Freedom Is Fundamental

There is a great deal of noise and commotion, fighting and fussing, conflict and division, in many areas and many regards, over how people should live. Valuing freedom, in practice as well as rhetoric, ends most of that nonsense.

I don’t care how people dress, or who they sleep with or love, for example. I believe in freedom. If you’re not hurting anyone, then I say, do whatever you want, and live the way you want to. What business is it of mine? But when we are being force-fed global corporate fascism, and being told it is for our own good, then I object.

I have a problem with fascism. Call me old fashioned, but fascism, in any form, is always a nightmare and an atrocity, and can never be tolerated, no matter how it is dressed up or disguised. I think any sane person should agree.

Fight fascism in all its forms. Freedom is not only worth preserving – it is fundamental. Without it, our society rapidly devolves into a gulag. Do not be passive about this latest power bid, in what can be called fascism 3.0; and do not be silent.

J. Todd Ring,
January 22, 2021

Russia, Fascism & The West

Whatever problems Russia has, and every country has problems, as does Russia, two things are clear:

1. Russia is not trying to take over the world. Davos and Washington are doing that.
2. The West is in no position to criticize any nation over human rights. We have imported the Chinese totalitarian model in 2020, as I said in March. We have become a corporate fascist police state.

We need to deal with our own problems, and confront the real dangers, which are here at home. The literally fascist billionaire oligarchs are by far the greatest danger to the world, both at home in the West and around the globe. Anyone who is not cognizant of this fact is simply not dealing with reality.

J. Todd Ring,
December 4, 2020

A State of the World Address (In under two minutes)

It seems to me that the ecological crisis is at a critical stage, as is the war on democracy, with the billionaires and corporations having taken over the planet, and Davos, or the New Palace of Versailles, as John Ralston Saul called it, effectively ruling the world.

It would be good to talk about these things, and not take them lightly, or worse, avoid reality altogether. The fascists and power-mongers win if we are divided. That seems to be their principle strategy: disempower, distract, delude, demoralize and divide the people; eviscerate democracy, and concentrate all power in their hands – with a pretty face of benign authoritarianism (it is never benign) and with a thin veneer of pseudo-democracy to paper it over.

Co-ops are a big part of the answer. Democratizing the economy is key. Banning all private political “donations” – bribes, in honest terms – is also essential. That requires public funding of election campaigns, as is successfully done in some European countries. Breaking up the giant corporate empires, particularly in banking, Big Oil, Big Tech, Big Pharma and the media, is urgently needed, and must be done.

With an estimated $20 trillion sitting in the offshore bank accounts of the super-rich, and with an ecological crisis reaching extinction level, and five billion people living in poverty, a wealth tax is now both a practical as well as a moral necessity. What we need is not a 1%, or 3%, or 8% tax on great wealth, but a 90% tax on all personal wealth above $10 million. And for reasons of justice, as well as economic and social stability, the cancellation of debt is also required.

Likewise, if we have any compassion or moral decency, or common sense, or wish to survive, we should tax all personal income or profits above $1 million a year at 90%, and direct the enormous funds to the two great challenges of our time: eliminating poverty, and creating a truly green society that can survive, and not destroy itself.

I would say the problems in the world are to a large degree caused by both a personal failing – the power elite tend historically to be power-hungry and sociopathic – and also a systems problem: if we allow great concentrations of wealth or power, it results in the corruption of the elite – “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – and it results in abuses of power and in tyranny.

For that reason, people like Thomas Jefferson were wise to urge decentralized, grassroots participatory democracy, with strong safeguards regarding concentrations of power, as well as abuses of power, and strong protections for freedom and constitutional rights for all. What he missed was the need to systematically place checks and balances, and limits on concentrations of power, with regards to economic power, as well as political power. That has been our collective downfall world-wide. And of course, the power hungry elite cannot abuse power unless the people remain apathetic and distracted. This is the root of the problem. The people need to embrace their power. That is the heart of it.

Removing the business elite from their current position as de facto rulers of the world is the essential task – we must be clear on this – and the most urgent of all, followed by a renewal of constitutional democracy, and all that that entails, which I have outlined here and elsewhere.

Revolution is now necessary and unavoidable, if we wish to survive – Gandhian, by strategic necessity as well as moral choice. The power elite will not give up control freely. Along with raising awareness, which is always essential, strikes, boycotts, divestment, blockades and non-violent civil disobedience are now unavoidable and critical.

Remember, history is always happening now. And history is what we make of it.

J. Todd Ring,

November 29, 2020

Post-script:

See my first two published books, Enlightened Democracy, and The People vs The Elite, for detailed strategy, vision and analysis. (Both are on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.) There are also more than 500 essays on my blog, on WordPress.

