandem, especially when they combine forces in such a deliberate and coordinated manner. Who, or what, can possibly stop such a Goliath?  Who would dare when all the Davids (people like Edward Snowden) are literally “run out of town” … forever.

The government side of this modern-day Goliath is, of course, collectively represented by the POTUS, SCOTUS, CONGRESS, NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, PENTAGON, etc.  As a conglomerate of various institutions, agencies and organs of government, the US Corporation does interpenetrate every major corporate entity in the USA. The revolving door between all the major corporations and the government sector is well known and well documented.  With the beginning of each newly elected US administration, the number of CEOs and other corporate officers who are chosen to fill regulatory positions of the very industries they came from is quite shocking.  It has become expected that the “fox is now always guarding the hen house” throughout the Executive Branch of American Government.

Given the current state of affairs of campaign finance, lobbyists and their corporate overlords control the legislative process in way that is equally stunning.  That the healthcare lobbyists actually wrote the Affordable Care Act is the most egregious example of how the US Federal Government has been completely taken over.  Obamacare  represents the quintessential example of the Government-Corporate Complex at work.  As the most flawed piece of legislation in US history, Obamacare has consistently eluded those who know it must be repealed. Even powerful senators and corporate titans who have demonstrated how it will bankrupt America are powerless to annul such a cost-prohibitive, overwhelmingly inefficient, and profoundly defective law.

Just as interlocking directorships ensure a very collegial and crony-like club among all the major corporations of the world, the governmental organs of the USA walk in lockstep with every other cooperative government around the world when circumstances necessitates, or the modern emperors dictate.  In virtually every case of transnational collaboration, it should be noted that it is the government’s business that is being conducted, not the people’s.

As an example, there have been numerous occasions where the US Government has worked hand-in-hand with the UK Government and Monarchy, especially the British Crown, Parliament, MI5, MI6, Scotland Yard, etc., as well as with many of the other Western Powers (read NATO).  The highly protested Iraq War was a perfect illustration of one nation giving unlawful cover for another nation (UK provided cover for the US).  This ever-morphing international arrangement permits several of the most powerful nations to project their military power with little or no threat from the weaker nations or their leaders.

When looked at in the aggregate, it is as though the Government-Corporate Complex has taken the form an octopus wrapping itself around the entire globe.  It has, in fact, become a monolithic, amorphous superstructure of global power that answers to no one.  Although it’s true structure and organization can only be conjectured, a World Shadow Government surely exists that oversees the national governments of the world.  Even at that ultra-classified level of secrecy, the movement between high level government service and corporate leadership is a fact of life.

Because of the ever-revolving doors over may decades between public service and the corporate arena, these two major sectors of society have become not only inseparable, but also exceedingly aligned in both purpose and the execution of shared agendas.  This is where the real problems begins.  Especially to the extent that the Government-Corporate Complex interests are not properly aligned with those of the citizenry, does this problem have the potential to become greatly exacerbated and nettlesome for the governed.

In the case of those living in the USA in 2014 and beyond, it’s clear that the will of the people has never been so disrespected and scorned (taxation with virtually no representation), as the people themselves have been openly abused and victimized (think TSA body scans, Tasers without provocation, Childhood vaccination regimes, Chemtrail spraying everywhere, Smart meters without approval, Fluoride put into the water supplies, etc.)

Weapons of Choice of the Government-Corporate Complex

“Whereas Corporations use the impervious “Shield of Limited Liability” with great effect, it is their “Deep Coffers of Influence-Peddling” that allow them to serve their narrow and selfish interests with virtual impunity.  The Government, on the other hand, uses the “Threat of Criminal Prosecution“, “Predatory Taxation” and “Oppressive Laws” to keep the citizenry from straying from the reservation.” ~ State of the Nation

This convenient marriage between the government and the corporations has truly become the greatest bane of post-modern existence.  The viability of life on Earth is more at stake than ever because of how the biosphere is manipulated by those few who sit at the very peak of the pyramid of the globalist’s World Shadow Government (WSG).  These global controllers, by and large, directly oversee all the major corporations and most powerful governments across the planet.  Their wish is everyone else’s command, and they will not brook any opposition to their government/corporate agendas or interference with their extra-national political plans … anywhere or anytime.

