"Inc."s Eat America's Freedoms

Government is, in a sense, a form of corporation. The reverse is also true. Both are large, powerful entities controlling often vast sums of money, wherein the individuals involved are absolved from accountability for the actions of the organization. The legitimacy of government often creates slightly better public relations, and both certainly have much better public relations than organized crime organizations which can at times function as both governments and corporations.

Corporate charters in this country used to be issued very sparingly: a corporation, wherein the individuals are absolved from the responsibility for their actions, is an incredible lot of power. In an extremely large or powerful one, it is power equal to that of a government.

This is why the sudden run of anti-trust suits began at the beginning of the 20th century.

Corporations had amassed unanticipated power and were bearing down on the nation, both the people and the government. This, of course, treated the symptoms rather than the problem. Corporations became even more entrenched, through WWII, and subsequently and more significantly, the Cold War. Today corporations control most of the nation's affairs, through the often-criticized military industrial complex, pharmaceutical companies, and the omnipresent corporate media. I have not traditionally been critical of the existence of television. But more and more, when I watch TV, I notice the commercials and particularly the news.

They field an unadulterated continuous stream of information whose dissemination is advantageous to the corporation at the other end of the signal. Corporations control political campaigns. They control the information flow. They are becoming more powerful than the government. In effect, the government is becoming little more than a figurehead. It stands to remind us that it's still really there, only it's not. Jaded idealists engage in meaningless debate tailor-made for television broadcast so that they will be well reviewed and can continue to tell themselves they are "statesmen" helping the nation.

My personal favorite comes when I watch a news broadcast and can count how many times "the man on the street" getting interviewed utters the glorious word "democracy" in the course of his 10 second sound-byte. The major networks love to play that one. It allows them to laugh at their own sense of irony. They have no interest in democracy. Their best interest is supported by an oligarchy of themselves, supported by their information that they disseminate to educate the masses.

Americans, however, love to gloat about the wonders of this system thought up by Jefferson and Washington. Lincoln usually warrants mention if you're just counting revered public figures who helped to keep the democracy, along with perhaps FDR. If you're lucky, you'll even hear one of them mention Johnny Carson or Rupert Murdoch.

No, I do retain hope that this mess can be cleaned up. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be writing for the paper. I mean, I could do it for the sheer ironic humor value of it all, but really, the motivation to actually do it might be too much trouble.