Our 'Neo-feudal Society'

Editor:

Sixty years ago, Georgetown University historian Carroll Quigley predicted the U.S. would become a neo-feudal society if privatization of the public commons continued unabated.

Private intermediaries separating people from their government is a defining characteristic of feudalism, seen today in the largest industrial complexes providing essential public services, (euphemistically called “public-private partnerships”).

Today’s public-private bureaucrats, under pressure from Wall Street equity firms and its shareholders, extract maximum revenues from essential public services, herding tens of millions of families into Wall Street’s high-interest credit cards, payday loans and reverse mortgages, creating a multitrillion dollar personal debt crisis from family illnesses, housing, transportation, “public” utilities, “public” university tuition or maintaining a loved-one’s services in a private senior community; stark resemblances to feudal lords pressured by kings to extract maximum rents from indebted peasants.

The separation between “we the people” and our government was locally displayed by Congressman Jared Huffman stating his preference for focusing on issues he can win, repeating the phrase, “Israel’s right to defend itself,” failing to respond directly to public concerns that Israel’s apartheid is a crime against humanity and arming genocide is a war crime … not a “defense.” (“The Peril of this Moment,” April 3).

Returning sovereign public authority from non-sovereign private power begins with individual choices. Even rural Humboldt County has examples for extracting ourselves from a corrupt, neo-feudal system: Arcata’s moratorium on national retailers, Cal-Poly Humboldt student’s “Rad-Power” peddle-assist cargo bikes; solar “Sun Frost” refrigerators manufactured for decades, joining other local producers of recreational equipment, musical instruments, food and wood products. Which city or large landowner will be first to offer large community gardens or sell neighbors energy from large solar arrays?

Who will be the first local millionaire manufacturing peddle assist pod-bikes for the new Eureka-Arcata trail, fulfilling commuter needs of workers, students and retirees?

George Clark, Eureka