It is through the absolutist, top-down, fear-driven dynamic of exercising fascist power by which every large corporate entities can be easily controlled from the very pinnacle of the World Shadow Government.  Each and every corporate entity can be easily controlled when faced with the threat of either federal or state prosecution.  Likewise, they can be corralled into a pen of the government’s making through selective predatory taxation and oppressive legislation unfavorable to their industry or business.

Control the President, CEO, and/or Board of Directors of any corporation (or large organization) and you control all of the subordinates below.

This very same principle is what empowered the Roman legions to conquer and maintain control over so many lands.  Ditto that for the Hellenic (Greek) Empire of Alexander the Great, as well as the various Pharaonic Dynasties of Egypt.  This control matrix is based on a number of simple equations and formulae which have been utilized since time immemorial to rule the masses.  Hierarchies of power and control have forever been built into organizations that are structured to exert absolute authority within any given society or nation.

The primary equation, which operates 24/7 within virtually every the control matrix on Planet Earth today, looks like this.  Confer absolute authority upon the top positions of any corporation or government agency, and offer a compensation package which makes it extremely difficult for those in charge to leave the reservation.  When CEO comp schemes are looked at closely, it becomes clear that each element is designed to ensure unquestioning compliance … with the dictates of those who really run Corporate America.

Golden parachutes and golden handcuffs, as they are known, include exceptionally attractive financial incentives to play the corporate game all the way to retirement.  Stock options, deferred compensation, various bonus and incentive plans, company perks such as free housing, transportation, vacations, dining, country club (golf, tennis) memberships etc. can add up to substantial sums of money.  Each of these components of executive compensation contributes to the current culture of universal CEO compliance.  When the actual CEO compensations schemes are calculated accurately, it will be understood that they even exceed the obscene pay packages that have been trumpeted by the OCCUPY movement!

CEO-To-Worker Pay Ratio Ballooned 1,000 Percent Since 1950: Report

Once this simple compensation dynamic is firmly put into place, all the direct reports to the President or CEO, Agency Director or Cabinet Secretary, must follow obey the leader. Not to do so jeopardizes one’s job, one’s career, one’s entire future.  It particularly endangers one’s income stream which one is accustomed to.  Once pampered or spoiled by life’s luxuries, it is ever so difficult to relinquish them for a life of mediocrity or worse.

If these carrots don’t work with a rogue corporate leader, there is always the threat of criminal prosecution for real or fabricated charges which can be trumped up for effect anytime the State Attorney wants to do so.  You’ve heard the phrase that any Grand Jury in America can, and will, “indict a ham sandwich” if the DA wants it to.  Well, it’s entirely true, and it happen every day of the week.  Politically motivated prosecutions have, in fact, become so commonplace that they serve to keep everyone (we mean Everyone on the  planet) watching in check.

Corporatization of the marketplace has exposed everyone to the same threats and risks.  Globalization has likewise created new fears and anxieties.  

Herein lies the most potent force in the enforcement of and discipline found within pyramidal power structures across the planet.  Fear of not being able to meet the most basic needs of life hounds almost everyone at some point of their lives.  This primordial fear is so profound and hardwired into human existence that it is easily used as a tool of control and manipulation.  Hence, we see both the Hegelian Dialectic and Divide and Conquer strategies of the elites employing this basic principle with awesome effect, wherever and however they choose to implement them.

As a means of control of all publicly held corporations, these enforcement measures can be taken whenever necessary by those who truly control the Corporatocracy.  As previously stated, all the real controllers have to do is exert maximum control over the President or CEO or Board Chairman.  Once this is accomplished, the real controllers can keep the thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of other corporate employees in check. The MO is quite simple:  No compliance; no paycheck.  Isn’t that how everyone across corporate America is kept in check everywhere … 24/7?   Now that’s human resource leverage!

