Tyranny By Any Other Name
Tyranny By Any Other Name
America - The Final Frontier
Disclaimer: I work hard to get the facts straight, but I am no expert of any kind. Always do your own research and make up your own mind.
Control. We are all feeling the push to do away with our freedoms.
Whether we call it globalism, authoritarianism, elite control, socialism, or any other name, and whether we talk about the United Nations, World Economic Forum, or World Health Organization, the bottom line is the same: America is at risk of following the common path to losing all freedoms. We are the longest surviving ‘free’ country.
Overall creating fear and distributing reprisal, whether censorship, canceling, debanking, job loss, business loss, bankruptcy by ideological fanaticism, up to and including illness, jail, loss of family, suicide/death… These are the tools of control.
In trying to put the puzzle together, I present the following ‘pieces’. I hope it helps you understand the battle we are fighting. Being informed is critical to taking action. Never give up, and always pray. I try to live up to this quote by John Quincy Adams, “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.”
Big Business’ Expanding Influence
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, companies like BlackRock and Vanguard seem to own most of the global corporate landscape. Articles, infographics, and videos often show their control stretching across major industries, political spheres, and even public policy decisions. What’s more, these two giants often appear to own each other, with BlackRock being a major shareholder in Vanguard and vice versa. This raises critical concerns about whether these firms are pursuing goals beyond simple profit - such as a global power dynamic that threatens individual autonomy, homeownership, and perhaps even the concept of national sovereignty.
Let’s explore BlackRock and Vanguard’s control over various industries, their potential future worth, their involvement in real estate, and how their growing influence connects to the broader issue of soft authoritarianism in America. We'll also examine the role of NGOs and government contractors in furthering this concentration of power, drawing on current trends to assess whether the U.S. could be heading toward a quasi-socialist, elite-driven society.
BlackRock and Vanguard’s Expanding Influence
As of 2024, BlackRock manages around $10.4 trillion in assets, and Vanguard manages another $9.3 trillion, giving them a combined $19.7 trillion in assets under management (AUM) according to BrokerageReview.com. Their influence spans nearly every major industry:
Technology: BlackRock and Vanguard hold significant shares in companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
Energy: They are deeply invested in both fossil fuel companies (e.g., ExxonMobil, Chevron) and the renewable energy sector.
Pharmaceuticals: Their reach extends to giants like Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
Real Estate: Through large stakes in REITs and real estate development firms, they hold considerable power over the housing market.
Given their current growth trajectory (approximately 8-10% annually), it’s entirely plausible that their combined assets could exceed $30 trillion by 2030. This would give them control over an estimated 5-6% of global wealth and a substantial share of U.S. household net worth. In comparison, the total U.S. household net worth in 2023 was around $150 trillion, and while this may grow, current economic pressures - such as inflation, high government spending, and rising taxes - could lead to a stagnation or decline for many households.
This concentration of financial power enables BlackRock and Vanguard to exert enormous influence not just over corporate governance but also over entire industries, creating potential concerns about the centralization of economic control.
What does this mean for the future of wealth distribution? While BlackRock and Vanguard’s assets grow, the average household could face declining purchasing power, reduced access to homeownership, and greater dependence on government social programs. This widening gap between the elite asset managers and the middle class could further entrench an elite-serf society, where the majority rent homes from corporations and rely on the state for basic necessities.
The Role of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and Digital IDs
The potential implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and digital IDs ties directly into concerns about increasing elite control. CBDCs, unlike decentralized cryptocurrencies, would be issued and controlled by the Federal Reserve or another central bank, giving the government far greater control over individual financial transactions. If tied to digital IDs, the state could monitor and regulate how people spend their money, effectively creating a financial surveillance system.
This raises the specter of a social credit system similar to what exists in China, where citizens’ financial behavior, online activity, and even social interactions could be tracked and scored. Those with low scores could face restricted access to housing, jobs, or even their own money. As BlackRock and Vanguard grow their dominance in industries like real estate and finance, they could collaborate with governments to push these systems, gradually centralizing economic control in the hands of the elite.
At the global level, institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are critical players in shaping the direction of economic policy. These organizations, which provide financial assistance and development loans to countries, often set conditions that require the implementation of centralized financial controls and economic restructuring. In many cases, this involves encouraging the adoption of digital currencies and financial monitoring systems that increase government oversight of economic activity. As CBDCs and digital IDs become more prevalent, the IMF and World Bank could help standardize these systems globally, further embedding elite financial institutions in the control of national economies. This dynamic creates a scenario where national sovereignty is diminished in favor of global financial governance. In this mix is also the weakening of the U.S. dollar.
Are We Already Living Under Soft Authoritarianism?
We may already be living under a form of soft authoritarianism. This term describes a system where democratic institutions exist in name, but government power is increasingly concentrated and unchecked, often through the administrative state. This shadow governance works by issuing regulations, enforcing rules, and punishing dissent without direct accountability to voters or legislators. Consequences without redress. Authorities without checks and balances.
