Has America Become a Corporate Police State?

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/151186/has_america_become_a_corporate_police_state/


"Corporate Police State," it's a fraught -- some might even say, overwrought -- term. But in its purest, apolitical form, it simply describes the periodic commingling of state and corporate power to protect private interests.

In the American psyche, any discussion of that phenomenon typically brings one of three images to mind. There's the Old Corporate Police State -- the sepia-toned America of decades long past, a place where state militias murder striking mine workers on behalf of Gilded Age barons and Congress empowers the government to forcibly ban work stoppages that defy corporate executives' wishes. There's the Fictional Future Corporate Police State -- that smoldering bombed-out world depicted in "Robocop," "Fortress" and every other dystopian flick in Hollywood's post-apocalyptic catalog. And there's the Foreign Corporate Police State -- think Dubai, Singapore, Monaco and every other lavish enclave defined by lots of rich people, lots of corporate headquarters, lots of heavily armed cops -- and almost no civil liberties.

By imagining the Corporate Police State primarily as a historical, fictional or foreign monster, these snapshots encourage us to believe that this monster poses no threat to us in the here and now. They encourage us, in other words, to ignore the monster's creeping advances in present-day America.

In just the last few years, the Corporate Police State has reared its head at every level of government.

More at the link --

[Autumn]

1. Yes

K/R

[salinen]

2. 10 years ago

Just try smoking a joint.

[Sherman A1]

3. Yup!

seems to be

[Newest Reality]

4. It is not new.

Yet, we are seeing it lurch forward in bold, new ways. It is increasing in scope and intensity like a bad storm sweeping across the globe.

While we are able to see more clearly what is behind the mask-like facade of its face, we also discover that it has spread its grotesque tentacles everywhere and that we are actually in their grip. It is far more ugly than the portrait of Dorian Gray gathering dust in the attic and corporate media has been keeping us focused on the mirage of distractions to keep us from going up there to look.

We could expose it, challenge it and throw it off. That would be difficult and very uncomfortable on a worthwhile journey to liberty and equity for the planet. Denial, complacency and fear are our greatest liabilities in this crises.

Those terrorists are projecting "terrorism" on the mind-screens as a part of the operation. Who and what would represent a threat to corporatism? That's the next definition of who that word of war applies to.

Welcome to America Inc. run by the Supreme Board of Directors who represent the few, deadbeat rich who hide safely behind the corporate veil and profit from major stock holding. They continue to rob us of our wealth and our power.

It will not be long before they literally claim and own the entire planet. It is not mere speculation to consider the majority of humans cast as global Serfs with no right to be here. We will end-up renting our place in life and that will be subject to approval to exist. Are we not already doing that and haven't we learn to accept being in such a predicament? How far can that go?

[nichomachus]

5. Yes

[Justpat]

6. Yes. n/t

[RKP5637]

7. Definitely!!! n/t

[nxylas]

8. Ooh, I know this one!

Is the answer "yes"?

[Octafish]

9. Wars without End. Welfare for the Wealthy. Unlimited Spying on We the People.

Rigged Elections. And Corporate McPravda on the take.

Nah. It couldn't happen here. Could it?

[devilgrrl]

10. Yes.

Since 1980.