The Wolves Among Us

If you can block out the movie production of Troy long enough to think about the legend of Troy, remind yourself of what that story really says. It says that the enemy within is a far graver threat than the one outside your gates. It says that traitors, turncoats, spies and general wolves in sheep's clothing will cause more damage than all the armies combined.

This is, of course, because it is always easier to destroy something from the inside.

Keep this in mind when considering the wisdom of focusing solely on the Republicans while ignoring the wolves that currently occupy our hen-house. Wolves like the ones who voted for CAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, or the energy bill.

How can so many Democrats vote for legislation that goes against everything the Democratic party stands for and expect to get away with it? Because they know we'll let them.

They know that as election time rolls around, we will flock in droves to defeat the evil Republicans so that they won't pass such legislation as CAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, or the energy bill.

They know that many of us will argue that we need to be a big tent party and not benefit the Republicans our internal strife. That our only objective is to get back into power so we can pass CAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, or the energy bill. At least then we'll have the fancy congressional offices again.

Meanwhile, the corporations and their lobbyists are laughing their way to the bank. They actually benefit from the Democrat's and Republican's pre-occupation with each other. They love the culture war. They love Plame-gate. They love everything that takes our eyes off the ball while they quietly amass all of the wealth and power into their few hands. And they know that they can count on neither Republicans or Democrats to interfere.

It's funny. Most people know that our politicians are bought and paid for. We know that Big Money is really pulling all the strings. But who knows who Big Money really is? Who are these people who are actually running the country from the back rooms of Washington? Here's a clue, none of them are named Karl.

In our quest to "take our country back" and restore power to the people, wouldn't it be wise to know who we're taking it back from? Here's a clue, it ain't George Bush.

And meanwhile, our people continue on their mass migration to the services sector. According to the Dept. of Labor, service sector jobs are the only thing keeping Bush's employment numbers out of the red. The SEIU is the largest and fastest growing labor union in the country. Yes, we are well on our way to waiterdom. Unfortunately, only so many can serve frappes to the 2% of the population that owns everything.

And then there is the Democratic Party®. I put that little trademark symbol there to get a point across. The Democratic party is more than a group or organization of people. It is a trademark. It is a core set of beliefs that are encoded into those two words.

We all have variations on those core beliefs. And we all have different ways of describing them. And indeed, those beliefs have evolved and expanded over the last century. But always, always at it's root, the brand Democratic Party has stood for protecting average Americans. It has stood for protecting and empowering the many against the tyranny of the few. Whether manifest in the fight for civil rights, progressive taxation, the protection of the elderly, or the disassembly and regulation of monopolistic corporations, there has always been a consistent, underlying statement beneath every act: America, under Democratic watch, will not allow the interests of the monied few to prevail over the commonwealth of the many. It has been so since its inception.

And then came the DLC. Like wedding brokers with solicitation of the dowry, they showed us a new way. With an endless supply of crisp, corporate cash, they forged a pact. Let our sheep graze pittantly in the electoral pasture and we'll give the wolves the keys to the hen-house.

And the Third Way began. And when the wolves rewarded the sheep with the installation of one of their own into the presidency, the sheep were so overjoyed that they stopped guarding the hen-house altogether. The wines of glory spilt over as the wolves and sheep celebrated their thirst. Good days would surely follow.

But out here in the real world, good days did not follow. Jobs, whole towns dried up and frittered away. Many families struggled to survive working three jobs. Urban and working class neighborhoods began to resemble combat zones. Small businesses failed as corporate chains moved in with scale advantage and third world imports. Public schools became holding cells for disadvantaged youth while prison occupation reached record highs. Suicide rates also reached record highs. As did drug and alcohol abuse as the sheep found their own good days in substance and television induced oblivion.

And, almost without notice, we awoke to find the brand, Democratic Party®, had lost its meaning. The leadersheep no longer spoke about the plight of the commonwealth. To many, they were starting to sound like wolves themselves. Then large flocks began to mistrust their party's alliance with the wolves. Many stayed home on election day. Many others formed their own party. And the sheep's long sworn enemy, the pigs, began to grow in power.

You see, the pigs alliance with the wolves went back to the beginning of time. And the sheep feared that alliance. They saw how the wolves would protect the pigs as they tried to hog all the food so that, at a time of the wolves choosing, the pigs would sacrifice one of their own to the wolves feast.

But the wolves found it difficult to elect a pig. No matter how many bows and ribbons they adorned, they still looked like pigs.

But when the sheep saw other sheep drinking with the wolves, the pigs no longer looked so bad. This is a new era, some would say. We are all wolves now.

The wolves also bought up all the TV channels, so they were able to make the pigs look like ponies. And everyone loves ponies.

And yet some of the sheep were not fooled. They said, "that's not a pony, that's a pig. And those aren't sheep. They're wolves in sheep's clothing." And they vowed to fight the wolves in sheep's clothing. But the other sheep cried out in horror. "How can you turn on your own? Don't you realize these are sheep? We must all stick together. A bad sheep is better than a good pig", they would say.

