There's an interesting and thought-provoking article at the Daily Bell. It's titled "Why the Corporate State Doesn’t Target the American Left". Here's a short excerpt.
When Biden’s executive branch sets its internal security apparatus sights on “domestic extremists” (intelligence jargon for any group or individual who deviates from the corporate state narrative), The Daily Bell was among the first independent media to sound the alarm.
However, we didn’t rigorously assess why the populist Right, and not the Left, poses an existential threat to the ruling class.
The “establishment” references the conglomeration of dominant interest groups that sits atop the political food chain.
In a past era (in the Western context, before the original Industrial Revolution), the establishment was a landed aristocracy in collusion with the Church and militaries that ruled nation-states.
In the 21st century iteration of feudalism, the ruling class is a consortium of multinational offshore corporate elite.
Theoretically, regardless of who occupies power, any social group outside of the establishment is a latent threat – hence the oppressive apparatuses of state throughout history from the Red Guards of the Mao era to the Stasi of East Germany.
In a rough 99% vs. 1% breakdown, if the vast majority or the “ruled” rose up against the tiny minority of “rulers,” their days perched atop the social hierarchy would be finished.
But, if the 99% can be chopped up into all manner of sub-groups – either along pre-existing cultural, racial, or political fault lines or artificial ones engineered by the state – and then turned against one another, the status quo can be maintained.
The British perfected this method of rule – often called “divide and conquer” –in their management of colonial assets.
Politically, the population at large (outsiders of the establishment) in the United States is divided into two large groups: “Right” and “Left.”
Here is a brief breakdown of why, in the current social configuration, the Left serves as the enforcement arm of the state to suppress the grassroots Right, which is correctly viewed as the only faction that is a threat to the power structure.
There's more at the link. It's worth reading the article in full to get the details.
Looking at the behavior of the progressive left wing of US politics and its media lackeys, it's hard not to find the article convincing. The issues it identifies also demonstrate why the "hyphenated-American" issue, far from being old-fashioned, is still so important. The corporate state seeks to make more hyphenated-Americans, using race, creed, color, national origin and anything else available to create smaller and smaller special interest groups, because they can be divided (against each other) and ruled in small packets - the progressive left's "identity politics" taken to its absurdist extreme. United Americans, with no hyphens, will come together around the common cause of what it means to be Americans, which is inimical to the corporate, borderless state and its interests.
Consider, too, the barrage of lock-step criticism of the right of US politics and everyone associated with it, emanating from the mainstream media. Their allegiance to the corporate state is made clearer when one realizes that a mere six companies control almost all US media. The infographic at the link is ten years old, but the process of concentration and consolidation of control has continued since it was published, and is today worse than ever. In the technological sphere, again, a few companies control almost all Internet access and what's available on it (think Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.). With so few corporations controlling so much, their control over the corporate state becomes equally clear, because (in so many words) the corporate state cannot function without them. It's a symbiotic relationship that can't be broken without breaking its component parts at the same time - and they're not about to sit back and allow that to happen without a fight. Hence, both the corporate state and its corporate masters/tools (call them what you will) attack any aspect of "conventional" politics that might expose and/or resist their hegemony.
I think it's time we recalled one of the most trenchant quotations from President Thomas Jefferson:
I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
The progressive left and the corporate state exemplify that tyranny. That reality, in turn, brings another Jefferson quotation to mind:
The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.
Time for a little more of the former quote to combat the latter quote, methinks!
Peter
6 comments:
The people, generally, seem perfectly content with their slavery. A new newspaper, called The Flame recently arrived in my mailbox, paid for as an advertising circular and delivered to everyone in our town by the USPS. I know nothing about them except that they seem "right"wing. Articles about the vaccine, articles about Constitutional government, etc. Nothing particularly earth shaking. No calls for armed revolution or overthrow. Someone in our town posted a horrified screed on Nextdoor complaining about a) the fact that it arrived and she couldn't stop it and b) it was horrible misinformation that shouldn't be allowed. The comments were about half "well then throw it away if you don't want it" and half "yes, this is so horrible".
Half the people in my town (who bother to post on Nextdoor) think that information they disagree with should be labeled "misinformation" and banned as dangerous.
I am not hopeful for the return to normalcy.
Early on in the Wuhan pandemic I posted a comment on one of those local sites in response to a woman complaining about someone not wearing a mask at Chinamart. I live in PA and commented that the masks don't prevent you from catching the virus. I furthermore said how can someone take the medical advice of someone (Dr. Rachel Levine)who couldn't accept the reality of their own sex. I was banned from the site for homophobia.
James Burnham's theory of the managerial revolution applies. In the private world, the owners (stock holders) have delegated control of property to the corporate managers, who naturally develop a different cultural attitude toward private property. In government, the New Deal transferred power from the legislature to unelected managers in the regulatory agencies. The GOP has a large faction that represents the corporate interests, whereas the democrats represent the public sector managers. That's why the GOP fails to conserve anything. That's also why the floodgates of immigration stay open. The corporate types want a pool cheap labor and the government types need a large, dependent underclass, so they import their underclass.
Where I live, Nextdoor is a weapon wielded by the neighborhood Karens and Kevins to enforce woke conformity and to go after anyone seen deviating by a hair from the constantly changing Covid mandates and restrictions.
I'm not on Nextdoor and don't have a good opinion of it either.
There is another reason that companies support the Left - many of them believe their sales to White people and conservatives are maxed out, such that the only way to increase sales is to appeal to minorities, who the companies assume are liberal.
For an example, look at how many Spanish signs you'll see in Home Depot or Lowe's - even in areas with few Hispanics.
Corporatism has a wonderful economic benefit but ghastly social ones.
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