It is important to the workings of a republic that average
citizens compromise over disagreements where they can. Even when the
disagreements in worldview are so widely apart that a compromise is not
possible, we can at least listen to rationally and respectfully expressed
oppositional opinion. We can understand that, despite our differences, our
opposition has the best of intentions for solving the problems of our planet or
nation.
However the same cannot be said for individual plutocrats and multinational corporations. They do not have the best of intentions. Their
decisions are based entirely upon personal greed and hunger for power. The
wealthy U.S. elite, who bought Congress by paying for their elections, made House and Senate vote in favor of (billionaire) Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the rich and
corporations. They knew that this move would damage our economy and burden the
nation’s children with an increased national debt; but they did it anyway. The
pharmaceutical companies that sold DES knew that it caused fetal deformities;
but sold it anyway. The companies Chiquita and Dole knew that the pesticide
DBCP caused cancer and sterility (it is banned in the United States); but used
it in Nicaragua anyway. These wealthy individuals and firms knew that
their actions would harm people; but their greed was more important to them.
However the above conscious harm by plutocrats and
companies, as bad as it is, is not even among the most intentionally
murderous of examples. Canadian mining company, Hudbay Minerals Inc., is facing
charges that it hired thugs to murder an environmental & indigenous rights
activist in Guatemala; a common practice among multinationals looking to exploit local
resources. That goes a little farther than knowing that your product can hurt
someone. The plutocrats and corporations who have the United States involved in
the Middle East, killing hundreds of thousands in proxy wars or overt invasions
because that’s where their oil profits lay, are more harmful still. Direct
murder, war and genocide, for the sake of profit, is a deliberate and broadly
felt trauma of which the perpetrators are entirely aware.
Even though the examples of harm are so widespread, and even
though the perpetrators are so powerful, there are solutions, both national and
international, which can curtail the damage caused by these powers.
Nationally, we need to recognize that the first purpose of
any government should be to protect its citizens. This is certainly not why
governments were formed in the first place. The first agricultural societies
whose settlements expanded beyond simple tribal units, were organized by elites
with armies who wished to have a population of workers to supply them with
food, build their cities and otherwise serve them. But we have struggled from
those roots to create representative republics, and it’s time that those
republics stop serving elites. In the United States it is possible, without
violent revolution, to get money out of politics and take decision-making away
from the plutocrats. This is the goal of Common Cause, Occupy and other
like-minded organizations. If corporate and wealthy donors were unable to give
money to politicians’ campaigns, politicians would not support the interests of
capitalist oligarchy alone. If U.S. citizens were more involved and more
watchful of their elected leaders, their leaders would be required to protect
them or lose elections. This goal is a long shot. Citizens generally do not
wish to be politically involved, people are easily misled by propaganda, and
the plutocracy is too vigilant to let democracy just happen without a floor
fight.
There are activists who will argue that Common Cause and
Occupy are not natural allies, since Common Cause has a reformist agenda of
changing an aspect of electoral process, whereas Occupy’s proponents have a
more radical agenda of subverting capitalist political domination worldwide.
History shows us that the success of the Women’s Movement in the 1970s and 1980s
occurred because there was a spectrum of feminists striving against patriarchy.
On one end of this spectrum were reformist feminists working to change laws. At
the other end of the spectrum were radical feminists engaged in street action
and establishing a separate women’s culture. Women’s culture provides space for
women away from the static of male ideas and societal control where women have
the opportunity to create new ideas, visionary art, support systems, etc. While
the goals of feminism have not yet all been attained, this combination of women
hammering at the system from both the inside and the outside was immensely
successful at creating legal and societal change. The same can be true for the
movement against plutocracy and multinational capitalist abuses.
If national democracy is a long shot, an international
democratic institution that can prevent plutocrats and international
corporations from harming people is even farther off as a goal. Multinationals
can shift from country to country and avoid accountability. Wealthy individuals
can move themselves and their influence with even greater ease. In addition,
the one world governing body which could have the power to create the peace and
harmony that is in its charter, the United Nations, is riddled with the
interests of the powerful and the wealthy. It is therefore entirely ineffective at carrying-out its program.
So what’s the solution? Start small. Join with Common Cause,
Occupy (or the equivalent in your country if you are reading this outside of
the U.S.). It’s a small step; but it will lead you to action. The goal of
having a national government that places protection of its citizens before
corporate and wealthy class greed is a long way off. The patience and action required
is that of a mindful meditation where an activist places one foot in front of
another and faces the task step by step.
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