If you look at how most liberals think about economics, they want big corporations and big government working in tandem with labor, universities (think industrial policy), and progressive organizations to come up with “inclusive” policies set at the national or international level. That’s not necessarily socialism — it’s corporatism. When you listen to how Obama is making economic policy with “everyone at the table,” he’s describing corporatism, the economic philosophy of fascism. Government is the senior partner, but all of the other institutions are on board — so long as they agree with the government’s agenda. The people left out of this coordinated effort — the Nazis called it the Gleichschaltung — are the small businessmen, the entrepreneurs, the ideological, social, or economic mavericks who don’t want to play along. When you listen to Obama demonize Chrysler’s bondholders simply because they want their contracts enforced and the rule of law sustained, you get a sense of what I’m talking about.
Two things:
- I think it is a mistake to continue to refer to the Obama Administration (and Congress) as "socialist." It allows naysayers to find flaws in the "socialist" label. They are fascists, using the cover of corporatism to spread their agenda.
- The above summarizes why I have chosen to remain anonymous on this blog, so that I can criticize the goings-on in corporate America, without the risks that my speaking about it would cause to me and my family.
I haven't done that much, or at all, but the sentiment remains in the background, and I fight a daily battle against the tyranny of the corporate world, selling my soul in the process.
I work in corporate America and am inundated daily with political correctness and personal invasiveness, under the guise of private-sector protections. When corporations adopt "Sexual Harassment" training classes as mandatory, the full collusion between government and corporate is complete.
The government may not be able to eliminate free speech, but it has effectively eliminated it in the corporate realm, through willing dupes and accomplices.
Conservatives fear the Jack Booted Thug, but most people have always been on their guard for the thug in government uniform - the stereotypical storm trooper breaking through your door. But the use of corporatism has been more subtle, gradually eroding our civil liberties through rah-rah "good citizens" and "good employee" memes.
On Earth Day, for example, an official email came out informing us that Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth was viewable in the employee lounge (if we'd missed the group showing of it earlier in the day). If any of us who recognize Inconvenient Truth for the Convenient Propaganda that it is, had complained about the film and the company's official announcement about it, we'd have experienced the corporate equivalent of being sent to Siberia.
We know what it would mean, as we've seen it happen to others. They may not be fired outright, but people who complain are marginalized, and first on the layoff lists.
Similarly, my employer has instituted a program whereby employees are required to attend, mentor, or otherwise participate in LGBT groups. It is done under the guise of "inclusiveness" and the propaganda suggests that it makes us more marketable. If anyone were to argue against the required program (regardless of grounds), they would be lectured on our "company values" and eventually dismissed. The reality is that anyone who doesn't wish to participate is not given that option. Their personal views about LGBT groups are not considered "inclusive" or "respectful of diversity" when, in fact, respect of diversity means that we leave these sorts of issues at the curb, and focus our business relationships on business, not our personal attitudes or relationships. The lifestyle choices of others no longer are allowed to remain private, if we wish to meet our required goals each year.
Despite the fact that women are in a majority in my company, there continues to be programs tailored to favor women (and minorities) over white men--the kind of bigotry not allowed to the government, but implemented quite successfully by corporates.
We have the equivalent of an "Inclusiveness Czar" although that isn't what it is titled, and we get weekly emails about how important all of this is to our individual performance, as well as our corporate performance. It doesn't matter how we feel about the issue personally. Contrary opinions are stifled because corporations are not a democracy. The mantra of "inclusiveness" has no dissenting voices.
When corporations are in collusion with the government, our liberties end. It doesn't matter if it is done by a government-uniformed Jack Booted Thug, or if it is done by an HR drone. The fact remains that we can be effectively blackballed from making a living in corporate America if we give our employer "cause" to fire us for speaking against these things. That "cause" will prevent us from working anywhere else, as the performance review and reason for firing will follow us around forever. We can't fight against government stifling our freedoms, because it is doing it through a third party.
That is the Third Rail, albeit with a twist.
We can vote against socialists, fascists or communists. We can hope that the reign of political leaders who champion these ideas will come to an end at polling stations, but we can't do anything about corporatism without risking our family's ability to earn an living... and so it endures, unchecked.
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