From: jek@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (James E. Kittock)
Subject: Re: PROBLEMS WITH CURRENT SYSTEM
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 00:58:39 GMT

In article <1678600158@igc.apc.org> Dale McMillen <dmcmillen@igc.apc.org> writes:
>
>In the midst of fending off criticisms about Green ideas for sustainable
>communities, I thought it would be interesting to see what people think
>is wrong with the current "system".  

>So, what do we think is wrong with the current
>"system"?

Well, in my most cynical moments, I suspect that what
is wrong with the "system" is us, Homo sapiens.

I mean, it is fine to rattle on about how we have this
awful debt structure, or the failure of trickle down
economics, or whatever, but when you get right down to
it, the problem is that people are foolish.

People just generally have no motivation to do anything
about problem X until problem X affects them personally
in a tangible, painful way.  This is why economics
drives politics in this country.  Bill Clinton didn't
get elected because he is a visionary-- he got elected
because times weren't "good" anymore, economically.
Furthermore, people will do whatever gives them the
maximum sense of comfort for the least effort.  

An obvious example is the state of the environment.  It
has been known for a LONG TIME that what we are doing
to the Earth cannot continue.  Evidence has poured in
for the past two decades.  But only within the past
five years or so has the public as a whole begun to
care.  It became a fad.  And what do people do?  Stop
driving to work?  Demand public transport?  Cease
purchasing environmentally unfriendly goods?  NO!  They
go gung-ho over RECYCLING.  Frankly, recycling is the
most idiotic placebo anyone could have conceived of, it
addresses so few of the problems in such a pathetic
way.  The government & big business LOVE the recycling
fervor.  My god, it is used for *marketing* now.
"Look, product Z is packaged in this enviro-friendly
container!  Goodness, what a concerned mega-corp we
are."  Then everyone goes out in their CO belching car
and buys enviro-friendly product Z and feels really
spiffy about what they have "done for the environment."
Really averts public attention from some of the real
problems, eh?

Here's a slightly more subtle example.  People are
dismayed at the rising levels of violence within
American society.  We are arguably the most violent
"Western" nation.

Bleeding heart liberals say, "it's the guns, it's the
guns!"

Old boy conservatives say, "it's the lawlessness and
bad people in the cities!"

People with half a brain say, "it's the effect of
endemic poverty" (and they are partially right).

People with the other half of a brain say, "hmm, maybe
it's the effect of the images in our media" and all the
other people laugh and say, "oh, no no... TV, movies,
music, they are all just entertainment.  Nobody takes
that stuff seriously."

Yeah, OK, you want to believe that fine.  Then please
explain away things like gang members who talk about
movies like "Terminator 2" getting them "all psyched up
to go do some Terminatin'" of their own.  Please
explain away things like my little sister's male
friends who, at the age of 12, are obsessed with guns
and weaponry.  

So finally people start to think, "Well, yeah, maybe
all these images of violence and watonness in the media
are bad after all."  But then they look up and see Old
Glory and think, "but this is a free society, we can't
censor the media!  and besides, Terminator is cool, I
like it.  And it doesn't hurt that much."

Et voila... nothing gets better.

If people had any brains, they would stop spending 3
hours per day on average watching TV and letting their
brains turn into blobs of ooze.  They would realize
that THEY are the rulers of this country, and that
includes not only control over the government, but the
megacorps.  They would write letters to companies whose
ads accompanied violent shows and tell them, 

"Your products may be good and may be bad, but I will
NEVER EVER buy anything sold by your company because
your advertising dollars support the progress of
cultural decay in this country and here is why: blah
blah blah.  Furthermore, just to show that I know what
I mean, here are your subsidiaries, and I consider them
culpable for your amoral practices as well: blah blah
blah.  Finally, these were the products I used to buy,
and here is how I am going to survive with out them:
blah blah blah."

I am willing to bet that if just 1000 people did this
to one company, it would scare the living shit out of
them.  

But do people do this?  NO.  Why?  You figure it out
and tell me.

Sorry, that example got really long, but it really BUGS
me. 

Anyhow, I am not optimistic about ANYTHING.

>Sustainability is not only environmental and not only social, it is
>also economic sustainability, and I fear that our current system is
>very close to failing in a very large way.  I hope and pray that
>President Clinton will be able to fix these problems by making
>adjustments to the current system, but it appears these problems
>are so endemic as to make this unlikely (and I think Clinton fears
>the same).

About the only thing that made me sicker during the
election process than the idiot Republicans standing
strongly behind George "Education? Environment? War!"
Bush chanting "family values! (beat your wife!) family
values! (neglect your children!) family values! (my
family not yours!)" was the starstruck look in the eyes
of my "liberal" friends as they gazed upon Bill
"Messiah" Clinton.

COME ON PEOPLE!  Clinton is a politician like all the
others; he just happens to be riding the PC wave and
selling himself out to the ninties' nauseating
neo-liberalism. 

Clinton won't change things.  Hell, Clinton CAN'T
change most things.

The only way things will change for the better is when
people begin to realize how their everyday actions (or
lack thereof) affect their family, locality, nation,
and world and THEN act on these realizations to make
things better.

Sadly, it seems to be against our nature as a species
to these things, so there you go, we lose.

-- 
 james kittock :: stanford cs grad student :: duke '92 :: go blue devils!!
 "Adaptation is a recursive process in living systems." -- Alex. M. Andrew
Newsgroups: alt.politics.greens