Inverted Totalitarianism
"...Thus the elements are in place: a weak legislative body,
a legal system that is both compliant and repressive,
a party system in which one party,
whether in opposition or in the majority,
is bent upon reconstituting the existing system
so as to permanently favor a ruling class of the wealthy,
the well-connected and the corporate,
while leaving the poorer citizens
with a sense of helplessness and political despair,
and, at the same time, keeping the middle classes dangling
between fear of unemployment
and expectations of fantastic rewards
once the new economy recovers.
That scheme is abetted by a sycophantic
and increasingly concentrated media;
by the integration of universities
with their corporate benefactors;
by a propaganda machine
institutionalized in well-funded think tanks
and conservative foundations;
by the increasingly closer cooperation
between local police and national law enforcement agencies
aimed at identifying terrorists, suspicious aliens
and domestic dissidents."