Sheldon Wolin writes convincingly in the Nation that the Republican Bushist regime is effecting an “Inverted Totalitarianism”:
“By inverted I mean that while the current system and its operatives share with Nazism the aspiration toward unlimited power and aggressive expansionism, their methods and actions seem upside down. For example, in Weimar Germany, before the Nazis took power, the ‘streets’ were dominated by totalitarian-oriented gangs of toughs, and whatever there was of democracy was confined to the government. In the United States, however, it is the streets where democracy is most alive–while the real danger lies with an increasingly unbridled government.
Or another example of the inversion: Under Nazi rule there was never any doubt about ‘big business’ being subordinated to the political regime. In the United States, however, it has been apparent for decades that corporate power has become so predominant in the political establishment, particularly in the Republican Party, and so dominant in its influence over policy, as to suggest a role inversion the exact opposite of the Nazis’. At the same time, it is corporate power, as the representative of the dynamic of capitalism and of the ever-expanding power made available by the integration of science and technology with the structure of capitalism, that produces the totalizing drive that, under the Nazis, was supplied by ideological notions such as Lebensraum. “
And the media is their tool to ram it home. From the right-wing demoagogues of FOX News and Clear Channel, to the government-source lapdogs of CNN and ABC, and to the embedded military contractors at GE/NBC, they all do the bidding of those in power, unwilling to ask real questions of power and its expression. Their bread is buttered too thick to even think of flipping over.
The corporate media don’t need to be threatened by government censorship and direct suppression. The sweet honey of profit and favor are far stronger incentive to toe the line, whilst giving the appearance of freedom. Sure, the media may be free to ask questions of power (and occasionally they do), but what good is it if it’s mostly not expressed?
So now Mikey Powell and the FCC are ready to hand them their next mouthful of reward, in the form of ownership deregulation, for their service to the cause of his daddy Colin and his Texas cowboy pals. Hey, Clear Channel, keep throwing those Pro-America Rallies and maybe you’ll get to own 2400 radio stations and a few hundred more TV!
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