Corporate Takeover

The issues in America today stem not from "politics" so much as systemic poisoning. One of the most overused phrases since the 1960's to the present day has been "the Corporate Takeover of America". The alarms have been sounded, over and over, but unlike a fire unless you know where and what to look for, you won't see much in the way of smoke and flames.

I started rethinking this subject lately when I stumbled across a DVD at my local video store, The Corporation. It looked interesting, it's one of my favorite subjects, so I rented it and played it that night. What I saw was proof of a concept that had been nagging at me for years. I've always wondered how so many corporations could act so irresponsibly and even malevolently, when the bulk of the people employed by these entities are for the most part just very ordinary people. The answer was presented clearly and concisely, and jarred me awake like a well aimed slap to the face.

Corporations, by design, are not evil but rather psychotic. If any individual displayed the behaviors that most modern corporations do, in and against the public, they would be either imprisoned or a least placed in an institution for the criminally insane. These behaviors are mapped into corporate entities, not as an accident but as their reason for existence, and unless regulated and controlled by external forces, will evolve to their ultimate end... an all consuming, amorphous, and amoral entity subjugating the individuals of society and feeding off both their trust and fears.

The rise of the multi-national corporations, and their control of wealth, influence and power can be checked, and defended against by the people. In America, as a democratically governed Republic, the government was often the only thing standing between destructive greed and enslavement, and the public good. Something changed in the latter half of the 20th century, the American people voted in a presidential election not for their own self-interests and the common good but instead voted as if they were participating in some precursor of American Idol. Thus was born the Age of Voodoo Economics and the releasing of the most psychotic entities created, to do as they wished unfettered and uncontrolled.

Corporate influence on government has begun to cross the line, from influence to control. First lets take a quick peek behind the curtain at the power structure of Corpzilla, Inc. Businesses are NOT democracies, this is obvious to anyone who has been in the workforce for more than a week. In fact probably the closest model that could be applied would be the feudal system of the Dark Ages. The rulers are the Board of Directors, equivalent to the nobility, but these folks are entrusted to carry out the edicts of the real powers that be in their universe... the majority stock-holders. The Board has one mission, and one mission only, and that is to generate income for the shareholders... and if the small shareholders interests conflict with the major players goals, well as we said... a business is not a democracy. The politics of Corporatocracy are based on the simplest of rules, that the major shareholders recieve maximum profits, even if it means stealing from the customers and employees. There lies the crux of the problem, and the source of the systemic poisoning of the American form of government. By removing controls on Business, and aligning governmental influence with Big Business the traditional roles of Government versus Business have been reversed. Corporate politics is serious, dangerous, and brutal and is based on a top down mode of rule.

Now lets take a quick look at current politics. The Bush administration has put forth the notion of the Unitary Executive, as an entity that overrules all other branches of the Government. They have been granted the power to wage (undeclared) war by fiat decision, they have taken the position that our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties exist only if they do not inconvenience the Executive branch and/or question their authority. They argue that the country is at war, despite the fact that war was never declared by the one branch of Government that has that right. Backed by the top echelon of the Justice Dept. and the Supreme Court they defy Congress and take as their own the rights and privileges that have always been the domain of Peoples branch of the Government.. the Legislature.

I submit that this current Administration, in collusion with Congress, are replacing the carefully balanced form of Governance, guaranteed by the Constituion and based on the consent of the People, with a classic Corporate form of Governance. A form which sees the People not as the source of it's legitimate power, but as a resource to be manipulated and exploited. This is the true threat of Corporate power when unchecked by regulation and taxation, in the end the Government itself is absorbed by Big Money and Big Business. Unless we the People of these United States reclaim our own rights, and the power guaranteed us by Rule of the Supreme Law of the Land we will become nothing more than high-tech versions of our peasant ancestors from the Middle Ages.