Chris Hedges:

Empires communicate in two languages. One language is expressed in imperatives. It is the language of command and force. ... The other language of empire is softer. It employs the vocabulary of ideals and lofty goals and insists that the power of empire is noble and benevolent.

Those who administer empire—elected officials, corporate managers, generals and the celebrity courtiers who disseminate the propaganda—become very wealthy. They make immense fortunes whether they deliver the nightly news, sit on the boards of corporations, or rise, lavished with corporate endorsements, within the vast industry of spectacle and entertainment. They all pay homage, even in moments defined as criticism, to the essential goodness of corporate power. They shut out all real debate. They ignore flagrant injustices and abuse.

Sounds like O's job description.

They peddle the illusions that keep us passive and amused. But as our society is reconfigured into an oligarchic system, with a permanent and vast underclass, along with a shrinking and unstable middle class, these illusions lose their power. The language of pleasant deception must be replaced with the overt language of force. It is hard to continue to live in a state of self-delusion once unemployment benefits run out, once the only job available comes without benefits or a living wage, once the future no longer conforms to the happy talk that saturates our airwaves. At this point rage becomes the engine of response, and whoever can channel that rage inherits power. The manipulation of that rage has become the newest task of the corporate propagandists, and the failure of the liberal class to defend core liberal values has left its members with nothing to contribute to the debate.

Very true. Light irony doesn't make the nut. Nor does neo-liberalism with a different sauce.

[T]here is one aspect the corporate state shares with despotic regimes and the collapsed empires that have plagued human history. It too communicates in two distinct languages, that is until it does not have to, at which point it will be too late.

Actually, I'd want evidence on that point. Does anybody have any linky goodness on the discourse of collapsing empires?

That said_{MR SUBLIMINAL "That said..." is 2011's "At the end of the day..." Stop using it!} the idea of a "discourse turn" as a leading indicator of "too late" is a very interesting one. I suggest that the primary utility of the 2012 elections will be to watch the discourse play out.

NOTE Via Yves.