“Now there is something else that I wanted to point out with regards to the war in Ukraine, but I think it’s somehow so obvious but so completely unacknowledged that you can easily miss it ,and that is the fact that the retaliatory measures been taken against Russia globally are almost exclusively being imposed by Private-sector power, the use of sanctions as a weapon of war became increasingly frequent over the latter part of the 20th century in conjunction with the rise in the power of multinational corporations,until at this moment, the corporate and financial sector are being mobilized to destroy a regional superpower ,the primary tools being used against Russia by the West are all tools of the private sector , what we are witnessing is a vivid and pretty terrifying demonstration of the overwhelming and irresistible power unparralled in history of corporations, and it doesn’t matter if you choose to believe that all these companies are complying with government policy or not ,they are the weapons being used and that’s the point and if they have the power to destroy a country like Russia you have to acknowledge that they have the power to destroy any country and that they certainly have the power to coerce and dominate any country and consider the facts that the power these companies could in theory be used independent of any government. This demonstrates the enormous influence multinationals have over the survival of any given nation .
If Russia is destroyed, it will be destroyed exclusively by Private-sector power, it will be destroyed by CEO’s and shareholders, not generals and soldiers ,the list of major companies pulling out of Russia is 30 pages long and many if not most of them are not pulling out in order to comply with the sanctions regime, they are not pulling out because they are legally obligated to do so ,for most of these companies .This is a decision they are taking freely ,and by this decession they’re functionally carpet-bombing Russia economically.This is a shock and awe campaign conducted by global business , I don’t care if you agree with it or not, if you think Russia deserves it or not, the point is we are seeing before our eyes , the devastating, coercive and destructive force wielded by non-state unelected, unaccountable entities, what the National Intelligence Council refer to 5 years ago as networks and coalitions of power, as I discussed in a previous podcast that have the capability to completely shut down a society and to impose conditions in a country that essentially replicate conditions of traditional war and that should bother you. Decessions about whether a society , a country ,a nation can survive should not be made in corporate boardrooms by people accountable only to shareholders .
Now again, you can certainly argue that the sanctions against Russia are being imposed by governments and companies have no choice but to comply,so doesn’t that mean that corporate power is infact subordinate to state power ,after all banning economic activity with Russia is going to incur massive and cascading losses to companies across every conceivable sector. Why would they do it ? If they have more power than the state, well you can first of all be certain that within the next three to six months ,Western governments around the world will be launching major bailout packages for businesses impacted by the sanctions and rewarding those that pulled out of Russia voluntarily.This is absolutely a given, that would be pure profit for those companies obtained without the overhead expenses of doing business.You can expect that most ,if not all, of the major companies impacted by the sanctions will be reporting record profits by atleast the second quarter of 2023, if not by the end of this year. Look states are not moral actors and neither are corporations , governments and companies are not taking a principaled stance over the issue of Ukraine they’re making self-interested decessions.This crisis is going to cause shortages and scarcities and price increases the likes of which none of us has seen in our life times .It already is, all of that is bad for us ,but not bad for business, scarcity translates to skyrocketing profits and the further concentration of ownership and market control by the biggest industrial players, just like with the covid lockdowns ,small and medium-sized businesses will evaporate and the largest companies will thrive, the price of oil ,gas ,wheat, fertilizers for farming and other basic necessities will double,triple and maybe quadruple over the next year or two, meanwhile, populations will descend into dire poverty, workers will be laid off, salaries will drop,especially in Europe and the wealth gap will grow exponentially, in other words ,private-sector power is not capitulating to state power against their will ,they are pursuing a campaign that ultimately boosts their own power and profitability.
When the combined influence of these corporate networks and coalitions of power have the ability to strangle Russia into oblivion, is it really feasible that any government would ask them to do something they did not accept to do ? what if they refused to comply? what options would a government have to force them to capitulate, what multinationals are doing to Russia ,they can do anywhere, and in fact, they do it all the time just on a smaller scale, I mean if you want to see what Russia is going to look like in a couple of months just look at Detroit now ,and if you still wonder who has more power, politicians or corporations, i will just ask one simple question ,which of the two asks for donations? I’m not even gonna go into the issue of how much money corporation spend on lobbying and campaign contributions or about how there is virtually a revolving door between capital hill and Wall Street ,or about how government policy has been empirically proven to reflect and serve the interests of the wealthiest segments of society ,there’s simply too much to say on all of that ,and most of it can go without saying anyway because even if the data is not widely circulated the dynamics of that are common knowledge.”
P.s: This script is taken from a YouTube podcast on a channel named Middle Nation , by Shahid Bolson
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