But the wise sheep knew better. They knew that the wolves in sheep's clothing were worse than plain wolves or the worst pigs. They remembered the legend of the pony, long told around the water hole. It was the story of how the wolves and the pigs had once conspired to build a giant pony to give to the sheep. But it was not a pony. It was a giant meat packer.

And yet, when they tried to warn the other sheep, they would not listen. They did not remember the legend of the pony. And they believed that if it was covered in wool, it was good. No matter where that wool came from.

To be continued...

There is nothing new in American politics. There is no Third Way. This is the same story mankind has been living out for eons. It is the age old struggle between the wolves and the sheep, retold for the new millennium. The ponies are only prettier in the television lights.

Our founding fathers fought the wolves and won. American history is speckled with such fights. Not all victorious.

But in our immense history I can find no fight more imperative, no threat to the average American so grave as the one we are witnessing now. Animal metaphors aside, the watchers and the keepers have all been turned. Every institutional protection of the common man has either fallen or is under siege.

There is only one intuitional agent left to our defense: democracy. And the only democratic institution which has any hope of providing The People with remedy is the Democratic party.

We can be a big tent on a lot of issues. But on one central point there can be no compromise: Democrats, in all their affairs, must as their final, chosen allegiance, serve the interest of ordinary Americans. Service to any other is betrayal.

Update [2005-7-31 2:50:4 by TocqueDeville]: A note about purity.

Thomas Jefferson founded the Democratic party to empower the commoners. He saw the inevitable inclination of wealth and power to accumulate into the hands of the few at the expense of the many. His Party of the People was its remedy.

The root principle I have laid out above is not my invention. It is what, historically, the Democratic party has stood for since its inception. To claim that the expectation of our party to adhere to that principle -- and to solely represent the interest of common Americans -- reflects some form of ideological “purity” is bane Sophism.

The Democratic party, until recent times, has always stood for protecting common Americans against the potential tyranny of the few. And while such language may be somewhat out of vogue, it has never been more applicable. Looking out for the common man is to Democrats what “lower taxes” and “less government” are to Republicans. If you do not know this, then you are either too young to remember, ignorant of history, or worse.

Corporate Immorality and Comparative Advantage

In his diary, "How to Create High-Paying Jobs and Slow Outsourcing bonddad implies that anyone who believes that corporations are "inherently evil" is not a member of the "reality based community." He calls such broad brush characterizations the language of socialists or communists.

To this I ask, how bout this guy:

"We must crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to bid defiance to the laws of our country."

Or how about this guy:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Or this guy referring to corporations in a speech:

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That is, in essence, fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling power. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."

So, who are these unrealistic, commie socialists? Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt respectively.

The dangers of corporate power

From the beginning of our republic, wise men have understood the danger of corporations. In fact, to a large degree, our country was birthed in revolt from corporate power, specifically, the India Trading Company and the Central Bank of London.

But time elapses and people forget their history and the forces of greed and corruption manifest, yet again, in the form of corporate oligarchy.

I have spent most of my adult life studying and writing about corporate power and I can tell you unequivocally, it is immoral. And liking, or even needing one of their products does not alter that fact.

Actually, the corporation, in its pure state, is not immoral, it is amoral. The corporate objective does not include the values of good or evil. It has only the cold, objective value of maximizing profits.

But human beings cannot truly be amoral. We are not passive entities. "To be" requires action in every instance. And action always affects something and someone else. "To be" a human being, we must always choose actions that do or do not cause harm. That are morally right or wrong. There's just no way around it.

But the corporate model ignores such moral considerations. Like an insect machine, it merely strives towards its objective, maximize profits.

You can see the amorality=immorality of corporate hegemony by the way corporate culture responds to one of its own trying to "do the right thing." Such extracurricular
considerations are almost always viewed as hostile to the prime directive.

Can generally "good" people participate in an inherently immoral system. Of course. But not without costs. Every year, 60 Minutes broadcast some report from a corporate whistle-blower who has finally reached an epiphany. They can no longer detach their own personal morality from their function in the amoral system.

Non-locality: Amorality's Evil Twin

And this leads to the heart of what is wrong with not only the corporate system, but all centralized, authoritarian systems including communists, socialists and even some democratic states: non-locality.

Non-locality is a physics term referring to action at a distance. Almost all the evils of men can be measured in their capacity to conduct action at a distance.

For example, poisoning the water supply of thousands of people right from your Wall St. office with a phone call. Or making the decision to destroy an entire city's economy over lunch.

In the most human terms, non-locality means never having to look the person who's child you gave leukemia in the eye. Or the old couple who's pension fund you evaporated. And that really sums up the evil of the modern, corporate world: the absence of accountability.

We have become so corporatized -- or institutionalized in the case of centralized, non-local state rule -- that we aren't even aware of our own detachment from our fellow man. This has never been more evident than in our health care system:

A woman in distress calls the doctors office complaining about chest pains and nausea and the first thing she hears the receptionist say is, "Do you have health insurance?" I did not make this up.

Was the receptionist evil? No, she was over institutionalized.

Quite simply, we have become inhuman. Our ever increasing interaction with the corporate system has left us dehumanized and disempowered.

Socialism: Non-locality's Other Evil Twin

Bonddad called blanket anti-corporatism language socialist or communists. I disagree.

