As a younger person in my hometown of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, people called me Negativo Man.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nWhy? Because as an active citizen in the community, I was constantly calling out political leaders \u2013 left, right and center \u2013 for tying themselves to the corporate duopoly that dominates our<\/p>\n\n\n\n
political economy here in West Virginia and around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was also publishing a weekly legal newsletter called Corporate Crime Reporter<\/em>. People saw that as my focusing my life\u2019s work on the negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat would you have me call it \u2013\u00a0 the Business Ethics newsletter ?\u201d I would ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But rather than fight the Negativo Man designation, I leaned into it. For Halloween parties, I would take duct tape, make a silver N on my black t-shirt, put on sunglasses and a cape and go to the party as Negativo Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cConfronting reality is a negative process,\u201d writes John Ralston Saul in his book The Unconscious Civilization<\/em> (Free Press, 1995).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The corporatism that has overtaken our democracy is an ideology that \u201cinsists on relentless positivism \u2013 that\u2019s why it opposes criticism and encourages passivity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the book, Saul argues that we live in a corporatist society with soft pretensions to democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We live in a society of corporatist groups \u2013 some are public, some are private, some are well intentioned, some not well intentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary loyalty of the individualis not to the society but to the corporatist group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReal expressions of individualism are not only discouraged but punished,\u201d Saul writes. \u201cThe active, outspoken citizen is unlikely to have a successful professional career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe human is thus reduced to a measurable value, like a machine or a piece of property. We can choose to achieve a high value and live comfortably, or be dumped unceremoniously onto a heap of marginality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saul is a big fan of Socrates \u2013 for always doubting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a not so big fan of Plato \u2013 for being so sure of himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSocrates \u2013 oral, questioner, obsessed by ethics, searching for truth without expecting to find it, democrat, believer in the qualities of citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlato \u2013 written, answerer of questions, obsessed by power, in possession of the truth, anti-democratic, contemptuous of the citizen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Socrates \u2013 the father of humanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato \u2013 the father of ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Corporatism versus democracy \u2013 that\u2019s the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Saul lays the blame for the drift into corporatism on you \u2013 and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf democracy fails, it is ultimately the citizen who has failed, not the politician,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saul reassures us that \u201cnothing in our current crisis is untouchable because of great mystic forces of inevitability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must choose doubt over certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consciousness over the comfort of remaining unconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Responsibility over passivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Delight in the human condition over self-loathing and cynicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe very essence of corporatism is minding your own business,\u201d Saul writes. \u201cThe very essence of individualism is refusal to mind your own business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is not a particularly pleasant or easy style of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our civilization is locked in the grip of an ideology \u2013 corporatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is an ideology that \u201cdenies and undermines the legitimacy of the individual as the citizen in a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an ideology that results in the worship of self-interest and a denial of the public good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe practical effects on the individual are passivity and conformism in the areas that matter and non-conformism in the areas that don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s a citizen to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCitizen based democracy is built upon participation, which is the very expression of public discomfort,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the corporate system depends upon the \u201ccitizen\u2019s desire for inner comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must confront the reality in front of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is \u2013 we must accept a state of \u201cpermanent psychic discomfort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe acceptance of psychic discomfort is the acceptance of consciousness,\u201d Saul writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in an age of genocide, accepting a state of \u201cpermanent psychic discomfort\u201d risks a slide into despair and isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reality is ugly and it\u2019s ugly all around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But even when things are their ugliest, there are acts of beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I hear people around me say \u2013 it\u2019s over, nothing\u2019s left, we can\u2019t recover, time to move to another country \u2013 my response is \u2013 get a grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because there are thousands of your fellow citizens \u2013 valiantly, against all odds \u2013 fighting back. And while they may not make it into mainstream newspapers and television, they are popular around the world because of the new underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their common denominator?<\/p>\n\n\n\n They all \u2013 left, right and center \u2013 understand that the corporate genocidal duopoly is corrupt to the core and we must all work to replace it with something better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are not relativists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They know the deep corruption of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They all understand that Biden, Harris, Trump and Vance don\u2019t belong in the White House and instead belong in The Hague to face war crimes trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These citizen activists are the opening to a bright and sunny future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People like Scott Horton, director of The Libertarian Institute, editorial director of antiwar.com, and host of the Scott Horton Show podcast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Horton is also the author of two great books \u2013 Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War With Russia and the<\/em> Catastrophe in Ukraine <\/em>(2024) and Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism <\/em>(2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Briahna Joy Gray, host of the popular Bad Faith podcast, former Bernie Sanders for President press secretary, former host on The Hill\u2019s Rising television show, before she was fired for speaking the truth about Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Kshama Sawant, former member of the Seattle City Council, where she pushed through a $15 minimum wage for the city, and now candidate for Congress in Washington against the neocon warmonger Democrat Adam Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Dave Smith, a comedian and antiwar libertarian, who valiantly debates warmongers of all stripes \u2013 and usually comes out victorious. In 2024, Smith supported Trump over Harris for President, but then earlier this year called for Trump\u2019s impeachment. \u201cIn the last month Donald Trump has launched a war of aggression on behalf of a foreign government, exploded the debt, announced that he\u2019s continuing the Biden policy of arming Ukraine, and covered up a giant child rape operation,\u201d Smith wrote on Twitter on July 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And former Fox television host Judge Andrew Napolitano, whose daily podcast Judging Freedom features antiwar activists such as Aaron Mate, John Mearsheimer, Max Blumenthal, Jeffrey Sachs, Lawrence Wilkerson, Ray McGovern and Chas Freeman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t deceive yourself. Things are ugly. The ugliness is right in our faces every day. Don\u2019t turn away. Then join with your fellow citizens and fight back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Together we can turn this thing around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s to a bright and sunny future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Onward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Negativo Man by Russell Mokhiber (Originally published in Capitol Hill Citizen, September\/October 2025 issue, print newspaper available at capitolhillcitizen.com) As a younger person in my hometown of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, people called me Negativo Man. Why? Because as an … Continue reading