Great article. Governments have increasingly become enforcers for big business. "Regulation" can mean just that governments allow new and insufficiently tested technology onto the market or allow mining to set up wherever it wants and to behave in a reckless fashion regardless of the effects on residents or the environment. Short term company profits trump everything whether it is democracy, public health and well being or the biophysical restraints of the planet (peak oil, peak water, peak soil, peak population, peak phosphorus, peak climate stability etc).

We live in a delusion or as Joe Bageant http://www.joebageant.com/ described a kind of "reality" constructed by media and government (he wrote for a US audience but think the same is true of Australia) that had nothing to do with reality and everything to do with keeping the "princes" interests at the top, even if the policies radically disadvantaged the people duped into voting for them.

The Occupy movement is ripping apart these carefully constructed delusions (free market, rising tide lifts all boats, tax cuts, free trade agreements etc). No wonder the powerful are pulling out all the stops to silence WikiLeaks and keep us reading the corporate script.

What a bizarre last paragraph to an interesting peace.

So only women are capable of 'giving life and legs to corporate and social responsibility ', or only women are virtuous enough?

Is it taken as read, that any women not attempting to 'give life and legs to corporate and social responsibility ' is either corrupted by men or subservient to the evil men.

Its the opposite of this comment from Susan Hawthorn,

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13356#230984

where women are deemed not responsible or able to shift this 'neo-liberal economic model'

It seems women are superior people, and they are the only chance for the world. All men think in concert, and men who aren't 'alpha' (Code for flooded with the evil testosterone) are inferior to women, or more likely to be sympathetic or subservient to the alphas?

Each new man who comes into any power, or who encounters this 'rampant neo-liberal economic model' set up by men in power at some stage thoughout history seems to be considered to already agree with it, as he is male after all.

Katie thinks only women can change it, and Susan thinks women bare no responsibility for it, but in the end it's assumed a 'male' power or a 'male' abuse of power.

I reckon it's more to do with power itself, and humans in positions of power like things to stay that way, and that power itself corrupts.

But what would I know, it seems a penis makes you corrupt in the first place according to these two.

One woman's information liberationist is another's* leak monger-ist.

*Our charismatic Julia's :)

Good article, Kellie. Your paragraph says it all"Greece stands conquered by fraud. No arms necessary. Given the role of Goldman Sachs and other financial behemoths in ramping up Greek debt to unsustainable proportions, should we call this "another Wall Street production"? Isn't it a repeat of the Asian crisis: money comes flooding in, debt levels rise, credit suddenly dries up and money flows out, the economy collapses, the "rescuers" come in and "restructure" and the carcass is sold off to "investors" at bargain basement prices".

Democracy is being sorely tested. God help us if we let the Plutarchs (0.01%)rule; if we believe the censored tripe dished up to by the likes of Murdoch's News Ltd that controls 70% of our press; indeed God help us if we allow this media control to continue. Its up to us (the 99%)to find out the policies of parties before we vote for them; indeed join the parties and change the policies. Our only salvation will be progressive governments with integrity who will re-regulate the banking system, corrupted by Reagan, Thatcher and those who followed. Re-instate laws prohibiting commercial banks from wheeling and dealing; require adequate statutary reserves at all times, prohibit dodgy derivatives. Time for the wo/men on the streets to be engaged in politics!

Great article indeed, but lacking further explication. Governments HAVE become enforcers for big business ... its called corporatism or Fascism, a la Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet et al http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7260.htm

These infamous tyrants could not possibly have achieved their murderous objectives without battalions of submissive or complicit subordinates who profited in various ways from their labours in maintaining the oppressive military-industrial system extant – both then and now.

Thus, underpinning the IMF, World Bank, WTO, Wall Street and every government structure are battalions of academics, accountants, actuaries, arms manufacturers and traders, banksters, civil servants, military types, police officers and scientists of various rank and ‘speciality’. Are they ALL driven by Machiavelli’s philosophy of power? I think not.

The contemporary Capitalist mode of production and distribution is driven by the insatiable greed and lust for power by 1% of the world population, who are able to maintain their illegitimate control through manipulation of their politically naive populations via a combination of divisive tools or mediums (race, religion, nationalism etc) and a plethora of ideological shibboleths and, when all else fails, economic and military might.

Rampant managerialism today pervades the administration/management (CONTROL) of our universities and education bureaucracies, our hospital and healthcare sector, our scientific sector, the military, our religious and sporting bodies, the peak union bodies, political parties, parliaments and our local governments. This is NOT to say that every managerial incumbent or ‘professional’ is driven by Machiavellian ideology and the Capitalist 'ethic'. They ARE, however, driven by the onslaught of neoliberal IDEAS or ideology.

With the exception of Assange and a generation of ageing 'dissidents', few Australians are actively involved in resisting this anti-social and anti-democratic system. In the U$A, the Occupy Wall Street movement arose out of the ashes of the American Dream: the rest of the population appear to be only now awakening from the nightmare of corporatist America.

Across Europe, SE Asia, the Middle East and 'Latin' American the Working Classes have all been forced to learn the hard way how to organise themselves in order to resist the predations of those who would rule over them

An excellent article Kelly.Very few are willing to speak the truth in this country.

On Saturday 24th March 2012 there will be an anti-war protest outside the Sydney Town Hall 12 noon.No invasion of Iran is the theme.Bring yourself,friends and a sign.