That's called capitalism. And indeed it has been hailed as a sacred principle. By the right, and not the left, btw.

When the true costs of the ideology "capitalism is sacred" started to sink in, the right managed to rebrand some of it under the name "globalism", and blame the left for it.

But usually, this "globalism" is being presented as an ideology that promotes equality.
And it is usually people like george soros, or organisations like oxfam, that are being seen as proponents of this movement.

But the thing is that it is always the ideals of equality, or fairnes that are being attacked, and never capitalism. But i don't see how soros' naive ideals about a world without borders, or oxfams ideals of fair international trade, have anything to do with the problems mentioned.

And not taxing multinational companies, ofshoring production to low-wage countries with virtual no labour or environmental laws by these same companies, on the other hand, do.

Globalization has nothing to do with left or right politics. It's about increasing profit and power - it doesn't matter what mask is being worn.

Back on my point about being cautious of handing over too much power, another example of a police force already abusing it. This time in Brazil - it costs just under £2K an hour to run a police helicopter in the UK.

Police use helicopter to clear beach

Ridiculous.

Neoliberalism has been the "new world order" way, since the 80's. Kissenger and Rockefeller were a couple key players, the former being more involved with getting other oligarchs on board. They hide under the clauses of Corporate Personhood (Dartmouth vs. Woodward, 1818, and more recently/relevantly, Southern Pacific RR vs. Santa Clara County, 1887), and have co-opted the term "libertarian" to apply to corporations, with no regards of citizens. Nowhere is this more obvious than the influence of the Kochs and Citizens United (obviously double-speak). The problem is, corporations cannot feel remorse, and they are largely run by sociopaths.

Yes you're right. Or at least it should not have to be about politics.

The point is though, that many things are often being co-labeled "globalisation", that have nothing to do with any of the problems caused by uninhibited greed or power.

And the term is being used to smear people.
Like greta thunberg for instance.

As if concern for the environment is a morally reprehensible thing, on the same level as greed.
As if it is people like her being the cause of the housingcrisis, or the current corona outbreak.

When one looks at those who hold political power in most countries around the world it's not difficult to imagine how they might not have that much of an incentive to protect too much of their populace too soon from a pandemic like this. It is indeed a wonderful excuse for exercising state power, enforcing social compliance, and propagating fear, uncertainty and doubt.

That those who are most vulnerable might also happen to be those who already present a 'burden' to the social care systems, why, how much money will be 'saved' if a few hundred thousand needy people get killed off? To those who know the ways of, for example, the Conservative party in the UK this is also not too much of a wild leap of the imagination.

We are told not to ascribe to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence, but the politicians' capacity for devious opportunism should not be overlooked either. People of this ilk have been at the game for a long, long time. At least some of them know what they are doing, most of the time.

(Source)
Ever heard the term, "manufacturing consent"?

There's a name for systems of governance where the politicians are in the pockets of large corporations.

Here's part of the British approach. Scroll down a bit: "police [...] dyed a lake black to put off swimmers." Seriously? This is overstepping the mark. Outdoor exercise is an essential activity.

If there's money for this policing, there should be money for truly random SARS-CoV2 testing - not just for those presenting 'flu-like symptoms' - otherwise there will be no true picture of the spread of the virus. Maybe the government lets this new wave of power get to their heads and are afraid that a truly representative figure for the spread of the virus would undermine the way in which they are wielding this power - fear, uncertainty, doubt.

sobering posts from downwardsfromzero...

benzyme wrote:

..corporations are entities, the host is the biosphere/humanity..the corporate entity has no other agenda than to grow and replicate, at the expense of other entities or organisms..as entities they have no humanity...they operate as strings of code..code which has gotten into the wider codes of human law and governance to overide and gain advantage..in this sense, the corporation (and corporate law) has been an information pandemic (like the 'manufacturing consent' downwardsfromzero mentions)...the best thing that could come out of this turbulence is for us to re-claim our humanity...we would not have survived as a species (through ice-ages and catastrophes) if competitiveness was the core driving trait...
(or, probably, if the current power structures of the past couple of thousand years were the natural order)

PS as a current example - the lack of virus testing kits and equipment early on, worse in countries like the UK, and others, was an 'economic rationalist' decision by government (said to be too expensive, when they have now spent billions bailing out corporations)..this in itself, which has led to so much spread and confusion, is the kind of code that's gotten in and is completely tied with the corporate dominated world we live in..

That guardian article is a joke right?





I agree that mass testing is the way to go but posting a disapproving tweet about someone and bunging a bit of water dye into a lagoon to discourage gatherings is not exactly OTT police state tactics.



Yeah but the Uk police arnt doing that. They are posting disapproving tweets. The goddamned fascists.

It's what is proportionate and reasonable. And don't try to disparage the point by throwing the word fascist around, that's weak.

