Since the formation of the U.S. there has always been a wrestling match. It’s been between those who wanted what’s best for the people and those who wanted what’s best for themselves, aka capitalism. One has to only look at what happened to poor Thomas Paine to see that this country was set up as a tax dodge for the rich to avoid the King. Still a glorious tradition, to marvel at.
As the nation grew and progressed, names like Carnegie, Hearst, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Ford made fortunes. The fantasy passed down to us mere mortals was that “if we can do it, you can too!” Behind the scenes, however, these titans of capitalism spent money and time bribing and stealing their ways into massive fortunes. As the saying goes, “Behind every great fortune is a great crime.”
Until the last 25 years or so, much of the last 130 years has seen entities go back and forth, whether for capital or for the society at large. In the last 25 years, the Corporate State has been perfected. We are wholly owned by the elite class.
Mussolini had named the Italian happy marriage between the state and business Estado Corporativismo, or the Corporate State. Fascism was and is exactly that, it’s why they hate socialists and communists. The promise to the downtrodden is that “if business ran things, it would be better.” Hitler latched on to this as he took power and both made slaves out of Jews, gays, anyone who was not down with the fatherland. Hugo Boss, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes all loved the free labor and thus earned record profits at the time, the family that owns BMW still being the richest family in Germany. Alas, nothing lasts forever.
Now, we have what Rockefeller, Hitler and Mussolini worked so hard to accomplish; a seamless monolith where the media feeds into the whims of the Pentagon, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Insurance, Big Church and all the rest, giving the casual watcher of events the sense of choice. Major events are overshadowed by the Outrage du Jour, while sinister legislation, new wars, and any other egregiousness is passed right under our nose. An example of this being that Saddam Hussein was hung at the same time that Patriot Act II was passed. We don’t seem to remember that one though, do we?
Ukrainian flags went up faster than blood pressure on a stockbroker while the U.S. simultaneously bombed the Sudan and Yemen. No flags went up for them, nor were they stood with. Chomsky’s “worthy and unworthy victims,” at play yet again by the wholly owned corporate media, who get their marching orders from the Military Industrial Complex.
Today’s oligarchs don’t need to go as far as the aforementioned. They own the media, the Congress, the judges, the presidency, the prisons, the medical, pharmaceuticals, oil, airlines, in fact, there’s not a lot left that the “government runs.” Of course, we still have the library and the airport, which is nice.
To those still clinging to the fantasy that there are still a lot that can be done by voting Democrat or Republican, stop. The newsflash is that they’re one in the same. Even on abortion rights. Face it, who had been playing the Washington Generals to the GOP’s Harlem Globetrotters? How do you think that went down in the first place?
As I always say in these tender moments, quit watching TV.
Abe Abdelhadi hosts the Bitter Truth with Abe Abdelhadi on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc.