GOVERNMENT TYPES - - NEW, OLD,
AND MULTIPLE
CORPOCRACY: Rule from the top along corporate and financial lines. It is taking over the U.S. It is anti-democracy, which is rule from the mass. (This term was coined by me in 1992 in my "Outraged Citizen" newsletters, and noted by radio hosts as a pretty good handle on what was going on. I've used it consistently since, in print and on websites for corporation takeover of our government, and the de facto installation of the corporate top-down form of government.)
"LESS GOVERNMENT": Means only "less government by the people," but more by corpocracy moving into the vacuum.
GLOBAL SUPRA-GOVERNMENT: The financial and commercial umbrella government existing above all nation - - and growing. It is controlled by no nation or group of nations, yet it deeply influences all nations, has some aspects of control of nations - - and may in time outright control them. Central banks link all currencies, keep any single nation from collapsing, but aid in installing global rules for money and commerce (including trade) that essentially govern in all nations now, and lock in the commercial and financial powers as supreme. Nations cooperate and contribute in periodic meetings and by communication between central banks which neither our voters nor our Congress understand or control. In this global commercial overstructure, we see substructures of group monopolies and pure monopolies or cartels doing their things irrespective of nations which are dependent on them (not vice versa), and acting as nearly separated para-governments. These too can grow in their degree of control.
"666": A final world pyramid of commerce and finance controlling all, having amalgamated into a colossus (the world is halfway there now). Anti-democratic (because it rules from the top, not bottom or middle), it pushed democracy down to local issues of no global significance. It is predicted in Scripture to rule the earthly realm, but Scripture also says it has only the power of a previous beast which didn't have power over those of a certain level of spiritual awareness and status.
FULL DEMOCRACY: A great and continuing idea. However, it doesn't exist - - and never existed, even in Greece. (In Greece, the mass was a selected mass, the rest excluded. The elected smaller groupings then gave the power to central figures. So it was a sort of democracy, a sort of republic, and a sort of autocracy). Modern populations can't vote on the specifics of every issue; therefore we have a democracy-based "republic" where we elect people who supposedly can figures out what to do. They often turn the complexities over to their professional staffs.
"SHORT" DEMOCRACY: Voters hardly have any input to national issues, because few national issues appear on ballots. Polls help, though. Voters have no input whatsoever to the global commercial and financial overstructure or "supra-government" over all nations. So our democracy - - and all others - - is "short." Only a very few countries have democracies as advanced as ours. Most global "democracies" are short in two ways - - are "short-short" - - having constitutions, legal systems and entrenched and protected upper economic classes that either limit the mass or despite rhetoric to the contrary, ignore the mass.
HIJACKED REPUBLIC SYSTEM: The US has a democracy-based republic where we vote not for the bills in Congress but for representatives to do the real voting. Excellent for a time, this has now been hijacked by those paying the campaign bills for the elected representatives, and thus stepping into the shoes of the people as the ones to whom the elected representatives are beholden. Today, the US has a new form of government halfway between the Founders' original form and Corpocracy - - heading headlong for the latter.
POLL GOVERNMENT: Polls are democracy's end-run around all things that would essentially block or destroy it. Polls bring the daily opinion of the broad population to the attention of lawmakers. To try to shape, even distort, public opinion, new controllers in the US have spinners at the ready in war rooms, with "experts" on call to instantly appear on TV and in newsrooms with talk and talking-point sheets.
REFERENDUM GOVERNMENT: Populations desperate about having no real say in government are more and more resorting to referenda to make their input clear. (Or, sometimes, not so clear! But it's direct democracy, rule from the middle and bottom, in action.)
(Note: In all democracies from the Greek forward, the fear was that the uninformed bottom would vote its ignorance. Also, the poverty class had to be excluded lest it vote money for itself from the government or the wealthy. Slaves could not be permitted to vote lest they vote for their freedom. In the US, even women didn't get the vote until relatively recently. A recent full democracy vote in the Palestinian territories resulted in the election of the Hamas terrorist organization. Not just democracy but the very concept of it is a work in progress. Some hope we will give up, and just turn it over to a "strong man." But of course, instead we must just increase our efforts.)
TECHNOCRACY: "Cracy" relates to governing. Technocracy is rule by those who invent, make, install and repair high-tech equipment absolutely essential to defense, government, business and modern life. Those technical people, their stuff, and what they do, constitute a shadow government even now. Ordinary people using the equipment, including satellites, don't know any more than how to run the machines - - and wouldn't know that without training from the technical people. We rely on our wizards to be loyal, patriotic good guys. We rely on even our enemies to be against world destabilization from interference with the operation of electronic contraptions worldwide. Already, a satellite has been knocked out of the sky in a test by China. Viruses and other confusions can distort entire global-networked systems. But what if enough wizards decide, at some point, What the hell, we're already running the world, why don't we just step in and DO it?
"COMMUNE" COMMUNISM:
Basic "commune" communism was practiced by the early Christians, and is seen in a degree in Israeli kibbutzim. Many decades ago in the US, the idea briefly became popular among some intellectual professors and other college types, who went to the farm, all shoveled manure, all milked the cows - - and all became bored stiff with the dull commune-type communism. This utter boredom resulted in the early collapse of their perceived ideal.
