the bastards that control our lives

I get asked this a lot: who is this They, the mysterious They who hike taxes, sell build insane freeways, buzz my home in night-silent black helicopters. We all talk about the they, but when most people ask it's always as if it were a rhetorical question. The implication is that there isn't an answer and that noone's really in charge, noone's really to blame. I'm not like most people. I'm referring to someone specific: They are responsible and they are to blame.

This is not about the Antichrist, the Beast of Revelation (which some say, will come in the form of "an Amazing Super Computer Robot"), Atlanteans, Illuminati, Knights Templar or an incredible race of Super Salamanders that dwell in the indescribable heat and pressure of the Earth's molten core. It's not even about more garden variety conspiracies of government spooks and chemical magnates meeting in darkened rooms to plan the assasination of JFK Jr. (you think that little plane went down by accident?)

"They" are, quite simply, the majority shareholders in the world markets. There is nothing secret or mysterious about Them. Their names are public knowledge and much bandied about, likewise Their tactics. In a recent article about layoffs in the chemical industry, I heard Their primary tactic referred to as the "Shareholder Religeon," which I thought was a very appropriate phrase. The question of money versus value versus wealth is another file's tale, but the name of the game and the god of the religeon is wealth. Because shareholders control corporations, all corporate actions are meant to result in shareholder wealth. When a business talks about corporate citizenship or customer or employee satisfaction, they're full of shit. It's all lies. Sometimes these things occur, but only as a means to an end. The sole purpose of business on the cusp of the twenty-first century is to see Trickle Down Economics actualized: their job is to make sure that by the time it gets Down to us, it's just a Trickle. That's what profit means. The whole point of a profit motive is that you extract the greatest possible value for the cheapest possible product.

Sure, they buy off politicians, they own the media, they probably occasionally kill enemies or perceived enemies. But for the most part what they do is right out in plain sight, unambiguous financial transactions. They do not control the media through some secret shadowy conspiracy where Tom Brokaw gets encrypted orders through a pneumatic tube that connects Zurich to the bathroom in his dressing room. They control the media by simply owning it. They don't care how their posessions behave, good or ill, as long as they practice and follow the Shareholder Religeon. Once the End is established, They trust the Means to take care of themselves. And they do, they do.

And there aren't a whole hell of a lot of Them. Check Forbes and you'll see Them nicely listed. Nothing clandestine about that: their best trick is getting half of us to believe that some crazy shadow conspiracy is running things, while the rest assume that noone is running things at all.

klik if you demand tedious explanations of every little thing.