From: n...@blueyonder.co.uk Subject: Re: [Trisquel-users] US Patent Office Grants 'Photography Against A White Background' To Amazon Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2014 06:11:43 +0200 (CEST)
> If I remember correctly, abuot 8 or so years ago, someone in America > applied for a patent to cover the act of putting food in the mouth, > chewing and swallowing it - in order to hilight the absurdity and > general brokenness of the US Patent system. Alas, as with so many Thanks, I didn't know. It was probably carefully chosen for its patentability. Mine was chosen for the humour. > other areas of life - the Corporations are ruining it but are so rich > and well connected they can buy politician's silence and complicity. > > The single biggest problem we face in the modern era is the concept of > 'fiduciary duty'. If could get that redefined to include social > responsibility, we'd have a chance, but whilst every business and > organisation is mandated to act only in the interests of financial > improvement, everything else gets trampled in the process. I'm not knowledgeable, wise or intelligent enough to work out what the key difficulties in a complex evolving human system like capitalism are. TBH I suspect nobody is, and even if there was someone and we had a definitive answer it would be exactly the same situation as climate change - there'd be those who claimed and campaigned otherwise in the face of what is proven and now obvious fact. However, I do know the answer to the problems, which as you're using Trisquel you know already - do something about what you believe. Personally for economic matters I favour the 'Think globally, act locally' approach which is applicable to many large problems. E.g. buy from ethical traders or fairtrade/ethical products and service where available. So in the UK make your supermarket the Cooperative. Work for or start an ethical business. And so on. Ghandi said something like 'You have to live the tomorrow you want today.' It takes surprisingly few people doing that to change things. Just a few can change a whole nation. Go watch the current film about the LGBT community helping out miners during the strike here in the UK. That was the seed of all the related legislative change in the UK since. As per Spain today, and the million who marched trying to stop Blair taking the UK into the Iraq War, you can have many more protest and change not happen.
