THE DEVIL'S MARRIAGE BREAK UP THE CORPOCRACY OR LEAVE DEMOCRACY IN THE LURCH America is becoming a "ruiNation." The reason, well-known psychologist Dr. Gary Brumback, tells us is the corpocracy, the "Devil's Marriage" between powerful corporations and patronizing politicians. He proposes "Democracy Power," a revolutionary but civil, peaceful force to break up the corpocracy. "Gary Brumback's passion for social and economic justice shines through every page of his new book. He tells it as he sees it, mincing no words. He shows how essential it is for us to change the rules of the game so that we may break the ties that bind corporations and government -- and move to a more equitable and sustainable future." ---Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and The Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations. "A refreshing, exuberant read, full of sock-it-to-them creative insights about how corpocracy in the US has subverted democracy and what to do about it. This book is a political version of "On the Road"-- a passionate out flowing of analysis, critique and transformative strategies, including a vision of a national coalition of NGOs and movements uniting to challenge the corpocracy, spearheaded by a US Chamber of Democracy. Not for the faint of heart but red meat for progressives and activists everywhere." ---Charles Derber, author of Corporation Nation, Regime Change Begins at Home, and, most recently, Greed to Green. "This is an extraordinary and timely book that deserves to be widely read. Gary Brumback tells it like it is: America is no longer a democracy, governed by and for the people; we are a 'corpocracy' governed by and for large corporations with the massive help of an obliging government. Their grip on our nation is tight, but not unbreakable. Brumback shows how we can loosen it and reclaim our democratic heritage." ---Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons, and co-founder of Working Assets.
The Devil's Marriage
Break Up the Corpocracy or Leave Democracy in the LurchBy Gary BrumbackAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Gary Brumback
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4567-1260-0Contents
PREFACE...........................................................................ixPART ONE. INTRODUCTION............................................................1Chapter 1. The Current Corpocracy: An Overview....................................3Chapter 2. Earlier Corpocracies: A Review.........................................25PART TWO. THE CORPOCRACY'S OPPOSITION.............................................31Chapter 3. Where's Today's Opposition?............................................33Chapter 4. Organizing Tomorrow's Opposition: Democracy Power......................43PART THREE. UNLEASHING DEMOCRACY POWER: THE POSSIBILITIES.........................67Chapter 5. Telling the People.....................................................69Chapter 6. Closing the Corpocracy's Political/Judicial Circus.....................77Chapter 7. Digging Up The Corpocracy's Legal Roots................................101Chapter 8. Ending Hands-Off Corporate Criminals...................................113Chapter 9. Ending Hand-Outs to the Corporate Welfare Queen........................131Chapter 10. Ending Undemocratic Capitalism........................................149Chapter Eleven. Unleashing Your Democracy Power...................................181AFTERWORD.........................................................................185Appendix A........................................................................193Appendix B........................................................................201Appendix C........................................................................203Notes.............................................................................215Index.............................................................................253About the Author..................................................................263
Chapter One
The Current Corpocracy: An Overview
autocracy bureaucracy corpocracy democracy kleptocracy mobocracy (yes, it's a word) monocracy plutocracy technocracy theocracy timocracy
The word "corpocracy" hasn't made it yet into the dictionary, unlike the other "cracies," or into public conversations as far as I know. "Cracy" is derived from the Greek "kartia" for power. The corpocracy exemplifies regime power, the getting of more and more of it and the continuous abuse of it in serving its own interests at a terrible cost to public interests and the common good. Power, but a very different kind of power, is also a defining characteristic of "democracy."
There is such an inherent conflict between these two "cracies" that they can't co-exist in the same nation and they don't coexist in America. In America the corpocracy rules with tyrannical-like power. The self-ruling democracy power of the people has been taken from the people.
The Devil's Marriage
Where did the power of the people go? To a marriage made in Hell did it flow. Leaving democracy in the lurch, Jilting Americans and much worse.
A corpocracy, Professor Charles Derber writes, is a "marriage between big business and big government [that] turns a formally democratic government into a vehicle for corporate ends" and leaves the American people with a "pseudo-democracy" (he also refers to the corpocracy as a "corporate regime" to reflect corporations' marriage to government; in this book, except when I need to single out either corporations or the government, I will use the terms "regime" and "corpocracy" interchangeably so as to be less monotonous). This professor, by the way, isn't "bookish." He once walked off the campus and out into the street to protest the war in Iraq, and once was booked and jailed briefly for civil disobedience in supporting the "janitors for justice" protest in Boston in 2002. He has thus experienced first hand how the corpocracy can strangle civil liberties. If only most Americans, especially politicians, walked the principles Professor Derber walks.
Not a Shotgun Wedding
The marriage was anything but a shotgun wedding. It was a wedding for the sake of mutual "badvantages" (advantages for all sorts of bad behavior, legal and illegal). Both partners compromised (some critics might say "corrupted") each other. Both got huge, unending dowries. Corporations (most but not all are U.S. corporations) get almost on a daily basis "power and profit gifts" in the form of favorable legislation, favorable regulations and deregulations, favorable judicial verdicts, welfare handouts, impunity from lawlessness, military help in global exploitation, and laissez-faire capitalism. And what do the politicians get? The Capital Hill bunch (aka "Corporate Hill") gets career employment in plush offices. The oval office puppets get brief prestige and mostly posturing power. And the robed bench sitters for life get to rule in favor of the corporate interests that helped to get them appointed. The first dowry far overshadows the second but neither partner can afford a divorce. They will stick together through thick and thin.
Self-Rule: Not in a Corpocracy
Self-rule is synonymous with democracy. It represents both a moral and a practical balance between the anarchy of no governance, or extreme individualism, on the one hand, and totalitarianism, or oppressive governance, on the other. In Abraham Lincoln's view the legitimate role of government in a democracy "is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves-in their separate and individual capacities." His view may have reflected his interpretation of the framers' intent in writing the U.S. Constitution that it would "provide for the common defense [and] promote the general welfare-." I underscore the qualifier "general" because the Constitution is also intended to "establish justice," and there can be no social and economic justice in America when the welfare of all her people is hugely and shamefully uneven.
Self-Rule and Our Life's Equations
In a true democracy people in all walks and stations of life have self-rule or as much control as possible over their life equations. You, me, everyone has the same general equation. It may just be the most important non-mathematical equation anyone will ever see in their lifetime:
Our Selves + Our Situations = Whether/How Much Health, Happiness, and Prosperity We Have or Don't Have
The first input is our particular personal characteristics such as our needs, experience, abilities, motivation, values, and the like. The second input is our situations. We all encounter several spheres of situations along our path through life; personal/social/cultural spheres, a political sphere, an economic sphere, and an environmental sphere.
In a true democracy the outputs on the right side amount to an optimum level of general welfare for all Americans, not just the...
