"Matthew Frederico" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > So, Kimball - I agree with your earlier notion. It's not us changing the > world, its us changing ourselves. Once that happens, the world will > ineveitibly change. And it takes people like you, me, David and everybody > else who are making sensible decisions to make change happen. All we have > to do is continue to be examples, help where we can and teach our children.
As much as I agree with the path we must take, I can't agree with the outcome you predict. If all of us on the list change ourselves and teach our children that way, the world will continue in its course. If we view money as an abstraction of human effort, then there is more effort focused on moving the world in its current direction than any group could hope to offset. The inertia is mind-bogglingly huge. The combination of free market, democracy, and free media makes this so. Those with money control the media through their ability to buy airtime on the market. They use the media to advertise their products and promote consumer culture and spending, so they can make more money. Consumers are influenced, knowingly or not, directly or not, by advertising such that they feel they need to aquire more stuff. This need, along with direct monetary influence, makes the government bend to the needs of the market. It's all interconnected, and it's a relentless force that permeates our culture. Love of democracy and capitalism runs strong in conservatism, and I have a great respect for them as well, but I can't help but believe that they're a big part of why our society is such a mess right now. Free market + democracy + mass media seem to inevitably lead to where we're at. Money and status are the only truly institutionalized values in our consumer culture, because they're the values that drive the economic machine that is the heart of our nation. As long as that machine is running, any effort to promote other values will be drowned in noise. --Levi /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */