The international corporate state has failed. It was bound to fail from the beginning because it was based on the type of value system and ethos that engenders tyranny. It functions on the spread of ignorance, on false narratives and propaganda, on subjugation, oppression, and exploitation, all driven by depravity and greed. In its lust for excess, it destroys lives and defiles the environment.
Image: R_Evolution by Guillem Marí
The reason it was able to last this long is because its rapacious exploitation of the natural environment (and resources) allowed it to share a small portion of the wealth it generated with the populace, and because it had mastered the ability to control people through the most sophisticated and effective propaganda machine the world has ever seen.
But those two conditions for its existence are rapidly disappearing. Because of climate change, the effect of pollution, and the over-exploitation of resources, the corporate state can't keep up with its rapacious pace, and therefore can't produce the little extra wealth it has been sharing with the population. As a consequence, it is now forced to oppress and exploit the population in order to extract (or squeeze) as much profit as possible as its days come to and end.
Before I go on, let me define "Corporate State": A supra-national ruling class has established an international financial cartel that has been able to capture the governments in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and other EU countries. In each country, the takeover has been done in an eerily similar fashion: a legalized system of bribery and influence peddling corruption. In each country corporatist cartels and the bribed political class make up plutocratic oligarchies which engage in the imposition of neoliberal policies specifically-designed to extract the maximum amount of wealth from both, human and natural resources. Some of the principal methods of control these oligarchies use against the population include (in order of importance and effectiveness), a very advanced and sophisticated propaganda apparatus in the form of corporate media conglomerates; induced economic insecurity which keeps tens of millions of people living a subsistence level, which makes it almost impossible for them to have the time to figure out the true nature of the system; and a rapidly expanding total information awareness surveillance police state.
Those instruments of control do three things: They convince the population to accept a self-serving narrative as to what is and is not possible regarding how societies can be arranged, i.e., capitalism equal democracy, communism and socialism equal tyranny, etc.; they keep people distracted with breads and circuses, i.e., Honey BooBoo or the Duck Dynasty, or TV in general; they keep people confused and not quite able to properly organize against the oppression.
Illustration: Science Undermined by Goñi Montes
That is how a tiny group of people in each of these countries has been able to control the population thus far. But as the corporate state fails, people are beginning to figure out that what they believed to be democracy is actually a veneer hiding the criminal plutocracy; that what they believed to be a free media is actually propaganda; that the reason they haven't been able to properly organize in order to bring down the corporate state is because they have been sabotaged.
This realization is now spreading across much of the world like wildfire, and it portends its demise.
As people come to this realization, many still remain highly influenced by the ethos and false narratives of the corporate state. That condition makes them feel impotent against what they see is an insurmountable challenge; it makes them feel fearful and apprehensive. And because of it there is a tendency to want to have someone explain exactly what will happen if the corporate state is defeated, and without a sufficiently-detailed explanation, they remain "on the fence" when it comes to joining the fast-spreading movement against the international corporate state.
Defining an alternative to the corporate state is indeed very important, and I think the first step may be being able to articulate a new ethos for a post-corporate state society...
Here's my take on it: The rejection of greed and consumerism. People would contribute to society according to their abilities and will receive aid in accordance to their needs. They would consume only what they need. They would consider an injustice done to anyone to be an injustice done to themselves. They would consider education, shelter, food, clothing, and health care universal rights guaranteed for each individual by the collective action of all. They would protect the natural environment. Each individual wanting to work would be guaranteed a job. Those who manage to consume the least and to help the most would be considered the most virtuous. Literature, the study of Humanities, music and the arts would be exulted. All science and technological advances would be at the service of humanity, its benefits to be enjoyed equally by all.
Now, what I wrote above took me a few minutes; it is by no means something I invented, of course. They are based on the teachings of moral men and women throughout the ages, from Jesus Christ, to
the Buddha, to many a philosopher, economist, writer, activists, and revolutionary.
I argue that it is common sense; that that is the essence of what it means to be part of a community, of a just and fair society.
That philosophy, that ethos, so threatens the ethos of greed and depravity and exploitation upon which our current society is based, that it is no wonder that the capitalist-based corporate state has done everything in its power to demonize it, to discredit it. But again, people are coming to the realization that the reason it has been demonized by the depraved corporate state is because it is easy to exploit those who buy the lie of hyper-individualism than those who embrace the ethics of collectivism (the true meaning of society).
As the corporate state fails, what should we do? The most important thing we must do now is connect with each other, face to face, hand in hand. Moms, dads, doctors, teachers, activists, artists, musicians, the young, the old, those who can walk, those in wheel chairs, those who can see, those who are blind, let's embrace a new ethos based on community, justice, equality, brotherhood, solidarity, the rejection of rampant consumerism and exploitation...
Let's meet at the public square every week. Bring your guitar along; bring your canvas and your oils and paint a beautiful painting; teachers can teach about history, humanities, philosophy, right in the open; we could march in protest, we could sing songs; we could talk; we could build a new world, together. We could have a peaceful revolution!
Above all, don't be fearful, don't hesitate to open your mind to countless possibilities about what it means to be a member of a just and fair society; don't buy into the illusion that those who hold (illegitimate) power now are invincible. The depraved and greedy class of individual who have surreptitiously taken over the levers of power will remain in their positions until we say "enough!" Then they will fall like dominoes.
Join the movement! It's happening right now!
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