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In reply to the discussion: Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy [View all]GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)18. The FBI is revealed to be doing their real job.
The FBI is one of The Guardian institutions of Hierarchy.
Note: this is my own writing, so copyright rules do not apply.
One inevitable effect of social hierarchies (in fact the effect that made our global civilization possible) is the consolidation of power. As new power comes into a hierarchic social system it flows preferentially to the top. As the system develops, even the small amount of power available to those at the bottom of the social pyramid is removed and ends up concentrated at the top in a power elite. This becomes a positive feedback loop: the more power is consolidated at the top, the easier the consolidation becomes.
You can think of this effect as a form of social "reverse osmosis", in which power is pumped from social regions of low power concentration to regions of high concentration, with class boundaries forming the membrane between them.
What drives social power from low to high concentrations? And what keeps the semi-permeable membrane of social class boundaries intact so that the whole system can function?
These mechanisms are provided by what I call the Guardian Institutions. These are the corporate, economic, financial, political, legal, educational and communications institutions that form the structural skeleton of our civilization.
Getting rid of one of them would be like cutting out a skin lesion that is simply a visible symptom of a systemic cancer. The body of our civilization is riddled with this particular cancer, and has been for at least the last few hundred years. Perhaps the only real solution lies in the death and rebirth of civilization itself, but that's a fairly ... ummm... unpopular notion, especially to those at the tip of the power hierarchy.
You can think of this effect as a form of social "reverse osmosis", in which power is pumped from social regions of low power concentration to regions of high concentration, with class boundaries forming the membrane between them.
What drives social power from low to high concentrations? And what keeps the semi-permeable membrane of social class boundaries intact so that the whole system can function?
These mechanisms are provided by what I call the Guardian Institutions. These are the corporate, economic, financial, political, legal, educational and communications institutions that form the structural skeleton of our civilization.
- Corporate and economic and financial institutions set the value of work and control the money supply. It doesn't make any difference whether an economy is capitalist, socialist or communist. The core beliefs it promotes are always the same: ownership and growth. These institutions are the pumps that move power and wealth away from the powerless and to the powerful.
- Political institutions encode, enshrine and manage the application of social power. Politics is the institution that legitimizes all the others. Because of its unique ability to make laws and its access to legalized violence to defend them, politics is the primary self-defense mechanism of the power hierarchy of civilization. In this view it doesn't matter if the political system is democratic or authoritarian, capitalist or socialist, liberal or fascist, feudal, monarchic or dictatorial. As long as the political system can make laws and use institutionalized violence (i.e. police forces like the FBI) to enforce them, any political system will do. Politics as a social system invariably works to the benefit of those at the tip of the power pyramid.
- Legal institutions enforce the norms of the hierarchy in ways too numerous to count. These range from the protection of privilege (one law for the rich, one for the poor) to the preferential defense of property rights over human rights. Along with the police force it empowers, the legal system is the tip of the spear that keeps the power-holders safe from the powerless. In our metaphor, legal institutions and the police maintain the integrity of the membranes between the classes and defend them against any possible disruptions.
- Educational institutions teach successive generations how the system works. It gives those at the tip of the pyramid the tools to integrate into it and manipulate it. At the same time it trains everyone involved to see the pyramid of hierarchy as the only possible way the world can work.
- Communications media reinforce the message of the inevitability and beneficence of our social hierarchy by enlisting people in the power/growth/ownership paradigm. They do this through overt messages like advertising, covert messages embedded in the story lines of entertainment and of course the selective editing and presentation style of news programs. People who are programmed by this constant messaging come to regard any values that challenge the existing structure as incomprehensible, self-evidently absurd, dangerous or even insane.
Getting rid of one of them would be like cutting out a skin lesion that is simply a visible symptom of a systemic cancer. The body of our civilization is riddled with this particular cancer, and has been for at least the last few hundred years. Perhaps the only real solution lies in the death and rebirth of civilization itself, but that's a fairly ... ummm... unpopular notion, especially to those at the tip of the power hierarchy.
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Exactly! It's all about keeping the masses under control in a failing society. n/t
RKP5637
Dec 2012
#51
American Republic is Falling Apart: Suppression is Answered by Mass-Killings
pcbynature
Dec 2012
#79
Bush's "Free Speech Zones" ought to have been enough. Funny, certain infringements on our freedom
Dark n Stormy Knight
Dec 2012
#7
True, but yes, the Rs still get the lion's share of blame. By dragging the center so far
Dark n Stormy Knight
Dec 2012
#73
Way past knee-deep in pure classical Fascism imo: ye will know them by their works
indepat
Dec 2012
#16
Didn't read this article, but I read about FBI surveillance some days or a week ago in US media. nt
reACTIONary
Dec 2012
#19
The coordinated, nationwide evictions were not aimed at preventing violence or vandalism,
snot
Dec 2012
#42
If this much has surfaced, one can only wonder what is behind the redactions.
DollarBillHines
Dec 2012
#12
once she starts hanging with the troofers and the birthers, her credibility is questionable
Adenoid_Hynkel
Dec 2012
#15
Total fail on the part of the person claiming Wolf's a hack bec. there was no federal coordination!
snot
Dec 2012
#24
There is another type of fallacy, however: Argument from a questionable source...
Moonwalk
Dec 2012
#35
Ok this ticks me off Who does the FBI and SEC work for? THE BANKS! or for America
lovuian
Dec 2012
#29
Sounds to me like you side with the FBI and police and not with Occupy. Whose side are you one? nm
rhett o rick
Dec 2012
#53
Ahh yes. They should have been better organized and protested where the oligarchs told them.
rhett o rick
Dec 2012
#67
You mean, apart from the part where the FBI ignored threats to assassinate OWS leaders?
Octafish
Dec 2012
#82
It's sad. OWS still trying to justify their ineptitude. Blame it on "the government".
Tarheel_Dem
Dec 2012
#60
So much easier than organizers had it in 1900. Maybe 'cause they didn't pose so
jtuck004
Dec 2012
#75