America Has Become a “Parasitocracy” by Bill Bonner

The Deep State are a bunch of parasites, which was the gist of “Your Life Is Yours,” but Bill Bonner has an interesting and provocative way of saying things. From Bonner at acting-man.com:

Eight years after achieving independence, a State modeled after the British merchant state was established in the US. It took a while for the Deep State to consolidate itself within it, a process that was accelerated greatly in the run-up to and aftermath of WW I.

We have been connecting dots… bringing new readers into the conversation and organizing our own thoughts. Already, you have met the zombies and the cronies… and you know that the government you learn about in school is not really the government you actually have.

Instead, we are ruled by a group of insiders we call the “Deep State” who pay little attention to the Constitution or the “will of the people.”

The term Deep State is not original to us. It was first coined to describe anti-democratic elements within the military, the intelligence services, the judiciary, and the mafia that controlled the real levers of power in Kemalist Turkey.

But it is being used more and more elsewhere, as people come to realize what is really going on in their own countries (today, we offer a neologism that is more descriptive).

Your first reaction to the Deep State is likely to be denial or dread. “It sounds impossible,” you might say. “How come I haven’t heard of this?” Or: “How can we put a stop to this conspiracy?” Relax…

There’s nothing underhanded about it; most of it takes place in plain sight. The reason you haven’t heard about the Deep State is another important dot we need to connect. To wit, there are facts. And there are myths, delusions, guesses, and opinions.

The Parasitocracy is not as shadowy as many people seem to believe – everything about it is quite obvious if one cares to look around with one’s eyes open.

Illustration via dagensperspektiv.no

True facts are those that would still be true no matter what you think. You send a pale boy out to the beach; he’ll get a sunburn. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level, even if we are in a hurry for our morning eggs. But apart from these “true facts,” everything else is subject to myth and imagination.

The myth of our constitutional republic, for instance, is so attractive that most people refuse to look beyond it. Not only that, but most of the people who really matter to politics – the trendsetters, the rich, the opinion mongers, and the hacks and hustlers who make the system work – are paid NOT to look behind the screen.

But the real world is not like the movies. And Washington is not what most people imagine. It is more like what you would expect than what you would hope for. We know there are always people who figure out how to game “the system.”

Even in the most absolute monarchy, the king is powerless without a legion of insiders, courtiers, counselors, ambassadors, hangers on, chiselers, and other assorted cronies. These people collude to use the police power of government to their own advantage.

To continue reading: America Has Become a “Parasitocracy”