Chris Hedges: Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction

Posted on Jan 24, 2010
By Chris Hedges


Corporate forces, long before the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, carried out a coup d’état in slow motion. The coup is over. We lost. The ruling is one more judicial effort to streamline mechanisms for corporate control. It exposes the myth of a functioning democracy and the triumph of corporate power. But it does not significantly alter the political landscape. The corporate state is firmly cemented in place.

The fiction of democracy remains useful, not only for corporations, but for our bankrupt liberal class. If the fiction is seriously challenged, liberals will be forced to consider actual resistance, which will be neither pleasant nor easy. As long as a democratic facade exists, liberals can engage in an empty moral posturing that requires little sacrifice or commitment. They can be the self-appointed scolds of the Democratic Party, acting as if they are part of the debate and feel vindicated by their cries of protest.

Much of the outrage expressed about the court’s ruling is the outrage of those who prefer this choreographed charade. As long as the charade is played, they do not have to consider how to combat what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of “inverted totalitarianism.”

Inverted totalitarianism represents “the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry,” Wolin writes in “Democracy Incorporated.” Inverted totalitarianism differs from classical forms of totalitarianism, which revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader, and finds its expression in the anonymity of the corporate state. The corporate forces behind inverted totalitarianism do not, as classical totalitarian movements do, boast of replacing decaying structures with a new, revolutionary structure. They purport to honor electoral politics, freedom and the Constitution. But they so corrupt and manipulate the levers of power as to make democracy impossible. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/democracy_in_america_is_a_useful_fiction_20100124/

[Blue Owl]

1. The Money Party

and its current dual personas -- the bought-out, corporate-controlled Democratic and Republican parties.

[tavalon]

2. The big thing that scares me about this ruling is that they aren't even trying to hide the fascism

anymore. What has so emboldened them that they don't feel the need to even pretend anymore? This is a rhetorical question, though anyone is free to chime in with the myriad of things that have convinced our ruling class that they don't have to pretend that we're not in another gilded age. Far less has changed than any of would care to admit (really, corporations, AKA superpersons have been running things for about 30 years0 but it is so brazen now.