It’s four in the morning here in Louisiana and I am wide awake due to the time difference. So I did what any good internet devotee does which is hop out of bed, grab a coffee, and peruse the interwebs. A couple of readers have inquired as to how my passage went with regards to American border control, and I am pleased to report that it was fast, smooth, polite, and painless. All of the horror stories that I had heard did not bare any semblance to reality. I should have known better seeing as usually when I meet someone for the first time and they learn that I am Australian they simultaneously quail in horror at how I was able to survive growing up with all of the fearsome beasts that inhabit that southern land, and then they ask me if I know Steve Irwin; (it used to be Crocodile Dundee – I would reply that he was my uncle and if I kept a straight face they went with it.)
Door to door from my house in Holland to our hotel in Louisiana took about 20 hours. I am no longer a fan of long distance traveling of this type. But I got to see the coast of Greenland on a clear winter day, the mountains rearing out of the sea and snow only to be buried by an ever increasing white blanket as the coast gave way to the inland plateau. I was the only one with a window open to see such a spectacular vista, so I alerted the passenger in front of and behind me, (it was a very quiet flight). Soon other passengers from the middle of the plane crowded around to see and I willingly gave up my two seats for various people as they gazed at the silent white wonder and took photo after photo. Everyone eventually drifted back to their seats but the effect was to have transformed us from a bunch of strangers on a plane to a group of companions who had shared a common experience.
I also wish to mention that so far every American that I have come into contact with on this trip has been unfailingly polite and welcoming. I am sure that this will change as it must but it is impressive nonetheless.
So as I sat here at my computer in the early hours surfing the internet I immediately noticed how productive other websites have been in the time that I have been traveling; much more so than normal. And two articles in particular caught my eye.
The conceptual weakness of capitalism.
“The common conflation of corporations with capitalism, which is an intrinsically false notion due to the obvious and undeniable fact that corporations are artificial constructions of the government, is a conceptual trap into which most conservatives have fallen.
“How is it “conservative” in any way, what does it conserve, to defend the rights of artificial constructs while absolving them from any responsibility for their actions?
“The irony is that the very phenomenon of corporate deplatforming demonstrates that capitalist imperatives are not priorities for the modern post-capitalist corporation, because they do not rely upon the interactions of supply and demand for its profits, but rather, politically-driven access to the government-financial pool of resources.”
The conflation of corporations with capitalism is a common deceit spread by the left. The reality as Vox Day observes is the opposite; corporations are an artificial construct that rely on political access to the government pool of resources. The fact that the USA, Australia, and Great Britain all currently have conservative governments should tell you everything you need to know as regards to which side Conservative Inc are actually on. As always, watch what they do rather than listen to what they say.
The reason for this is relatively simple: politicians in general are greedy for wealth and power, and a political role in government usually only provides the latter. The number of conservative politicians in Australia who retire and almost immediately receive a plum role on a corporate board are too embarrassing to mention.
In other words, conservatives are selling us out to corporations for their own personal financial gain while simultaneously crowing about how the corporations have too much power, repeat ad nauseam. The icing on the cake is not the left running around spreading the lie that these monolithic businesses have anything to do with capitalism; it is the fact that the general masses assume it to be true.
For an excellent appraisal of this symbiotic relationship between government and business one has to turn to The Z Man.
“Conservatives think they are fighting for liberty and opportunity by defending global corporations. Libertarians are literally writing love letters to global business.”
Libertarians are the drooling retards of the political world so what they do is irrelevant. But we now know why conservatives defend corporations; either they are dishonorable pricks profiting from their treasonous actions or they are deluded fools who believed the lies of their leaders.
“That’s the truly bizarre thing about this time, relative to not so long ago. The man in 1985 worried about the IRS and maybe the FBI abusing their power. The only worry about corporations abusing their power was the environmental stuff or maybe screwing their employees in some way. Today, you have much more to fear from the banks and tech giants than the government. If the state becomes aware of you, so what? If Google suddenly takes an interest in you, it might be time to go into hiding.”
Modern democratic governments have simply outsourced the persecution and policing of dissidents in their civilian population to global corporations. And the Right eagerly defends this practice using ancient capitalist doctrines that haven’t been applicable for decades now. The final straw is the oft repeated maxim to build your own credit card company or electricity supplier or internet provider if you don’t like what’s being done to you.
“Way back in the old days, the Left used to accuse conservatives of being against free speech and open debate.”
The left only jumped on the free speech bandwagon so as to actively undermine and subvert all of our democratic institutions, (and let us not forget that free speech is inherently false and was only ever in place in Western civilization so as to protection the separation of the Church and State.) Once they got what they wanted they reverted back to form while inventing spurious terms such as hate speech to cover their tracks.
How to sum this up, conclude the storytelling arc? I’m not sure, and I don’t know what the answer is as regards to what can be done. Conservatism is dead; all we need is for a group to announce that they are the “New Conservatives” and we will know it for certain, as if there was any doubt. And global corporations are most certainly not capitalism, and they are definitely not on your side. Perhaps a return to the era of protectionism? It remains to be seen.
This article was originally published at https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/ on 5/3/2019, where Adam Piggott publishes regularly and brilliantly. You can purchase Adam’s books here.
