Industrial collectives, like armies, have their own dynamic, and seem to be remarkably similar in their organization and ethos, regardless of the ideology of the community where they are located. Hierarchy, leadership, management, and the Boss are ubiquitous. There are differences in style and emphasis, but the architecture is the same.

I don’t mean this to be a critical statement, I personally can’t see any other way of running a large organization. I’m just amused at the mental hoops people jump through to try and pretend it doesn’t happen.

Rich vein, ER. I’ve been struck by the way that conservatives despise what they think of as “collectivism”, while worshipping the corporation as the highest achievement of capitalism. And struck by how often those starry-eyed propagandists have little experience with the reality of the modern corporation-collective.

“Collectivism” has an objective meaning that encompasses pretty nearly all organizations of humans: A group whose members are expected to exhibit loyalty to the group, that is, to work generally in the group’s best interests. Collectivies are distinguished by their depth of hierarchy. The United States is technically a flat collective–an egalitarian class-free republic with a basic expectation of loyalty we fetishize as “patriotism”. The Catholic Church, the People’s Republic of China, feudal Europe, and all militaries, are/were collectives with a steep and formal hierarchy.

A corporation is also a collective with a steep formal hierarchy. In the conceptual space of collectivism, it’s about as far from America as you can get. Yet conservatives drape corporations in flags and bunting and celebrate their newfound personhood. “Corporations are people, my friends!” declares Mitt. In the conservative mind, only a commie would criticize the corporation. Weird. Ironic, but weird.

We let corporations carve out exceptions to our basic principles; they’re islands of resurgent feudal collectivism colonizing more and more of our once egalitarian society. They eat away at America from the inside. And we let them.

The theory is part of the larger tapestry that includes that sick synergy I see between the West’s corporate collectivism and China’s industrial collectivism. Twin sons of different mothers. Those at the pinnacle of both systems see that their prosperity arises from common sources and common precepts.

Hell, modern capitalists and traditional communists start out addressing each other as “Chairman”. Everything flows naturally from there.

Working together, they will rule the galaxyworld!

There’s a delicate balance which must be maintained. In a capitalist society, labor must be protected. In a socialist economy, capital must be protected.

In the US labor has been eliminated as a social factor. Capital rules, and since the very heart of capitalism is greed, it’s excesses will take over for a while.

The Libertarian philosophy, which is truly a joke, does not account for large societies, companies, or monopolies. It does not account for human nature. It’s basic premises are refuted by WorldCom, Enron, Madoff, etc.

So, as capital accumulates more and more power, as bigger and bigger underclasses develop, as the “American Dream” is replaced by the minimum wage and welfare, and as the wealthy refuse to pay for the havoc they’ve created it will get worse and worse.

How it plays out isn’t known, but in other countries it hasn’t been pretty.

And Republicans have no Presidential nominee on the horizon who won’t exacerbate the problems.