The Dance Partners – the corporate vs government performance

Many are fooled into thinking that corporations and governments are opposed to one another. They think that corporations fight against government regulators and governments stand up to corporate greed in the interests of the people they represent.

The reality is that corporations and governments are locked into a dance. They feed off of one another like partners dancing to the music.

An audience watches the dance, the population, entranced by the show. They have an essential involvement into the show – buying tickets, calling for numbers, cheering the favorable moves – but, the job of the dancers is to keep the audience enthralled.

They feed corporations with their labour and their purchases they choose. They pay the government in taxes and only choose by voting. These inputs are the two parts of the music – markets (rythm) and elections (melody).

Government hears the input from election polling. It contorts and thrusts its body in ways that will win the vote. It also gets energy from the monetary system supported by corporate wealth which drives personal taxes.

Corporations hear input from the market. The corporate world steps to the beat of the demands from markets. Behind the scenes, they support the political campaigns to ensure the government responds to their lead.

The rules, of course, are set by the government but due to the energy it requires, the rules must appease the corporations.

But government doesn’t just create rules and collect taxes. It also stands for the pride of the region – nation, state, city. The blunt corporate strengths needs a pretty partner dressed up to excite the audience. A partner that can be vaulted into the air to light the imagination and awe of the crowd. Regional pride gives the population a purpose, an emotional investment, something they can feel a part of. Government dresses most vibrantly in the colors of the Nation. This national flag waving is required because the population can be asked to sacrifice everything in military service – to protect the nation.

Lately, however, another partner has been taking the place of national government. One whose appeal is less relatable but more high-minded. The new partner does not provide pride in one’s nation but appeals to a higher calling – global interests.

The audience members, in paroxysms of joy, shouts for this globalist partner with an air of superiority over the nationalist sentiments of the traditional crowd. Their dancer stands for greater ends, higher ideals than mere national success and strength. They feel that supporting a new global system, simply by being wider in scope, is are superior to the parochial, regional concerns.

They implore the lowly nationalist audience to give up their national allegiance that would ask them to fight and die.

They deign to convince their nationalist counterparts that without the nation, there would be no war – a tantalizing argument – and no militaristic sacrifice, or so the song goes.

The corporate dancer calls this globalist partner to the dance floor and finds its movements much less constrained. No longer does it need to worry about national borders, it can extend its limbs in all directions, into any space necessary to achieve its means and supply the markets.

The globalist partner is far more lenient. She does not need to win the favor of the audience. Even if they elect new leaders in their nation, the globalist corporation will simply leave their dancer off in the wings and call another nation. The corporation will ignore the nation’s laws and find one that will dance to their favorite tunes.

Now the dance takes on a completely new form. The musicians have been replaced by mechanical devices churning out impossible, ever-changing rhythms, indiscernible lyrics with disorienting language and conflicting melodies that clash in and endless crescendo of mesmerizing sounds.

The audience inputs are no longer working and if the national dancers are brought onto the floor, they dance in the new globalist style.

Most people in the audience don’t even see dancing anymore and feel detached, but they nod along in approval and pretend to like it.

You’ll still buy the tickets because there are no other shows. You’ll cheer and clap just to go along.

And, when you’re brain can’t take it any more, you’ll sidle up to the bar and drink until the night winds down.