Brad McCormick:
>Somebody gotta help me understand this: Now,
>it is my understanding that every capitalist's
>objective is to destroy the competition (horizontally
>and vertically). This is not only an abstract
>fantasy, but something the most successful of them
>often do pretty well at succeeding at (Standard
>Oil, IBM, Microsoft, etc.). All the "competitors"
>on all sides try to manipulate *regulation* in their
>favor, with various forms of protectionism and
>enforced "open markets" (The Japanese didn't
>exactly want Admiral Whateverhisnamewas who
>visited Edo in the mid-19th century and explained
>to them that they would freely trade with the U.S.,
>and I believe the factory system would never have
>taken hold in England without police repression
>of the workers, enclosure of the commons, etc.).
> >So I think the model must be that of the fat man
>in Monty Python's _The Meaning of Life_: Corporations
>eat up as much as they can until they burst (of
>course this doesn't seem to happen: they just
>keep getting bigger...).
I find it rather sad that we see the world as a series of stereotypes which
we present to ourselves again and again to reinforce or views of what we
believe to be reality. Like all of us, those whom we label as capitalists
are human beings caught in a flawed system. Indeed, like all of us, they
are greedy and want more for less. But, like all of us, they can also have
a social conscience and be altruistic. In at least some cases, such as that
of Robert Owen, they led social reform and played a very important role in
minimizing the worst effects of industrialism.
I also find it a little sad that we continue to see the world as "us" and
"them". It is not we ourselves who are eating up the world and becoming
bloated, but corporations. During the past couple of years, perhaps longer,
I've seen more and more gas guzzling sports vans and pick-up trucks on the
road, most often with only one person inside. "Aha!", I must now say to
myself when I see the next one go by, "that is not an ostentatious person
driving that vehicle, it's a greedy corporation!" Or, if I cannot persuade
myself that it is a corporation, I may perhaps at least be able to convince
myself that the driver didn't choose the vehicle of his own volition, but
was somehow inflamed with greed and ostentation by a corporate advertising
campaign.
It is a long time since I last quoted by favourite historic personage - a
possum named Pogo - who uttered one of the greatest truths of all time, "We
have seen the enemy and he is us." What I find saddest of all is that we
have never taken those words seriously.
Ed Weick