PPS:

A few of the most inspiring figures to my mind now, along with my greatest heroes, MLK, Gandhi, Tommy Douglas, Chomsky and Thoreau: Vandana Shiva, and Canadian constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati. They both echo exactly what I have been saying and writing for 30 years. They are worth listening to. Turn off the noise and distraction and fluff. Focus, read, reflect, listen, and speak up. The time for boldness is now.

Compromise or Collapse

The elite always do the same thing. They have repeated the same failed patterns for millennia. They never learn. They could be wealthy and powerful, virtually in perpetuity, or at least, for a very long time – if they were willing to compromise. They are not. Instead, they fall into imperial hubris, and imperial over-stretch, every time. And it will mean their total loss of power, and the collapse of their most beloved global empire.

The New Deal was such a compromise, between the ruling business elite and the 99%, but that was forced upon the elite by the people; and now that the ruling business elite are global, transnational, and more powerful, they have decided, as of fifty years ago, to cancel any form of compromise. They reverted to their old form: no compromise – we want it all.

The elite have, as always, two choices: compromise with the 99%, or try for total power. They always fall to greed, egomania, hubris and imperial over-reach; and for that reason, every empire follows the same pattern, and in the end collapses.

The newest of empires, which is the global, bi-partisan corporate empire of billionaire business elites, has decided that compromise is out, fascism is in. It will be their downfall.

The elite could accept that in order to remain wealthy and powerful they must accept that there is an unstoppable awakening occurring across humanity – and that requires, above all, a more equitable sharing of both wealth and power. That, they refuse to do.

In order to remain wealthy and powerful, and not see their empire collapse, the elite would would have to accept that the awakening of humanity, which is now emerging rapidly, requires that freedom, democracy, constitutional rights and constitutional rule be honoured, while inequality is greatly reduced, poverty is eliminated, peace and disarmament is accepted as an urgent priority, and a Green New Deal which provides full employment while healing the planet and establishing a truly green and vibrant economy, is actively embraced.

In short, the elite would have to stop acting as the primary roadblocks to all the necessary and urgent changes, and instead, partner with the 99% to swiftly achieve them. A few of the business and political elite might favour such a plan, but the clear majority do not.

(Soros, Gates, The Rockefellers and Davos, clearly do not favour compromise – they are deeply committed to global technocracy, and to deeply authoritarian global elite rule.)

In fact, the majority of the Global Power Elite have shown that they are adamantly opposed to any compromise, and to any serious positive action in any of these areas, and are instead committed to their current, long-standing agenda, which is global technocratic fascism, and the culmination of the war on democracy and freedom.

The stakes could not be higher. The trouble ahead is dire. But the elite will lose in their grand plan, because they are repeating the same mistakes that have been enacted throughout history. Hubris, egomania and power-lust drives them, and that will be their downfall, as always.

This is no time for complacency, however. The people must stand – and now.

J. Todd Ring,
November 22, 2020

What Must Be Done: The Briefest Possible Sketch

We must educate and inform ourselves and others; speak up and stand up for both compassion (ie: public health) and freedom; sow non-violent democratic revolution to dethrone the sociopathic corporate oligarchs; nourish ourselves, our families, and our communities in body, mind and spirit; build networks of community, solidarity, cooperation, mutual aid and resilience; seek out and actively build better models – and never surrender.

This may seem a tall order, but we have survived and overcome many tremendous challenges before – the last ice age, for example, or the first wave of fascism, 75 years ago – and these things are entirely achievable. 

J. Todd Ring,

November 1, 2020

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.

Censorship, Big Tech & The Closing Down of Society

Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and the MAGATs – Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and Twitter – are all now embedded and engaged in censorship, data mining, privacy invasion, the new global surveillance and police state, and/or state-corporate propaganda, and manipulation of elections and the public mind (ie: the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica proven manipulation of facebook users and the general public to sway the election in 2016 in favour of Trump, for a fee, paid by one of the billionaire plutocracy). 

In other words, unless you want to live in Orwell’s dystopia of 1984, or Huxley’s Brave New World, you had better start the exodus from, and boycott of, Big Tech now. 

At least make a start. I’ve written about it on my blog, J. Todd Ring on WordPress, in terms of why, how, and what the alternatives are. Keep a foot in the dinosaur media and platforms if you like, but at least open accounts in the new and better alternatives, which refuse censorship, surveillance and Big Brother.

Patreon is now reportedly censoring and purging. Medium appears questionable. 

The global neofeudal corporate fasist oligarchy has taken over nearly everything, including the global economy and financial system, the major international organizations, such as the IMF, WTO, WEF, BIS, ECB, Fed, World Bank and the WHO, nearly all governments, all the major media, much of academia, science and the big environmental groups, and most of the internet. 

