The Rise of Corporate Power in America

The rise of corporate power in America should not be a secret but for the most part it is for most Americans. The corporate structure controls every waking moment of our lives. Within that structure is where extremely wealthy people can hide and decisively control and exercise power over the American people.

I can remember as a young boy there were little or no commercial messages. We received the Sears catalogue in the mail and every once in a while a Montgomery Wards catalogue would emerge. There was no salesman except for door to door solicitors who seldom got pass the front gate. When I was employed at a radio station I use to make up commercials for our clients that would be played on the air. I didn’t understand the techniques that we employed to sale because I just copied methods I listen to on other stations.

Once I wrote a paper in college on the methods used to by advertisers to gain the attention of the American people. The title was: “Advertising, the Fairy Godmother of Radio and Television.” It required a lot of research but it was worth it. I received an “A” for the effort. A lot of psychological studies were produced about the mind of the American consumer and what one needed to do to get them motivated to purchase merchandise. The brainwashing techniques were more than effective; it worked like magic and still does today. Through the use of music, sex, lifestyles, and humor we are manipulated into consuming. Humor is the most volatile because when you laugh the unconscious is open to suggestion and what ends up in the unconscious will surface when confronted with the trademark symbol for the product firmly branded in your head.

Earlier in history there was only the newspaper, billboards, and the traveling salesman. Today, with the rise of corporate power by the use of the salesman techniques we cannot turn on the radio or television without a commercial message being shot at us. And now with the Internet, commercial messages are popping up where you least expect them. I hear people brag that commercials don’t affect them but the secret of the commercial is how it is placed in your consciences without you knowing it.

The secret use of deception, misdirection and fraud is so effective today it’s unsettling and worrisome because the helpless consumer is mere canon fodder for those who seek to grow and maintain their wealth while hiding behind the corporate shield. The techniques used are old and trite. Even the political process in America is permeated with these techniques. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to use wealth and power to control the messages in the media just like a private citizen is to make our entire media system untrustworthy. Today, selling the big lie by any means necessary has made a mockery out of free speech and individual freedom. Who do you believe? Who do you trust? Who controls your news? Who is controlling your mind? A little research will help you discover that it’s only a few major interlocking corporations that are running the entire system. Peace.