In this way those globalists (read Gorillas) “who truly control the realm” don’t really have to throw their weight around or beat their chests very much.  All the disciplinary actions and intermittent firings, demotions and reassignments, downsizings and consolidations, mergers and acquisitions, divestments and realignments, etc.  are left up to just a few corporate officers to approve and duly execute.  If an employee’s ‘infraction’ or insubordination or whistle-blowing is a serious one, the individual may never receive a good reference in the same business or industry again.  Being blackballed like this is also used with equal effect throughout all the professional associations such as the ABA, AMA, ADA, APA and AAA.  Those are the certifying bodies with the relevant control mechanisms in place for law, medical, dental, psychiatric, and accounting respectively.

On the macro level, globalization has subjected every nation and state, province and city, business and industry, corporation and company to extraordinary pressures and risks. With the passage of new legislation or cancellation of old trade agreements, any given marketplace can be rearranged in a New York minute, as they so often are.  The “800 pound corporate gorilla” is usually the immediate beneficiary of these swift or slow changes in law that lobbyists have often written from beginning to end.  As an example, an organic farmer in South Georgia can be put out of business in a day and a night if the farmer next door is planting Monsanto GMO seeds of the same crop.

There are so many other threats that rampant corporatization of the marketplace has created that it is beyond the scope of this essay to further explore.  As a blatant example, however, of how much can go awry, one need look no further than the continuing Walmart saga of small town destruction to understand the far-reaching ramifications to Main Street, America.  Here is how one commentator put it when examining some of the few repercussions of corporate destruction on a vulnerable nation such as India.

“Let’s pick a country.  Let’s go to India and visit Bhopal of Union Carbide fame.  Close to 8000 people died within two weeks of that December day in 1984 in what is known as the worst industrial disaster of the last century.  Now that Dow Chemical owns Union Carbide, you can only imagine the veritable phalanx of attorneys who are paid unconscionable fees to ensure proper responsibility and accountability will never be assumed by their master.

Or let’s visit the Punjab and talk to the thousands of widows of farmers who committed suicide because of Monsanto’s “seedless seeds”.   Or go to just about anywhere on that subcontinent where a Walmart is being protested for land theft, encroachment and despoilation.   Let’s not forget about all the Coca Cola bottling plants that have become notorious for stealing the most precious commodity that every Indian cherishes and covets – WATER.  Well, that takes care of land, water, air … and blood.  What else in heaven’s name do these stakeholders want?!”[1]

World War I, The Great Depression and World War II Consolidated the Power of the Fascist Corporatocracy

The entire 20th century was primarily about one thing.  Each one of these three extremely cataclysmic events served to put into place the various political, economic and social constructs that would come to define the New World Order (NWO).  While many are still waiting for the NWO to appear in living color on the world stage, they fail to realize that its cornerstone was actually put into place in 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act.  With that single stroke of the pen were the American people turned into debt slaves, unknowingly beholden to the emerging fascist corporatocracy at every turn.  Haven’t sticks (read fasces) always been used to keep slaves in line?!

Many readers may be aware of the Albert Pike letter which predicted not only the first two world wars, but also a third.  Most of the same folks are waiting for a World War III, not realizing that it is happening all over the world, 24/7.  What else would one call the state of the Middle East to include Iraq, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, if not a regional war zone.  Then there is Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Thailand.  How else would one label the state of affairs in the Ukraine, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil?  We already saw what happened to Yugoslavia and Albania.

