freefall
i recently watched the documentary The Corporation, which takes a provocative look at the role of the corporate entity in society without becoming too much of a left-wing diatribe.
while the tales of corporate devils are nothing new these days - whether they address human rights violations or environmental havoc - there's still an element to them that can be quite chilling.
ray anderson, the CEO of one of the world's largest carpet manufacturers, has bravely undertaken a massive effort to make his business sustainable by the year 2020. in his corporate story, anderson spoke in the documentary of his remorse when he realized that his pursuit of profit ultimately equated to a reckless plundering of the planet. "the day will come when plundering is illegal, when people like me will go to jail," he remarked. and then he alluded to a phenomenon i've recently begun to think about - a phenomenon i find to be quite scary.
perhaps we're in the middle of a freefall, but we don't even know it because the ground is so far away. we've become nearsighted. we've come to think of growth and increase and betterment as infinite, and we want to turn a blind eye to the negative effects. after all, would it really be acceptable if a CFO shared with us, the stockholders, in the annual report, "well, i think we've grown all we can. we'll just stop here."
indeed, in trying to figure out a way to fly ever-higher, whether in business or foreign policy, we're eventually going to crash to the ground. and hard. rome fell, and that's an important lesson not to forget.
in trying to figure out a way to combat terrorism, bush and his team have enacted a domestic spy program. and by staying silent, we're giving him the license to watch us without permission. we don't feel any of the ill-effects just yet, so we tell ourselves that the possibility of being monitored doesn't feel like such a high price to pay for a little more safety or security. but in our complicity, we're adding one more block to the foundation of a police state. and even tho some may say we're far from a police state, it's important to remember that all big things start out small.
and because we don't feel the pinch of an energy crisis now, we place no limits on our use of many precious resources. we'll keep driving gas-guzzling vehicles and buying disposable everything. it's easy to do without feeling bad. after all, the freefall feels pretty good. and the ground is still pretty far away.
but how close will we have to get to the ground before we try to save ourselves? and what if our parachute doesn't open?
for more information on what all of us can do to slow down, visit http://thecorporation.com/index.php?page_id=19
while the tales of corporate devils are nothing new these days - whether they address human rights violations or environmental havoc - there's still an element to them that can be quite chilling.
ray anderson, the CEO of one of the world's largest carpet manufacturers, has bravely undertaken a massive effort to make his business sustainable by the year 2020. in his corporate story, anderson spoke in the documentary of his remorse when he realized that his pursuit of profit ultimately equated to a reckless plundering of the planet. "the day will come when plundering is illegal, when people like me will go to jail," he remarked. and then he alluded to a phenomenon i've recently begun to think about - a phenomenon i find to be quite scary.
perhaps we're in the middle of a freefall, but we don't even know it because the ground is so far away. we've become nearsighted. we've come to think of growth and increase and betterment as infinite, and we want to turn a blind eye to the negative effects. after all, would it really be acceptable if a CFO shared with us, the stockholders, in the annual report, "well, i think we've grown all we can. we'll just stop here."
indeed, in trying to figure out a way to fly ever-higher, whether in business or foreign policy, we're eventually going to crash to the ground. and hard. rome fell, and that's an important lesson not to forget.
in trying to figure out a way to combat terrorism, bush and his team have enacted a domestic spy program. and by staying silent, we're giving him the license to watch us without permission. we don't feel any of the ill-effects just yet, so we tell ourselves that the possibility of being monitored doesn't feel like such a high price to pay for a little more safety or security. but in our complicity, we're adding one more block to the foundation of a police state. and even tho some may say we're far from a police state, it's important to remember that all big things start out small.
and because we don't feel the pinch of an energy crisis now, we place no limits on our use of many precious resources. we'll keep driving gas-guzzling vehicles and buying disposable everything. it's easy to do without feeling bad. after all, the freefall feels pretty good. and the ground is still pretty far away.
but how close will we have to get to the ground before we try to save ourselves? and what if our parachute doesn't open?
for more information on what all of us can do to slow down, visit http://thecorporation.com/index.php?page_id=19
posted by Bridget at 2:49 PM
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