Re: [asa] climate change severity

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who say there are
two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't." ---???

In that spirit, and since we all like to have pegs on which to hang our
hats, here is your weekly oversimplification from merv:

The controversy between those who choose their cautionary status with
reference to economy and those who choose their cautionary status in
regards to environment also seems to loosely fit another dichotomy.
The former harbor mistrust towards government and hearken instead to the
private sector as the best keeper of the public good (often citing
blundering inefficiencies of the public sector as compared to the
private). They trust the profit motive to keep the public best
interests in mind at some level.

The latter are much more trusting of the public sector -- and with good
reason. While they can't deny the blundering ineptitudes of many
government programs, at least, the powers behind them (to the dwindling
extent that those can stay free of corporate control) are, in theory,
more accountable to the voter at large (i.e. one person = one vote
rather than under the private sector where 1$ = 1 vote). So I have to
agree with Joel Bakan ("The Corporation") as I ponder who I would rather
trust: the blundering politician who at least has a chance of
having some public good in mind and pushing clumsily in that
direction; or the multinational corporation which, with
breathtaking efficiency rapes and pillages our communities and our
environments in brilliantly run programs which, at bottom, are designed
to separate you from your money in the present and immediate future.
---and that is the ONLY final motive any corporation can legally have in
its accountability to its stockholders (despite what green looking ads
would have you believe). And to those who say that corporations are
still constrained by law, Mr. Bakan shows that even that is an
illusion. Even their choice to follow any given law is only another
cost-benefit analysis. "Will our profits justify our risking
expenditures with fines and lawsuits? --- or how likely is it we'll
even be caught?"

Lord knows I'm no fan of big government, and powerful corporate
lobbyists have blurred the distinction between public and private almost
beyond discernment. But I'm even less of a fan of huge corporations.
Yes, they are good! But it is WHAT they are good at that worries me.
Between the brilliant pirate or the clumsy good Samaritan, I will take
the latter any day. And while politicians may be motivated by the next
election to say whatever people want to hear, they probably stand a
better chance of showing occasional fits of moral courage and
leadership, than the average CEO stands of escaping the enslavement
driving him to the next $. My apologies to the multitude of exceptions
to all this that no doubt exist. I know that I'm biting the hand that
feeds me. But truth stands apart from and irrespective of that
obligatory gratitude.

--merv

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Received on Sat Jan 6 16:10:14 2007