Reply #142: The phenomenon exists at multiple levels. [View All]

I've read Shock Doctrine, and I understand how it works in all the countries it's been tried in. I've also read the Powell Manifesto, and through that came to understand how right-wing authoritarianism has permeated American culture in the last 40 years. The rise of corporatism with its intrinsic hierarchy has been one of the main tools of global power consolidation, the hierarchic institutions of police and military have become the natural corporate enforcers, and our schools and media have eagerly spread the myth of corporate inevitability.

This has been a disaster for the world - whether for the Ogoni tribesmen in Nigeria overrun by Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian puppet army or the tens of millions of people being pushed into poverty in the USA by the hands of the bankers.

However, IMO these are simply various manifestations of core aspects of human nature, refined through research and transformed by technology into tools that can be wielded against us with impunity if we are not aware of them. At a deeper level, this phenomenon has been with us for thousands of years - we can see its outlines in monarchies and empires like the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt or the Chinese dynasties, or in medieval feudalism.

What this means to me is that there are inherent desires in human nature - the desire for things to be a little more comfortable, for a little more power, for a little more money - that are natural, but are easily harnessed by those who learn what buttons to push, what levers to pull. How much fear should be instilled to make people fall in line, how much wealth should the owners allow to flow downhill to make people unwilling to risk what they have, how much hope should be permitted so that people are eager to fall into place in the hierarchy, how much hope should be removed so that people understand they can't climb high enough to actually penetrate the corridors of power?

At one level, regulating the corporate ability to consolidate power and wealth, to buy elections, politicians and judges, is an essential beginning. However, unless we are aware of where the urges come from within ourselves we will always be vulnerable. Ultimately, the only way to stand against these malignant forces is through acts of refusal, as the Egyptians are now demonstrating to us. Unless we recognize our true natures and accept that inside of each of us lives a little bit of Ken Lay and Hosni Mubarak as well as a bit of Gandhi, MLK, RFK and Simon Bolivar, we will remain powerless pawns trapped in a cage we have willingly helped to build.