Feudal overlords

The kings of Europe lived within the backdrop of the feudal system, where lords controlled both people and land.  Forbidden to leave their feudal estates, peasants and serfs spent their entire lives toiling for a master who controlled every aspect of their lives.

Over time, people began to realize that the feudal system was oppressive, and fought against it.  Feudalism was abolished and people were allowed to leave the estates and work for a wage instead.  Kings were overthrown, and philosophers wrote and wrote about the virtues of freedom and democracy.

Today, the benefits of these hard-won victories are being chipped away by the re-emergence of a new feudal system.   In the feudalism of old, the government (in the form of the king) allied with the nobility to oppress the people and take their labor.  In today’s re-emerging feudal model, the government now allies itself with a corporate class — a new form of nobility — to enslave the population.  The corporation has become the new feudal overlord.

The evidence for this reversion to feudalism is becoming increasingly obvious in the wake of the latest economic crisis.  Instead of reforming a decrepit financial system which produced the crisis, trillions of dollars were spent to shore up dying corporations that in any free market would have been allowed to wither and die.  Economic “stimulus” was provided to these same dying corporations instead of providing money directly to citizens.

The health care debate has also highlighted the relationship between government and corporate interest.  Instead of analyzing America’s byzantine and inefficient health care model from the perspective of the health care consumer, the interest of the corporate insurer is given top priority.  If reform cuts into the profitability of the insurance companies, then it is unacceptable to politicians of both parties.

Entrepreneurship is no longer government policy; the “free market” is simply code for the maintenance of a system where powerful corporations provide all goods and services, not small businesses helmed by the next generation of business leaders.  Both Congress and the Supreme Court have stripped down antitrust protections so as to permit huge conglomerates that stifle competition and provide mediocre products.

Because corporations have become so dominant, it is increasingly impossible to earn a wage without joining a corporation.  And it is here where one can see the real parallel between today’s corporate world and the feudal systems of the past.  Health care, money, and a sense of purpose all come from working for a corporate master.  Leave a corporation, and you leave behind all those things and become aimless:  a serf without a lord to provide you with work.

Naturally, this new corporate feudalism is celebrated by the media, which is wholly owned and controlled by large corporations.  The “free press,” always intended as a bulwark for liberty, has now become the chief enemy of democracy as media outlet after media outlet ignore the growing influence of the corporation and instead focus on issues that appeal to the most common demographic:  entertainment, sensationalist news programming, and right-wing mouthpieces who attract a large fundamentalist audience.

Indeed, no where is corporate feudalism more evident than in the peasant mentality displayed by the people themselves.  Like a good serf who answers every whim of the feudal lord, a significant portion of the American population now takes to the street in favor of policies that deprive them of their own wealth, their own freedoms, and their own sense of dignity.  The people who protest in favor of corporate insurers, who hope that “Obama fails” in whatever attempt he might make at reform, are people who rush out to the defend the very entities that oppress them.

Corporate feudalism is a reality, and it is growing.  In time, it will be difficult to hide the new forms of serfdom that are being imposed on Americans.  It is only a question as to what people will do about the rise of these new feudal overlords — whether they will simply accept the imposition of this slavery, or whether they will find the courage and passion to reject these new masters and return to more democratic ways of life.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Content, Structure and System and tagged with corporate overlords, obama, peasant mentality, slavery, the economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.