Capitalism Versus Corporatism

Good morning and welcome to Thibeau Time once more. In today's blog I am going to try and explain to you the difference between what capitalism is supposed to be and what it has turned into today; what I like to call corporatism. Corporatism is apparently now an accepted word; though I would like to mention that ten years ago when I coined it myself (prior to hearing it before I mean; I am not laying claim to the word) nobody knew exactly what I was talking about. I hope I will be capable of explaining the differences to you in a simplistic enough fashion that you will possess a new working knowledge of capitalism/corporatism.

We will begin with capitalism for it is the root of corporatism. Capitalism is an economic system designed with the idea in mind that all human beings should have the same opportunity to find success and wealth. Capitalism, for the first time in human history, allowed people to trade freely amongst themselves; it allowed people a choice. Prior to capitalism we live in a feudal society. The King, Queen or Monarch ruled with supreme authority over the land; there was no choice.

I see capitalism as a necessary step in the evolution of humanity. Our progress became stifled and plateaued under feudalism; there was no room for growth. When capitalism exploded with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, people began to realize that with a choice they too could gather the wealth and power necessary to live at a much higher standard of living; in some cases this equaled some of these very same monarchs. By the turn of the 20th century, capitalist societies began to produce and consume at a level never reached in the history of humanity.

As the economies of capitalist societies skyrocketed, the people beneath these systems enjoyed a new, higher standard of living that they had never imagined. For a brief time in the history of humanity, there existed nations where the people eluded extreme poverty in exchange for, at the very least a sustainable source of income or, at the very top, amassed such wealth that it would provide the family for generations. For the most part, the people prospered.

Then a shift began to occur. Large corporations that had benefited from the rise in capitalism were no longer content to just be extremely wealthy; their desire and lust for wealth and power became all consuming and though I cannot pinpoint an exact moment, I would say that somewhere into the 80s capitalism's almost empty shell was refilled with corporatism.

Corporatism, most notably in the 90s and now the new millennium, has blatantly ignored the creeds of capitalism. It killed it off long ago. Corporatism is the control of the wealth and power by multinational corporations and other large financial entities.Their goal is the same as always, wealth and power, but their need for these things is no longer capable of being satisfied. This undying need to accumulate more wealth and more power has led the way to some terrible acts of violence against people, animals and the planet itself.

Corporatism has no emotion; it takes nothing into consideration save the all mighty dollar. Human beings, under this system, are no longer people; they are expendable resources. Corporations and financial institutions, under the guise of capital prosperity, have looted, stolen, raped, pillaged and ravaged all the countries of the world incessantly. They go country to country establishing factories, mills, mines and warehouses; taking all they can while turning back out as little as possible.

Corporatism is eerily similar to capitalism because it walks around in the same body, claiming the same creeds and toting the same benefits; these are lies. When you hear people talking about capitalism today, they are actually talking about corporatism. Capitalism is a sacred economic system whose sole purpose is to permit each individual the opportunity to provide for themselves the basic necessities of life as well as the opportunity to pursue their most inward dreams and desires. Corporatism has as its aims to take those things away from you; it wants to you to be its slave; it wants your wealth, your capital, your life and your soul.

So what it really breaks down to is that corporatism is a polluted mutation of what capitalism used to be. Capitalism, though even its original ideals are no longer adequate for where our society is going, is nothing compared to what they claim it to be now, corporatism. Capitalism is still a better ideal than corporatism. Should we continue to be led into the future by the creed of corporatism, it will not be long before we find ourselves facing our own enslavement; or worse, our extinction.

Capitalism came into being as a necessity of human evolution and to replace feudalism. Corporatism came into being under false pretenses and replaced capitalism, not from necessity but from corruption, in an attempt to subjugate the entire planet. Human beings need to understand that they live as slaves to corporatism. Capitalism is no longer the ideal, though a return to it would provide a temporary reprieve from our own destruction and give us an opportunity to discover what we need: a new step in human evolution and development; something, by necessity, that will replace the old capitalist ideal.