A report from the Taming the Corporation conference by Alec Dubro tells us why the left has the correct analysis but not the power to do anything about it. Only 40% of Americans believe that corporations contribute the public good, so why do they submit to their rule? Because ordinary Americans don’t have the power to do anything about it, and they don’t have the power because they’re not motivated and organized to do anything about it, and they’re not organized and motivated because they’re comfortable and who is really proposing a compelling (comfortable) alternative? For now, at least, we’re too coopted by the system to do anything about it. Here’s Dubro:
None of the conference speakers asked, or even mentioned: What do we get out of corporate rule? It must be a lot, and not all of it can be venal and soul-destroying. It’s true that you need money to participate, but a surprising number of people have plenty of money, easily absorbing, for instance, the much-decried price rise in gasoline and heating fuel. And with money and the right skin tone, most Americans have more personal freedom than most of them can profitably use, as you can easily observe by the range of bizarre, and frequently sinful, leisure-time activities that consume them.
So, to partially answer my own question, we get from corporate culture: big homes, comfortable cars, investment counselors, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, personal watercraft, beachfront condos, hundreds of TV channels, central air conditioning, cheap airplane flights, cheaper electronic gear, and pizza on demand. You and I may not cherish these things, but millions do, and are not anxious to give them up for a new, uncertain economic system to be named later.
Even many people with minimal money and little promise of advancement identify not with the opponents of corporate rule, but with its guardians. While the conference drew a few hundred people to an interesting and provocative discussion of the structure of U.S. political and economic culture, any decent motivational speaker can draw a paying audience of thousands who live from paycheck to paycheck, and who want to succeed within corporate boundaries.
…The vision of a post-corporate America put forth at the conference was one in which security and equality reigned. But that left out what corporate state traffics in: the possibility of success. It’s what the conservatives misleadingly call freedom, but it’s not entirely a fraud. Lots of people want to do better, and we need their support.
The Taming the Corporation conference did a superb job of documenting and analyzing the problem. If it were just a matter of winning an ethical, moral or environmental case against corporations, we would have already overturned corporate rule. But we haven’t because we haven’t offered a plausible or demonstrable alternative that appeals to the people who walk around on a sunny weekend day having a pretty good time and not worrying too much about corporations.
This sounds right to me. Our understanding of the causes might be different depending on whether we lean left or right, but any sentient American knows that something is not right with us now. I believe it’s because we’ve become a consumption-centered, bread-and-circuses culture which defines its freedom by the quality of our circuses and the quantity of our bread. We are that for want of a plausible attractive alternative. Lots of Americans have little bread and their entertainments are tawdry, but there are not enough of them dissatisfied enough to make a difference. Until there are enough and until they get organized, nothing is going to change. And we’ll continue to wage war when it’s in the corporate interest to do so, and build and install useless missile systems, and be feared and hated around the world.
And slowly the dissent that is tolerated now will be quashed, and so will the easy access to information and communication. Why should the corporate state even allow for the possibility of an organized opposition? It will all seem so innocuous and tame–like the passage of the Military Commissions Act–and moderates will strive to see that the people pushing this program have legitimate points and the people protesting will be portrayed in the media as leftist cranks.
I don’t necessarily believe things have to turn out so bleakly as this (Al-Marri is a hopeful sign), but I think there is a far greater possibility of it than most Americans think. For this reason, I’m going to make an effort henceforth to limit posts about issues happening in the political sphere. I feel as though everything I say about politics is tediously repetitious, and since I have no positive program to offer, I am going to try to focus more on things going on in the cultural sphere that give me hope, and which in time may have an impact in shaping what happens in the political and economic spheres. Bono at the G8 Conference last week is refreshing in this regard. Check out this interview he did on NPR. For now, at least, this is the best we can expect.
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