corporate power
Ron Landskroner (rlandskroner@igc.apc.org)
Fri, 26 Jul 1996 11:56:39 -0700 (PDT)
In response to Mr. Sparling's comments, it is surprising to me that otherwise
informed and well-educated people are still shocked and amazed to learn about
corporate influence in this society. This is nothing new, albeit their
stranglehold has tightened considerably of late. Rather than take off into a
didactic diatribe, I would suggest, among a plethora of many excellent other
books providing analyses of this dilemma, the following: Corporate Reapers
(Al Krebs), When Corporations Rule the World (David Korten), just about any
Noam Chomsky or Michael Parenti book, Media Monopoly (Ben Bagdikian), etc.
The information is out there for the taking to anyone interested and brave
enough to come to terms with what this country, in fact the world society has
become--dominated in every sense by corporate domination and personal greed,
abrogating responsibility to and nurturance for other, healthier values. And
that's the name of that tune. While I realize the main purpose of this list
is sustainable agriculture and not necessarily politics, economics, sociology,
ethics, etc. a true "ecological" dissection of what ails contemporary agricul-
ture and the rest of how we live are lives cannot be divorced from these
overwhelming forces as they mold how we think, what we think, what we do (or
don't do), our attitudes, our knowledge of the real world (i.e., not filtered
through corporate eyes, mouths, and minds), what we value (or de-value).
It is no coincidence that everyone, on some level or another, feels a strong
sense of dis-ease and experiences displeasure with the degraded quality of
life; that everything seems to be crumbling before our very eyes at the same
time. It's past time to wake up and see things for what they really are.
No real fundamental, lasting change can take place before such an assessment
is made. Okay, sorry for the speech-making. Class dismissed.
Ron Landskroner