Capitalism, not democracy, led to the demise of communism. Likewise, capitalism is leading to the demise of democracy. The former Soviet Union was not conquered by an invading liberation force of allied and American troops. The entire nation was not miraculously and simultaneously washed with epiphanal tongues of fire, the flames of enlightenment theory. Communism and the Soviet Union were, quite simply, outspent by capitalism. The arms race, and the threat of “Star Wars” in particular, broke the proverbial bank.

During the Cold War, capitalism was always presented as the freemarket flower that bloomed on the fertile branch of democracy—a bountiful tree that provided sustenance and shelter to all who tended its soil. But in reality, capitalism has always been its own raison d etre'. As Marx said “creating a world after its own image”. Today, the egalitarian root structure of democracy that was once believed to nurture the bloom of the freemarket flower, has been discovered to be the source of its limitations as well as its growth. Labour unions, minimum wage laws, taxes and environmental protection regulations have stunted the growth and consequently, the profitability of operating in a democratic nation. Trade agreements like NAFTA that opened up Mexico and the recent PNTR agreement with China provide corporations with an bottomless pool of low wage workers who aren't organized by labour unions or protected by occupational or environmental safety laws.

Today's flower of capitalism is bio-engineered. Unlike the Biblical story of the mustard seed that lie fallow on craggy soil, its bloom is hydroponicly grown—this bud's for you—and it doesn't need any soil. It is a portable entity that can be moved around any impediment, beamed over any wall, through any iron or bamboo curtain. The genus capitalus is a down-sized version of its former self. It has shed the “sustenance” and “shelter” branches of its operations, as they were no longer profitable. It is an alien and parasitic species that consumes and transforms everything it contacts. Devouring, digesting, then shiting out replicants of the original that are even better than the real thing. You no longer have to go to Philadelphia to see the founding documents of our country, or to Washington DC to see the marble and bronze symbols of a great democracy. They and their ideology have been reconfigured and transformed into trinkets and shiny fobs, and are for sale in brightly colored packages at your local supermarket and mall. “Freedom” was an ideal that birthed a nation. “Freedom” was the template that formed its laws. Now “Freedom” is a marketing concept that's been broken down like a shotgun over the knee of some ad-man in New York City. “Free” is an inducement to buy, and “dom” is its favorite customer. Freedom of choice is what we wanted—freedom from choice is what we got. This waxed-up and tricked-out variety of capitalism is a genetically altered, irradiated organism that makes the man eating pods in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” look like morning glories.