The Dominance of Anonymous Power
Simon Sherratt · 2024
This chapter examines the practical consequences of the propagandistic confusion outlined in the previous two chapters as it explores the historical background to the notion that capitalism and democracy are intrinsically linked. Tracing this development to the circumstances of the Cold War (1946–1989), the manner in which ideas regarding the freedom of the individual became evermore intertwined with ideas regarding the benefits of capitalist ‘free markets’ is examined. This chapter also discusses how the development of these ideas was intimately tied to the belief that corporations, working in a capitalist free market system, provided an important bulwark against the dangers of excessive state power. Crucially, this chapter examines how the promotion of these ideas (ideas that seemed wise and appropriate throughout the Cold War) in the totally different circumstances of the globalized economy (from the 1990s onwards) poses many dangers to Western societies and their political systems. Indeed, by focusing on the phenomenon of ‘corporate socialism,’ it is demonstrated how multinational corporations and financiers (under the propagandistic façade of democracy and capitalism) have been enabled to morph into dangerous concentrations of unaccountable power and influence that threaten the political and economic stability of the West.