The Smallest Minority

This seems to be the recurring theme that everyone seems to be hitting on lately. In my most recent post from the weekend "The Death of America"

http://billsrantsandreviews.blogspot.com/2009/11/death-of-america-aka-response-to-marky.html

I comment on this very thing. On how it has been happening since nearly the beginning. First an infiltration into our federal govenrment by those wanting to take the power from the people for themselves, and second an infiltration of leftists once the power had been taken. I had failed to include the effects of corporatism upon the power grab, but I feel that corporate America and our federal government have become two pea in a pod and will never again be seperated. And, since I doubt that the American people will ever be able to see past their short sightedness of partisan illusions, they will never be able to unify to take the power back that is justly theirs. It is not entropy we are in, it is decay. America is dead and we are simply experiencing incramentaly increase rates of decay. With entropy there is hope that one day the muscles could one day be retrained and awakened. The last time I checked, there were no cures to revive a corpse.

MrBill, do you mean "atrophy" and not "entropy"?

Aside from that, all I can say is "A-yup"

Russel... yes. Thanks for that. Was struggling for the word this morning when commenting.

Went through several versions and thought I had it right... evidentally I had not had enough coffee before I hit enter.

"I had failed to include the effects of corporatism upon the power grab, but I feel that corporate America and our federal government have become two pea in a pod and will never again be separated."

My Dear Mr Bill, what you just described, most succinctly, is the variation of statism known to history as Fascism.

My Dear Mr Bill, what you just described, most succinctly, is the variation of statism known to history as Fascism.

Not quite. What he described is necessary for fascism, but not sufficient for it.

Jonah Goldberg's definition, I think, is more complete:

Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the "problem" and therefore is defined as the enemy.

And also:

If big business is so right-wing, why do huge banks fund liberal and left-wing charities, activists, and advocacy groups, then brag about it in commercials and publicity campaigns? How to explain that there's virtually no major issue in the culture wars - from abortion to gay marriage to affirmative action - where big business has played a major role on the American right while there are dozens of examples of corporations supporting the liberals side?

Indeed, the myth of the right-wing corporation allows the media to tighten liberalism's grip on both corporations and the culture. John McCain perfectly symbolizes this catch-22 of modern liberalism. McCain despises the corrupting effect of "big money" in politics, but he is also a major advocate of increased government regulation of business. Apparently he cannot see that the more government regulates business, the more business is going to take an interest in "regulating" government. Instead, he has concluded that he should try to regulate political speech which is like decrying the size of the garbage dump and deciding the best thing to do is regulate the flies.

Without that "religion of the state" and its leader "attuned to the will of the people," it's just Corporatism.

"Once it’s in place, it will be “reformed”, endlessly, but it will never be undone."

Why, just look how well that's worked for income taxes. All it'll need is a few thousand more pages every year or two.

It isn't about getting over the river and then burning the bridge. It is about getting us over the river, destroying the bridge and then erecting a wall so no one can see (read understand) what we had in the past.

We won't talk to our grandchildren about how free we were. They will understand words like freedom and liberty as meaning things very different from what they mean today let alone 50 years ago. We won't be able to talk to them about these things at all because while we'll use the same words, their meanings will be so totally different as to render conversation impossible. Double plus ungood.

(A culture is truly dead when even the memory of what was lost, is lost. - Ed.)

Unfortunately, most people (such as Jeff Wood) say "fascism" when what they describe is more accurately called (at least in the political science literature) "corporatism." Fascism requires the additional element of totalitarianism, which is usually lacking.

Also unfortunately, most people say "corporatism" when what they mean is "I haven't a clue how the world works, but I really hate corporations!" So the term is not terribly useful in mixed company.

Not meaning to slam Jeff, he was just a convenient example.

Mastiff, no offence taken. It is well worth defining terms properly.