This is an interesting post. I think that Victor is missing the value of
self-image to those who would exploit others but cannot stand the heat of being
the villain. As missionaries go around the world and credit themselves with
diving into the sewers of various countries in order to prove their worth, at
the same time, they build both a radical element for the destruction of the
culture and serve as spies for their own culture's exploitation of the country
where they missionize. Neither side of the Western political or religious
spectrum is immune to this little bit of sleaziness. i.e. Che and Lenin have
their mirror opposites in Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie. Both sides
build schools and libraries but destroy books and encouraged ignorance of the
world.
REH
Victor Milne wrote:
> I meant to get back to an interesting phrase in Pete Vincent's recent
> posting "The chronic dominance of resolute stupidity."
>
> Pete comments: "...is it then any wonder that corporate culture, with its
> large US component, is also oblivious to the catastrophic results of
> growth."
>
> I think there is some relevance in noting the national origin of these
> neoconservative policies promoting unlimited growth while at the same time
> widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
>
> It is my impression that they have gained much more dominance in the
> English-speaking nations (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom)
> than in continental Europe where governments and people have clung more
> tenanciously to the programs of social democracy. The little snippets of
> information I come across seem to indicate, for instance, that unemployment
> benefits remain far more generous in countries like Norway and France than
> here in Canada, and in many of these nations university tuition is free.
>
> I don't mean to imply that Americans in general or even all American
> business people are "satanic." One comes across good news stories: a company
> setting up a generous child care program for its employees; Sun
> Microsystems' staggering one-time bonus amounting to an average of three
> years' wages; or (rather comically) a factory owner who had to call on his
> maintenance staff to deal with a home plumbing emergency and then
> thoughtfully made the service available to all employees for the cost of
> materials and labor. All these people are well-meaning but under the
> American system they can only benefit a small number of people (their own
> employees) and the vast majority of Americans do not have their lot
> improved.
>
> In contrast, there is an interesting article on Norway on the Canadian
> Centre for Policy Alternatives at http://www.policyalternatives.ca/ which
> quotes a Norwegian CEO who acknowledges that their social democracy is
> expensive but says, "there are no poor people in Norway, and I don't want to
> see any."
>
> I don't know what the solution is other than to gain more knowledge of the
> social democratic countries and disseminate the information as widely as
> possible in the hope that people here will demand the same for themselves.
>
> Victor Milne
>
> Visit FIGHT THE BASTARDS! an anti-Harris, anti-neoconservative website
> at http://www3.sympatico.ca/pat-vic/pat-vic/