The only difference this time around is that the globalists will refrain from calling it World War 3.  It’s a lot easier to conduct a world war without anyone knowing that it just may be coming to a neighborhood near them.  This incremental approach has permitted them to put the right pieces on the chessboard exactly where they need to be before they execute their planned checkmates … just like they did in the Ukraine last week.  In this way the new New World Order is advanced via a “new and improved” internet-based control matrix, with such stealth and deception, many of the populations are merrily going with the flow.  This is what happens when London financiers conspire with Wall Street Brokers;  Madison Avenue admen collude with Washington DC politicos; and Hollywood movie producers collaborate with the Military-Industrial Complex.

All CORPORATIONs Must Be Re-Chartered With Mandated Social Responsibility And The Contratual Promise Of Environmental Protection

Clearly, the business entity known as the Corporation must be overhauled if there is to be an emancipation from our modern form of debt slavery and smothering political (aka corporate-imposed) correctness.  All publicly held corporations possess the same fatal flaws that can be exploited at any time by those who have the power and knowhow. With the rapid evolution of derivative-based hedge funds and computer-driven investment brokerage such as frequency trading,  corporate raiders, venture capitalists, private equity fund managers, and market speculators of every sort and kind can take quick and substantial advantage of any corporation under the sun.

For this reason alone, the entire investment marketplace (stocks and bonds, currencies and commodities, real estate and derivatives) has been transformed into a gambling casino.  Not only have all professional sports fallen prey to this post-modern runaway addiction, the entire corporate culture has been taken over by it.  Speculation is really just investment speak for gambling.

Especially when the basic commodities of life are under threat from Global Climate Change and other formidable pressures (like population explosion), is the temptation to bet on the ups and downs intensified.  Because the folks who have the capital to play this global gambling casino have much to gain very quickly, they rarely miss the opportunity. Unfortunately, many of the same institutional players possess the power, influence and money to manipulate both events and circumstances for their unconscionable financial gain.

Because the rich corporate titans are feted annually due to their personal wealth, increased holdings and general business success, their worship is on par with that of rich and famous athletes, actors and singers.  The more the 1% gain at the expense of the 99%, the more adulation they receive in mainstream media.  It matters not that much of this wealth is often acquired by obvious insider trading, transparent market manipulation and many other more stealthy means of wealth accumulation.

At the end of the day (life cycle of predatory capitalism) it will be these same big time speculators who fleece each other because there will be no one else to fleece.  This is where the world is at this very moment, as the snake of predatory capitalism eats itself everywhere one looks.  Each and every war, conflict and skirmish across the planet represents this inevitable dynamic of the more self-destructive side of corrupt, corporate capitalism.

Very Instructive MBA Lesson, Since They Run The Corporations

There are three answers that one can give in virtually any MBA program in America these days and get a gold star from the professor.  Mind you, it makes no difference what the course is, or the question asked in class.  These following answers will always be right! As follows:

I. Maximize shareholders’ wealth
II. Increase stockholders’ profits
III. Optimize stakeholders’ position

Of course, each of these sacrosanct corporate goals can be accomplished in various ways; one of the quickest is by regular and robust dividend pay out.  Capital appreciation is another which occurs with each increase in the stock price.  These are just two pillars of corporate success which hold up the temple of our post-modern form of predatory capitalism. As long as this temple stands, corrupt, crony, corporate capitalism will continue to lay waste the land … the water … and the seas … all seven of them.

Just why is that?  Because virtually every corporate charter ever written indicates that the corporation answers to the stockholders; they’re the owners.  The needs and demands of the stockholders trump every thing else in the management of the corporate enterprise.  Their enrichment takes precedence over the environment, over the welfare of the employees, over the safety or quality of the product and/or service, over basic social responsibility within the local community.

GM Didn’t Fix Deadly Ignition Switch Because It Would Have Cost $1 Per Car

If the corporate legal team can wiggle its way out of a legitimate lawsuit brought against the company, it will rarely if ever admit to guilt, and will often blame the plaintiff. Because the costs of litigation can be significantly less than the punitive damages associated with a serious and meritorious legal claim, the legal department will almost always opt for the least costly alternative, even when they know they are flat out guilty of illegal and harmful conduct.  In other words, although a corporation now enjoys various privileges of personhood, it has yet to acquire a conscience.

