I think people are still picking their jaws up off the floor after Attorney General Eric Holder admitted yesterday that we indeed have a two-tiered justice system: one increasingly punishing and draconian for the general population, and one for the moneyed elites, starting with criminal banksters. But of course, his statement is just one more dastardly in-your-face demonstration of the ascendance of the increasingly fascistic corporate state.
By now, much of the population is aware of the wars of choice for the benefit of war profiteers, the war crimes, the looting and pillaging by Wall Street, and the full-on war on the middle class by the top one percent.
How did we get here? The answer to that can be complicated, but in general, one of the main reasons is that the general population was manipulated into acting against their own interests due to the effects of a massive decades-long misinformation and propaganda campaign.
There is one single event that could be considered as as the "big-bang theory" that brought about the current increasingly fascistic corporate state: Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr.'s memo "Attack on American Free Enterprise System."
As reported on the Greenpeace Website:
Historian Kim Phillips-Fein describes how “many who read the memo cited it afterward as inspiration for their political choices.” In fact, Powell’s Memo is widely credited for having helped catalyze a new business activist movement, with numerous conservative family and corporate foundations (e.g. Coors, Olin, Bradley, Scaife, Koch and others) thereafter creating and sustaining powerful new voices to help push the corporate agenda, including the Business Roundtable (1972), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC - 1973), Heritage Foundation (1973), the Cato Institute (1977), the Manhattan Institute (1978), Citizens for a Sound Economy (1984 - now Americans for Prosperity), Accuracy in Academe (1985), and others.
The impetus behind this "business activist movement" was to push back on what they saw as socialism influences in the American economy of the 1970's. In other words, they saw unionization, and a robust business regulatory framework, and workers' rights, minimum wage, etc., as burdensome and bothersome conditions that interfered with their ability to extract as much wealth as possible from the workers and from the environment (natural resources).
And so their activism helped bring about the conditions necessary for the ascendancy of the current increasingly fascistic corporate state. And thus, they took over the entire mainstream media turning it into the most powerful and sophisticated mind-numbing propaganda machine the world has ever seen. Of course, they were able to do that by first taking on the easiest task which was taking over our entire political system, which has turned into a grotesque tool serving the interests of their corporatist paymasters.
Once they've taken over the political system, and the mainstream media, they then proceeded to perfect their abilities to manipulate the population into acting against their own interests, i.e., irrationally. A lot of this was the result of applying Freudian psychoanalysis techniques at a mass scale. (Please view this PDF presentation on psychological/political framing).
By and large, this explains why the population in the United States today is acting irrationally, in the face of the circumstances before us.
What is the main lesson from the Powell Memo?
Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.
Given this situation, it seems to me that it would be rational for people who are fully cognizant of how we got to where we are today to come up with a counterstrategy applying the same principles of
strength based on organization, planning, implementation, consistency of action, and indefinite time frame .
That would be the rational thing to do. But unless someone can point me to the right source of information, to date, I haven't seen anything remotely close to that approach, from the progressive movement.
We live in a nation where doctors destroy health; lawyers destroy justice; universities destroy knowledge; governments destroy freedom; the press destroys information; religion destroys morals; and our banks destroy the economy.
- Chris Hedges
Yes, there are multiple progressive organizations doing good work in many areas, including politics, the environment, labor, etc. But there doesn't seem to be tight coordination among these organizations. Again, I find that not only perplexing, but irrational.
For over ten years now I've been perplexed by this lack of coordination, cohesiveness, and strategic collaboration on the Left, so finally I decided to launch a National Social Justice Activism Network "proof of concept" initiative.
Here are the main aspects of what I'm proposing:
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Independence: The network should operate completely independent of the two main (corrupt) political parties, which are in essence two wings of the one-party corporate state. It should be genuinely grassroots.
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Members: There should be an "intellectual" component of the network, to include academicians, philosophers, researchers, analysts, writers, journalists, and other professionals. Their tasks should be to uncover every aspect of how shadowy corporatists organizations and business cartels operates and influence our political system, and to come up with counterstrategies to oppose and defeat the influence-peddling corruption.
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Counter-Propaganda: This is probably the most important component of this initiative because it is as the result of the mind-numbing propaganda people are being exposed to by the incredibly harmful effects of the U.S. mainstream media that they are acting irrationally. What I propose is to start slow, but deliberately. For example, this could be started first by placing full page ads in several newspapers around the country with carefully-designed messaging that's meant to inform the public about how thesecorporatist cartels operate, and the harmful effect they have on the population. It could then be expanded to TV, radio, magazines, billboards, fliers, posters, seminars, teach-ins, rallies and street protests.
One very important point is that if a grassroots initiative like this came to be a reality, it should serve as a platform for multiple organizations to collaborate in, but it should be set up to prevent any one powerful organization to co-opt it. This is extremely important because a lot of influential progressive organizations have strong leadership connections with the Democratic party, and many of the leaders have grown accustomed to the benefits of access and financial support, which in the final analysis diminishes the effectiveness of their stated mission--for obvious reasons.
Regarding the map below, the main objective is to help you visualize the concept of a national network acting in concert, in coordination, with a high degree of cohesiveness, coordinating strategies, both local and nationwide; sharing information, connecting the dots.
The map is an actual rendition that shows the cities where people have signed up to my email list. If you click on it, you'll be redirected to an interactive map on my website.
I want the reader to consider that I have been thinking about this idea for many years now, and that there are many details I haven't discussed in this diary, but which I would be glad to share if there are any questions about the concept(s). Also, what I'd like to do is to encourage people to embrace the overall concept, and then come up with their own ideas. But remember, the key is to form a cohesive team across the country; one that is independent, has unity of purpose, and that is strategic-minded.
If you would like to help me proof this concept, please join my email list. Once a week you will receive a weekly newsletter with updates and information about the development of the Social Justice Activists National Network. It all be focused on taking action...
Finally, I'd like the reader to digest the information below, and think about it carefully. It's the result of years of collusion between corporatist cartels and a government on the take, all at your expense. It's time for the people to say "enough," and start acting rationally against this relentless attack on our freedom, liberty, and economic well-being.
UPDATE: FRI MAR 08, 2013 AT 09:28 AM PST: I'm truly blown away at the number of people who have
signed up to my email list since I published this diary. It's amazing! I will do everything I can to make sure we all share in the belief that by uniting we can indeed make a difference--a real difference. Later in the day
I'll be updating the map. Remember, use it as an inspiration. See how it grows. We will find the way to act together, for the good of the country.
UPDATE 2: FRI MAR 08, 2013 AT 09:35 PM PST: I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to everybody who recc'd this diary, and to those those who joined the mailing list. As of the time I'm writing this, 125 people signed up from all over the country. I will be reaching out with some ideas about how we can start setting up a cohesive network focused on finding ways to address the endemic influence-peddling corruption affecting our society. And of course, the real value of setting up a network like this is in being able to harness the collective wisdom of everybody involved. Thanks again everybody!
P.S. I will treat everybody's email with utmost confidentiality; it will never be shared with third parties.
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