Joseph Burrell grew up in rural North Carolina, Virginia, Detroit, and Washington DC. After high school he enlisted in the US Marine Corps, then earned a degree at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Burrell returned to Washington DC as a teacher, then developed a career with the US Department of Justice.

As soon as conditions permitted he went back home to the mountains of North Carolina. He has written several nonfiction books (two with Algora Publishing) lambasting various parties and religions whose hypocrisy ought to shake one’s faith despite the most willing suspension of disbelief.

The labels seem to be opposites: democracy and totalitarianism; capitalism, communism, fascism. But in practice, all the politico-economic systems we have on earth today have ended up looking disturbingly similar. While there are important...

The labels seem to be opposites: democracy and totalitarianism; capitalism, communism, fascism. But in practice, all the politico-economic systems we have on earth today have ended up looking disturbingly similar. While there are important differences, the author claims that they all consist of "ruler-owners" and bosses at the top - money kings - and powerless workers and consumers at the bottom. He also contends that workers and consumers are the only necessary parts of a natural economic system and that corporations are an artificial and tyrannical imposition based on greed and dominance. He urges the defeat of the "corporate collective" with its tiered arrangement of work and wealth, with only the "fit" and "successful" at the top as supervisors and the rest of us beneath them as servants, wage slaves, or even chattel slaves. In short, this book is radical and extreme in its view of all the world's systems as authoritarian despite their differing economic, political, and religious conglomerations. As a foundation for the discussion, the book traces in broad outline the histories of work and belief. It denies that the Christian religion is Christian and shows that Jesus Christ was a pacifist and a liberal and that his words and nature are barely represented, if at all, in the dogmas and practices of those who call themselves Christians in today's America. Attacking the dominant institutional belief systems regarding work and religion, this book spares no existing supervisory arrangement and suggests the peaceful unraveling of authority structures and a new form of egalitarian cooperation. Since this book is extreme in its condemnation of existing supervisory arrangements and authority structures, it should be interesting - perhaps dismaying - to everyone who is dissatisfied with their own subservience to others whether at work, in church, or in any political party. Anyone who yearns for relief from entangling authority should find this book at least stirring, if not entirely convincing. It presents new ways of looking at the world and at all systems of control and belief. Those who like ideas and those who do not quite fit into the molds into which they have been placed will find the writing refreshing and stimulating. The ideas in this book were influenced by Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Noam Chomsky's Power & Prosperity, Daniel Guerin's Anarchism, Michael Perelman's The Invention of Capitalism, F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, Karen Armstrong's A History of God, Hugh J. Schonfield's Those Incredible Christians, and by such television programs as Amy Goodman's Democracy Now and the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. The Libertarian belief system is at the heart of many of the contrary arguments presented in this book and its baleful influence can be seen in just about any of the writings, presentations, speeches, and gatherings of Republicans. It is the number one enemy of democracy in America today.

A balloon of inequality exists as an inevitable part of a false belief held by almost everyone: that American capitalism is democratic and freedom loving. This book aims to puncture that balloon.My books and my ideas are certainly not orthodox. I hope my perceptions help others to focus their views as well. My aim is to advance the cause of democratic liberalism, a philosophy now in decline thanks to Republican hostility, a compliant media, and Democratic Party confusion and cowardice. I do not think that the prospects for a real, liberal democracy in this country or elsewhere are very good. Democratic government in the United States has already been pretty much destroyed and it is not likely to rise again. The false pretense of most Americans - that we have a system of "democratic capitalism" - is prevalent now. The system we have is, instead, fascist and totalitarian. The goals of the American and French revolutions have been entirely subverted and the corporations and their party - the Republican Party - has triumphed; they are in charge of nearly everything and everybody.The United States has become a thorough oligarchy, a military garrison, and a police state. The people themselves are helpless and deluded sheep blinded by a corrupt corporate media and a political system so diseased and sickened by Republican lies and manipulations that we have all arrived at a dead end from which there is no escape, short of a violent revolution - a course that I do not recommend. Will democracy rise again without bloodshed? Can it?

Introduction PART ONE. FAKE PATRIOTS Chapter 1. The Libertarian Attack Against Liberty Chapter 2. Early Times Chapter 3. Political Democracy and Economic Tyranny Chapter 4. American Beginnings Chapter

Introduction PART ONE. FAKE PATRIOTS Chapter 1. The Libertarian Attack Against Liberty Chapter 2. Early Times Chapter 3. Political Democracy and Economic Tyranny Chapter 4. American Beginnings Chapter 5. Barack Obama and Franklin Roosevelt Chapter 6. Lug and Lud: A Capitalist and Christian Fable Chapter 7. Military and Police Power Chapter 8. The Republican Complex PART TWO. FALSE GODS Chapter 9. Work and Religion Chapter 10. The Road to Damascus Chapter 11. Twin Magics: Capitalism and Christianity Chapter 12: The Founders and Religion Chapter 13. Godless Sex Chapter 14. God's Version of Sex, A Little Myth Chapter 15. Forced School Prayer Chapter 16. Aspects of Religion and Science Chapter 17. Atheism and Secularism Chapter 18. Catholic Influences