slogan ‘If voting changed anything it would be illegal’. The argument being that if a radical government was elected the capitalist class would overthrow it by using its influence over the military to stage a coup. But it’s a crude over simplification that would mean in much of the OECD countries we haven’t see interference in the ‘democratic process’ for a long period of time. In fact as we see a coup is just the desperate last measure if all else fails. The preferred method is to filter out radical change and replace it with harmless window dressing and minor reform.

One way of understanding how this happens is to compare the process to a filtration system. Each filter in the system is designed to catch a particular type of threat. Ideally those being filtered are not only unaware this is happening but actually co-operate in the process. What are these filters?

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