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Government is the biggest business | ||||
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James Corbett The Corbett Report 04 August, 2008
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Scanning through this year's Bilderberg attendee list with its royalty, elected representatives, financiers and captains of industry, one is reminded of Benito Mussolini's famous saying that fascism should properly be called corporatism; that is, the binding together of a nation's citizens in a state run by and for corporate interest. That's why Mussolini adopted the Roman fasces as his symbol: the bundle of sticks represents the populous, weak and flimsy by themselves but strong when bound together in the corporate state. Perhaps less well-known is that this very symbol, now synonymous with the tyrannical rule of Mussolini and his fascist thugs, hangs in the United States House of Representatives, flanking the President of the United States as he delivers his state of the union address each year. Whether or not the presence of this symbol in the seat of government represents an infiltration of fascists in the United States (and incredulous readers who believe such a suggestion ludicrous are invited to ponder the significance of Operation Paperclip), it is nonetheless demonstrable that fascism in Mussolini's corporate sense has completely subsumed the Republic. The outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries in the name of corporate profit have left blue collar workers struggling to understand why they should care about stock markets, management incentive packages or other indicators of 'economic health' when they are struggling to feed their families. Those in middle-management positions were content to play corporate cheerleader and lecture their unfortunate underlings on the necessity of tightening belts and getting retrained for the information economy…at least until the housing bubble popped, oil hit $140 a barrel and food rationing started in the richest country on the planet. Now the pain is spreading to the middle class and no one is quite as prepared to accept the cozy relationship between our elected officials and the billionaire businessmen who stand to make billions more from the current turmoil. Perhaps there is no better symbol of this relationship (other than the fasces hanging in the House of Representatives) than the Bilderberg conference itself. Every year since 1954 this ultra-secretive group of elites (part of the the "Superclass" recently defined by David Rothkopf) has met in private at a secluded resort near a major European or North American capital to reach a consensus on global geopolitical decisions for the upcoming year. According to a recent BBC documentary on Bilderberg, the group worked from its very inception to draw Europe into a single currency economic and political union. The 2002 conference decided that the Iraq war, originally scheduled for the fall of that year, would be postponed to March 2003…which is precisely when the war was launched. The 2005 conference decided on $80/barrel oil in 2007 and $140 for 2008. To understand how Bilderberg can bring global politics in line with their wishes, one need only take a look at the attendee list. Founding members included SS officer Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, whose daughter Queen Beatrix is still a prominent member, David Rockefeller of the infamous Rockefeller dynasty, and Kenneth Clarke, prominent British MP. Throughout the years, the group has maintained its focus on bringing together the centers of political and financial power. Past meetings have had then-CEO of DamilerChrysler, Jurgen Schremp, rubbing shoulders with James Wolfensohn (2004), Tony Blair cozying up to Martin Taylor, the CEO of Barclays (1993) and Alan Greenspan having a quiet word with George Soros (2002). Indeed, throughout its history Bilderberg has focused on bringing together movers and shakers in the business world with politicians in key positions of power. Bilderberg members, however, claim that there is nothing untoward in elected representatives making decisions about their countries' futures in closed-door meetings with business magnates, financial wizards and royalty. We are told that the secrecy surrounding these meetings (or 'privacy' to use their own rhetoric) is unimportant. These are just informal chats between some of the world's richest and most powerful businessmen and those who just happen to sit at the heads of governments and international institutions. As we have seen, Bilderberg's ability to bring global events in line with their wishes gives the lie to the old canard that these are just private discussions between private individuals. When private discussions between private individuals result in the implementation of global geopolitical policies they are no longer discussions. In fact, one can see them as the annual parliament of an unacknowledged world government. The point to be taken from this is twofold. Firstly, anyone who believes that when 125 of the most powerful people in the world meet behind closed doors they are not setting global policy is naive, perhaps hopelessly so. Secondly, it becomes pointless to talk about corporate control over government agencies when all government amounts to (at least in its present form) is the largest corporation. In short, government is the biggest business. How else to explain the machinations of an institution which collects trillions of dollars annually in "taxes" (revenue), provides "services" (increasingly that of spying on and locking up an increasing percentage of its "citizens" (workers)) and reports to elite shareholders in private conferences like Bilderberg. Nor is this merely a clever metaphor. Some may be surprised to learn that the United States of America (as opposed to the united states of America) is, in fact, a corporation created by the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871. The U.S. Code is nothing more nor less than a set of corporate guidelines regulating the behaviour of its workers exactly like the code of conduct of any corporation, and the U.S. Code itself defines the United States as a corporation. Taxes are paid to this corporation not through any constitutionally-mandated federal agency, but the IRS, itself a private corporation. The extent of the lie which the average American dupe is living is revealed by the fact that the income tax itself is not a valid law. If the Bilderberg meeting is one of the clearest signs that the governments of the western world cannot be differentiated from the corporate kingpins with whom they secretly (sorry, 'privately') discuss how best to reap ever greater profits, perhaps the most telltale moment of that relationship came in early June when it emerged that the Department of Justice sent 125 iPods to this year's Bilderberg attendees, each one lovingly engraved with the inscription "Bilderberg 2008." The ludicrous nature of this act should be clear, but bears re-stating in plain form: a federal agency used their indentured servants' tribute (sorry, "taxpayers' money") to grease the palms of the corporate kingpins while also helping to line the pockets of the Apple corporation. And the lowly workers are bound together in ignorance of the corporate state in which they are living. Mussolini would be smiling. Related works from The Corbett Report: The Bushes Are Nazis (podcast episode) |
