The Water Authority: The Legacy of Fascism
In discussing the “inverted fascism” of public-private partnerships (e.g. the water monopoly) I mentioned that, theoretically, under fascism proper the government was the master in its union with corporations. Theoretically because, in fact, the corporations that created and funded Hitler survived the war to become engineers and important components of the emerging internationalist corporate-government-intelligence-foundation order. Consider the following passage from Mel K’s new book, Infiltration Instead of Invasion: America Betrayed (1944-1954):
“[T]he men who sat at the Red House table discovered that their gamble had paid off. When West Germany began its rapid reconstruction, the same industrial titans—not all, but many—returned to positions of influence. IG Farben, formally dissolved by the Allies, reemerged as three successor companies—BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst—each reclaiming portions of the old empire. Krupp reconstituted itself with startling speed. Siemens retooled and expanded. Thyssen merged, maneuvered, and grew. Volkswagen—born from a Nazi vision—became a global brand of democratic prosperity.”
The decade immediately after WWII was busy. The U.S. would continue its researches into mass hypnosis and the management of popular perception and belief. Here, Nazi psychologists would add to earlier contributions from the likes of Bernays and G.H. Estabrooks. The ever-present Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie foundations would find new scope for action with the United Nations and its many agencies. The wartime OSS would merge with the Nazi Gehlen Organization to form the CIA, which promptly got to work establishing a number of secret “stay behind” armies in Western Europe. Overseen by NATO, these armies were employed to interfere in elections and to conduct terror operations.
As Christopher Lasch tells it in his excellent The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics, the Progressive movement of the 1920s already marked dissatisfaction with populism, and the hope for a more scientific government of expertise. Decades before we recruited the Nazi scientists, we had imported the Prussian method of education, designed to produce biddable and unquestioning factory workers and soldiers. Concerns about popular government were heightened by the Second Great War, which it was believed, issued from popular nationalist sentiment. The threats of nuclear annihilation and Communism, moreover, could not be sanely addressed by popular passions—but perhaps corporate expertise, with a little help from the Germans, could save us from ourselves.
The Code of Virginia was not untouched by this ferment. The code is amended all the time, but there were major overhauls of the code, called “Revisions,” in 1819, 1849, 1887, and 1919. The last such revision, the basis of our present code, was made in 1950, precisely in the period I’ve been discussing. Under no previous code would the Botetourt Board of Supervisors be authorized to conduct secret negotiations with Google, nor the Water Authority to drain Carvin’s Cove on its behalf. I managed to locate a copy of the 1919 code, and the difference in architecture is remarkable.
Because closed sessions of Boards of Supervisors were not permitted, there could be no occasion for non-disclosure agreements:
And it was less complicated to remove idiot supervisors:
Critically, any water provider was considered a “public utility” under the supervision of the State Corporation Commission, and had a “duty” to provide “reasonably adequate services and facilities” to consumers in its service area:
This Revision of the code engineered—in keeping with the prejudices and fears of its time—not enlightened and objective corporate management, but the death of popular sovereignty in the Commonwealth, and concerning one of its most vital resources.
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Also in this series:
The Botetourt Data Center & the Lie of Freedom
If It’s Not Love, Then It’s the Data Center That Will Bring Us Together
The Botetourt Data Center: A Bad Deal with a Scammy Cherry on Top
The Botetourt Data Center, The Water Authority, and an Invitation to Corruption
The Botetourt Data Center: Bilious Corporate Prerogative
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