The Corporate State and Its Supporters

The Corporate State and Its Supporters

P. Schultz

August 14, 2012

            Below is a rather lengthy quotation from a column by Chris Hedges, that can be found on Turthdig.com, for those who might be interested in reading the entire column. It lays out in better and more precise ways that I can do why I argue that the most important event of this presidential election has already taken place: The nominations of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, Mr. White Bread and Mr. Almost White Bread.

            My only complaint for Mr. Hedges is his focus on the criminalizing or the attempted criminalizing of all dissent. The corporate state and its supporters, like Romney and Obama and so many others, has other, more subtle, and more effective ways of stifling dissent, from what is called “educational reform” to limiting the scope of our political discourse by means of what is presented as intense and enlightening rhetoric. But then I suspect Mr. Hedges knows this too and would not disagree.

“Contrast this crucial debate in a federal court with the empty campaign rhetoric and chatter that saturate the airwaves. The cant of our political theater, the ridiculous obsessions over vice presidential picks or celebrity gossip that dominate the news industry, effectively masks the march toward corporate totalitarianism. The corporate state has convinced the masses, in essence, to clamor for their own enslavement. There is, in reality, no daylight between Mitt Romney and Obama about the inner workings of the corporate state. They each support this section within the NDAA and the widespread extinguishing of civil liberties. They each will continue to funnel hundreds of billions of wasted dollars to defense contractors, intelligence agencies and the military. They each intend to let Wall Street loot the U.S. Treasury with impunity. Neither will lift a finger to help the long-term unemployed and underemployed, those losing their homes to foreclosures or bank repossessions, those filing for bankruptcy because of medical bills or college students burdened by crippling debt. Listen to the anguished cries of partisans on either side of the election divide and you would think this was a battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. You would think voting in the rigged political theater of the corporate state actually makes a difference. The charade of junk politics is there not to offer a choice but to divert the crowd while our corporate masters move relentlessly forward, unimpeded by either party, to turn all dissent into a crime.”