Untangling the Octopus

Cartoon.02_Federal_Reserve_1912_Coming_Money_Trust

The Octopus as viewed in 1912 on the eve of the Bankers’ Coup of 1913.

Alfred Owen Crozier, an attorney and activist from Michigan, Ohio, and New York, drew the above cartoon in 1912. He warned the public of the banksters before the Bankers’ Coup of 1913 issued in the Federal Reserve System and the Internal Revenue Service. The Octopus was the first illustration to grace the interior of his 1912 book, U.S. Money vs. Corporate Money, “Aldrich Plan,” Wall Street Confessions! Great Bank Combine! In 1913, Crozier testified against the Federal Reserve System, originally proposed by the Aldrich Plan as the National Reserve Association.

The Octopus as viewed in 2011 in the midst of the worldwide Occupy revolt.

The Octopus as viewed in 2011 in the midst of the worldwide Occupy revolt.

The Octopus represented the art of 1912. Almost a hundred years later, in October 2011, three complex-systems theorists crunching algorithms determined 43,000 TNCs (Transnational Corporations), represented by all the dots in the 3D image, dominated the global economy. Among these are 1,318 core companies with interlocking ownerships. The collectively controlled 20% of global operating revenues and another 60% of global real (manufacturing revenues.) Of these 147 formed a supergroup of <1% controlling 40% of the total network. The majority were Big Wall Street Banks and investment firms.

See “Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world,” in New Scientist at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed–the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html

and “The network of global corporate control” at http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1107/1107.5728v2.pdf.

Interlocking Relationships and Web of Control.

Interlocking Relationships and Web of Control in 2011. Capitalism, especially Finance Capitalism, now dominates politics, governments, academia, NGOs, markets, businesses, and finances locally, regionally, and all across the planet.

Over time we see a much more convoluted and intricate network of interlocking, non-democratic entities formed. This has grown to dominate politics and governments as well as marketplaces and businesses around the planet. Perhaps the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street and Everywhere movements can find common ground. Neither will they or anyone else, however, be successful in political, economic, and financial reforms unless we go straight to the hearts of the Beast. The foundation of radical reform is simple in concept and shall be challenging to execute: We the People of Earth must establish public control of the money power similar to civilian control of the military power. Such public control must be transparent and accountable with all information open to public audit.

NOTE: This is from a from a larger work in progress looking at the de facto Euro-American Global Empire, which may be more correctly termed a Postmodern and neo-feudal Empire of the Money Power.

William Dudley Bass
2 November 2011
Seattle, Washington
Cascadia

Copyright © 2011, 2016 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship of and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.

4 thoughts on “Untangling the Octopus

    • It may seem obvious, doesn’t it? You may’ve noted the article posted back in November of 2011.

      Even so, the movement subsided into a number of different directions. Many people remain active, tho not occupying the plazas anymore. I see Occupy as one in a long chain of populist revolts breaking out intermittently since 1865 within the U.S.A.

      We still have long simmering & unresolved issues over class, race & ethnicity, religion, sex & gender, language, economics & finance, political power, etc.. Some issues remain unresolved even from the founding of this nation. There’s a struggle for the control of the historical narrative as well, as in which one best reflects reality &/or truth, the mainstream mythology generated by those in power, or the alternative ones of those who remember otherwise? There was concern or hope, depending on one’s identity, the insurrections of the 1950s-thru the 60s-into the mid-1970s would merge into a revolution or civil war. Didn’t happen. There were too many multiple sides with conflicting agendas. Now the nation is more polarized than ever, perhaps more polarized than its ever been in the long decades after the 1850s & 1860s. Our multitude of squabbling factions have more or less flowed Right and Left. Now Right and Left are squared off against one another.

      I dread a true revolution or civil war, especially in this nation. Perhaps we can resolve these crises peacefully, but I think not. The root causes are human, of course, and are reflected in our dysfunctional and obsolete structures of how we organize ourselves as a society and what we do to function as one. If these challenges are not resolved, if they aren’t even acknowledged by many, then sooner or later extreme polarization may well result in a horror show of revolution, civil war, chaos & fragmentation, famine, international intervention, & tyranny.

      Our whole planet needs to grow up, and we can’t even agree among ourselves what steps to take to do that as we’re too busy blaming & shaming & murdering & maiming one another to accept, forgive, and love. It takes courage to stand for love as a choice beyond the ebb & flow of emotions, thoughts, & feelings. It’s a courage often forgotten in the thirst for justice and revenge.

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