Taking a Stand

Back in the 50’s and 60’s, they told us our future would be a time of leisure where machines would do all the work. Here we are in that future where machines are in fact doing quite a lot of the work, and some of those machines are far beyond what we imagined 50 years ago. The fact that things aren’t as rosy as the earlier vision prophesied is a classic case of not thinking things through. We thought, naturally, that those machines would be working for us. It didn’t occur to us that those machines would be privately owned and we would have to pay for the services of those machines. The real burn turned out to be that those machines took the jobs that we needed to earn the money to pay for the stuff the machines made at our former jobs. We may be smart but our nature is still primitive. Technology is power and power will be grabbed by the ambitious few at the expense of the rest.
 
We, the rest, are close to losing a war that we only recently began to understand that we were in. War in the past has always been about physically conquering land and enslaving people. Political war of this type still is trifled with on a small scale, but the real war is on the economic front. In the economic war, no bombs or troops need be sacrificed, only gain control of the things people need and set the price they will have to pay to get them. No slaves needed either; slaves were property that needed to be fed and housed, and kept from running away. Wage slaves need no care and are grateful for the opportunity to work for a pittance of what a slave used to require. Not everyone is snagged in this unhappy fate, but this is the general nature of the world we live in today.
 
The conquering armies claim to be people, but, in fact, they are not. They are entities that exist only to maximize profit with absolutely no regard for ethical behavior or long- term consequences. It is easy to understand how we didn’t recognize them for what they were. They provided all the wondrous goods and services that seemed to be carrying us into that bright high tech future of the Jetsons. Even the people that worked for them could not have seen what they could ultimately become.
 
You probably have guessed by now that I’m talking about corporations. Their slow metamorphosis, like Jack Nicholson’s character in "The Shining," has caught us unawares until just now. They aren’t evil per se; they are just moving toward the natural consequences inherent in the rules under which they were originally formed by us.
 
One of their main strategies is to monopolize the production of more and more of our needs in highly capital-intensive, high-tech operations. We have become utterly dependent on them for our energy, transport, food, entertainment, etc. Only now are we beginning to notice this because the final things they need to complete the takeover are so outrageous we just couldn’t help but notice. When companies like Nestle, and Coca Cola started buying the rights to natural watersheds with the intent of selling water back to us, we began to get the picture. (Don’t get me started on bottled water.) When we saw that all our food was being produced by a handful of corporations, we got even more focused.
 
Now we have the food giants going for the final blow. They are altering and patenting life forms, and show no signs of stopping until they can require us to pay them for everything we require to exist. Or for life itself to exist! It is an insane and impossible situation they are trying to create, but there is no single human conscience there that is capable of derailing the juggernaut. This is what is really at stake in the I-522 (labeling GMO’S) battle. By voting yes, you are saying that you do not want to participate unknowingly in an experiment in artificial evolution that, at best, could leave you paying royalties for the gifts of life, and, at worst, could permanently alter a life system developed over eons.
 
The good news is that nature is providing a counter strategy. Sustainable and renewable technologies are providing alternate ways to provide our needs. We don’t need all the highly complex, costly installations that only corporations can build. Renewable energy does not need large central complexes. Diverse and diffused energy collection for local consumption is far more efficient. The same goes for food production. With more reliance on local sourcing, our transportation needs also decline dramatically. Local sourcing of our needs will starve out the corporations that we don’t need. Those that serve a purpose should be allowed to continue, but never again should we allow any corporation to exist that doesn’t serve life. And may we have the wisdom to know the difference.
 
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terry@vashonloop.com