[Peace-discuss] A Message From The American Corporate Plutocracy

[Morton K. Brussel]

A Message From The American Corporate Plutocracy February 04, 2008
By Paul  Street

I could swear this happened last night (I am writing on the morning  
of Thursday, January 31st), but it may be my addled, anxious, and  
overworked mind playing tricks on me.

I was watching "American Idol" and trying to balance my checkbook.

I was thinking I should try out for "Idol." I was also thinking about  
the gap between my income and my irreducible life expenditures.

A commercial for a drug that promised to make me happy and relaxed  
flashed across the television. I reached for the clicker to hit "mute."

But before I could turn off the sound, the ad was interrupted by the  
image of a sixty-something businessmen sitting behind a giant desk in  
a plush corporate office.

A message ran across the bottom of the screen. It said: "A Message  
from the American Corporate Plutocracy."

The businessman was wearing a pinstripe suit. Behind him hung  
pictures of J.P. Morgan, Ronald Reagan, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton.

He looked very serious. He read the following speech:

"American subjects, we are interrupting this important pharmaceutical  
advertisement to tell you of the special satisfaction we feel at  
learning that John Edwards has dropped out of the Democratic  
presidential campaign."

"Edwards was on the cover of Newsweek a little more than a month ago.  
He was charismatic, handsome, and very effective on the campaign  
trail and in debates. He had star quality and many millions of dollars."

"In the last big match-up survey taken before the Iowa Caucus, he  
polled as the most electable candidate in the presidential race. He  
was the only Democratic contender who defeated all of the likely  
Republican presidential candidates - even John McCain, who defeated  
Hillary Clinton and tied Barack Obama."

"Democratic Party primaries have been held in just four small states  
and he's already done."

"We are very pleased to hear of his early surrender, in which we  
played our usual quiet but powerful role. It is we who made sure that  
Edwards' more explicitly corporate and centrist opponents could  
outspend him by a wide margin."

"It is we who pushed him to the margins of the all-powerful media  
system we own and manage in your interest - and ours."

"We've already voted John Edwards off the presidential version of  
'American Idol'" - so you don't have to.

"We've winnowed the presidential field to four (4) officially elect- 
able and corporate-friendly candidates and the election is more than  
ten months away!"

"It's all about he hidden primary of the rich and powerful operating  
behind the scenes, in the hidden corridors of power under the  
benevolent reign of Empire and Inequality, Inc. We are the Simon  
Cowells of American presidential politics. We love it and you should  
too."

"We do it for you, to save you the effort and heartbreak of  
'democracy,' for which you lack the time, skill, energy, and resources."

"Take note, would-be critics of our caring rule! The spectrum of  
permissible debate grows narrower with each quadrennial election  
extravaganza we stage."

"Do not misunderstand us, American subjects.  John Edwards was no  
radical threat to the corporate system we have crafted in response to  
our need for spectacular wealth and your inability to construct a  
better social order. Edwards said repeatedly that be believed in what  
he called 'a market economy' - what we and you should understand as a  
heavily state-managed system of private profit and class rule."

"He followed our counsel when he wrapped his call for universal  
health insurance in a plan that continued - beneath all his anti- 
corporate bluster - to protect the very insurance and pharmaceutical  
companies that have done so much to create your health care crisis."

"He made it clear again and again that he supported the broader  
global framework of the splendid imperial order and the related  
military-industrial complex we have built for the good of the world -  
and our own profit".

"He agreed to never to mention the overseas victims of our clumsy oaf  
George W. Bush's foreign policies, including the 1 million Iraqis  
killed by 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' - an action that continues to  
generate considerable profits for us."

"He remains ridiculously wealthy (like us) and never really  
challenged the core inequalities inherent in the workings of the  
'market economy.' "

"He stood to the right of those malevolent radical mischief-makers  
Ralph Nader and - to mention another presidential candidate we  
recently liquidated - Dennis Kucinich."

"But that's all part of what makes Edwards' early defeat all the more  
delightful and rewarding for us. The magnificent march of our  
munificent reign has progressed so far that even John Edwards is  
defined as too radical to make a serious run at the White House."

"He may not have fundamentally questioned the corporate-imperial  
system that all of us enjoy, but he did develop some very nasty  
habits that displeased us. He spoke insistently about and against  
endemic U.S. poverty and related it to oppressive economic inequality  
and the supposedly 'exorbitant' wealth of the 'privileged few.' He  
won Nader's approval by speaking against our 'plutocratic' control of  
government and politics as if that rule isn't a good and necessary  
thing!"

"He insisted on praising the labor movement, which he repeatedly  
referred to as 'the single greatest anti-poverty program in American  
history.'"

"He also connected his obnoxious and inherently dysfunctional and  
dangerous 'populist' appeal to very specific and detailed policy  
issues and agendas."

"American subjects, we are certain you found this foolish issues and  
policy obsession as irritating as we did! As we hope you appreciate,  
we kindly cater to your limited capacities and sensibilities by  
framing elections around trivial and childish matters of candidate  
image, identity, and personality."

"We don't want you to tax your limited and overwrought minds with  
difficult matters of policy and governance. We want to help you vote  
for the right kind of politicians you find most likeable, pleasant  
and fun - kind of like the 'American Idol' show to which you shall  
momentarily be returned."

"As part of this mission, we employ an army of marketers,  
researchers, data-miners, publicists, and image consultants to help  
you understand which one of the presidential 'Idols' makes you feel  
best about yourselves and your glorious, business-run Nation State."

"We, the surviving four 'Idols' - Mitt, John (McCain that is),  
Hillary, and Barack - and the people around them (most of which we  
provide) will handle all the issues and the policies. We and they  
will give you all the 'hope' and 'change' and 'unity' you need."

"Get ready for a long and tedious exercise in delusion and identity  
politics that may well guarantee the White House to our favorite  
party - the arch-plutocratic, messianic-militarist GOP."

"We do it all for you, America. We are here to take and keep the last  
risks out of your 'democracy.' The nation is in good hands."

"Thank you for your attention.  We return you now to your previously  
scheduled anti-depressant commercial and to the rest of the countless  
advertisements and programs on this and any of the other 154 stations  
we have generously created for your endless diversion, brainwashing,  
marketing, and indoctrination."

"Yours in Eternal Thought Control,"

"The American Corporate Plutocracy"



Paul Street (paulstreet99 at yahoo.com) is a writer and activist in Iowa  
City, IA.  His latest book is Racial Oppression in the Global  
Metropolis (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).  His latest print  
magazine article is "Largely About Oil: Reflections on Empire,  
Petroleum, Democracy Failure, and the Occupation of Iraq," Z Magazine  
(January 2008), read at http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/ 
viewArticle/16105

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