Consider the examples of January 6th protesters, pro-life activists, and the baker persecuted for his religious beliefs. In these cases, judicial overreach, selective law enforcement, and ideological biases led to disproportionate punishments. Citizens find themselves facing long prison sentences for peaceful actions, while others, involved in more extreme forms of protest or violence, face little or no legal consequences. This pattern of unequal treatment under the law is characteristic of authoritarian systems, where the state uses the legal system to suppress certain viewpoints while protecting favored ideologies.
Non-governmental Agencies (NGOs) play a pivotal role in this framework, often functioning as unofficial arms of the state, pushing ideological agendas and influencing voter registration efforts. Many of these organizations receive government funding or taxpayer dollars, despite pursuing partisan goals. For example, pro-immigration NGOs may help register voters in liberal-leaning areas, or lobby for policies that favor mass immigration and expanded social programs. By selectively amplifying certain voices, these NGOs can tip the balance of political power without any accountability.
NGOs and Government Contractors, More Tools of Control
In addition to NGOs, the government often outsources activities - like surveillance - to private contractors. This outsourcing is a way for the government to sidestep legal restrictions on certain activities, such as domestic surveillance or data collection. By hiring tech firms and data analytics companies (like Palantir), and using censorship on social media, the government can conduct extensive monitoring of citizens without directly violating constitutional protections.
Government contractors and NGOs can be seen as complementary actors in the soft authoritarian system. NGOs shape public opinion, register voters selectively, and influence legislation, while contractors handle the technical side of government surveillance and data analysis. This partnership allows the government to exert wrongful control over its citizens while maintaining plausible deniability and avoiding the repercussions, like hiring someone to burn down your house so you can collect the insurance. But worse. At least that person could be caught and punished.
Where Do Public/Private Partnerships Come Into Play?
Another key factor driving the shift toward an elite-controlled society is the rise of public/private partnerships. These collaborations between governments and large corporations allow both entities to work together on major societal issues like infrastructure, technology, and social welfare programs. While these partnerships are often promoted as a means to foster innovation and public benefit, they also create opportunities for elite corporate interests to gain greater control over public policy. By aligning corporate resources with government regulation, these partnerships not only enable the private sector to wield influence over how public services are delivered and how economic policies are implemented (often with limited accountability to the public), but they also provide the governmental entities with ways around due process and rule of law. A match not made in heaven.
Where Is America Headed?
This combination of factors - BlackRock and Vanguard’s financial dominance, the implementation of CBDCs and digital IDs, NGOs' influence on public policy, and the government’s use of private contractors - points to a future of increasing control over every aspect of life. While this focus is on economic and social aspects, including speech and religion, we’ve seen how health, travel, and other freedoms are also on the line.
As more citizens become dependent on government welfare and social programs, and as homeownership becomes more difficult due to corporate control of real estate, the middle class is at risk of disappearing entirely. What remains is a system where wealth and power are consolidated among a small number, while the majority find themselves economically dependent on government handouts or corporate landlords.
Where Does America Stand Today?
America may already be on the path to an elite-controlled society, with growing trends in soft authoritarianism, government overreach, and economic inequality threatening individual freedoms. With NGOs, government contractors, and large asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard working in tandem to centralize control, all Americans face mounting challenges in maintaining autonomy and financial survival. Whether through digital currencies, selective law enforcement, or surveillance, the tools of this evolving system are already in place and being used.
This unchecked growth is basically a cancer. Whether it’s Big Money, government, NGOs, the federal reserve, CBDCs, digital ID, etc., this cancer is death to freedoms. (Plus, there are Big Pharma, food shortages, and farmland concerns among others.) (Side note: The 12 banks of the Federal Reserve are privately owned yet its role is to manage America’s monetary policy, including interest rates, inflation control, and bank regulation.)
The question now is whether this trajectory can be reversed. Will the American public push back against the overreach of power and wealth, or will we see a continued shift toward a quasi-socialist system, where government and its minions (contractors, agencies, courts, NGOs) as well as corporate elites decide the rules for everyone else?
Take heart, my friends, and consider these wise words.
Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not grow weary.
- Galatians 6:9
Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
- Adlai Stevenson II
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
– Patrick Henry
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
- President Harry S. Truman, Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950
No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.
- Samuel Adams
The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us.
- Thomas Jefferson
If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.
– Winston Churchill
It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.
– Thomas Paine
Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.
- Ronald Reagan
The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.
-William F. Buckley Jr.
We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.
- Alan Dershowitz
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
- Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson. Originally perhaps from John Philpot Curran, “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”
God bless America.
“When exposing a crime is treated as a crime, you’re being ruled by criminals.”
-Edward Snowden
Abraham Lincoln: "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Ronald Reagan: "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave."
John F. Kennedy: "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country."
Theodore Roosevelt: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Dwight D. Eisenhower: "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
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Until next time…
Please share your thoughts in the comments. Or email me, and let’s have a problem-solving conversation. I welcome ‘letters to the editor’ type emails and may publish yours. I hope we can create a caucus with positive, back-to-the-founders’-dream-for-America results. Have a topic you want to know more about?
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