As to free speech zones online or off, they are falling and being closed down fast. The Guardian was a decent paper, then they bravely published Snowdon’s important leaks, then was clearly leaned on and lost its soul – as just one of myriad recent examples. The same happened a generation earlier to the Washngton Post and NY Times after the Pentagon Papers.

*

Of course, I long ago, decades ago, moved away from any reliance, and generally any reading or viewing at all, of the utterly unreliable corporate-state media. And yes, the two have merged, as the new ruling empire of global corporatism represents the merger of big business and the state; which, as Mussolini said, is the proper definition for fascism.

80% of the world’s major media is now owned by six corporations. State media such as the BBC and CBC have of course been systematically corrupted by the corporate take-over of governments around the world. Even “public” broadcasters such as PBS and TVO are deeply corrupted by their reliance on big money from corporattions and billionaire-controlled foundations. And the “alternative media” suffers systemically from group think, herd mentality, or simple co-option through foundation money or other means. Democracy is not dying, it is being strangled to death by the power-hungry business elite.

At least have a thoughtful look at better alternatives and generally far more reliable sources for information, research, news and analysis. Shun, or at least, do not rely on the big media giants, Big Tech, Wikipedia, governments, big business, corporate-controlled bodies such as the WHO, or even the “alternative media”. Question everything. Think for yourself.

At this moment, there are a handful of sources I trust as having high reliability, honesty, intelligence, and courage. They are not infallible, but they are light years above the sordid and corrupt major media, which are an echo chamber and propaganda system for the ruling business elite, as John Pilger and Noam Chomsky have said.

And they are incomparably more reliable than the general “alternative media”, which seem to excel on many issues, but get all the biggest issues wrong: such as the War On Terror, 9/11, Obamamania, Russiagate, the Ukraine coup, Syria, the OPCW, the new cold war(s), China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, covid-1984….and the list goes on.

Take a serious and thoughtful look at these sources, then decide for yourself – on every subject! We have innate intelligence. We need to use it far more than our “new normal”, or even our old normal, would allow. Banish group think, read and listen to diverse views, and think for yourself.

Remember, united we stand, divided we fall. Divide and conquer is the most essential and time-tested strategy of all empires throughout the ages, including the latest: the global neofeudal crypto-fascist corporate oligarchy. Unite the people. We have more in common than most people realize. It is the 99% vs the 1%, not left vs right, or black vs white. Read widely, think deeply, then unite the people, and stand. And now. MLK shows the way.

*

Look into these ten sources, then decide things for yourself. And remember, we don’t all have to agree on everything.

Trends Research (Trends Journal)

Global Research (Centre for Research on Globalization)

GreenMedInfo (one of the two remaining reliable sources I know of for science-based health information, along with Gary Null, on PRN)

Max Keiser, The Keiser Report

Michael Hudson

Vandana Shiva

The Council of Canadians

The David Suzuki Foundation

The Corbett Report

The American Herald Tribune

*

I have moved my email to Protonmail, my web searches to Swiss Cows, my browser to Brave, and my main social networking and chat platforms to Minds and Telegram. I urge others to do the same.

Next is to switch hardware to Purism, for phones, servers and laptops. And as a writer, I need to find a platform that is *dedicated* to free speech.

Blogger (my original site) is owned by the evil mega-corp Google, and Google censors, as do all the Big Tech vampires. WordPress, which I currently use, I just discovered, is now censoring bloggers and writers, too. Where to find a blog platform that respects and defends freedom of speech? I am looking.

(The new CSM editing system for WordPress is so extremely intrusive, counter-intuitive, and obnoxiously obstructive, absolutely in the road at every turn, that I was planning a rapid exodus anyway. Any whiff of censorship only confirms my feeling that it is soon time to leave. Maybe the people at WordPress will respond with a better CSM editing system and a public vow to protect free speech. I will not hold my breath, but I would love to be pleasantly surprised. Hint, hint, Quislings and Vichys… Get it together, or be adandoned in the rapidly unfolding exodus from Big Tech and nauseatingly suffocating platforms.)

Fight for freedom, as well as justice, equality, ecological sanity, democracy, peace, and constitutional rule and human rights for all, or we are in for a very dark time ahead, followed by extinction and collapse. Truly, this is our situation now, and it is a global darkness that is swallowing us up.

Stand up and speak out now, or our future will be unimaginably bleak, I can assure you.

Stand!

J. Todd Ring,

October 1, 2020

Essential Reading:

Christopher Simpson and Mark Crispin Miller: Blowback: America’s Secret Recruiting of Nazis

Noam Chomsky: Necessary Illusions: Thought Control In Democratic Societies 

Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine

Naomi Wolf: The End of America

John Perkins: A Game As Old As Empire, and, The New Confessions Of An Economic Hitman

John Pilger: The New Rulers Of The World

Peter Phillips: Giants: The Global Power Elite 

Vandana Shiva: Oneness vs The 1% (Coming soon)

And 

Read my first two books for a clear, concise overview and an in-depth and sweeping global and historical analysis of what we face, how we got here, where we are heading, and what must be done:

Enlightened Democracy: Visions For A New Millennium (2014)

The People vs The Elite: A Manifesto For Democratic Revolution, Or, Survival In The 21st Century & Beyond (2020)

Both are on Amazon and Barnes & Noble now. 

