The audience booed during the movie Network when Ned Beatty, as the character Arthur Jensen, proclaimed that business was more important than nationhood:
"...There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies... The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business..."
Repugnant thought. While Americans wouldn't approve a system like that of the former Soviet Union, where the government could wield absolute power, I fear that we don't recognize an equal threat, a system in which megacorporations wield the absolute power. That threat is a lot closer.
The Soviet Union fell apart for a number of reasons, not the least of which was their illusion that all commercial enterprise could be operated by the government. The result was an inefficient, unwieldy, and hugely unpopular system of feudalism which they obscenely labeled socialism. Suppose on the other hand that a cabal of business tycoons own the government, lock, stock, and barrel. Instead of a nation of the people, by the people, for the people, we'd be residents of a mega-commune owned and managed by the board of directors.
Simple in some ways. No EPA or FDA. No haggling over laws and endless emails urging you to sign petitions or call your lawmakers. Laws are written by committees appointed by the board. No anti-trust actions. Why should a company go to court over its desire to buy up another company? Ultimately there'd be only one make of automobile, only one chain of food stores, only one brand of blue jeans. The post office would, of course, be abolished, as UPS, Fed-Ex, DHL, and a few others, merge into one efficient carrier that can charge whatever it pleases.
"But at least a government run by business would be 'kinder and gentler' than the communists ever were," some might say.
"Really?" I answer. Megacorporations used their megadollars to suppress the truth about abestos, cold-bloodedly sentencing legions of workers to slow, painful death from mesothelioma. There is plenty of reason to believe that another megacorporation ordered the "accidental" death of Karen Silkwood. Jeffrey Wigand's life was turned upside down by a megacorporation's campaign to destroy him financially and destroy his reputation when he exposed the truth about what goes into cigarets and the scientific data that was being deliberate suppressed. Corporations are not controlled by human beings. Corporations are controlled by money.
Anyone who isn't simply out to lunch knows that political candidates are dependent on donations for their campaigns. Theoretically, a lawmaker is forbidden to take a bribe for voting one way or the other, but there are numerous ways that megacorporations can channel riches to those they favor. That's why the threat is much closer than that of an authoritarian government powered by political ideology.
Now, it's closer than ever. The United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, has essentially removed all contraints on corporate funding of candidates. Corporate interests can fund campaigns all they wish, owning and operating politicians to their hearts' content, if they had hearts. The rules that were in place were inadequate and weak, but now, there simply are no rules. The Supreme Court now says that corporations enjoy first amendment rights, just like living, breathing, human American citizens.
It's time for us true living, breathing, human American citizens to take note. I'm not one to scream that the sky is falling every time some political entity makes what I think is a monumental goof. The world isn't going to fall apart, and America isn't going to disappear. There is, however, a serious danger that it will soon change in tragic ways.