Seems my last post needs a bit of clarification, in my view inverted totalitarianism does not replicate past totalitarian structures, such as fascism and communism. It is therefore harder to immediately identify and understand. There is no blustering demagogue. There is no triumphant revolutionary party. There are no ideologically drenched and emotional mass political rallies. The old symbols, the old iconography and the old language of democracy are held up as virtuous. The old systems of governance—electoral politics, an independent judiciary, a free press and the Constitution—appear to be venerated. But, similar to what happened during the late Roman Empire, all the institutions that make democracy possible have been hollowed out and rendered impotent and ineffectual. The corporate state is legitimized by the elections it controls. It exploits laws that once protected democracy to extinguish democracy, the endless election cycles are an example of politics without politics, driven not by substantive issues but manufactured political personalities and opinion polls. In my opinion there is no national institution that can be described as democratic. The mechanisms that once allowed the population to be participants in power, from participating in elections to enjoying the rights of dissent and privacy have been nullified. Money has replaced the vote, and corporations have garnered total power without using the cruder forms of traditional totalitarian control, i.e. concentration camps, enforced ideological conformity and the physical suppression of dissent. They will avoid such measures as long as that dissent remains ineffectual. The governments do not need to stamp out dissent. The uniformity of imposed public opinion through the corporate media does a very effective job. The state has obliterated privacy through mass surveillance, a fundamental precondition for totalitarian rule, and in ways that are patently unconstitutional has stripped citizens of the rights to a living wage, benefits and job security. And it has destroyed institutions, such as labor unions, that once protected workers from corporate abuse. Inverted totalitarianism is only in part a state-centered phenomenon. It also represents the political coming of age of corporate power. Corporate power works in secret. It is unseen by the public and largely anonymous. Politicians and the public alike often seem blissfully unaware of the consequences of inverted totalitarianism. And because it is a new form of totalitarianism we do not recognize the radical change that has gradually taken place. Our failure to grasp the new configuration of power has permitted the corporate state to rob us through judicial fiat, a process that culminates in a dis-empowered population and omnipotent corporate rulers. Inverted totalitarianism projects power upwards, it is the antithesis of constitutional power. Democracy has been turned upside down, it is supposed to be a government for the people, by the people. But it has become an organized form of government dominated by groups that are only vaguely, if at all, responsible or responsive to popular needs and popular demands. At the same time, it retains a patina of democracy. We still have elections. They are relatively free. We have a relatively free media. (exclude the BBC from that) But what is missing is a crucial, continuous opposition that has a coherent position, that is not just saying no, no, no, that has an alternative and ongoing critique of what is wrong and what needs to be remedied. Unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a revolutionary force that has within it the seeds of its own self-annihilation. It is and always has been deeply antagonistic to participatory democracy. Democratic states must heavily regulate and control capitalism, for once capitalism is freed from outside restraint it seeks to snuff out democratic institutions and abolish democratic rights that are seen, often correctly, as an impediment to maximizing profit. The more ruthless and pronounced global corporate capitalism becomes, the greater the loss of democratic space. This my friends, for Scotland, can only be achieved through independence.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 06:38:30 +0000
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