greenpolitics.ca

It’s not going to be a nice time

I believe we are now entering a new period in history. I’m calling it the Corporate Era, and it doesn’t look as though it’s going to be a nice time.

The redistributive economic flows that existed under the post-World War II, Keynesian-inspired, essentially social-democratic governments have been throttled to the point of strangulation. Under the new neo-conservatism of the 1980s and ’90’s, individualism has become the rallying cry.

The government-funded social safety net and programs that gave rise to the stability of America after the Depression and Europe after WW2, has been ripped asunder. It’s become every person for themselves.

The movement to demolish government started around 1972. American multinational corporations, having benefitted most from having its industrial base left intact and even booming during the second world war, had spread their wings globally.

Not that America was much different from the formerly dominant European colonial nations. Spain, Holland, England, France, Germany — they all had their days in the sun, dominating and enslaving medieval and stone-age cultures.

The difference with America’s current corporate colonial period is that now there was a pan-global marketplace. Nations soon became less wealthy and powerful than the major multinational corporations.

National governments wishing to protect their domestic industries stood in the way of US corporate expansion. They had to be removed, either assimilated through ‘Reinvention’ or if too independently socialist, demolished in the name of Democracy.

In face of this onslaught from the world’s most powerful captains of industry, governments changed. No longer the front-line professional cadres for the social altruism of the ruling classes, they became the servants of the corporate class.

Governments are no longer here to protect their citizenry. They exist to legitimise their — our — exploitation.

The gloves are off. Welcome to the corporate era. It’s going to be an interesting time — especially if you’re not safely ensconced inside a corporate castle. From the outside, the castle walls look cold, dark, and steep.