RUSSIAN COMMUNISM:
Military dictatorship of the worst kind under Stalin, with rhetoric on the surface of the great workers' state, socialist republics, and etc., but actually a totalitarian repressive state. And the idea included pre-Stalin general Bolshevism or violent overthrow of capitalism. CHINESE COMMUNISM aped all this for a while, had many upheavals, is today mainly a top-down government, but one which has largely dropped socialism (government ownership), adopted capitalism, is partly democratic, but hangs onto some old forms, and is still in transition.
SOCIALISM:
"Socialism" is government ownership. It doesn't work because government employees have no personal incentive to make it work, and instead have incentives to increase, pad and perpetuate the bureaucracies that impede individual initiative, inventiveness, and ownership. Cuba is a socialist state. In its socialism, some people own some businesses, if tied closely to the government in power.
PLUTOCRACY:
Everyone knows that's rule by the rich - - and it's alive and growing in the US. Those hoping for more plutocracy theorize that as Americans own more and more in an ownership society, they will vote with the ultra-rich and their control, and that will be the end of pesky democracy. The people indeed should own, but does that mean we're finished with democracy? No. Only the super-top installing the new control-from-the-top government want that. Ownership which is spread throughout the mass, and thriving and growing, should mean more determination to fight for our democracy-based republic - - and the ability to see through arguments whereby people are conned into voting for plutocracy.
RAPACIOUS AND DEMOCRATIZED TYPES OF CAPITALISM: If left to its own devices, the useful engine of capitalism becomes rapacious, gathers all money and power to itself, harnesses and controls the people. So the people must be alert, and harness, control and democratize it if they value their freedom. Rapacious capitalism amalgamates, rules from the top, and locks all else below it, in anti-democracy - - not chaos and anarchy but a highly-organized system the opposite of democracy. However, when democratized, capitalism is great for a country and for the world.
Attempts to harness rapacious and runaway capitalism are demonized as "socialism," but socialism is government ownership, while sane forms of capitalism are just democracy in action, putting ownership and opportunity into a broad base on a clear and open field.
Rapacious-type capitalism is "of the top, by the top, and for the top" - - and to heck with the people, workers, infrastructure, warriors that bled for the nation's freedom and the right for entrepreneurs and corporations to operate (but not control), court systems developed over hundreds of years, and so on. The US gives people the opportunity to make a zillion, invent great things, think freely - - but not to control. The US had the control and takeover problem circa 1890-1940, but broke it up, with great benefits for the public and even for the former monopolists who eventually made more money than ever, while losing only their control. Now we are busy reinstalling the system of top-control - - the worst degree of it in US history to date.
Russia sold its state owned (socialist) industries to capitalists when it changed course some years ago. However, all they got was rapacious capitalism. They didn't understand broad-based democratized capitalism (any more than they understand democracy). So the people didn't benefit. Now the state is taking back industries, or at the least, taking control.
MONARCHIES: The people love 'em and hang onto 'em in most places, although most no longer rule. In the US, we fought a revolution to get rid of a monarchy that ruled, but then soon installed what we then called "economic royalty." We wised up and got rid of that - - but only for a time. Today, we are busy reinstalling "economic royalty," plus celebrity glamor royalty. We seem enamored of British royalty in endless documentaries, and somehow feel we're still under at least the benign aspects of that royalty! We deeply believe there is a special stratum, while professing we believe all humans are created equal. Britain today has a "parliamentary monarchy" (as found in some other countries - - the monarchy with only ceremonial, and "class," and traditional-roots type of standing, plus pageantry of which no one would want to turn loose). Britain is a "democracy" of sorts anyway, retaining also its House of Lords which is not elected but represents largely a class stratum of wealth and accomplishment. So there's a mixture there - - multiple types of government.
DICTATORSHIPS: Most are military, because it takes the military to keep the unelected tyrants in power. They are of two types - - first, incredibly long-lasting, and second, unstable as hell due to leaders in the military wanting to replace the chief. (Stalin's incredibly long reign had legendary purges of his military officer ranks, as he feared plots against him. This so weakened his officer corps that his military was easily beaten in the first year by Germany before Russia recovered.)
EMPERORS IN EMPIRES: Emperors tend in the direction of wanting to become "gods" - - especially the Roman emperors! But even those characters were kept in office by the Praetorian Guards which could knock over the chief anytime they chose, and are credited with having maintained emperors in office and even installed Claudius as their most manipulable head of state. Roman emperors lived in fear of great generals returning from the field with victories and popular support. The life of an emperor ain't great. Any time one has to have a food taster, it's not a good job.
WEAPONOCRACY: The US is the prime example today. Once we used these incredible weapons only to maintain peace, but lately there is great controversy over whether we have become warlike. Desert Storm of 1991 was a test of US high-tech weapons, smart bombs and night vision (including infrared detection of warm engines even if shut off), being very decisive in destroying communications, transport, tanks and so on, and in demoralizing the enemy. After that, I believe we believed ourselves to be invincible. In today's wars, our enemies have adjusted, and weaponocracy may be on hold for the moment.
KINGDOM OF GOD, CITY OF GOD, REIGN OF CHRIST: I'm all for it, but hundreds of different concepts and timetables are preached!
© 2008 Karl Roebling. All rights reserved.
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