Golden Parachutes

I promise to make this the last in my series on the global financial crisis but I can't resist, it's so ...pregnant with possibility! I am fascinated by the quick consensus focusing "blame"on EXECUTIVES. Given their exalted position in bourgeois ideology (the worship of the Executive at the Republican convention was especially breathtaking), we see clearly the schizophrenic American attitude toward authority,(Father) expertise, and trust in "the system". On the one hand they make the perfect sacrificial goats, with their Golden Parachutes , fancy wines, and greedy ways, why, they need to get back to the SMALL TOWN values (urban- rural divide) of "personal responsibility and accountability". On the other hand, who doesn't love the swashbuckling, risk taking GAMBLER, so free and courageous and full of life! The rich are not like everyone else and while we all hate them we all want to be them.

Actually,despite the dominant narrative, none of this crisis has anything to do with "rich people" . People are just a representation of capital but they are a convenient diversion and explanation for how things went wrong and after the sacrifices we can get back to "business as usual". Which is control.

In terms of social and political fallout, I have been warning about a Right turn and on Rens blog warned of a TREND towards fascism. It occurs to me we may need a new word, as well as analysis of the forces at play. In the early 1930s "The great mass of shopkeepers and white collar employees had hitherto followed the traditional bourgeois parties and had seen themselves as upholders of parlimentary democracy. They now deserted these parties and followed Hitler.."
At the same time the Bolshevicks and Russian proletariat were abandoning their revolution and throwing their support to a vicious, autocratic dictator and his bureacrats. Americans rallied behind the Ku Kux Klan. My point is, things can get ugly fast when a solid, comfortable, reality seems to be slipping away and Lou Dobbs and the 9/11 Truth folks and the Pentecostals and Constitution Party are going to be doing a booming business. What is the word I am looking for ? How to describe a slightly liberal State-Corporate Alliance with a well armed police force ready to "maintain order"internally( the enemy within) with a populace kept in perpetual fear of the Enemy Out There.

"I enjoy the spectacle, every scene of which I understand." Proudhon