Know this: we must understand and boldly address economics in fundamental ways, or there is no hope, in terms of justice, prosperity, the environment, democracy, freedom, or peace, but only a black hole future of darkly dystopian, genocidal, ecocidal, and ultimately suicidal Orwellian corporate rule.
Economic theory and policy – what a morass. What a rotting bog! What a dung heap of self-justifying mass, systemic delusion and self-deceit. But we need to make sense of it, and cut through the fog, and urgently so. Why? Here is why.
- The real political philosophy, and the real, derivative economic policy that rule the world is, and has been for a long time, “Let them eat cake.” It is “the vile maxim of the masters”, as Adam Smith called it, which, as he said, is “All for us. Nothing for anybody else.” The currently ruling economic theory, model, paradigm or orthodoxy, which is neoliberalism, and its equally evil twin, neoconservatism, is simply a rationalization and a smoke screen for crony capitalism on steroids, which has over the past 50 years deliberately morphed itself, in silence, in a slow motion global corporate coup, into corporatism, which, as Mussolini said, is the merger of business and the state, and is the proper term for fascism. So, under cover of the ideological bullshit of a rising tide lifting all boats, or the trickle down theory, what we have is rabid class warfare and economic warfare, with the banking elite and the Fortune 100 biggest corporations, the richest 0.1%, devouring the poor, the middle class, small and medium businesses en mass, the real economy and economic infrastructure, the social infrastructure, and even the affluent and the merely rich, along with the planet, while amassing control of all assets, wealth, resources and power into their hands. And big government and big money are now fused into an all-consuming, ravenous, insatiable eating machine, that is not only eating the people and the planet alive, but also, all that remains of freedom, democracy and constitutional rule, driving us at break-neck speed into a barren and toxic, global dystopia that would make Orwell shudder.
- Ok, that was several major problems listed together, for they are inseparably linked to the central problem, which is excessive concentration of power – and that CANNOT be resolved by limiting or even dissolving government and political power merely. It requires limiting and placing strict checks on both political and also economic power. And that, by now, requires fiercesome anti-trust action to break up the entire corporate oligarchy, and, with possibly a few exceptions, break up the Fortune 1000 corporations competely. I would urge we break them up immediately, which requires Gandhian revolution, and distribute their assets to the people broadly, and globally, since they have been stripping assets globally, and turn each corporate empire into a coordinated federation of local democratic co-ops, with ownership divided in shares among three main groups: the local workers, the local community, and the global community of citizens. But however we do it, we must break them up immediately, or they will devour us, and all life on Earth along with us. Make no mistake.
Does a free market economy work? No, all questions of justice aside, it simply implodes. Chile tried it under Pinoche. It was a disaster economically, as well as sociologically. (See Naomi Klein and Greg Palast) A mixed economy had to be reintroduced to stem the hemorrhaging, and restart the collapsed economy.
Does elite run central planning work? Not well, and it creates a gulag society, as China and the USSR have shown. Not remotely acceptable, though the West has now adopted it in 2020, ominously.
Do locally owned, economically democratic co-ops work? Yes, it is amply proven. Mondragon and myriad examples prove it beyond doubt. And it is a model with vast emancipatory power, which we have barely glimpsed so far.
What must be done?
First, remove the bankers and other corporate elites from power. Nothing changes until that happens. We are living in a dreamworld if we think otherwise. That means revolution. Get ready for it. It is coming, and fast. And the enormously heightened feeding frenzy and class warfare, the ramped up, feverish economic warfare of the plutocrats on the other 99.9% of humanity in 2020 will mean that: a) economic collapse is coming fast; and b) civil war and revolution will follow right behind; with c) ruthless fascist repression unleashed in response, and rationalized in order to restore “order”.
We need to restore the power of democratically elected governments at three levels, firstly – national, provincial/state, and local. This is necessary in order to reign in the business elites, as Chomsky has emphasized, though his long term vision accords with Bertrand Russell’s, Bookchin’s and mine, which is libertarian socialism: which means freedom with compassion and cooperation, or mutual aid. Libertarians and anarchists must understand this, or tyranny is all we can expect.
After restoring democratic power to the nations, states and provinces, and to local communities, and removing the business elite from their current position as the new technocratic, neofeudal, fascist overlords, both of which are urgently required and unavoidable; then, and only then, can we decentralize power further. First things first: we must remove the neoliberal and neoconservative fascists from power, and now.
In the short term, democratic nations with mixed economies, serious anti-trust policies, free and fair trade, and both serious anti-pollution laws and green New Deal economic stimulus programs, and above all, dethroning the bankers, by ditching fiat money, implementing a tax on financial speculation, instituting serious capital controls, and dethroning the Fortune 100 by de-chartering them and breaking them up via vigorous and fearless anti-trust action (Teddy Roosevelt would understand), and restoring full constitutional rights for all, would take us a long way, and very rapidly if we have the will, toward a peaceful, clean, green, just, and free world, and a better world for all.
It’s not rocket science. Economics is the dismal science. In truth it is medieval, scholastic, quasi-religious, pseudo-science run by high priests who are as indoctrinated as they are deluded. The whole “profession” is awash in delusion and systemic self-deceit, and functionally serves to rationalize and justify rabidly anti-democratic, world-razing, sociopathic elite rule and global looting and pillaging, the strip-mining of people and the planet, and the cancerous consumption of all life. Remove the crypto-fascist sociopaths from power, and we can swiftly make real, rapid progress from there. Dethrone the oligarchs and their high priests, and we will be half way there.
The moderate grassroots right understand that the core problem is authoritarian technocratic corporate oligarchy, just as the saner minds on the left understand it. In fact, my estimate is that 30% of the people, who are on the moderate right, and 30% of the people who are on the left, understand this fact, and what needs to be done, which is to remove the oligarchs from power. Only the timid 30% in the centre quiver in their boots at such bold statements and bold propositions. Well, to hell with the eternally vacant and spineless centre, I say. Unite the right and the left, and let’s get on with the revolution and the task at hand. Remove the fascist bipartisan corporate elite from power, restore freedom and constitutional democracy, or the republic if you prefer that term, and return the power to the people, where it rightfully belongs, and we will be well on our way to a better world for all.
Don’t let the Orwellian-Machiavellian swindlers fool you. The core problem really is that simple to fix: remove the crooks from power. Restore power to the people, and now.
JTR,
September 15, 2020
Writings of J. Todd Ring 