corporatizing your life

[otter]

From the excellent Douglas Rushkoff:

http://rushkoff.com/books/life-incorporated/intro/

O.

[ccbatson]

Some of his premises are accurate, his conclusions are the opposite of what the merits of the factual principles he lays out would indicate.

[oladub]

Interesting perspective. The idea, as I follow it, is that corporatism has become part of our personal lives. The author begins by telling the story of how he was reprimanded for reporting a crime. Having reported the crime might reduce property values charged his critics. Although a frank open discussion might head off future problems, short term considerations are what is important to corporate thinking.

From the article-

"It’s not the fault of a government or a corporation, the news media or the
entertainment industry, but the merging of all these entities into a
single, highly centralized authority with the ability to write laws, issue
money, and promote its expansion into our world."

"This is the landscape of corporatism: a world not merely domi-
nated by corporations, but one inhabited by people who have internal-
ized corporate values as our own. And even now that corporations
appear to be waning in their power, they are dragging us down with
them; we seem utterly incapable of lifting ourselves out of their de-
pression."

[ccbatson]

His conclusion that corporatism is a bad thing is erroneous and an oversimplification [[propaganda like).

[Detroitej72]

His conclusion that corporatism is a bad thing is erroneous and an oversimplification [[propaganda like).

Unregulated corporatism has been proven to be a bad thing. See Country Wide Mortgage, one of the biggest culprits for our current financial meltdown.

[ccbatson]

Unregulated federal/socialism as in coercive monopolies are the root of what you are referring to.

Where did I say unregulated?

Well, unregulated in the sense that the biased beneficiaries of said regulations are government and the cronies thereof.

Given these necessary qualifiers...you are correct.

[rb336]

His conclusion that corporatism is a bad thing is erroneous and an oversimplification [[propaganda like).

corporatism = fascism

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power� -- Benito Mussolini

[Lorax]

The military-industrial complex warned about by Eisenhower is really here, folks, and has been for some time. We're just more aware of it now.

Unregulated business is the key to all of this. We can thank Phil Gramm for the commodities reformation act of 2000 which gave us the open season on sub-prime mortgages as well as loan-shark rates on credit cards. We can thank Bill Clinton and the republican majoity controlled congress for the repeal of the Glass-Stiegel Act which removed key dampers from the financial landscape.


We also need to return to a 90% tax rate for all income over 5 million [[2 million in the 50's) which would discourage legacy wealth, which does nothing positive for society, and in fact harms it. Legacy wealth may enrich Neiman Marcus, but creates no manufacturing jobs, and is detrimental to the GNP and serves no purpose other than creating a robber baron class, which I though we were suppose to be getting beyond since the early 20th century.

Repugnicans are hysterical over what they perceive as "socialism" from Obama's policies- news flash- we already have socialism. What do you think Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid are? We need a single payer health care system, which the aforementioned bureaucracies are, and by expanding them, and taking the profit out of health care, i.e. the insurance companies- we will then have a quality health care system on the model of most European nations which have a much better track record of getting health care to the people.

Insurance and big pharma lobbies need to be destroyed in order to make a single payer system work well. Let's get started!

[oladub]

corporatism = fascism

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” -- Benito Mussolini

rb, I'm aware of that comment attributable to Mussolini. I would just like to nuance it. I would slightly modify the formula to corporatism=economic fascism. The reason is because to many people, fascism has connotations of gas chambers. As we know, Bush's Wall Street bailout did not involve gas chambers but it was a shining example of 'economic fascism'.

What I liked about this article was that the author delved into the idea that people have too often internalized corporatism into their behavior.

I came across a post that sort of dovetails with this article. Exerpts-

I remember during the Clinton administration there was the big uproar over Elian Gonzales. On the day that the swat team broke down the door with their guns drawn and kidnapped that child from law abiding citizens..... it was all over the news. I was sitting in an airport. I was sick to my stomach reading the article and looking at the pictures of that terrified child with an automatic rifle pointed at him. I thought to myself, "well, it is not significant that the government DID this because that is what governments DO. What will be significant will be whether the populace ACCEPTS this or demands prosecutions". Needless to say..... the populace did nothing .... after all the stock market was doing well and portfolios were growing by leaps and bounds....so why rock the boat. At that point I knew that the country was officially over because the PEOPLE had given tacit approval of this police state action.
When a society as a whole rejects it's moral compass, prefers the immediate unearned pleasure to the long term pleasure that must be earned, prefers stealing goods from one's neighbor rather than working for one's own livelihood, prefers the convenience of immediate pleasure over the responsibilities of family, prefers eliminating unwanted children or elders as too much trouble, and prefers to allow others to do the "thinking" for them, in effect that society leads itself into extinction preferring a culture of death over a culture of life...... At that point, the society itself sets the tone and ELECTS LEADERS LIKE THEMSELVES...

