Heart of the Chaos
For those of us who study where we are as a culture, a corrupt and dark place where we approach self-annihilation, a clarity is arising. Even with the disasters set forth by nation-states, religious zealots and worse, one entity has been at the heart of our chaos.
Let me tease further. Our wars, the misery of millions, dirty water, shitty food, environmental devastation, climate chaos, and people and planet failing even now, they all have a common cause, a single source of currently unmitigated power. Welcome, friends, to the now failing world of corporatism.
Corporations.
Yes, of course, it’s the corporations. Mindless legal entities that hoard vast trillions of dollars for their owners, who are the true offenders. 9th Century Danish and English monarchies, obviously for personal gain, enabled a few special corporations. Soon enough we had the East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company, and the British Empire became a thing.
Indeed, the US Founding Fathers were acutely aware of the nature of corporations and went out of their way to contain their power in the early United States. But as we know, those controls withered over time. It’s hard to stop money’s influence. Read Howard Zinns, ‘A People’s History of the United States’.
Today the picture is crystal clear. It is corporations, a small handful in each area of our lives, that rule. A small handful of banks, wreaking havoc on a daily basis to so many. Media, healthcare, food, retail, the list is sickening.
When I was young, we had neighbors that were around for years. Small stores on nearly every corner. Shoe repair, hardware, ‘supermarkets’ and department store were all a part of my growing up culture. What was so different? Each one of the above was owned by someone, and the next by someone else, and this was happening all across America in the post World War II boom.
And then we saw all the little unique characters of our towns disappear as corporations replaced the vast percentage of small shops with their crap. A McDonald’s at every exit. A Walmart in every town. Heart wrenching.
Let’s be clear. The folks running the show have family names like Rothschild and Rockefeller and Walton and Coch and Morgan and on and on. Their intent is clear from their actions. They thrive on war, consumption and fear. Which mean all three deserve our resistance.
From where we see today, there is no good reason for the existence of such a legal entity. Corporations need to be decommissioned or turned into coops. If you’re war profiteers, which means you’re killing hundreds of us daily, you need to go away. If you’re Exxon or another extractor you need to go away. If you’re GMO corporation you need to go away.
For others, we create coops from corporations. We can have honest competition, each company employee owned and each as equally interested in your experience with them as with personal gain.
We are in transition. The old ways and systems are not responding to our deep needs The age of corporatism is coming to an end, and not a moment too soon, considering our current peril.
The administration of Donald Trump, with a massive transfer of wealth pending in the Republican congress, proves beyond doubt that this entity, for whatever values it may have incidentally held, is inherently mindless and manipulative.
Which is why these assholes in congress must be replaced. Such is our task. As we awaken and engage, we cannot be stopped. We create a new world where peace and love reign, and where our current reality becomes a dim, dark past.