Conspiracy Theories vs The Known Facts: Fascism, Oligarchy, & Elite Rule – vs – Freedom, Democracy & Rule By The People

As Piers Robinson has said, it’s gotten to the point where questioning power (powerful states, individuals, corporations, institutions or groups) in any way gets you labelled a conspiracy theory. In other words, we’re not supposed to question the powerful.

The powerful can do no wrong, and are therefore above any possible question of wrong-doing. Such notions are of course utterly deceitful if cynically expressed, or else delusional, if honestly held.

Of course power can and should be questioned. That is not only legitimate, but also critically essential to a free and open, democratic society. When the possibility of questioning those in power begins to close down, then you know the society is closing down, and fascism or some other form of tyranny is moving in. That is when questioning power becomes, not only legitimate and vital, but urgently required. Such is the time now in the West, and around the world.

As the saying goes, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts abolutely.” And it is true: which is why it is also true that the price of democracy is eternal vigiliance.

“Wait and see” …there are times when such a response is simply psychotic. If you are crossing the railway tracks and you hear a train whistle, then look up to see a freight train barrelling toward you, it would be psychotic to respond by thinking, “Let’s wait and see what happens.” You get off the tracks. And if others are also in danger, you call out to others to warn them as well, naturally.

There are times when the danger is clear, and must be both acknowledged, and acted upon. Anything less would be simply insane.

Well, there is a clear and present danger, very much akin to a freight train barrelling towards us at high speed – yet the great majority of the people are either asleep on the tracks, or are taking a “wait and see” attitude, unbelievably.

The fact is, however, despite the mass somnambulance, the great majority of people in the world have lost faith, trust and confidence in the political and business elite, international institutions (such as the IMF, WTO, World Bank and ECB), the economic and political systems, pundits, “experts”, and the major media. This is hopeful. Loss of faith in these “leaders”, institutions, power structures, systems, “authorities”, oligarchs and elites, means that common sense is not yet dead.

There is a global awakening taking place, and people are highly aware that corruption is quite common, if not systemic – and it is systemic.

People know now, that individuals, groups, institutions, corporations, states and groups, sometimes do indeed carry out dark deeds. And of course they know that the darkest deeds are kept secret, or are disguised.

These things are simply common sense: evil exists; or dark deeds, if you prefer to call it something else. We are not five years old. We know that while, as Chomsky said, “The great majority have basically decent impulses”, there are always a few in every generation who are ruthlessly predatory, filled with egomania, power-lust, hatred, or insatiable greed. And it is perfectly clear that people in power are equally capable of dark motives and dark deeds.

In fact, it is arguable, and easily demonstrated, that allowing power to be highly concentrated in society attracts the corrupt and the power-hungry, and ends up giving the worst among us great powers to abuse. The logical response, therefore, would be to hold the powerful to a much higher standard of questioning and skepticism, because the known risks for abuse of power are proven to be so great.

The longer term sensible response would be to place more effective checks and balances on power than the framers of modern democracy had felt necessary. Clearly they were wrong. Their checks and balances were not sufficient. Now we must correct the error, and very soon, if not right away.

Democracy and freedom are founded on the most basic premises: these are, among others, that freedom is a value to preserved; that democracy, or rule of the people by the people, especially if it is constitutional democracy, with rights and liberties, and a voice, guaranteed, or at least constitutionally protected, for all, offers greater freedom and also less danger of abuse of power than any form of oligarchy or elite rule; that any government, institution, individual or group can be corrupted by power; that the greater the concentration of power, the greater the danger of power being abused, and being abused more severely and more systematically, until democracy and freedom themselves are destroyed; and that an informed and engaged public, a free exchange of ideas and information, and the questioning of power, and the transparency and accountability of power, are therefore essential and critical to both freedom and to democracy.

That makes questioning authority, elites, and powerful groups, institutions, organizations, corporations, individuals and states, not only acceptable and legitimate, but an urgent duty and a moral imperative, at all times, and especially when signs of growing concentrations of power, abuse of power, and assaults on democracy, civil liberties and freedom are underway – as they clearly are now, and have been for well over fifty years.

*

And as the global death toll from coronavirus reaches 58,000, or 1/10th the typical yearly death toll from the common flu, and manufactured hysteria becomes the really dangerous pandemic, while fascist machinations contine to exploit the crisis, it is more critical than ever to think for ourselves, and to question everything. The virus is real; but the danger has been greatly exaggerated – and most importantly, the crisis has been used by elites, both East and West, to consolidate their power by stripping the people of their power, their liberties, and their rights. It is critical that we question this emerging global police state now.

*

Some people may dismiss what I am saying, when I speak of a global corporate take-over or coup – something which should be obvious to all by now, and is now obvious to most people -by calling me a leftist; as if that precludes or ends all possibility of rational discussion or debate, or in any way alters the facts of the matter.

Considering that the entire poliitical spectrum has been very deliberately slid far to the right over the past 50 years, in a highly conscious elite response to the cultural awakening of the 1960’s, which liberal elites in the Trilateral Commision called, “an excess of democracy”; considering that even the US Democratic Party, the British Labour Party, and the Canadian Liberal Party, are now wholely owned organs of the ruling corporate elite, and have become supporters of a far right take-over of the economy, the political process and the government by big business, and that all of them are now far to the right of Eisenhower, a moderate Republican; and furthermore, considering that anyone who is not far to the right of FDR, is now considered a radical leftist – I will wear the badge with pride.

