Signs of collapse: Organized crime takes over politics and business

As the collapse of our political, economic, social and ecological systems accelerates, the signs of this collapse, including scapegoating, corruption and social disorder, are becoming increasingly apparent. This is the second article in a series on some of these signposts.

image by CaseyColton on DeviantArt — CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

OOne of the points that the British-French historian Aurélien often makes about politics is that people naturally pledge allegiance to whatever institution — legal or illegal — that “best” provides them with security and other social needs, such as health and education. That might mean supporting governments in functioning democracies (there are still a few of those left) and autocratic leaders who are not too obviously self-interested, megalomaniac, or corrupt.

But when these “official” power blocs fail to provide citizens with their basic needs, citizens are forced to turn to other power blocs that offer a little more support, or at least a little more support, to deal with their daily problems. In impoverished areas that are ignored by governments, and in areas where “official” police forces fail to “serve and protect” citizens or openly exploit them, organized crime may offer just enough more to win the loyalty of local citizens.

Organized crime syndicates take many forms. The mafia-like oligarchies and warlord fiefdoms that now rule many “failed” countries are the obvious examples. Give them your allegiance and, provided you pass their “tests,” they will take care of you. Street gangs are another example. The “babysitters” at the AIPAC convention follow a classic mafia organizational model.

In parts of Mexico, the Zapatistas became popular with citizens as an alternative support network after corrupt local governments were taken over by drug and crime lords. And much of the vast “underground economy” operates outside the law and the state, providing many people on the planet with what they need that the “official” government can no longer or will not, or never could.

Much of the Western economy is actually run on the basis of bribes, kickbacks and payments to both officials and ‘non-officials’ who know how to get things done outside the rules of law and state, and who demand tribute and loyalty in return. The few media outlets that still do investigative journalism generally have neither the courage nor the resources to expose this illegal activity (they may risk death if they try, especially since ‘officials’ and agents are often involved and, for a fee, turn a blind eye to it). So these activities continue ‘under the official radar’, and as our political and economic systems disintegrate ever more rapidly, these activities expand and flourish.

I would argue that corporate and political lobbies such as the NRA, AIPAC, Big Pharma and many, many more are really just different forms of organized crime syndicates that use variations of the ‘mafia model’ to seize power from our failed political and economic systems and wield it for their own benefit. These organized crime syndicates influence and control a large portion of our political and economic systems, even above and beyond ‘registered’ lobby groups, and none of them is elected by or is responsible to citizens. Examples: political party machines, large corporations and their oligopolies and unregistered lobby groups, the military and “defense” industries, the criminals who run the construction and housing industries, police unions, some politically active churches, and judicial bodies full of bought-off lackeys, to name a few.

cartoon by Farley Katz from the New Yorker

Oxford defines ‘organized crime’ as “illegal, unethical and coercive activities that are planned and controlled by powerful groups and carried out on a large scale.” By that definition, much of the political and economic activity in Western countries is already carried out by organized crime syndicates. As the collapse deepens, this will get worse, not better.

Where do we go when we see that the collapsing political and economic systems, organizations and institutions set up by governments no longer serve us?

Of course, it will depend on our situation and location. Once the collapse is so far advanced that the “official” exercise of power cannot continue (there will not be enough tax revenues to fund services or enforce laws), we can expect government to devolve power to more local levels, or simply give up on providing services altogether (starting with the most expensive non-military services — health, education, and social services). With the exception of drugs, most organized crime syndicates will have little interest in providing these increasingly unprofitable services, so it is likely that most of us will have to do without them, or learn to provide them to each other.

Corporate empires, dependent on continuous growth for their survival, artificially low interest rates, ever-increasing consumer debt, and cheap energy sources, will collapse along with political “empires.” Even the very richest will only survive if their wealth Real assets — since stocks and other financial “paper” assets will be worthless if the economy collapses — and if they also have the means to secure and manage those assets. Increasingly, as both government and “official” corporate providers of goods and services collapse, the vacuum that remains will inevitably be filled by organized crime.

So in the short term, we’re probably going to have to deal with organized crime syndicates of various kinds for a while as the collapse deepens. Look at any of the countries in the Global South that are deep in the collapse and you get the picture. They’ve already learned who to pay and what to do to get what they need, and you won’t find that information in their government propaganda. In addition to dealing with the reality of ecological collapse and the possibility of becoming climate migrants ourselves, we’re going to have to decide exactly what we can and can’t afford to lose, and pay the right organized crime syndicates when necessary to get what we need.

But in the longer term we are likely to find that power needs wealth to sustain it, and that as the collapse reaches its later stages, nobody will still have much wealth left, we will all relatively powerless. It is at this point, as has been seen in previous civilizational collapses and even great depressions, that our society will become relatively democratic again. We will all be in the same boat, so we will either work together to get what we need, or we will perish. The once-haughty financiers, arbitrators, and expensive middlemen will discover that their expertise is worthless and that they have nothing of value to offer the once-humble bicycle repairman in return for their services.

And then begins the hard work of creating radically relocalized communities of existence that work uniquely in each location, given the available resources of that location and the competencies and cultural conditioning of its citizens. There will be no cheap, easily extracted energy left to power these new societies, so their economies will likely be what Anna Tsing has called salvage and scavenger economies. We will learn to recycle and reuse the waste, weeds, scraps, and discarded junk from our brief experiment with predatory industrial economics to provide us with what we need, wherever we end up. Societies that actually function well in this world of scarcity may take centuries to evolve, and we will probably have to survive many failed attempts before they emerge.

In the meantime, it is useful to recognize, even at this early stage of collapse for many of us, how much of our political and economic system has already been destroyed by various kinds of organized crime syndicates, many of which masquerade as “respectable” and “responsible” organizations. Given the vast inequalities of wealth and power that our systems have created, this was inevitable. And as scarcity increases, it will inevitably get worse.

And then that too shall pass.