It is the PEOPLE that must change their outlook and their demands upon their elected officials. THEN we will get different people elected. WHAT THE COUNTRY HAS BECOME IS WHAT THE POPULACE HAS WANTED! Clinton and Bush and Obama were elected because THEY ARE what the country has BECOME - not the other way around. We have become a nation of killers, thieves, liars and con-men..... a nation of PIRATES. -elviejo

[ccbatson]

Mussolini, a preeminent Fascist, defines fascism as a way of evading the label.....Quick hint, don't use that reference.

[Omaha]

Here’s an eclectic quote selection that relate to economic power and the government’s use of military power abroad to advance U.S. economic interests. I even found a Mussolini quote for our favorite “Randian� or is that “Randinista?�

“I firmly believe that when any territory outside the present territorial limits of the United States becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development, we ought to lose no time in acquiring it.� Sen. Orville Platt [[R-Connecticut) 1894.

“We are the ruling race of the world…We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world…He has marked us as His chosen people…He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile people.� U.S. Senator [[R-Indiana) Albert Beverage, 1900 commenting on the U.S. invasion of the Philippines

“What the proletariat needs is a bath of blood.� Benito Mussolini, speech in Milan, July 22, 1919

“We are going to war on the command of gold...I feel that we are about to put a dollar sign on the American flag.� George Norris, U.S. Senator from Nebraska commenting on the U.S. entrance into WWI

“Why, my fellow-citizens, is there any man here, or any woman – let me say, is there any child here, who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry? ...This war, in its inception, was a commercial and industrial war. It was not a political war.� President Woodrow Wilson, September 15, 1919 commenting on the U.S. involvement in WWI

“The prosperity of the lower and middle classes depends upon the good fortune and light taxes of the rich.� Andrew Mellon, treasury secretary under Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover; founder of Gulf Oil and Alcoa who, at his appointment, was the third richest man in America

“The revenue bill as passed in the House is indefensible. In a nutshell it is a millionaires' bill. Practically all the reductions made are on the taxes of the incomes of those who are immensely wealthy Mr. Mellon himself gets a larger personal reduction than the aggregate of practically all the taxpayers in the state of Nebraska. The reduction of inheritance taxes on big fortunes contained in this bill is a greater step backward than has been taken by Congress since the war. It was passed by the House without fair consideration, without reasonable opportunity for debate, and is a demonstration of the working of the new rules just adopted by that body, enabling a few men who are alleged leaders to dominate the House and handle it as completely as the master controls his servant.� Nebraska’s U.S. Senator George Norris commenting on the tax cuts proposed by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon

“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country's most agile military force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

“I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

“Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

“During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotion. Looking back on it, I feel that I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three city districts. The Marines operated on three continents.� Major General Smedley Butler [[July 30, 1881-June 21, 1940), former US Marine Corps Commandant and twice the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in a speech delivered in 1933.

“We have about 60% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." George Kennan, former Head of the US State Department Policy Planning Staff, Document PPS23, 24th February 1948

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.� President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953.

“That's the great problem of history and somehow we find it hard to sell our values, namely that the rich should plunder the poor." Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in conversation with President Eisenhower 1958

“Our upside down welfare state is ‘socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.’ The great welfare scandal of the age concerns the dole we give rich people.� Retired Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Points of Rebellion, 1969, p68

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.� President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961

[jams]

Welcome back, Omaha.

Your wit has been missed.

[Omaha]

Thanks Jams. Keep up the good work.

I see that the new format has not ended "running the board." But there are constants in life, and DetroitYes's Randinista is one of them. Thank goodness he is seen for what he is.

