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"There is no democracy! There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide & Exxon"

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Vinnie From Indy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 12:13 AM
Original message
"There is no democracy! There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide & Exxon"
Edited on Wed Jan-14-09 12:35 AM by Vinnie From Indy
The 21st century will be the Age of the Global Conglomerate. The American standard of living is about to fall off a cliff it seems. All of these jobs we have lost, I believe, will not be returning for a while. One huge difference between today's finacial crisis and the Great Depression is that the American worker is not needed and not desired as a general rule. The name of the game now is hunting down and exploiting the absolute cheapest labor that can be found anywhere on the planet. The only other criteria that interests multi-national corporations in regard to exploiting a given labor pool is stability and security for their investments. All other considerations like human rights, pollution, using forced labor and safety are hardly considered. I find the speech given in the 1976 movie Network by Ned Beatty is even more applicable to today's world than it was in 1976.

"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel."
*******************************************************************************************************

And so began FOX News!

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stillcool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 12:27 AM
Response to Original message
1. I love that movie..
and look how far we've come..

http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/decline.htm#Demands
Demands Made by Transnational Corporations to do Business in a
Country under the Global Economy

1. Greatly reduce Corporate taxes and taxes on the rich.

2. Greatly reduce government spending in order to cut taxes.

3. Increase taxes on the middle-class and poor to pay for the necessary government services, such as support for TNCs.

4. Reduce environmental, work-safety, and product-safety regulations.

5. Provide millions and millions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies to TNCs in order to convince them to locate in your country.

6. Build and support modern industrial factories for TNCs to use rent-free.

7. Create tax-free export processing zones so that TNCs can produce products without paying any taxes at all.

8. Reduce and lower worker's wages by keeping the minimum wage low or eliminating the minimum wage altogether.

9. Reduce the costs of hiring workers by reducing or eliminating workers' compensation taxes, social security taxes,and health insurance taxes.

10. Allow child-labor at almost any age and under any conditions.

11. Do not enforce maximum work-day hours, such as the eight hour day or the 40 hour week.

12. Use government power to crush and weaken labor unions. Allow companies to hire security firms to harass and intimidate workers and unions.

13. Allow TNCs to freely take their money and profits out of your country.

14. Reduce government support for health-care, education, and anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs, forcing workers to work for any wage just to take care of and feed their families.

15. Support global free trade and work to prevent countries from denying companies the right to sell their products despite the brutal conditions, environmental destruction, and exploitation of their workers.

16. Don't restrict or limit immigration and encourage high levels of unemployment in order to force workers to compete by working for lower and lower wages.

17. Limit and restrict local and national government control over their economies. Encourage global bodies to set economic standards that will benefit TNCs.

18. Limit the ability of workers and citizens to challenge the TNCs and their own government's economic programs which help the TNCs at their expense.

19. Create massive national debts in order to bankrupt governments and force them to be even more at the mercy of the TNCs. Governments can thus say they have no choice but to accept these conditions.

20. Force your citizens to accept lower standards of living and quality of life in order to guarantee higher profits for TNCs.

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tblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 01:13 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. Okay. I am officially freaked out.
I am reading Naomi Klein's book, and she's basically supporting all this that you've posted -- except that what you've posted is even scarier. We Americans are the world's last best hope to slow this bad train down. I wish I could be assured that Obama 'gets it.' Or that he & the new congress can even do anything about it.
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anigbrowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 06:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. Jeez, chill out. I suggest a trip to Europe.
The rest of the world is not some vast hideous labor camp, you know. There are problems to solve in areas from the economy to the environment (and a lot in between), but things are not quite as doom-laden as you seem to think.

"We Americans are the world's last best hope to slow this bad train down."

You really need to get out more. As in, out of the country, and take a look at a few others. You might be pleasantly surprised.
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leftstreet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 12:35 AM
Response to Original message
2. K&R
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HCE SuiGeneris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 12:39 AM
Response to Original message
3. Don't forget Mon$anto n/t
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 12:41 AM
Response to Original message
4. That film, and the original "Rollerball," were the 70's pretty much getting the future exactly right
Edited on Wed Jan-14-09 12:41 AM by villager
n/t
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Sebastian Doyle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 12:47 AM
Response to Original message
5. "There is no America. There is no democracy......"
....There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJgW_wQp744
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angrycarpenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 01:04 AM
Response to Original message
6. found it
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Ichingcarpenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 01:15 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. I remember being in the Theater at that time
and everyone was astounded and was with him on the screen.

Only later did he fall, being de marginalized in the story
it was a greek epithamy what happened to his character.
For some reason the writers had to make his message
and character be interwined together in an Americana
delusion of media hype.

We walked out the theater wondering what we had just saw.

A great film and a great message, the film opened up many
eyes back then.
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Sirveri Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 08:13 AM
Response to Original message
9. Now I know where snog got it from...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXXzaaL8Khw

They really LOVE bush...
:sarcasm:
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 06:05 PM
Response to Original message
10. It's the corporations, stupid!
I keep trying to get that meme taken up.... ;)
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Starbucks Anarchist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 06:30 PM
Response to Original message
12. A movie everybody must see.
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blues90 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-14-09 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
13. yes that sumes up the reality very nicely. nt
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