Conclusion:

In view of the current Second Great Depression in which the world now finds itself, it can be said that the planet stands at the brink of a new dawn.  That new dawn is unlike any the world has experienced before, as it is unique and unprecedented within the current epoch of time.

Because the current race of humanity exists as perhaps the largest and most diverse global population in recorded history, there continues to be much which serves to divide and separate us … as individuals and as families, as neighborhoods and villages, cities and states, nations and continents.  Truly, the community of nations is as plagued as ever by wars, revolutions and conflicts.

As the world population exceeds the 7 billion mark by more people each and every day, the differences of the past must be reconciled.  Religious, racial, cultural, language, custom, gender, and sexual differences will always be there, no matter where one resides on the planet.  Because of the growing scarcity of natural resources, however, conflicts in the socio-economic realm are inevitable.  Therefore, economic and financial gaps between us will only widen.  Conflict and wars, quarrel and competition are inevitable where it concerns access to clean water, adequate food and shelter, and sufficient clothing.

This omnipresent fact of life can only be addressed in a meaningful way by eliminating the divisive perception of the many differences which are in reality meaningless.  As long as these differences persist in alienating us from each other, the “800 pound gorilla” will always get its way.  Divide and conquer and/or divide and rule will always be easy for the globalists to execute.  If, however, the overwhelming influence of the gorilla of corporate fascism is dealt with in a bold, decisive and purposeful way, things can change for the better.

It’s always the people’s choice.  Will they choose to live in fear.  Or, will they choose to live with faith and courage.  At the end of the day, as well at the end of this epoch, it will always be the collective will of the people that decides the future of humanity.  Whereas the very fate of the planet now hangs in the balance, perhaps there will be a critical mass of souls compelled to demand real change — change that is positive, durable and effectuated in the best interest of all.

Michael Thomas
February 25, 2014
StateoftheNation2012.com

Author’s Caveat:

There is NO greater threat to human existence than the impunity with which the Government-Corprate Complex currently operates across the planet.  It’s primary instrument of operation is the CORPORATION.  Now that personhood has been conferred upon them, rogue corporations can be used to run roughshod over the Earth like never before.  The status quo in this particular regard was already completely unacceptable; now we will see Gorilla, Inc. on steroids.

Because of the inherent structural defects and profound systemic flaws within the corporate entity, the CORPORATION issue must be addressed at the highest level of global governance.  Such a global transformation of the corporate model will only take place when the people of the world demand it.  Otherwise, our civilization will only continue to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Here’s what one writer has observed and predicted.

“Another announcement will be made, in the not too distant future, about the business entity commonly known as the CORPORATION – the main huckster of this ‘brand’ of faux democracy.  Surely, if the devil were to ever choose the perfect form in which to enter in order to carry out his nefarious designs, Inc. is it.  Is there any other entity on earth – person or party, organization or association, government or institution, jurisdiction or bureaucracy, club or group, fraternity or sorority, etc. that can function with such impunity, as it hides behind the shield of LIMITED LIABILITY.  Those two words have given complete cover for the flagrant and wanton destruction of planet Earth.

You name it – oil slicked coastlines, radiation saturated fishing grounds, razed rainforests, beaches strewn with dead dolphins and whales, GMO-tainted food supply, fluoride-laced water supply, chemtrail chemicals forever falling from the sky.  Not to mention the complete and utter erosion of human, civil and national rights, wherever INC decides to set up shop.”[1]

Endnotes:

[1] GLOBAL MONEY MATRIX SELF DESTRUCTS

References:

Special Message to the Market Oracles and Money Masters of the Universe

All Four Wheels Come Off The Anglo-American Juggernaut

The FOUR HORSEMEN Herald the Death Knell of Predatory Capitalism

© 2014 State of the Nation
Permission is granted to post this essay as long as it is linked back to the following url:http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=3619