Absolutely right: MUST read. I don't exactly know who's hijacking the planet ("corporations" and "special interests" are categories, not things) ... but the number one way to get our world back is to fight CORRUPTION. Starting with a clear and comprehensive definition.
I am not sure of that, GT. The problem is this: Corruption, as the word suggests, is a falling away from some accepted standard of behavior -- bribing a public official, stealing from a firm's funds, handing down a favorable judgment from the bench in return for payment. But suppose the rules of the society are deliberately and intelligently constructed so as to favor the few and disadvantage the many? Then the few can enrich themselves without ever violating a single rule. Their perpeptual self-aggrandizement is a fulfilment of the rules, not a violation of them.
"But suppose the rules of the society are deliberately and intelligently constructed so as to favor the few and disadvantage the many? Then the few can enrich themselves without ever violating a single rule. Their perpeptual self-aggrandizement is a fulfilment of the rules, not a violation of them."
Amen.
And those rules of the game necessitate the destruction of the planet, in the long term. The cleanest capitalism is still environmentally polluted.
Absolutely right: MUST read. I don't exactly know who's hijacking the planet ("corporations" and "special interests" are categories, not things) ... but the number one way to get our world back is to fight CORRUPTION. Starting with a clear and comprehensive definition.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure of that, GT. The problem is this: Corruption, as the word suggests, is a falling away from some accepted standard of behavior -- bribing a public official, stealing from a firm's funds, handing down a favorable judgment from the bench in return for payment. But suppose the rules of the society are deliberately and intelligently constructed so as to favor the few and disadvantage the many? Then the few can enrich themselves without ever violating a single rule. Their perpeptual self-aggrandizement is a fulfilment of the rules, not a violation of them.
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ReplyDelete"But suppose the rules of the society are deliberately and intelligently constructed so as to favor the few and disadvantage the many? Then the few can enrich themselves without ever violating a single rule. Their perpeptual self-aggrandizement is a fulfilment of the rules, not a violation of them."
ReplyDeleteAmen.
And those rules of the game necessitate the destruction of the planet, in the long term. The cleanest capitalism is still environmentally polluted.