Opposition to the common good works under a number of disguises of empire: globalization, efficiency, competitive advantage, automation, gross domestic product, standard of living, and technological progress. What powers these disguises are the ideology and celebration of privatization. The movement that has eliminated the practice of community, and its healing effects, is the political and economic drive to put the land, the air, the water, our schools, our grief, our livelihood, and our access to food, our health into private and professional hands. When these common concerns enter private and professional hands, it means they function under the business perspective, under the cover of empire. This is behind the efforts to discredit and shrink government, the one sector designed to care for the commons.