Socialism, in almost all previous incarnations, is even worse action at a distance with no accountability. And that is what is evil: action without accountability, never having to look anyone in the eye, non-locality. At least corporations have some profit motive not to screw you over too blatantly. Centralized bureaucracies often do not.

Of course, I don't care for broad brushes much either. But exactly the same thing I abhor about the corporate model, non-democratic, centralized control without accountability, is a recurring them in both communists and socialists states.

It is indeed true that some systems function better centralized. These systems always involve few moving parts. Like the electric grid. And it is true that some action must take place at a distance. America is a big country. But the only way to ward off the inherent dangers of such systems is strong democratic oversight. Again, accountability.

Christian Conservatism Meets Corporate Amoralism

The great irony of the modern right-wing is the new alliance of the moral Christian conservative and the amoral corporate economic model. Corporate amorality, which again is immoral, has permeated our culture. The new faith of free market as Darwinian, social management has all but replaced our basest obligation to help and protect each other. And just as in the days of Christ, the followers have littered the alter with the icons of consumerism.

It is the altruism-is-evil sociopathy of Ayn Rand and Leo Strauss: any government action that is not limited to defense or the facilitation of commerce is socialism, that has infiltrated the Christian right. They parade their patriotism as faith while condemning the government of the people dictated by our constitution. One evangelical Christian argued to me that Christ, the miracle healer of the sick, would never have given free healthcare to the poor.

The Corporate Christian's Nemesis: Democracy

Under the American Constitution, Democracy is the medium through which human "good" is manifest. Democratic government is the sole mechanism by which we solve our collective problems, localize our plight and hold to account those agents we employ on our behalf. And we must fight to the death any system that rises up in spite of it.

Only through the strong superimposition of democratic will can we allow corporations to exist. For without it, the they will rise up like a vine weed and choke off the fruits of our collective good. We can already see the reach of that vine in every chamber of our government. Strangling the people's will.

It is not socialism to employ the agency of democracy to secure the interest of the commonwealth. It is what common people do.

Factors of Deportation

This brings me to David Ricardo and the theory of comparative advantage, another venture bonddad treated us to. Does it occur to bonddad that when Ricardo and Adam Smith were developing their trade theories, the primary form of communication was the letter? The primary form of transportation was a horse? Commercial transportation was limited to trains and boats?

What has changed? The non-localization of so called factors of production. Or the globalization thereof. Specialization localization is all but nonexistant now. We can move factors of production in a year. Robotic machination has also negated the theory of comparative advantage. Now, through the wonders of technology, anyone can hit the "On" button.

Is it not clear that this changes everything? Comparative advantage is an obsolete concept. The only "advantage" left is the limitations of labor rights and environmental regulation. Otherwise, we are all equal now.

Now, speaking of the reality based community, how about the simple fact that reality is no longer conforming to classical economic theories? Nothing Bill Clinton or Al Gore sold to the country has come true. We have at least a 600 billion dollar per year trade deficit. And this does not include the labor deficit.

Some day, historians will certainly view 21st century economists as crackpots practicing pseudoscience. Why wait?

Peer pressure and rigid academic discipline, not to mention Wall Street pressure, have compelled modern economists to close their eyes to the real condition of our economy. A condition that can only be described as savage.

Think outside the box. Go to the old part of your town and look at the architecture. Why can we no longer afford to create these structures? Why can we no longer afford to have excellent schools in excellent, inspiring buildings? Why do we not have state of the art infrastructure with high-speed rails and maintenance free roads. It appears we can't even afford to protect our children from the decimation of our air and water.

Why can't we even afford to have enough police to stop crime? All over the country, police don't even respond to anything less than a felony.

The United States is the richest country in the world in natural recourses. We have the cream of the crop. Water, energy, minerals, agriculture, even people. We should be, at this time in history, creating a super society.

Instead, we endure the fight-over-scraps economy. Like rats in the sewer, our local mayors, police, school boards, transportation boards are left fighting over scraps of funds from an economic system that is completely geared towards monied interests getting a bigger and bigger piece of the pie the commonwealth decays.

Ask yourself, what does it say about an economists who claims all is rosy while we have schools whose roofs leak, who can't afford books, who cant afford enough teachers? While the policies that have allowed the Central Banks and Corporations to accumulate 90% of the wealth in this country have left the rest of us fighting over scraps.

Bill Clinton assured Americans that we could compete in a global labor market with our higher skills and training. Aside from the fact that, as Bill Gates said, our schools don't produce high skilled laborers, even if they did, we still can't compete. How much higher skilled can we be than computer programmers? Where is the demand for Quantum Physicists?

One day, future historians will look back with absurdity that a country, a world so rich could allow so many to suffer and stagnate. That we had not the wherewithal to channel our resources to create a sustainable, prosperous civilization for everyone. Why can't we see that absurdity now? Is TV so good that we settle for scraps?

The essence of the American spirit is not to accept what is and endure it, but to see what can be and make it. I suggest we apply that principle to our economic views. We have more choices than the laissez fair capitalism and socialism duality. Perhaps it's time for Democratic Economics.