"The Second Face of American Capitalism..."

The Merging of Capitalism and Autocracy

How do you express the increasing tendency of business and corporate interests to be the same combined with the increasing power of the Executive in deciding policy at the expense of the other branches? How about Capitocracy?

Why do we need a new term to express this convergence? Because words can sometimes paint a picture of what is happening whereas the rest of us might be mired in the conventional wisdom.

Because we need to have a word to awaken people of this country to the fact that there is a new system in place that has replaced democracy. “Democracy” has always seemed a sweet and benign word that embraced all the noble qualities. Unfortunately, as the French philosopher Montesquieu said one hundred years ago, it is the most fragile of systems and can be replaced without anyone being the wiser.

And I'm sorry to break it to you, folks, democracy has gone...

Where did it go? Well, like your teeth, if you ignore democracy, it goes away!...And sad to say, it's time we owned up. How many of us individually have taken the time to defend our democracy. It's not that we haven't seen bad people in office doing bad things. But what have we done about it? Have we gone to our newspapers? Have we spoken up? No, we just took the path of least resistance.

Even in the olden days of Athens, those who preeched democracy understood that it needed to be nourished. There were penalties for those who didn't do their duty according to the laws of democracy and Athens. But we've never had penalties. We've simply assumed that no matter what our democracy will be there when we need it. So, it may come as pretty much of a shock to most the folks out there to wake up and discover that it is gone. And in its place is something else far different.

We all knew that it was just a matter of time before those with sinister intent, those who seek personal privilege would awaken to the fact that it's easy to steal government and then gain access to everything. What's more, once you had the power, it was like being in a candy store where you could rip everyone off to your heart's content.

Of course, this wasn't what the original founders of the country had in mind when they put their lives on the line to create a new way of life for Americans. But in the end, that's how it worked out: When nobody cares, the bad guys take over! Too bad, we seemed to be on a pretty good role there for something like 200 years!...

Maybe the next time, if there is a next time, someone will remember that a good system like a democracy needs to be nurtured and protected and that if you're good to it, it will be good to you.

For the meantime, since we don't seem to have the heart for insurrection, we'll have to remember what capitocracy is all about!

Les Aaron