>>I'm really hesitant to ask this question and I'm not aiming it at you specialifcally Kate, because others here, too, have made these allusions to "corporations" here quite a lot with the implication that they are the root of all evil. What is this all about?<<
I don't think corporations are evil, nor do I think lobbyists are evil. But I do think that corporate interests & lobbyists have an enormous influence over our elected officials because that is where so much of the money comes from for political campaigns. I think if we had some serious campaign reforms then this would actually move us toward the ideal of a government by the people, for the people. I've seen how this works on a smaller level as an educational fundraiser for ten years. Its common knowledge in the fundraising world that corporations give money & expect something back for it. No one thinks this is evil or corrupt, its just the way things are. Business. So if you aren't willing or able to give the corporation what they want then you won't be accepting or even requesting their money. Oftentimes what a corporation wants is some publicity, sometimes they want more of an influence on how things are done. Sometimes the publicity they want is to be associated with an altruistic cause that helps to balance out their corporate image such as an oil company that provides funding to environmental programs. Does this help to answer your question, at least as far as I see it? >>Revolution and redistribution has already been tried before in the past 80 years and its fruit has been the death, slaughter and deprivation of tens of millions of human beings. It doesn't have a good track record. I've read some that some think it can finally work here in the U.S. because there is so much wealth and resources to pick off. I think that it an extremely dangerous illusion. Or is it just a radical posture to keep certain sectors of the society on their toes and I'm being too alarmed by it all?<< I don't know anything about people calling for a revolution so I can't pretend to know how to answer this question. To me, revolution means violence & my belief has always been that violence is not the way. Not anymore. >>I got over not having a lot of money and every material thing I desired long ago, like in my early 20s. Life is much more than having resentment against what someone else has and life is way to short to be obsessed with "getting my fair share."<<< Absolutely. I was just talking with some friends about the subject of desire (of things). It came about as the result of talking about Yogananda's teachings & other eastern kinds of thoughts. But that is a whole other subject!
