Monday, September 1, 2014

On Becoming An Anarchist: Part II

I repeat a portion of my quote from Noam Chomsky to reinforce the notion that Anarchy does not support the absence of order.  Anarchy…. "is a tendency that is suspicious and skeptical of domination, authority, and hierarchy.  It seeks structures of hierarchy and domination in human life over the whole range, extending from, say, patriarchal families to, say, imperial systems, and it asks whether those systems are justified.  It assumes that the burden of proof for anyone in a position of power and authority lies on them.  Their authority is not self-justifying.  They have to give a reason for it, a justification.  And if they can’t justify that authority and power and control, which is the usual case, then the authority ought to be dismantled and replaced by something more free and just."

To be clear, the Libertarian movement in the USA has been hijacked by those who wield Private Power for the sake of maintaining the status quo, by shoving legitimate governmental checks aside.  So my quest for finding a vehicle to oppose MiLords (the .1% or a mil) has led me to become an Anarchist.  In Part I, I promised to define the historical backdrop that has led to the subjugation of our democratic system and the perversion of capitalism.  We begin with the establishment of the First Bank of the United States in February of 1791.

Establishing a private central bank was so controversial that it gave rise to the two party system, pitting the agrarian States Rights interests (Thomas Jefferson) against the Federalists interests of bankers (Hamilton).  Unfortunately over time States Rights became synonymous with the defense of slavery and the Civil War sealed the victory of the bankers over the farmers.  But the battle lines were clear even in 1791 and remained clear for more than a century.  Not until the rise of the insurance industry in the late 19th century did banking succeed once and for all to define money as debt and put it under the control of Private Power.

The charter of the first central bank expired in 20 years and was allowed to lapse.  The only compelling reason powerful enough to overcome the natural resistance to financial domination by bankers is war.  Wars have to be paid for.  And so the bankers of England and the US managed to drag us into the war of 1812 and the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States followed with the issuance of debt instruments to pay for that war.  Sure enough the Second Bank fueled land speculation in the West and when it collapsed the bankers owned a lot of foreclosed property.  (sound familiar?)  Andrew Jackson dissolved that second bank and paid off the war debt in the 1830’s.  That marked the last time a war was fought and paid for.  We have been enslaved by debt ever since.

The battle between States Rights agrarians and Federalist Bankers raged on until the river of life insurance cash gave rise to the Federal Reserve, the ultimate debt based Ponzi Scheme that cemented Private Power in the form of private banking in place, once and for all.  The secret meetings of insurance tycoons set the course almost a decade before the now famous secret meetings of bankers on Jekyll Island.  The resulting system rolled up real estate speculation, debt enslavement in the form of mortgages and life insurance in the form of mortgage insurance to protect bankers on the downside into one big tidy package.  The 30 year work span was nested into the 30 mortgage in a seamless tapestry of debt enslavement.

However, the resistance did not end.  The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 was an attempt to curb the power of MiLords and the punch and counterpunch carried on until the last fig leaf of regulation was stripped away when President Clinton signed away the separation of banking, insurance and financial institutions.  Reforms were always watered down at the eleventh hour and key provisions eroded away over time.  Glass-Steagall was all but dead when Clinton allowed for its formal demise in 1999. 

Clinton campaigned in 1992 on limiting corporations from deducting excessive CEO compensation from taxable profits.  But instead there followed an interpretation that compensation could be deducted as long as it was supported by productivity.  So instead of halting the practice, it unleashed a furious stampede to the top.  MiLords set the bit in their mouth and ran with it until we have multiples of CEO pay to average employee pay in excess of 400.  In my youth the multiples were 12.  The forces of reform and regulation are in complete disarray.

We have then a system which is neither democratic, nor free.  Markets are ruthlessly manipulated in an effort to support a failing dollar.  Free market capitalism has been replaced by Socialism for the rich, a winner take all strategy.  The once thriving middle class (50's 60's and 70"s) has been floundering with real wages stagnant, since the late 70’s.  In an attempt to keep up we resorted to first sending out women into the work force to make up the difference, then working two jobs and finally resorting to debt (using inflated property values) to support a lifestyle that is becoming only a memory.  Propaganda (see Part I) is used to perpetuate the myth that we are the greatest democracy in the world.  Massive wealth is used to fund elections.

And so we have what some are calling the Deep State; a combination of the Military Industrial Complex, the National Security Apparatus, a private central bank, a compliant legislature and a puppet President.  I am more than a little skeptical of this domination by MiLords.

I AM THEN AN ANARCHIST.  I CANNOT BE SILENT.