Corporate Fascism 101

We do not live in a democracy. We now live in an oligarchy, or plutocracy, or corporatocracy, if you prefer, as ivy league studies and systems analysis have confirmed, in a case of science confirming the obvious. Most people are now aware of that obvious fact, but sadly, most people live in denial of what they know to be true.

We don’t live in a capitalist society, either. Capitalist societies rapidly self-destruct. Capitalist economies require massive state intervention to survive at all. The business elite insists upon it.

What we had, 200 years ago, was liberal capitalist democracy. But that was highly oligarchic from the beginning, highly elite ruled; and it morphed rapidly into elite-run crony capitalism, with a constant tension between the outward forms of democracy, and the very real concentration of real power in the hands of the business elite.

“I pray we shall crush the moneyed aristocracy in its infancy, for already it bids defiance to our laws and seeks a contest of strength with our democratic government.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1812

200 years ago Thomas Jefferson warned that the business elite was trying to take over democracy. We failed to listen. That is why we face globalist corporate fascism now, which is neither capitalist nor democratic, but rather, a form of global, technocratic, neo-feudal totalitarianism.

What do the ruling billionaire elite want? It is nothing new. They want ever more wealth, and more dangerously, ever more power. They want to be pharaohs, Tzars. They want to be God-kings. It is simple power-lust, and it is the most dangerous thing in the world.

A conversation I heard recently, from within the pyramidal power structure of one of the Fortune 500 corporations, expresses the dark truth, or the lesser aspect of it, at least: the aspect of limitless greed – which always hides an equally limitless power lust, just beneath the surface.

“Everyone loves the culture [the corporate culture of a particular company, that is]. But everyone knows that culture doesn’t grow a company. Culture doesn’t increase stock prices.”

That sums up the driving force of corporate crony capitalism. When everyone loves the culture of a corporation, that means workers are treated well; wages and salaries, pensions and benefits are good; the corporation respects human rights and human dignity; treats customers, local communities and the environment well; and it’s a good place to work. And it is entirely possible to run a profitable business based in these ethical principles. That won’t do, however. All these things must be sacrificed, not only for the profits of the billionaire owners, but for *ever increasing* profits and wealth for the 0.001% who own and control the large corporations, along with dominating and effectively controlling most governments, the global economy, the financial system, the money printing, the media, a growing majority of what we call science, and a growing majority of wealth on Earth.

By 2011, the richest 68 individuals controlled more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. The number of billionaires controlling the majority of wealth on Earth has shrunk every year since. We are being devoured, eaten alive.

We, the people, the 99%, are to be peasants, serfs, or slaves, because great power and great wealth are not enough for the billionaires. As George Carlin said, “They want it all.” Or as Adam Smith put it, it is what he called, “The vile maxim of the masters”: “All for us, nothing for anyone else.”

That means, we are being driven into a world empire based in hyper-concentration of power, and hyper-inequality, along with the complete dismemberment and destruction of all that remains of democracy, freedom, and constitutional rights; into neo-feudalism: into a dark, Orwellian global police state, where the .001% will “own” virtually everything – including our bodies, our data, our thoughts, and our world.

The central question is not whether we should have capitalism versus some other system; but whether we will live in a world ruled by a rabidly elitist plutocracy, and with it, global fascism, or whether we will have genuine democracy, constitutional rights, and freedom.

We need to wake the people to the truly grave dangers that we face, and now, or we will descend rapidly into a dark age that would make Huxley and Orwell shudder, and roll in their graves.

Speak now. Stand up now.

It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it does indeed bend toward justice.

Stand.

J. Todd Ring,
October 27, 2020

Further reading:

See Canadian constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati (on Twitter & Youtube), and my first two books:

Enlightened Democracy: Visions For A New Millennium

and

The People vs The Elite: A Manifesto For Democratic Revolution,
Or, Survival In the 21st Century & Beyond

Both are on Barnes & Noble now.