So, a lot of Americans are treating an assassin as a hero for killing an overpaid health insurance CEO and we’ve got an incoming presidential cabinet comprised of billionaires. America is not a functional democracy but rather, a corporatocracy, and it’s about to become a corporatocracy-on-steroids. We are witnessing and experiencing a great grasp and then last gasp of a system unravelling.
A corporatocracy can be defined as an economic, political, and judicial system controlled or influenced by corporations and big business special interests. Signs and symptoms include excessively high pay for CEOs, exploitation by corporations of government funds, natural resources, and workers, mass incarceration of the poorer classes, and extreme income inequality.
The slide into corporatocracy was kick-started by Reagan and has gained steady traction ever since through deregulation, rigging the financial system to make it easier for the wealthy to get wealthier and harder for everyone else, subsidizing extractive Big Business, and legalizing unlimited contributions to political campaigns.
The incoming regime is going to take this to a whole new level. Trump is stacking his cabinet with billionaire sycophant capitalists. Elon Musk, who has made billions off of government contracts, will be in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency. He’ll be tasked with cutting the federal budget including programs like Medicaid. That is the epitome of a fox guarding the henhouse.
Another symptom of corporatocracy is crony capitalism, which is when corporations obtain favors and privileges from elected officials and government in exchange for funding or political support. Musk contributed more than $250 million to the Trump campaign. Other megadonors include hedge fund operators, shipping company tycoons and railroad magnates.
The new regime corporatocracy will almost certainly accelerate destruction of nature and widen income inequality. Already Trump has announced that any, "person or company" investing $1 billion or more in the US would, "receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental [sic] approvals." To which Musk gloated, “This is awesome.” This means there will soon be two different sets of environmental rules; one for the obscenely-wealthy and one for everybody else.
While campaigning, Trump said, “They call it groceries! Bacon, lettuce, tomato. All the everything is so much higher than it ever was. And we’re going to bring that down, and we’re going to do it very simply.” Yesterday, not surprisingly, he reversed, saying it would be “very hard” to bring down grocery prices.
A whole lot of Americans sense the brokenness of the corporatocracy – from health care we can’t afford, to the cost of housing, to the outrageously indecent insurance racket, to millions trapped in minimum wage jobs while the wealthy get wealthier just making money on the money they already have. And a whole lot of us grieve the massive damage to nature, wildlife, and wild places caused by extractive capitalism, corporate greed, and political ideology or weakness.
All of this brokenness is likely to accelerate in the near future and that’s going to be hard to stomach. But here’s an important thing to remember, this insane path will implode. It is a system that simply cannot be sustained. In the course of human history gross income inequality has always corrected – through revolution, famine, war, or occasional good governance. Nature, the overall creative force on this planet, is much larger than any given human-made system and it will, eventually, correct the imbalance.
The fact that a murderer is being heralded is horrific; it’s also a sign of the growing rage against the corporatocracy. It’s rage and a desire for deep system change that has nothing to do with political party affiliation. Americans know we’re being screwed whether we know the details of how it’s happening or not. We feel it when we’re stressing over how to pay the bills, giving up the dream of owning a home, driving past tent cities we don’t know what to do about, wondering what kind of planet our kids are going to inherit.
This is a time of brokenness but it is not a time to despair. There are many, many of us who are already building better systems and healthier ways of organizing ourselves. I’ve been an active member in a New Economy movement for decades and it has grown steadily. Groups like the New Economy Coalition, The Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WeAll), Post Growth Institute, Post Carbon Institute. The Restoration Economy concept is also gaining traction; it’s an economic model based upon restoring/improving ecological health and socioeconomic conditions. You might be surprised by the robust results from a Google search of “New Economy Organizations”, “New Economy Movement”, or “Restoration Economy”.
A significant part of my professional background is in systems change. Very rarely do systems shift seamlessly; there is nearly always friction. The old way digs in and fights to keep its place but eventually gets overrun by the momentum of a new system better suited to the conditions and environment.
This crazy train we’re currently hitched to is going to end and a new world is already being built. Keep the faith, stay strong, and be ready to make like a new sprout pushing through cracks in the asphalt. There are more of us who want real change and a world that works better for all than those who want to perpetuate the mess we’re in. Our time is coming.
Much love,
Cylvia
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For Pure Enjoyment and Celebration of this Amazing Planet
I recently had the blessing of being able to visit overwintering Sandhill Cranes here in Oregon. These are the largest birds in the state, standing over 3 feet tall. The Columbia Land Trust teamed up with farmers in Vancouver Washington to create great wintering grounds for these amazing creatures.
This vid is not the best resolution but it does show the “landing gear” coming down and their wonderful, raucous, trilling chatter.
Such beauty and uniqueness is certainly worth protecting, restoring, and deeply appreciating.
I frequently share pics of our glorious planet to help remind us all that even when hard things are happening beauty is always around if we look deeply enough.
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