Or better yet, support your local independent bookstore, and order through them. Phone them now.

Big Exodus from Big Tech

Time for the exodus to begin in earnest from the now confirmed to be fascist and deeply Orwellian Big Tech giants. At the least, we need to begin the migration and the shift, by supporting and using the alternative social media, search engines, email, browsers, etc., which do not data mine, manipulate or track us, and who do respect privacy and freedom of speech, refuse censorship, and refuse to partner with the new global surveillance and corporate police state.

A starting place would be to open accounts with, support, promote, and shift entirely or partially to these non-fascist or anti-fascist alternatives.

Boycott and ditch Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Twitter, and social media giant Farcebook – or at least begin the move away from the Big Tech MAGATS and Fangs.

Shift entirely to these now, I would urge:

Telegram for chat and instant messaging

Swiss Cows for web searches

Protonmail for email

and at least begin the shift and migration to:

Telegram and Minds.com for social networking

And when it is time to replace or upgrade hardware, ditch Chinese slave labour-based Apple, Emperor Gates’ Gulag Microshit, as well as “Embedded In Evil” Google’s Android.

Go to Purism for phones, tablets and laptops.

JTR,
September 27, 2020

(And no, I get no commission or pay of any kind from promoting these categorically and incomparably better alternatives. I simply value freedom and despise fascism – in any and all flavours!)

NoToFascism #NoToBigTech #BoycottBigTech

MLK #RevolutionNow

https://www.minds.com/

Averting Fascism

Fascism is rising – here is how to avert it.

A short video talk, linked below, sparked these thoughts, which I will share. May they bless us with the courage, and the presence of mind, to avert the rising of fascism once again – which, make no mistake, is indeed our present course, and rising now.

I disagree with Yuval on some points, but he is a definite ally if he champions democracy and freedom, and opposes fascism. And further, he wisely urges decentralization, in order to preserve the former and prevent the latter, as Thomas Jefferson and many others have realized and urged as well.

He also helped the cause of both freedom and justice, which are not at odds, except in the minds of the indoctrinated and confused, by distinguishing nationalism, which is helpful, from fascism, hubris, xenophobia and aggression, which are always dangerous as well as delusional.

Moreover, he hit the proverbial nail on the head, by saying that fascism stems from fear and ego. Precisely. Transcend, or at least keep in check, these two human weaknesses, and we can live in freedom, well-being, richness of life, unity amidst diversity, and in peace.

I would add, however, that it is not really vanity or ego that is the root problem, but only the surface appearance of the problem. Vanity and ego attachment arise when people lack confidence, dignity, and trust in themselves. That is why they have ego attachment and vanity, and must continuously puff themselves up and build themselves up in various ways.

As Aldous Huxley, C. Wright Mills, Erich Fromm, and myself have pointed out, the deeper problem is that the people do not trust themselves. That is why they seek ego affirmation. And it is the deeper reason why they give their power away to elites, demagogues, false messiah figures, authoritarians, and to fascists.

(See: Brave New World Revisited, The Power Elite, Escape From Freedom, and my own work, Enlightened Democracy, and, The People vs The Elite.)

We must encourage and inspire the people to trust themselves. That is the root challenge. Then, they, and we, will make mistakes, certainly; but we will avoid the terrible pitfalls of fascism and elite rule, which are always incomparably greater disasters, and result in far greater suffering, far greater problems, and far greater evils.

Respect yourself and others. Trust yourself. Keep your dignity at all times. Have compassion for all beings, and for yourself. Forget the petty ego, which is a charade. True dignity runs deeper than that.

Inspire, encourage and empower yourself and others. Then, fascism will become impossible; and a better world for all, a world of freedom and justice both, will be, not only a beautiful dream, but a reality.

Or we can do what the majority of people, including activists and intellectuals, are doing. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. That should prevent fascism. It always worked before.

J. Todd Ring,

September 17, 2020

Ok, WordPress is being buggy again. I must ditch this platform soon. I can’t seem to paste the video link, sorry!

Web search – on Swiss Cows, never the fascist tech giant Google:

Why Fascism Is So Tempting

See also, my recent essays:

Knowledge Is Power

The Failure Of Propaganda

Sinking All Ships

Any Enemy Will Do

Importing From China

Geopolitics 2020

Flash Drive Revolution

Economic Theory & Reality: Revolution Now

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.

1. 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.
2. 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