Suzanne's comment: I want to urge you to click
through to read this column. Something about it is very haunting, and the quotes can't capture
it. This is one of those definitive
portraits of life in our times that will put us on the same page -- plus, it has the added attraction of
some humor that had me cackling
loudly. "What progressives are asking is for Americans -- an
incredibly privileged lot, by world
standards -- to advocate policies for reasons other than short-term financial gain, and then to
believe that our political system is even
capable any longer of responding to such a seemingly irrational idea...if these issues do mean
something, how do we create alternative
institutions -- replacements for our lost sense of community, something that harnesses faith or patriotism for positive ends
-- that can give people a value system,
one based on human needs rather than personal
finances, to apply to these issues?"
Other Quotes Drawn From the Column:
The
triumph of Wal-Mart and other chain stores...is the triumph of money over
community, the triumph, in fact, of money as a way of looking at life...For most
folks, it doesn't matter that "always the lowest price" means busting unions,
running local merchants out of business, and sending factory jobs to the third
world; give us bargains. Place no longer seems to matter; as churches, schools,
and even public policy-making imitate the corporate way of thinking, money is
now our secular religion, our way of identifying our place in the world...
As progressive activists wrestle with trying to change a whole
constellation of destructive government and corporate policies, abroad and at
home, with little or no help from either major party, the first daunting
challenge is to even get people to care, and, once they care, to believe that we
can make a difference.
...last weekend, tens of thousands of people descended upon
Washington, D.C. (and other cities) to protest.
Many people feel the void of exactly such
human-scale concerns in their lives and in our society. Many people can remember
quite vividly when their lives were better, and/or can imagine quite vividly
their lives might improve. In every one of these small towns you see on a road
trip, there are Wal-Marts, but there are also good people doing inspiring
things.
____________________________________________________
Suzanne's Comments: As I was reading this indictment
of what has become the American way, my thoughts went to how impossible it is to
achieve success at creating an equitable world by plugging all the loopholes
that people squeeze through to get personal favor. The nature of capitalism is
personal favor, and you go against the tide if you try to get the river to flow
in a more inclusive way. The very idea of success on which capitalism rests
needs to change for there to be the kind of system that those who would be on
the side of equity would advance. Instead of success being equated, in a
quantifiable way, with money and power, it would have to be reckoned in a
qualitative evaluation. It would be seen to come from the nature of your
relationship to yourself, to each other, and to the natural world. Being at
peace with yourself, finding yourself in a caring and compassionate
juxtaposition to the rest of humanity, and involved in the sustainability of the
home in which you and your progeny get to dwell would be what mattered most in
the world where people would recognize that these were values that would let the
game continue -- that they weren't pasted on generosities, after money and power
were satisfied ideals.
I like this piece by Arianna a lot. It's a
catechism of how it is that it shouldn't be, where we can perceive the big
picture of "a crony capitalism where the interests of CEOs are no longer aligned
with the interests of their shareholders and workers or even the long-term
interests of the companies they run -- not to mention society as a whole,"
where, "thanks to stock options, golden parachutes, and asleep-at-the-wheel
corporate boards, CEOs are now protected from their own incompetence and
rewarded for their failures," and, "The game has been rigged: no matter how
badly these fat cats play it, they manage to win."
But, I don't think we
really will get anywhere, no matter how much we attempt to legislate "an end to
a state of affairs in which businessmen -- those 'symbols of America' -- are
richly rewarded for failing." Can we think one big step further, standing in the
shoes that Arianna polished for us, and call not for more laws but for the
change of heart that would make those laws unnecessary? What if this call was
more than a distant ideal, but actually was a survival necessity?
Other quotes drawn from the
column:
"Businessmen," said Ayn Rand in 1961, "are the symbol of
a free society -- the symbol of America. If and when they perish, civilization
will perish." But then, the high priestess of free enterprise never met the men
of Enron.
...the slowly sinking energy giant intends to fork over $140
million in retention bonuses to "key employees" possessing "unique knowledge,
skills and experience." I guess these would be people who know how to cook
books, over-inflate earnings and operate the company shredders...
Why
invest in research and development, when you can lay off workers, sell off
valuable assets, goose the stock price and quickly cash in and get out?...
[Harvey Pitt] has suggested that executives "should be required to
demonstrate sustained, long-term growth and success before they can actually
exercise any of their options."...