My job now makes it much more difficult to visit but occasionally. It takes a lot of energy to post as a Social Darwinist and faux [[FOX?) conservative ala my hero, Stephen Colbert. But it is also fun.

So remember that all of the so-called “progressive movements" [[Abolitionists, Suffragettes, Organized labor, Civil Rights, etc.) that historically have extended our founding ideals and fundamental rights to groups beyond the original property-owing white males [[who are the only people that have inalienable human rights) are anti-American and run counter to the "original intent" of our beloved Founding Fathers.

Furthermore, it’s a crime that our poorly-run, NEA-dominated, liberal schools no longer teach that the only Divinely-inspired people to ever intentionally and violently break a legally binding economic contract were our Founding Fathers when they ended the master/servant relationship that was the English/Colonial experience. Our great revolution freed them to use their liberty, economic, and military power to take what God had inspired them to take. Our noble leaders led us across this nation in a Heaven-sent Manifest Destiny that didn't end with settling our war-liberated west coast but extended our reign to the savage corners of the Pacific Rim and beyond.

God Bless Social Darwinism, the Free Enterprise system, and the Corporatization of America and the Globe!

[rb336]

Mussolini, a preeminent Fascist, defines fascism as a way of evading the label.....Quick hint, don't use that reference.

bats, you have it completely backwards -- your ilk redifined fascism to cover up the truth of what you are

[rb336]

[quote=oladub;17581]rb, I'm aware of that comment attributable to Mussolini. I would just like to nuance it. I would slightly modify the formula to corporatism=economic fascism. The reason is because to many people, fascism has connotations of gas chambers. As we know, Bush's Wall Street bailout did not involve gas chambers but it was a shining example of 'economic fascism'.

yes, i would agree. fascism is NOT the same as Naziism, although Nazis were clearly an offshoot of the fascists

[oladub]

Rb, As sometimes happens, we are in agreement. Nazi refugee and economist Friedrich Hayek stated the when central planning doesn't work, the tendency is for the planners, in this case German, tend to covers their mistakes with autocratic rule and censorship. However, not every instance of economic fascism has such negative results. For instance, some of Roosevelt's government/industry/labor arrangements eventually petered out without turning into anything Nazi like.

Omaha, I agree the the founders fashioned the Constitution to be flexible enough to be amended to change thus allowing an expansion of voting groups -something unimaginable in their day. But why do you think that Heaven-sent Manifest Destiny allows presidents to bomb Pakistani villages?

[rb336]

Ola, one of the hallmarks of fascism is a major crackdown on labor and trade unions [[also part of il duce's definition). FDR's programs were not fascist, by definition

[Omaha]

Manifest Destiny is a phrase that describes our nation’s desire to enshrine the self-evident value of “progress� as central to our country's physical and economic growth. Oh, Sinclair Lewis may have made fun of an America dedicated to Progress, but rest assured that our American Exceptionalism is part and parcel of that grand ideal.

It is our nation’s duty to expand democracy [[and its inextricable corollary “free market capitalism�) to other more primitive countries. Our Manifest Destiny is at its core a binding obligation to open a world of civilization, refinement, and human liberty for our citizens and all those Godless heathens we encountered along the way.

It’s important to note that we broke away from a nation that had a similar view of its ultimate objective to civilize the world. They treated us not much more than a source of raw materials, a dumping ground for unwanted people and a revenue stream. They may even have seen their work in the Colonies as having a “civilizing aspect� to it. But they believed in the Divine Right of Kings; we believe in Heaven-sent Manifest Destiny. Ergo, we are better and right in what we do.

As a nation, our good works were not finished upon reaching the Pacific [[thanks to the Mexican American war). We then consolidated our work with the grateful help of the Chinese laborers toiling for the Central Pacific in the creation of the first transcontinental rail line. Thanks to Social Darwinism we were able to visit human liberty upon these Chinese immigrants. Our generosity to the Chinese in this time period is legendary. And they returned the favor by opening many small laundries to keep this a neat and tidy nation.

Always looking to better the world, we reached out beyond our shores to end ancient monarchies and aristocracies. It didn’t hurt that we also created economic opportunities for our great industrial forces to properly use any natural resources that were sitting idle in these countries [[which, in my mind was an abomination to God).

