There is a paradigm shift that has taken place that some are aware of, but that most are oblivious to. The exercise of real power no longer lies in the hands of government, and our future will be dominated by this new power. But it's far more subtle and insidious than Imperialism or Communism. "Entrepreneurialism", or the total power of the multi-national corporation, has arisen to replace these governmental forms of control.
Frankly, we should have seen this one coming. If you look at the history of man, as we have "progressed", the methods we choose to hurt each other with have become progressively cleaner, subtler, more..... antiseptic.
In the Middle Ages, battle was thought of as the "Death of a Thousand Cuts". Men would hurl themselves at each other and in a swarm of hand to hand combat with instruments that bludgeoned, cut, and impaled each other, they would fight their wars for power. They would see the look on the man's face as he died by their hand. Kings would even actually fight alongside their men. Now the "Leader" never leaves his office. And even the soldier is miles away, and his sole perception of "battle" and the destruction he is causing more resembles playing a video game. No blood. No visceral sense of death that comes from actually having blood on your hands.
In the Inquisition, Jews were tortured and burned at the stake in full public view. As we "progressed" the Nazis eliminated six million souls from the planet with ruthless efficiency - not as much with hands-on brutality (though of course they did that too because they were psychotic) - but with a production line efficiency that chills the soul to it's core. The "Final Solution" was decided at Wannsee in something more resembling the atmosphere of a corporate board room, than what most people imagine were the rantings of Hitler in some hidden bunker. Lunch was served while they chatted about genocide. Hitler was most certainly the inspiration, but the execution, the method, was decided by middle managers. Wiping out a race was merely a matter of calculating the numbers and implementing the spiffy "new technology" of mass gassing. When the genocide was running in full force, the Nazis were unwilling even to get their hands dirty with digging graves. Burning was so much less effort after all. But keeping it quiet was even more important. As we "progress", we have realized the "value" of secrecy. And it served them well. Despite being caught after the war, at least half of those middle managers in the Nazi government lived until the mid-1980's. One even served on the staff of the American Cultural Institute.
But now, government as an institution is largely impotent. This is probably why so many of our elected officials seek to prove their "virility" by spending millions on the latest missile. Or missile defense system. It's the political version of the sports car, and is nothing but men trying to prove they are better "equipped" than the next guy.
With a few notable exceptions, such as China (which is itself merely struggling to hold on to the reigns of power in the face of it's people's growing lust for all the consumer pleasures of the West - more so even than it's vaunted free speech), government is less of an institution that exercises real power than the corporation, which has global implications beyond any borders. Formerly great powers such as the Soviet Union have descended into near chaos. The European Union acts more like a corporate conglomerate than independently minded nation states. And the ultimate national power on earth, the United States, is run by men who owe their hopes for future positions in government to the corporation who gives them the money to advertise themselves to the public via another corporate controlled medium, television.
The large, multi-national corporation in this new era of "Entrepreneurialism" doesn't answer to anyone. Individual governments may implement restrictions, but the multi-national is just that, not tied or bound to any one nation. If you impede their business in any manner, even to protect your health and safety, they simply move their operations to a country which doesn't so restrict them, and your country loses all the economic benefits associated with having a strong, secure, middle class. And even if governments (who, especially in the case of the United States, are increasingly indebted in a variety of ways to the corporation) attempt to enact restrictive laws worldwide, they have no real means of enforcing the restrictions. Additionally, independent representatives of the people who are tied neither to government or any corporate entity, are not invited into the law-making process, even though their lives are the most directly effected by the actions of the corporation. Ahh, "progress".
Historically speaking, the track of this "progress" is as follows. Personal, up front brutality (such as in war) as a method of control was too costly to those committing it, and whenever possible distance between attacker and target was implemented. In the last century, the idea of precision and efficiency in the method of hurting each other was developed, and the true value of secrecy was discovered. And lastly, the entire concept of war or immediate execution has been found to be too costly. This at first may sound like a good thing - until you realize that it has merely been replaced with another more subtle and antiseptic form of violence, and this time it's of a kind that the victim can't even protest to. It is the elimination of the individual's ability to support himself independently and safely. This violence is prolonged. It is nothing short of torture. Entire communities are decimated by the corporation either by the closing of the plant which offers the main means of employment in a region (thus also decimating the small business owner who relies on the ancillary benefit from the income of it's employees), or by poisoning it's surrounding environment with the waste by-products of its production and slowly killing nearby residents.
The CEO is nothing more than the "new and improved"
version of a feudal lord. The Chairmen (and the noticeably absent presence of women), in
corporations such as Nike, Microsoft, GM, GE, etc. horde disproportional amounts of
vast wealth for themselves. Some of these feudal lords run their empires with more mercy and
benevolence than others, but while democracy may be the dominant rule outside the
corporation, inside, it is an authoritarian regime, and almost anything goes, even if they
get "caught" violating the rules of the democracy that supposedly govern us all
in the United States. And they have the "new and improved" version of medieval
assassins to deal with those little problems. They're called lawyers. And they have a lot
of them.
Their middle managers are the knights of the modern era, though they feel no need to pursue the virtues of nobles oblige - chivalry, honor, or service. In fact, they rarely pursue any form of virtue whatsoever. Most protect their position of privilege with the feudal lord without regard for their fellow man, especially the peasant.
The average employee working for the corporation is a peasant, slightly better off than the other peasants because he gets to live inside the castle keep, but he can be kicked out at a moment's notice. Literally.
The small business owners are the landed nobility, deriving their security from the "protection" of their business interests from the corporation and relying on the peasants that surround and inhabit the corporate castle to provide them with income. But if the large, multinational corporation should so decide it is in it's greater interest, the corporate feudal lord will turn on the small business owner and take his land, and any illusions of nobility he possessed, and throw him to the four winds.
Those who work for the small business owner are the working peasants, less secure than the corporate ones, with lower income, and less security, living outside the castle keep. Moderately protected by the landed nobility, but far more subject to sudden, permanently damaging punishments.
Nothing has changed in this "New World Order".
Only our illusory perceptions of reality have changed.
These are the SAME PEOPLE we've seen dominating and hurting others for their own ends throughout history. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. The feudal lord has merely changed his cloak.