In any case, it means nothing to dismiss someone as leftist – especially in light of what we have just now described.

Others may dismiss me by calling me a “conspiracy theorist” – which is a meaningless term, designed simply to shut down all debate or discussion.

I agree with what Chomsky said about the phrase. “Conspiracy theory is a term that is used to poo-poo institutional analysis.” Exactly.

As Chomsky has said, “If you want to understand a society, you have to look at where power lies.” That should be self-evident – that should be politics or sociology 101.

What Michael Parenti said on the matter was also  instructive, as well as amusing. He said (I’m paraphrasing from memory here), “People say to me, “Do you think there are powerful men who meet in a ROOM somewhere?!” To which Parenti replied, with his New Yorker piercing wit, “No, I don’t think there are powerful men meeting in a ROOM somewhere. They talk about their plans while skydiving, 5,000 feet in the air…. Of course they meet in a ROOM! Where do you think they’re going to meet?”

And he went on to point out the obvious: powerful men, and a few women, have certain shared class interests. Dockworkers get together to discuss their shared interests. Librarians get together to discuss their shared interests. Teachers and nurses and auto workers and miners get together to discuss their shared interests. But people think it’s inconceivable that business elites might get together to discuss their shared interests?

Let’s not be absurd. Of course the billionaires get together to discuss their common interests. We even know where and when: it’s called Davos, at the World Economic Forum. It’s no secret. Maybe some people have heard of it. That’s the group that Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul called, “the new royal court”, ” the new Palace of Versailles” – the group that the leading business journal in the Western world, The Financial Times, called, “The de facto world government.”

What theory? These are simply known facts.

Most of the elite grew up in the same rich boys neighbourhoods, went to the same rich boys schools, belong to the same rich men’s clubs. And the newcomers to the plutocratic oligarchy tend to join gleefully into the ranks, sliding effortlessly into the ruling ideology of self-serving, self-justifying, self-deceiving vanity, narcissism, egomania, power-lust and greed, rationalized by pretenses of being world-benefactors.

A scumbag like Bill Gates, who got his start by stealing and cheating, can schmooze comfortably with the self-aggrandizing Rockefeller clan, and be “one of the boys”, because he has joined the same rich man’s clubs, and has adopted the same rich man’s delusions of grandeur and self-deceit.

Elite clubs have been described as a mafia poker game. Once in a while someobody pulls out a gun and shoots someobody else at the table – and yes, everyboody in the room is competing with everybody else in the room – but they all want the game to continue, and nobody wants their game interrupted for any reason, especially by outsiders.

We know that the world’s power elite get together to plan their common interests in effectively ruling the world. We even know the names of their clubs – they’re not secret: the WTO, the World Economic Forum, the IMF, the World Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commision, the Bilderberg Group.

We know most of their elite boys clubs, their names, and a good deal about them. And they show a few common, recurring themes: the elite hate democracy – because it limits their power, and puts restrictions on their actions, and their global looting and profits; and they do love power, and will use various Machiavellian methods to maintain and increase and consolidate their power.

These are the two overwhelmingly predominant and consistent themes among the elite rich boys clubs. And they are not very surprising. They indicate what Adam Smith refer to as, “the vile maxim of the masters”, which he said was, “all for us, nothing for anyobody else” – which is still, to this day, the clear maxim and philosophy of the ruling elite.

*

I myself consider there to be only two US Presidents who are worthy of respect, to my knowledge (though, admittedly, as a Canadian, my knowledge of US history is glaringly spotty and incomplete, despite, I think, the broad patterns being understood fairly well). They are Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders of the country, and the only true democrat among the founders, the rest being elitist oligarchs, as we can see from their own words; and Eisenhower, a Republican President who warned us of the military industrial complex, and the potential rise of a technocratic fascism.

Jefferson warned us of exactly what I have been writing about, except that he wrote it in 1812, over 200 years ago. He said, “I pray we shall crush the birth of the moneyed aristocracy in its infancy, for already it bids defiance to our laws and seeks a contest of strength with our democratic government.”

But he was just a conspiracy theorist, of course. We needn’t take him seriously.

Eisenhower, I would say – who was, again, a Republican, and a conservative – was the last US president worthy of respect, from what the historical record clearly shows, and also, the one who warned us of the growing power of the deep state, the shadow government, or the power elite, which he called, the military industrial complex. If agreeing with Eisenhower, that the military industrial complex and the shadowy power elites its serves, should be viewed with caution and skepticism, and watched carefully for potentially great abuses of power, makes me a conspiracy theorist, then call me a conspiracy theorist – along with US President Eisenhower.

Under those, most reasonable stipulations, I will happily accept the badge, though I still think it misdirects the people from the actual issues at hand, and thus, serves only to cloud the people’s judgment and their minds.

We know that the richest three men in the US now control as much wealth as the poorest half of Americans. We know that the richest eight individuals in the world now control more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. The figures show us unmistakably that we have moved from liberal democracies, 200 years ago, into crony capitalism dominated by business elites, to the full merger of busines and the state, which is corporatism: which, as Mussolini himself said, is the proper term for fascism.

Whether you are left, right or centre, the fact of growing and unchecked concentrations of power remains, and has reached extreme degrees.

There is nothing theoretical about it. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

JTR,

March 22, 2020