Those guiding principles of Progress and Manifest Destiny make it imperative that we bring our kind of civilization, refinement, and human liberty to those in need of it. I am on board with the folks at the Project for a New American Century: it’s our Destiny to share our American greatness with those of other nations.

I could go on and on, but I shan’t.

[oladub]

Those guiding principles of Progress and Manifest Destiny make it imperative that we bring our kind of civilization, refinement, and human liberty to those in need of it. I am on board with the folks at the Project for a New American Century: it’s our Destiny to share our American greatness with those of other nations.

You help me understand the Bush/Obama involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan - and Iran. Oh, such possibilities!

[Omaha]

Oladub, I am with you. Together we will bring education to the uneducated or “dumb masses� or is that “dumb asses?� [[I think that could be a great play on the symbol of the Democratic Party…what do you think?)

You’re right the possibilities are endless. Manifest Destiny, Progress and other great economic ambitions have been the stimuli to our U.S. goals of expansion for a long time. I mean if olive oil had been the primary export of Iraq, would we have gone there?

The United States has a history of being a “Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead� kind of nation under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

My only worry is that that there are those like past Presidents like Lincoln, Wilson, and Eisenhower who occasionally speak out against our lofty foreign policy goals. They use and their fellow travelers use terms like “naked ambition� and “imperialism.�

I have a couple of quotes from those “nay sayers� in my above post. Read the one from the two time Congressional Medal of Honor winner! What a “cry baby� he is.

I know scholars like yourself and Cc will agree with me that there should be limits on that kind of so-called “free speech.� It’s just downright un-American.

And from reading your posts over time, I know that there’s one thing you’re NOT, and that’s un-American. We’re the kind of “America firsters� that wish men like the young Republican Senator from Indiana, Albert J. Beveridge, were still around today. He was an orator’s orator. His words about our national duty will forever shine in history: “We will not renounce our parting the mission of our race: trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world.�

I just wish that President Obama would listen more closely to the kind of sage counsel on foreign policy that folks like former VP Cheney, Stephen Colbert and El Rushmo offer. I believe that all three, as Rush says, have their talent on loan from God!

[otter]

More, this time on alternative currencies and hacking the economy:

http://www.hplusmagazine.com/article...acking-economy

I can't remember the name of the recently-instituted local currency that some downtown and midtown-area business are supporting.

O.

[Lorax]

A whole lotta fascist fringers on this thread!

First of all it's our American Exceptionalism that has gotten us into the position we now find ourselves. We are not suppose to be empire builders, but repugnicans somehow feel the need to spread "democracy" around the globe at the point of a gun, which as we know, doesn't work.

So the Tushies smacked the hornet's nest in the middle east, and now we're even less safe than we were after 9/11, which as we know happened on Tush's watch, the known facts being ignored, ending thousands of American lives.

Only prison and bankruptcy will make these fascist thugs understand what they've done. Let's hope the EU court system has the balls to indict Bush, Cheney & company, since our criminal justice system is apparently OK with war crimes and the murder of millions of innocent people in the thirst for corporate oil profits.

[ccbatson]

Conservatives and libertarians have it right in looking to the individual for prosperity and fearing big government for the opposite reason. I don't believe that we [[conservatives) are much interested in spreading democracy unless it is to protect our interests and security.

[Detroitej72]

Conservatives and libertarians have it right in looking to the individual for prosperity and fearing big government for the opposite reason. I don't believe that we [[conservatives) are much interested in spreading democracy unless it is to protect our interests and security.

That is precisely why Bush is not a real conservative. He wasn't interested in protecting America's interest, only his oil buddies, and he certainly wasn't interested in the America's security. Bats,even you can see that, now you should stop defending neo-cons, and their mouth pieces like Rush.

[barnesfoto]

excellent post, Otter.
Great thoughts from many..
I know that I am preaching to the choir when I remind folks that Spanish and Italian Fascism, as well as more contemporary forms of fascism [[often aided and abetted by the American Government) in places like Latin America, Indonesia, The Phillipines, etc did not involve Auschwitz style concentration camps, but did involve mass executions, kidnapping, death squads and in general state terrorism against citizens along with an economic system that benefited a fragment of the population.

I created a separate thread about this video, but the rampant consumerism that seems to be shoved at us with Fascismus Americanus needs to be examined more closely, I think:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/