Tracking people down who went for a walk alone with their dog.. meanwhile thousands of people still packed like sardines on the London underground because they have no choice as either essential workers or because financially they have no choice.

Tracking people, flying drones, dying water in a lake. That is really the best use of their time and resources? Meanwhile we're still letting people in from abroad..

The actions of the police and government don't marry up.

It was a joke. But i agree that it was used to disparage a point because that was what i wanted to do. If you think that it is weak, then so be it.

The drone story , as far as i can read, is based on Derbyshire police showing some drone footage of dog walkers in the peak district. I would say that there is already a bit of an exageration to say that the police are using drones to track dog walkers to shame them . It's not the same .It is media sensationalism. And it is miles away from taking helicopters out to cause sandstorms on beaches.

OK, it's not the miners' strike or the beanfield, but wait and see.

ok, but the law/clause isn't called "Corporate Entityhood", it's called "Corporate Personhood"(looks like I was off by a year, on those cases.)

hence, my rationale. this is a historical context on how the system was enabled for corruption; it was already corrupted by wealthy landowners, these set of laws simply made it easier for them to absolve themselves of responsibility, and allow "The Company" to take on legal cases. "Manufacturing consent" was a term coined by Noam Chomsky (his book, actually) which illustrates historically how media is/was largely a propaganda machine heavily invested in financial institutions and multinational corporations. This is obvious when one observes its direct effect on the stock market. That's why (and I heard it from my parents too), regarding the news, I believe nothing I hear, and only half of what I see.

I wonder if there would be a way to force companies to behave responsibly, without going into full marxist mode.

Taxing big corporations seems hard enough already, for governments. So what if companies would be allowed to pay tax "in kind"...by providing a service to the community? Would that work?

I don't put any faith into it, because gov't regs are so lax in the US, it's like letting thieves run the bank. Oligopolies are obviously the problem...multinational corporations that have no allegiance to any country. If they feel they are taxed too much, they simply shift operations elsewhere. In my mind, the only way to change the system is to tank it. But sociopathic human nature being what it is, and historically always been, all power and wealth would inevitably consolidate into the hands of the few... hence, the existence of oligopolies and oligarchs. Any system that were to start anew, would inevitably be corrupted, because of corrupt human behavior. The latter is the problem, not necessarily the systems. Lack of moral responsibility.

..i agree with your outlook on corporations and oligarchs benzyme, and there have always been purely self-interested people, no doubt..i can't but help feel that the systems have been more weighed to suit sociopaths on a massive scale in post Roman (or thereabouts) times..but this is a whole different topic really..and perhaps i have too naive a faith in the good qualities of humans..but on the whole i agree with you benzyme

whether the present situation brings about any real change in the system will be interesting to see.. Boris Johnson's refutation of Thatcher's 'there is no society' isn't probably worth much more than trying to be currently popular..

Yeah, there was probably some smart PR adviser who told him that if you realy want to spread the gospel of the gordon gekko, this is not the most appropriate moment to do it.

So, Hungary's parliament has suspended itself indefinitely, allowing direct rule from their far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban:
https://globalnews.ca/ne...ngary-government-powers/

Any change to the current system brought about by the present situation looks likely to be further in the direction of totalitarianism. One can only hope it's the death throes of a moribund system, so we'd better come up with some kind of alternative.

Mass demonstrations would appear to be out of the question for the moment, although there is always the question of critical mass.

"Never waste a good crisis"

Perhaps it would take awareness of people, of the biosphere of the planet for example, to change what they purchase. In other words people buying products which are more environmentally friendly rather than those which are less friendly. Like paper packaging rather than plastic, more organic food rather than food with more chemicals in it. Right now I probably have more faith in that sort of scenario rather than govt mandated change in that direction. Yet who knows, look at Greta Thumberg, and the worlds children. The children are a huge key to this. They have the most skin in the game.

Then there’s the question of companies who do work for other companies and don’t market products directly to consumers (a term I don’t really like too much). Maybe the people who work for such companies will change them.

At any rate, perhaps we shouldn’t resign ourselves to the idea that nothing will change in healthy directions. Just because it hasn’t yet doesn’t mean it won’t. It reminds me of the stock market, and the popular wisdom about it. They think the market will always play out its cycles, yet we all know deep down that the stock market probably won’t exist eternally lol. The planet earth isn’t only at the mercy of humans, just look at corona virus. Several things can possibly happen to re-set this civilization, or even end it, although I think some humans will continue to create with nature either way. I think it’s like Dennis McKenna said, humans only think they’re running things, and even the time that it’s seemed as if we’re running things is a tiny blip in true scale of things.

Yes. But if there is going to be a straw to break the camels back to bring about a countrywide beanfield scenario, it would be something like this Coronavirus: Criticism of shops selling Easter eggs during Covid-19 outbreak is wrong, says trade body