Andre, et al,
So our forest and trees are going down, people here don't seem to
value nature and are ready to bring down everything to build more
houses, buildings, all in the name of progress.
I am among a fortunate minority of Americans who live in closer
day-to-day contact with nature than mankind. My residence cannot be
seen from the road, and overlooks several hundred acres of
undeveloped (but sustainably logged) coastal hills. In the 15 years
or so before moving here I rented on two 300+ acre ranches where no
other residence was visible from any window in my house.
Much of my understanding of life is based on lessons learned
observing animals interacting in the wild...and interacting with
them. And so I have wondered for decades how those lessons and
understandings are attained by people growing up in large
metropolitan areas, insulated from such observations and
interactions. My personal conclusion is those understandings of our
dependence on nature and each other have been lost to the propaganda
promoting "economic development". resulting in a society dominated by
sociopathic money addicts.
Andre, yours is one of growing examples that money addiction is now
afflicting populations living close enough to nature to know
better. The "benefits" of economic development were dramatically
illustrated in a (LINK TV?) television documentary about the
homecoming journey of several families from New Zealand to their
native island home (Tuvi?, Tuval?) to show their children their roots.
When those on the homecoming journey had left the island 20+ years
previously, it was a typical south sea fishing community. In the
intervening years, the island nation had been assigned the Internet
extension ".tv" and subsequently sold their rights to ".tv" to a
group of private investors for BIG $. Today, no one on the island
fishes for a living: they spend their time waiting for the royalty
checks and supply ships to arrive. Much previously open space on the
island is now littered with the packing material and trash from
imported goods--but of course that won't be a problem for long,
because the rising sea levels that accompany our economic
"development" may have the entire nation under water in a few decades.
The night before the return trip to New Zealand, locals and returnees
got together in the village lodge to sing and dance in traditional
island style. Then the kids turned on a CD player and "danced" to
rap music. One didn't have to look too long at the elders'
expressions to know exactly how they felt about what money addiction
had done to their culture.
Money addicts promote "private enterprise" but really mean
privatizing profits while socializing as many costs as
possible. Exxon has yet to pay a dime for the environmental damage
done in Prince William Sound over two decades ago; Chevron & other
oil platform owners have been dragging their feet and orchestrating
end run tactics to avoid completely removing decommissioned oil
platforms from the Santa Barbara Channel for 12 years. And have you
seen pictures of the environmental mess in the Ecuadorian rain forest
left by Texaco...who employed drilling techniques that were illegal elsewhere?
Herbert Hoover once said, "There's nothing wrong with Capitalism
except Capitalists: they're too damn greedy!" If the issue were
simply human greed, society would have a much easier time dealing with it
But we are facing an addiction stronger than those associated with
heroin or cocaine. Climate change and other elements of
environmental degradation, auto makers' unwillingness to promote
increased fuel efficiency, mass marketing of unsafe or poisonous toys
are just a few examples of the effects of money addiction. It exists
in every "private" company that receives government subsidies or
tariff protection and/or works to socialize the environmental costs
of its operation.
This addiction may have already damaged the environment
irrevocably. If not, it certainly will do so if left unchecked.
Rob Cozens
"The way to destroy the power of the Corporate State
is to live differently now."
-- Charles Reich, The Greening of America
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