Democracy Upside Down
This may be difficult to realize or even admit for some, but there is no such thing as democracy anymore. There is no free and open society in which we, the people, are able to elect in office a government for us, the people.
fake news? - Image by Zeptonn - source: Flickr
Instead we live in, or I should say under a system of inverted totalitarianism. Simply speaking it could suffice to just say we live in a social order where economics always trumps politics, hence the inverted state of this particular form of totalitarianism. Allow me to elaborate.
In classical totalitarian regimes, the governmental structure is founded on the leader principle, where the population is no more than a means of support for the will of the leadership, a force that can be drawn upon at will to fight wars or to extract funds from through appropriation of the economy. In these societies the leadership is in full control of the economy as well as the citizens and is able to steer both as it sees fit. In classical totalitarianism you can say that politics trumps economics.
We live under a sneaky kind of totalitarianism, a totalitarianism with a smile on its face, with a managed democracy:
Guided democracy, also called managed democracy, is a formally democratic government that functions as a de facto autocracy. Such governments are legitimized by elections that are free and fair but do not change the state's policies, motives, and goals.
In other words, the government controls elections so that the people can exercise all their rights without truly changing public policy. While they follow basic democratic principles, there can be major deviations towards authoritarianism. Under managed democracy, the state's continuous use of propaganda techniques prevents the electorate from having a significant impact on policy.
source: Wikipedia
corporate rule democracy
Image by Polyp - source: polyp.org.uk
This hollow shell of a democracy, with the periodical facade we still dare call "free and open elections", is of course bought and paid for by corporate money. Hence totalitarianism has been inverted because now we can say that economics trumps politics: the exact inverse of the more traditional forms of totalitarianism of the Nazis and the failed communist experiments. The most efficient economic model for reaching the plutocrats wet dream of an inverted totalitarian regime is of course free market capitalism.
If you thought that the capitalists are against a large government, think again. Another sure sign that you live under a totalitarian regime is that the leadership wants total control of your everyday life, which begins with knowing everything about you. The freely elected governments of the US and the EU do just that: they keep track of everything you do online and on the street. Or, that's how it looks at least in a democracy that's turned on its head; in fact it's the corporations again, in their unrelenting race to commodify, and extract profits from, everything and everyone on the planet.
The traditional view of a democracy is one in which the majority rules, with a constitution that protects the minority against excesses of the majority's power by stating some basic rights for all citizens. This is essentially a rather egalitarian view on society and the principle of a minority rule is looked down upon as unjust and unfair. The use of constant propaganda, the effect of decades of "manufacturing consent", is that we ironically seem to ignore the fact that we live under a system we essentially abhor; the illusion is complete.
He wants you! All of you!! - source: MaxPixel
Sheldon Wolin, political philosopher, coined the phrase Inverted Totalitarianism in his 2003 book Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. He also describes how constant appeals to patriotism and the mobilizing under the national flag attribute to the slow buildup to the unseen totalitarian regime:
Wolin argues that the United States is increasingly totalitarian as a result of repeated military mobilizations: to fight the Axis powers in the 1940s, to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War and to fight the War on Terror after the September 11 attacks.
source: Wikipedia
I'll leave you with a lengthy interview of Sheldon Wolin by journalist and activist Chris Hedges so you can gain some more information from the inventor of the term himself. To me and I'm sure most of you, dear readers and fellow steemians, this is not a surprise. But even if we know our democracies are mostly paid for and don't amount to anything resembling a real ruling by the people and for the people, it seems to me we're still hesitant to call things as they are. There is no democracy. We are not free. Capitalism and democracy don't mix. Environmental problems, real or perceived, will never be solved under a ruling class that seeks to commodify everything and everyone.
Chris Hedges and Sheldon Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
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