The other day I heard a fellow called Thom Hartmann talking on the radio. It was one of those minor relevatory moments where you feel a little foolish for never quite thinking through a thing which is immediately obvious. Not so much the epiphany as the sound of things falling into place.
He was talking about the three types of tyrrany against which the US founding fathers built the constitution to protect the people. These were:
- The tyranny of despotic kings.
- The tyranny of religious establishments.
- The tyranny of feudal oligarchies.
So far so good. No single powerful leader has been able to rule the US with the backing of the army, which is the model of the despotic king; not even G W Bush. I wouldn’t say the Bible thumpers run the US either, despite their influence with voters. On that topic however I think I disagree with Mr Hartmann, because I’d draw a parallel between the religious establishments of the 17th and 18th century and the bureaucratic establishments of the present day. It’s a system of power and influence which becomes a culture of its own, within the wider culture. It’s true that the priesthood of Egypt and the Curia of Rome had a divine claim to legitimacy, but in functional terms the current powerful government bureaucracies of the western world are very similar. Despite their powerful influence they do not rule, however.
Then the dropped penny: the feudal barons of today are the big corporations. There are clear parallels; primarily that the corporations, like the barons, control the majority of the economic activity of the country other than that involved with the bureaucracy/church. Wealth in the 13th century was generated from land, and that was controlled by the barons. Wealth in the present day is generated from capital and the control of physical and intellectual property – which is controlled by the corporations.
Strangely enough the framers of the constitution were well aware of this even two centuries ago:
- “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
- Thomas Jefferson, 1812 (Liberty Quotes)
The feature of the triumph of feudalism is that the king is created by the great barons, and governs with their approval and for their ends. In a day when it’s said to cost $50m in campaign funds to become a Senator in the US, there does not seem a big gap between that time and this. It was a feature of G W Bush’s early years as President that he did big business and especially big oil a lot of favours, and made expensive tax cuts for the rich. Clearly he justified the barons’ faith in him, and this was proved doubly when he went on an expensive and dangerous overseas adventure which was of great benefit to the defense industries and to the oil industry. Of course it doesn’t seem obvious that the middle classes of the west live in a feudal society ruled by powerful corporations in the place of barons, but that is largely because the serfs of the medieval world have become the third world poor of the present day. In fact the economics of the situation in the third world ties people to their livelihood in much the same way that the serf was tied to his lord’s land in the middle ages.
Completing this rather depressing picture is its application to the now mostly failed communist governments around the world. Those like Stalin’s and Mao’s which were overtaken early on by the tide of bureaucracy had in fact become theocracies – in fact unlike their western counterparts they came with a religion, that of Marx, attached; providing an orthodoxy and heretics. And Castro’s, (reserving judgement on Chavez, who may be similar) a good example of where a well intentioned and benevolent despot can nevertheless go wrong.
The founding fathers of the US experiment had a clear picture of the dangers they faced. They wished to create a system in which rights existed only in the people, and privileges were granted only as required to the corporations and the institutions. It’s sad to see how far that hope has fallen, with the rise of this new age of feudalism.