Explaining Democracy

by Stephen Fleischman

But, Son, the oligarchy always hedges its bets.

It looks very democratic because a black man and a white woman are running for president. The oligarchy has three dogs in the fight this election, with John McCain on the Republican side. But remember, all have the same master. The oligarchy likes to pick the candidate that has the most credibility with the public, yet is committed to carrying out the oligarch’s agenda. That’s why they hold these primaries, caucuses and elections. Keeps up appearances.

No, no, you don’t understand. This is not just a democracy. This is a capitalist democracy. Our founding fathers set it up this way. Of course, back in 1776 and 1789, when we had our revolution, kicked out the British and the nation was formed, capitalism was young. The Industrial Revolution had just taken hold—a revolution on steroids.

“Malversation and peculation were rife,” said Shakespeare referring to another period in history similar to this one. Exploitation was the name of the game.

We had slavery in this country until the 1880s. The Civil War was fought over differences between North and South in their economic relationships with England, the mother country. Slavery was not the issue. It was a victim of collateral damage.

“…this government cannot endure … half slave and half free”, said Lincoln.

The victory of the North ended the slave system because of its inefficiency, not for humanitarian considerations, the Abolitionists notwithstanding.

Once the nation had rid itself of the slave system, the burgeoning, ravenous new capitalists instituted a wage slave and profit system.

What does that have to do with what’s happening now? Well, everything. I call it a “wage slave” system because only a part of a worker’s labor is stolen from him—the surplus value he creates by his labor, over and above the value he puts into the commodity for which he is paid. That’s where profit comes from. Karl Marx figured that one out but most of these capitalist economists, today, keep mum about that. It would blow their whole schtick.

You still don’t get it? Well, what I am telling you is that capitalism has grown up. It’s no longer a system of simple commodity production. We’ve gone through the market fluctuations, booms and busts, inflation and deflation, recessions and depressions, for more that 150 years. Capitalism has to grow or die. We’re still growing. We’re now in the period of monopoly capitalism and war is our modus operandi. We have to keep a war economy going. A domestic economy, alone, will no longer cut the mustard. That would mean social programs for the people; repeal of tax cuts for the rich. We can’t countenance that. We’ll simply have to go abroad to make ends meet. It’s only imperialism. It’s been done many times by many countries for many centuries. We have to save those places by taking over their markets and their resources—as we’re doing in Iraq right now.

Why don’t the people do something about it?

That’s a good question. You have to understand, people are placid. They don’t like to rock the boat. They can be made to act like sheep, herded this way and that, and let me tell you how. The Fourth Estate.

The Fourth Estate? That’s just a fancy name for the press or what we now call the media—newspapers, magazines, radio and television, and all those honorable ways to keep the people informed. The media is also there to keep the government honest.

You call it a crock, do you? Now wait a minute. That’s what the Fourth Estate is supposed to do—not what it really does. The mainstream media (MSM) is asleep at the switch. But they’re not really asleep. They’ve just been brainwashed, co-opted, whatever you want to call it—taken over by the Second Estate.

What’s the Second Estate? The nobility. We call them the ruling elite. The mighty corporations of America that have now become multinational. They own the media; Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, Disney, Viacom, Bertelsmann AG, Vivendi SA; half a dozen conglomerates that control just about everything we see, hear and read. As Noam Chomsky says, they manufacture consent, so everyone believes the same lies.

The control goes deeper than that. It permeates the whole system—from cradle to grave…even children in grade school. The curricula, the textbooks that are used. It runs through high school and academia. We’re all subliminally trained to believe the same conventional wisdom. Then, there’s government, all levels. The corporations control the levers of government. They own most of the politicians which is why so many of them are disrespected by the public. There are politicians and there are statesmen. I haven’t seen a statesman in quite a while.

This doesn’t last forever. There comes a time, a turning point, when people come alive, no longer sheep. When the system fails to provide the basic needs of life, the people change it. Sometimes peacefully. Usually not. The ruling class doesn’t like to give up even some of its power. Then, the people have to take it forcefully. It’s built into our Constitution. Our founding fathers had a couple of good ideas. One of them was the Declaration of Independence, especially this part:

…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government…

Oh, now you get it. I knew you would, Son. It’s built into your constitution.