ToadOfSteel wrote:
America is not headed towards a governmental fascist state at all. Fascist states have been shown to, in almost every instance, crumble as easily as the democracies that preceded them. What we are headed towards is a global corporate police state. I, for one, cannot believe that someone as stupid as Bush could actually wield such power effectively (unless he's smarter than he lets on). What is happening is this: Large companies (think Halliburton) give a large campaign donation to a certain candidate (Bush) to nominate a certain running mate (Cheney). In exchange, Cheney grants Halliburton (which he still has stock options with) no-bid contracts to provide for all sorts of business ventures in Iraq and areas affected by Katrina.
In effect, a multinational corporation/conglomerate/what have you becomes so rich that they're able to buy the world, and then a future that is even more grim than a fascist state awaits. Not only will many of the fascist restrictions be in place, but people will be forced to work 90 hours a week just to make enough money to buy basic provisions (sold at inflated prices, of course). The main force that eventually overcomes a fascist state is that voice of the people that said fascist states expend much effort to supress. Well, a corporatist state has options available to it that fascist states do not: the tools of McCarthyism. If any voices dissent, the corporation merely has to "blacklist" the dissenter, that is, to deny them access to any money (through long work hours for substandard wages) at all, and once the voices fall silent, the dissenters have been pacified and can be "plugged" back into the system. It's efficient, preserves the productivity that the dissenters would not provide if imprisoned or killed, and it avoids the controversies surrounding genocide.
We, as a global community, are headed for far worse waters than fascism (or even the most hard-line collectivism) ever was. If any of you out there are Trekkies, just think about the Borg and you will catch my meaning... to corporations, people are just cogs in the grand machine.
I agree.
This is why we need either a depression, or to stop our reliance on these people in the first place. Grow our own foods, find someone with a well and start a cooperative, generate our own electricity so we don't rely on the grid, go back to haggling and bartering for goods...
Thus, corporations must be monitored and restricted to avoid that ever happening.
31 Dec 2007, 10:40 am
I just don't get it.
