When I first came across the “Amazon Employs Nazis” story back in February, I anticipated a burst of outrage across the web. I fired up my RSS reader where I subscribe to over 100 podcasts and blogs. But as I scanned through them, I found something more shocking than the return of fascism itself:
Crickets.
The response to the story was surprisingly muted. Many mentioned the story, but in a desultory fashion. I was baffled. Where was the outrage?
A few weeks went by, and then the lightbulb over my head finally lit up, and I solved the riddle:
Lots of people doing business with Amazon.
People sell books through Amazon. People participate in their affiliate program. People host websites in their cloud. People take venture capital investments from them. People own their stock. Etcetera.
Amazon’s tentacles spread far and wide. Even I have a Kindle book in their store. However, in my book, I make the case that the size of corporations should be limited to prevent just this sort of all-encompassing influence. If Amazon wants to kick me out, then so be it.
What about you?
Because the hard truth is that if you do not raise your voice against the Nazis, you are effectively joining up with them. Now, I am not calling on you to stop doing business with Amazon. However, I am calling on you to oppose their fascist acts, and the fascist acts of other multinationals.
As far as I can tell, the manager who hired H.E.S.S. has not been identified or fired. I’m sure that he was a subcontractor of a subcontractor of subcontractor of Amazon, but that is no excuse. All of the multinationals are organized that way purposely to provide deniability for their dirty deeds. Another practice that I recommend banning in my book.
When labor unions are allowed to run wild, you end up with communism. When corporations are allowed to run wild, you end up with fascism. In both cases, people get marched into death camps. Personally, I subscribe to what I call the “Three Stooges Solution” to this problem of organizing society. It’s very simple, like Moe, the government slaps around Larry and Curly until they are cowed and compliant, and everybody plays nice together.
This may, in fact, be the single most important function of government. And it works. Just look at the way they do it in Germany: labor unions actually have seats on the board of directors of large companies. The German government enforces peaceful cooperation, and the result is arguably the most-successful industrial economy in the world.
Here in the USA, corporations are allowed to run wild, and have largely wiped out unions, captured control of the federal government, and gotten themselves declared to be “people.” This country is moving in a fascist direction – rapidly.
When the next atrocity occurs, and it is only a matter of time, I want to see more voices raised.
This means you.
So far, modern Nazis are only persecuting the poor and jobless. Working them like Alaskan sled dogs in their satanic mills. Chewing them up and spitting them out just as poor as they were when they were hired. Converting blood, sweat, and tears into record corporate profits. Perhaps these Nazis will limit themselves to monetizing the surplus humans of the world. Perhaps they will march on other peoples. I mean, if there is no opposition, why would they stop?



