Corporate Power: the Ethics of Social and Environmental Degradation

This is a work in progress. Here are few statements that I want to explore, and a few questions that I want to answer and work with in more depth.

1) Statement: Corporate Power - that power which is vested in the biggest and most massive (primarily) international corporations - is doing harm to humanity and to the planet (to animals, plants, rocks, landscapes, mountains, oceans, air, water, etc.).

2) Question: Is it unethical to reap financial profit, from those activities which do harm and cause degradation: whether to individuals, whole societies, or whole systems (eco-systems or planets)? An alternative question is to ask "what are the ethics involved in" the process of reaping financial reward from activities which do harm / cause degradation.

(Yes, moralizing can be difficult, but we have social values and morals and ethics for a reason - to provide for the well-being, and to protect, individual, society, and increasingly more so, the very planet itself.)

Taken to its extreme and ultimate final end product, social and environmental degradation could possibly result in a destroyed planet - i.e. planetary destruction. It's scary to think that humanity may be so advanced "techno'logically'" that it will even be able to escape such a destroyed planet - only to spread a culture of degradation and destruction into other worlds...

Nuclear Free Zone Olympia

I just published a letter that I sent to the City Council of Olympia Washington in regard to the Nuclear Free Zone Act of 2005: olyblog.net/what-nfza-means-me

Public Opinion Matters

In regard to the City of Olympia General Government Committee's decision to recommend repealing the Nuclear Free Zone Act:

Here's some of the text of a comment I just left at my City Council Member, Rhenda Iris Strub's blog:

You’re right. America is not a Democracy. It is a Republic. - However it is a democratic Republic. The opinion of the people matters. Public opinion is integral to the formation of the laws of government, and the ethics of society. No getting around that.

The opinion of the public matters. So, we must then ask, is the public opinion reasonable? Does it make sense? The argument in favor of the ordinance is a winning argument. What is the argument against the ordinance? It’s not strong enough? It is impractical? It’s ineffective.

Which leads me to my third point: The ordinance is effective. It is effective for me. It makes me feel good. I am proud of my City and my Community because of this, and similar, ordinance.

So, please. Don’t take it away. I hope the other City Council Members read this too, because the same applies to them.

Public opinion matters. The opinion of the public in favor of the ordinance (and in favor of strengthening it) is reasonable - it makes sense. And the ordinance IS effective.

Sincerely,

Bert

Here's a link to the post: Disrespectful and Duplicitous [url: http://rhenda.com/?p=30]

And a direct link to my comment: Defending the Nuclear Free Zone [url: http://rhenda.com/?p=30#comment-25]

40 Years after the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and Global Climate Disruption

From Democracy Now!:

Forty Years After Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, US Tops World in Nuke Arsenal

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, when nuclear powers agreed to eventually eliminate their nuclear weapons, and non-nuclear states agreed not to seek to develop nuclear weapons capabilities. Forty years later, there are 189 signatories to the treaty and nine nuclear armed states in the world. The United States and Russia still have the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. We speak with Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund and author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons.
...

And also, climate disruption caused by anthropogenic forces:

Leading scientist John Holdren says ‘global warming’ is not the correct term to use, he prefers ‘global disruption.’ “Global warming] is misleading, it implies something that is mainly about temperature, that’s gradual, and that’s uniform across the planet,” says Holdren. “In fact, temperature is only one of the things that’s changing it’s sort of an index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snowpack, snowmelt, flooding, droughts—temperature is just a bit of it.”

As we continue our discussion on global warming, I am joined here in Aspen by one of the country’s top scientists, John Holdren. He is Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is also the director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and just completed a term as board chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. During the 1990s he advised President Clinton as a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. In addition to global warming, John Holdren’s research has focused on energy technology, nuclear nonproliferation and arms control.

John Holdren, professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and just completed a term as board chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

War is a Racket

This is from the military weapons exposition in Tacoma, June of last year:

War is a racket. - General Smedley Butler

Call Congress for a de-authorization act on occupation!

General Butler:
...
"In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows."

"How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

"Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

"And what is this bill?

"This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations."
...

Gun Point Diplomacy

Bush Administration 'diplomacy':

click for full size

Comfortability in Protest

Seattle Pigeon

The following is an excerpt of a rough draft of an article that I am working on about creative nonviolence and hostile protest behavior:

Belligerent sloganeering and hostile speech make me feel uncomfortable. If the goal is a mass movement – a peoples’ movement – a grass roots movement, then there will need to be masses of people. But it will be hard to amass the necessary number of individuals if people feel uncomfortable in the protest environment. Instead of shouting abrasive slogans it would be more effective to demonstrate an attitude of understanding. We have the ability to create a more comfortable environment for protest. We can create a welcoming atmosphere. How can we be most effective? By having a critical mass of people in the streets. By having people who are committed and willing to participate in life-serving acts of creative nonviolence. How can we find this critical mass? We can promote the formation of a critical mass by developing a comfortable, welcoming, and fun environment. Creating a comfortable and respectful protest environment truly embraces a diversity of tactics. More people will be likely to bring their children, for example, or participate in actions of sacrifice or nonviolent physical obstruction, like roadblocks, if there is a peaceful environment. Shouting profanities, vulgarities and slurs works counter to the creation of a peaceful environment.

Saudi/UK Corruption in BAE Arms Deal