Many are sheep, the question is who are going be be the ones that lead them until they can lead themselves. :)) http://RecoveryByDiscovery.com ---- Tim Ferguson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ============= Hello Keith,
I hope this finds you and Midori doing well. <snip> >>Rely on the government to fix our problems??? No Thank You! The >>government is again a symptom of the American Mind-set. The U.S. >>government is so often accused of catering to big business. And >>rightly so...but that is still just a symptom. Those big >>corporations don't care about anything but their profits and their >>profits come from the *ravenous* appetite that *most* Americans >>have for consumer goods. >I'd say it's the other way round - that mindset of insatiable >consumerism is largely or entirely a creation of the corporate sector >and its immense PR efforts over the last half century and more, and >especially the last two or three decades. I have to agree with you regarding the immense PR efforts of the corporations. The largest portion of my mail and email is junk/spam resulting from the PR efforts of corporations. Our beautiful nation is littered with billboards. And radio and television are consumed with advertisements. Yet I would like to believe that Americans do have a mind of their own and can choose to act on the corporate PR or ignore it as I and my family do. It's this will to ignore the PR which I think can change the demand for the products/lifestyles that the corporations are pushing. And if people will stop responding to their PR, it will decrease as a result of lower profits per advertisement mechanisms. In addition, the weakaning of the Big corporations by greatly reduced demand will in turn reduce their influence on the government.IMO. Even though I believe that the average American has the ability and responsablity to make or break corporations by applying the laws of supply and demand we must still hold our government accountable. The effort to make life better and equatable for all must be done by all means available. >Has the American public (not all, as you say, I'm not sure if it's >even "most") always had this mindset? No. I can't say with all assurity that "most" Americans have adopted this mindset but I can certainly speak to this from a sampling of where I live. 20 years ago I moved onto the family land. It is on a road approximately 5 miles long. At that time there were 8 farms houses and farms on the road (mine being one of them). Back then there was very little traffic on the road and we all had our pickups and farm tractors to work the farms. All of the houses were of modest size comparable to mine. Today there are only two small farms left. Mine and one other. When the older farmers died their children did'nt want to work the farms. They saw the opportunity to make a lot of quick money selling the land to developers for housing and industry. Over the last five years there have been over 400 houses built on the once beautiful farmland. And these houses are huge. To give you an example one of the new neighbors kids is friends with my son. He is an only child. He and his parents live alone in a 3,200 square foot home with two SUV's parked in the driveway. And that is typical of all the homes being built in my area. And this same thing is happening everywhere around me. So, no I can't say for sure that "most" Americans have this mindset - but most of those moving in around me sure do. >Has the corporate sector always had this mindset? - >>Those big >>corporations don't care about anything but their profits and their >>profits come from the *ravenous* appetite that *most* Americans >>have for consumer goods. >Yes. Greedy, dissatisfied and discontented, sel-centred and >dependent, that's how they like us to be. Government? Why would they >object? It sure suits them too. >>It is on a base level simply a fact of supply and demand. If the >>American people will change their >>*synthetic* appetites to *organic* appetites and learn to live content lives >How can you be content with that ceaseless barrage of advertising >being hurled at you? $100 billion a year (and the rest!), and its >sole purpose is to make you discontented - the be contented you >"need" something you don't have. It doesn't take too long before it's >a deeply ingrained habit to think that way. I think maybe I should explain more of what I mean by I am content. I am content mentally, physically, and spiritually. My life is in balance and my needs and the needs of my family are met. I certainly want to improve my families efforts for reducing our impact on the environment and increasing our self sufficency. Yet acknowledging that there is always room for improvement does not make me discontent. I am however not content many of the external forces such as my government and the corporate PR, etc.. I believe that some of the greatest Americans that ever lived were those small family farmers where several generations of the family lived, worked, and played together in a self-sustaining manner. I hope that we can get back to those days as a nation and not as a few pockets of families scattered throughout the country. >To change Americans' *synthetic* appetites to *organic* appetites and >the discontent to content you have to apply measures to neutralise >and counteract the advertising barrage, and the PR barrage behind it >- even worse? - certainly more insidious. >The sense of personal empowerment that comes with making your own >fuel is one way of doing that, one of many - we've just been >discussing these matters in another thread. But simply to criticise >and blame Americans for their appetites is not constructive. Americans are either Intelligent thinking self-willed individuals or sheep led by Corporate PR into the destructive consuming lifestyles. I personally believe the former in which case their actions are deliberate and open for critisim. And not just. Education and information exchange is necessary. But they must be willing to participate. Even though I am not for big corporations I have a hard time accepting the argument that their PR efforts are to blame for the American Appetite for excess. If they are, then we Americans truly are sheep. Best Wishes Tim _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
