Hi Gwendolyn,
The international Multilateral Agreement on Investment is the latest
attempt by mega-corporations to thwart environmental and labor laws, better
known in our capitalist community as 'trade barriers.' Its an ugly beast.
What capitalism clearly shows is that in order to survive in a capitalist
society we need to exploit our environment and people/labor. This is
counterintuitive, it's hard to believe anyone believes capitalism to be the
best for humanity. Is there any hope for or move toward 'green capitalism'
that can do away with polluting industry, depredating development? Social
democracy, maybe? I don't know. A friend (my son who stays out of his mom's
activism) commented that he believes communism has never been legitimately
practiced, perhaps maybe in aboriginal societies maybe in Native American
societies, but not in any real measure in our current time. I've been
thinking more about how our society as grotesquely abuses. I've concluded
that I must agressively back down and away from the current way we do
business.
"Not only am I questioning economic growth but also a number of more
general cultural assumptions about progress, about outgrowing the
strictures of the past, about the value of perpetual striving and the
restless spirit. Is there an alternative to these features, which have
seemed so central to the dynamic quality of Western culture, that does not
imply stagnation? Or is there at least another way of defining and
understanding these properties of our collective life that permits us to
partake of its vitalizing waters without drowning in its ecological
consequences?" -- Paul L. Wachtel, Poverty of Affluence
Love
/donna
Gwendolyn L Griffin wrote:
> seeking response. ~gwendolyn
>
> from �Southbound,� an independent film on chipmills (esp in the
> Southeast United States) produced by Doug Hawes-Davis.
>
> �So chipmill #5 says �I�ll buy all your timber -- at a good price,� what
> are you supposed to do? The [people] in North Alabama are facing this
> question and they�re saying �i haven�t seen that much money in a long
> time --� if you�re broke and [someone] offers you alot of money, what
> are you gonna do? It really is a fundamental question. It isn't
> illegal to sell the trees -- in fact, Alabama society would encourage
> you -- profit! Profit�s very big down here. So, these guys are kinda
> stuck. What are they supposed to do, say �No, I�m not gonna sell you my
> five acres�? What you�re raising is -- these questions are not
> environmental, they go much deeper into the fabric of society. Should
> we be a capitalist system? Maybe that�s what you oughta ask. Should we
> be consumers? Should we have a country that worships the accumulation
> of wealth? That�s what capital ISM is. ISM, the way ----- of wealth
> [capital]. Should we be a nation of consumer ISM? The worship of
> accumulation and consuming. I think these are fundamental questions
> that, frankly, I�m not sure that we should be a capitalist system. I
> don't like communism worth a damn, either. But somewhere, we have
> obviously screwed up because we�re destroying America�.
> ~Ned Mudd, Writer/Attourney
