Strategist, Strategy, Tactician, Tactics

Here in America, we are at the beginning of a dialogue.  The dialogue consists of opposing sides in the millenniums-old argument  concerning the structure of a political economy.

The political economy is the sea that we swim in on a day to day basis.  It doesn't have any particular nobility in and of itself.  It is not a sentient being.  It appears to be just be the expression of the sum of the methods used by individuals to further themselves in a country.

Now, as soon as I said those two words in the same sentence, some of you will turn off the ear switch and navigate away from this page.  The phrase has distinctly Marxist tones in this day and age.  When you mutter the words represented by the fell runes "political economy", you are a member of the liberal elite, mouthing parlor-pinkisms into the vulnerable ears of the Hoi Polloi.

But we are now in the thrall of a government of corporations.  Our erstwhile democracy has been usurped by a cabal of corporate chieftains whose sole motive is the maximization of their own wealth and the power and prestige of their corporations.  That is our government.  The republic that is our ideal is a sad thing, being somewhat akin to the heavy facepaint on a whore.

Here in the US, we have a system which appears to center on large institutions which service the upper quartile or so of the country.   The benefits of the current system are collected by the top from the bottom of the pyramid.  There is a limited flow in and out of the protected top tier, but this is kept at a minimum, probably to provide a simulacrum of opportunity.

So really, what we have is a political economy that is predicated on farming the lower classes to enrich the rentier class.  The rich have purchased the corporations and lawmakers to create a seamless front that is currently impregnable.  But the more that the upper class strip-mine from the rest of us, the more delicate and vunerable the edifice will become.  It really doesn't take that much effort to squint your eyes and imagine the Ancien Regime and the Jacobins coming to your town soon.

The recent Occupy movement claims to represent the 99%.  I really think that the percentage really is more in the 60-75% range.  The remaining middle class realizes that their access to a pretty good lifestyle depends on staying in the good graces of the corporate masters.   They also are the folks who have the education and contacts to perhaps make the move into the corporate-master career field.

What is probably going to happen is that the Occupy movement will go to ground for a while.  If they have a lick of sense and any organizational skills whatsoever, they will work heavily on recruitment, training, and strategy.  Get through the winter and start again in the spring.

Things are going to continue getting dicey.  Keep your head low and stay out of the cross-fire is my only advice.