March 4, 2014 (Make-Up): Political Innovation – Companies that Exhibit Totalitarian Behaviors

The continued, unregulated growth of large corporations have led to the deterioration of our democratic government. As I mentioned in a previous blog, without a workplace democracy, companies are able steer technology and politics in a direction that best suits their needs to make copious amounts of money. This is done without thinking of the needs of the people. Through the help of our capitalist structure and corrupt government, corporations have been encouraged to exercise totalitarian behaviors in an attempt to control the market.

 Totalitarianism is defined by the centralized control by an authority possessing absolute power. Frank Shostak states that our modern banking system can be seen as one huge monopoly bank that is guided and coordinated by the central bank. Under this central bank, individual banks function without regulation and few external restrictions. As a result, there is an issue in which money can be 'generated out of thin air' and therefore induce significant damage our economy. In this kind of deregulated environment, banks have been able to collect more funds from the government. Political corruption has enabled the financial corruption of banking industries (Cole, 2013). Money is cascaded upon lobbyists to encourage politicians to remove regulations that hinder the banks from working as they wish. This centralized banking framework has demonstrated totalitarian behavior because it has significantly the impacted national economy through lack of discipline and political corruption (2008 crash).

The attempt for absolute control of companies is also demonstrated in the media industry. Six corporations (Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Viacom, Comcast, CBS) control roughly 90% of the media in the United States (akadjian, 2013). Because control of the media is spread amongst so few entities, corruption of one company is paramount to affecting the information that is passed along to the general public. "Money and corruption have seeped so far into our media system that people can with a straight face assert that scientists aren’t sure human carbon emissions are causing global warming" (Cole, 2013). The ability for the media to be so easily controlled, and therefore biased, by a select few results in the hindering of US citizens from being adequately educated about all kinds of issues. As a result, the general public has access to less viewpoints, and therefore are more inclined to make less educated decisions. These leads to decisions that fail to effectively represent the true perspectives and needs of all citizens.

The tendency of corporations to adopt a totalitarian mindset has led to a government reform where the people's needs are not represented and therefore is not a true democracy. The capitalist structure as well as corrupt politicians have made it easy for these corporations to grow and monopolize certain industries and inhibit democratic decision making.

References

akadjian. "15 things everyone would know if there were a liberal world." Daily Kos. Daily Kos, 7 Dec. 2013. Web. 3 March 2013. 

Cole, Juan. "Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World." Alternet. Alternet, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

Shostak, Frank. "JPMorgan Chase and Central Banking". Ludwig von Mises Institute. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 18 May 2012. Web. 20 March 2014.