Waking from the American Dream, 2

Numerous authorities on all sides of the political and philosophical spectrum have warned us business has evolved in ways that generates great wealth and, at the same time, holds no allegiance to any country.  The result has been described by Chalmers Johnson (1,2) as a hollowing out of American industry.  In American theocracy, Kevin Phillips shows that the American debt-industries are now significantly larger than American industry.  According to this Republican analyst in American Theocracy, “44% percent of all corporate profits in the U.S. come from the financial sector compared with only 10% from the manufacturing sector.”

Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Morris Berman, John Perkins, Naomi Klein, and David Harvey have all persuasively shown how transnational corporations have gravely compromised democracy in our country and elsewhere.  Through the power of political contributions and the daily army of corporate lobbyists, the branches of government have become the boughs of corporate fruit.  Politics, religion, business, the military and the media once each shared its place in our society.   However, business now dominates.

The business model has become the model for everything.  Even education, health, the environment, internal security and national defense are being privatized. And through advertising and the media, Americans have become willing participants in America’s transformation to the business worldview. As Benjamin Barber points out in Jihad vs. McWorld, we now think of ourselves as consumers, not citizens.  We are more likely to make our voice heard by the brand we buy, not the position we take at town hall or the person we elect in the voting booth.