We are on a boat, and we have been at sea for a very long time. Some passengers have passed away, others have boarded, and through the generations we’ve forgotten where it was we’re going. We’ve forgotten politics, the republic and our freedom. Along the way, we were hijacked by pirates who convinced us that surrender to private enterprise would lead us home.

We were once in charge of the government, designed to be under our control, but now we are part of a corporate world that none of us can control. Once we had a tyrannical king to revolt against, now we have the invisible hand of market forces we cannot even locate, much less control. With decisions such as Citizens United and their continual talk of the evil of all government, Republicans and corporation attack ads have commandeered our ship.

They have hijacked us in part through media. In policies that always favor big business over public interests, corporations such as Clear Channel have consolidated the power of media sources like pirates hoarding booty. Clear Channel now controls Twentieth Century Fox, HarperCollins, The Wall Street Journal, with a self-serving voice in almost every form of media; from newspapers, to radio and television. You can be sure that for a $30 billion investment, it and other corporations like it expect high returns.

As we sit in the hull of our ship, we know something is wrong, but they have convinced us that it’s our ship that’s causing problems. Instead of steering, they have convinced us to follow. Instead of standing on deck where we can sail our vessel, we would rather wallow beneath the gallery. It’s corporate totalitarianism that plumes the sails. They have made us niche consumers through their political and commercial manipulation. Corporations spend more than $421 billion a year in advertisements, while, according to an A.C. Nielson study, the average child will watch 20,000 ads a year. Between super PACs and private donations, big business has taken command of politics, allowing them to dictate the actions of our ship.

The business model of government locks the citizens in the hold of their own ship while it steers a course of endless profiteering for the captains of industry. Once an expression of civic participation for mutual benefit, citizenship required activity on deck, diligence in the crow’s nest and examination in the chart room.

But now, corporate interests have transformed it into expressive consumption. Instead of elected officials, we are being captained by corporate moguls totally unaccountable to the public. When we raise our voice in protests, Republicans like State Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck tell us to “go home,” and we do! It’s the greatest hijacking of history.

Corporations are no longer content as fellow passengers. Through mutiny, they have become pirates. Their corporate speech overruling public interests is unprecedented in American history. Writing is public speech, speaking is public speech and they involve public concerns. In Citizens United, the five Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices privileged the voice of a select and powerful few in their aims and tactics that keep the rest of us silent. Because they granted such power to corporations, there is little hope for citizens to exercise their political rights on our own vessel.

It is the rights of citizens that need protection. Corporations do not need us to rush to their defense. Given corporate lobbying and advertisements, we are the ones in danger.

They have scammed us. We demand limitations on our government, which in principle and in fact puts limitation on ourselves. As Lincoln said, this is a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” We opt out of our free speech, our right to congregate, our individuality and expression. Not only have we forgotten where it was we were sailing, we blindly accept the change in course; we are convinced it’s the ship, not the pirate crew, who enslaves us. Instead corporations have sacrificed our government to Fox News and “American Idol.”

Everyone loves a conspiracy theory involving the government, but what about corporate conspiracy? Why are they exempt from examination? Is it possible that our government could actually be a good thing, the last protection for its citizens against a total corporate take over? What a conspiracy that would be: Corporations convincing us to destroy the tyrannical government for their own profiteering!

We once sailed this ship and understood where it was going. We had a government that we were part of. Our founders tried to warn us: Federalist 10 tried to state the dangers of private interests in public affairs, but that story has been lost. Corporations mutinied and took the helm. None of us can control Exxon, T-Mobile or Clear Channel; none of us are part of these corporations like we are a part of our own government. And yet, we are the ones calling for the demolition of that government; because they have convinced us that our success depends upon their rule.