Overreach

Saturday, May 7, 2022 1:11 AM

Outline
Philosophy
Habermas, Kellner and Frankfurt
History
Paris building structures
The Arcades
Military to business leadership
Flattened organization
Current history
Competition and bubbles
Cardboard boxes
Structure
Kellner Papers redux
Democracy vs Elitism
Media downfall, internet contests, economics; follow the money
Government control by elites and CNN effect
Discussion
So what
Conclusion
Solutions

Introduction
I write as an educator and Canadian. My family from England and the Ukraine has long
been associated with opposition to injustice. My mothers side from the Eastern European
area has been involved in partisan activity during WW 1-2. Hiding Jews in the cornfields
and ferrying them to safety carries a lot of risk. Similarly my father refused the ‘Indian
Agents’ orders to teach no reading writing and arithmetic to indigenous children in
Canada in the 1950s. He was fired by the government agent for teaching reading writing
and arithmetic. I am concerned with the subversion of media and democracy by elites and
corporates causing or encouraging government overreach.
Philosophy
Jurgen Habermas is a member of the Frankfurt School of Philosophy, one with which I
identify. I began my study of the school in investigations over reification, simply put as
objectification. The members of this philosophy mostly escaped Nazism and gathered in
America during WW2. Habermas is one of the most recent to take on the problems of
corporate and political intervention in democracy.
History
From the Efficiency Movement ideas of the industrial development period in the 19th and
20th Centuries to opposition from the working class, there has been a dichotomy of
change between the corporates and their subsidiaries. (1. 2)
Efficiency has been realized in mobility of both workers and goods, the structure of offices
and the regulations governing cities. As time goes on the competitive struggle between
companies requires more means of efficiency and control to survive. The military became
the template for early industrialization and was supported by government elites. (3)
Worker and Workplace had to be close, leading to changes city planning as mobility
increased until we see roads and rail connecting places in efficient Cartesian plans. In his
exposes (1935, 1939) Walter Benjamin outlines not only the above mentioned points but
extends the co opting of art and literary works to what is essentially advertising (4)
Although post WW2 caused innovative restructuring of organizations the basic need was
still survival in a competitive environment. (5) The tropes that develop over the fired
employee and the cardboard box still show that the struggle between elite and worker
continues (6)
Similarly the competitiveness of the workplace translates into various “bubble” (7)
problems wherein aspects of the advertising and corporate networks create unsustainable
investments that result in a crash and losses for most sides.
Structure
The concept of overreach is built into the manifestation of corporate and market
economies. In order to survive the competition in a free market we have seen historically
that aspects from advertising to worker control, even mobility have been impacted.
Though this is only a cursory study confined to capitalist countries the solutions may be
applied through communication, and especially success to non capitalist networks.
A timely investigation of media companies shows the result that the pandemic had on
media by depriving all capitalist endeavours of customers. (8) The newer online methods
proved more resilient than older ad driven systems for the most part. This can be
extrapolated by asking the question; “will media as part of conglomerates care more
about competition or truth?” It might be a very tough call to speak truth to power or about
power when that can result in extinction. Similarly speaking “your truth” may result in the
CNN effect, basically the power to influence the elites. This results in competition about
what is true, basically destroying readers trust in media and resulting in virtually
subverting media into advertising campaigns between opponents in politics and
capitalism.
Democracy
The concept of democracy in this paper is the motivated voter putting in representatives
to care for their needs. As historically the democratic methods were supported and
grounded in church, community associations, family and state the suspension or
subversion of any of these demands either suitable replacement or results in a loss toward
the whole, weakening societal fabric.
By subverting government employees, and this includes elected members, outside
interests lobby and scheme to support their choice for results that may have deleterious
effects but certainly may benefit the perpetrator. This in one word is politics. The
prevalence of activist groups cloud matters, as their reasons may be wholesome but ill
timed or with unintended results. This will almost certainly continue, it is society.
The change in society from the liberal capitalism structure to the monopoly/corporate
capitalism of the late 20th Century is the source of much discussion on the work of
Habermas (9) Essentially reduced to welfare state participants in a corporate industrial
society, the voter is sent to the polls with numerous attachments. The results in a secret
ballot election is fewer and fewer participants with those who vote following an agenda.
Recent elections raising the Liberal/NDP parties to their monopoly on power have in my
opinion been due to voting blocs in regions such as the west producing policies
unacceptable to all voters. Simply put a leadership that meets criteria of the entire country
has been subverted by regional politics.
Discussion
A major question must be asked. “Does the bloc in power have enough knowledge and
resolve to resist the forces of Corporate welfare?” In this ‘welfare’ is also inclusive of the
donations in advertising and cash by various NGOs to elections in order to achieve their
results rather than for the public good, an example which includes another country being
instructive.
Vivian Krause exposed a United States based campaign against Canadian oil. (10) Her work
in following the money resulted in politicization and ‘war rooms’ by corporate and
government interests. The defusing of the situation was the quite proper inclusion of the
public interest by Prime Minister Trudeau who bought a pipeline and resolved that it’s
profits would be used for furthering environmental programs such as electric vehicles.
In this example we see the duly elected representative, nay, employee for the people
considering a number of measures and producing a solution. This was quickly covered up
by media and other interests as they decried the closure of other such projects.
How can we enhance this aspect of government in the future? Better as this aspect is what
government is made to do, how do we strengthen the system from voter to action taken?
What can we do to build a new system over the ashes of the old system of
church/community association/family ?
Solutions
Let’s begin with what we have that isn’t broken.
Once again I turn to the pandemic and disaster relief. As these are aspects influencing all
aspects from corporations to workers there is a tendency for the elements of relief to be
left intact, though see my paper on misinformation for profit (Hartley 2022). (11)
Despite a sudden spate of accusations against officers in the military, the army produces
relief from vaccines to disasters. Opportunistic movements may use this as advertising
fodder to pound their own drums but interference is minimal. Infrastructure maintenance
and repair produces similar opportunism, but seems to work in general.
What governmental areas can be supported to enhance the wellness of the voter and in
turn result in greater voter turnout? What new needs are there.. And what areas subvert
the process?
Democracy within a Democracy is here noted as a concept of education, critical thinking
skills, information and participation in which referenda, elections and other steering
aspects of governing bodies are undertaken. The interference of other forces is addressed
by informative critical examination supported by education.
Concepts of paying the electorate when they vote have occasionally been advanced (12)
but may come with a series of problems that make the idea useless. Similarly the
electronic ballot and participatory democracy are attempted by various jurisdictions from
party to federal voting. Again, the problems are being worked out and we may in future
see an improvement in the process of communication of needs and elections.
We return to history and military influence on corporations (13) If the success in military
has shown us an efficient model then the existence of autocratic states and
corporate/media frameworks is explained. One or a few making decisions in times of crises
does not however promote democracy.

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1. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/working-class-history

2. https://networks.h-net.org/node/45811/pdf
3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Industrial-Revolution
4. https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4179835/mod_resource/content/1/THE%
20ARCADES%20PROJECT.pdf
5. https://thebusinessprofessor.com/en_US/management-leadership-organizational-
behavior/flat-organization-definition
6. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CardboardBoxOfUnemployment
7. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/10/5-steps-of-a-bubble.asp
8. https://digiday.com/media/how-the-worlds-biggest-media-companies-are-faring-
through-the-crisis/
9. https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/habermas.htm
10. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/corbella-vivian-krause-should-become-
a-household-name-across-canada
11. Hartley 2022
12. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/pay-people-vote-budget-
reconciliation/619706/
13. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/976/JBA-6s1-Davoudi-McKenna-
Olegario.pdf