fire etc.
Saw a few different editions of the Qor'an recently sitting on a shelf in my local bookstore. Pulled one of the more accessible editions off and had a browse but there was only so much I could hack. Yes, it is a fiery old document the Qor'an. Spectacular for that, although it seems to spend a bit too much energy running down the other Western monotheistic faiths. You might as well rail against the colour of the sky for all the good that will do you. Religion and culture are just facts of life. They'll never go away and all the violence and vitriol in the world will do absolutely zero to seperate people from what they believe, be it Hinduism or Christianity, Islam, Communism, Atheism, neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism etcetera. It always bemuses me when people try to impose their beliefs on me. Do you think I'm going to suddenly become a bornagain/Iraq war supporter/freemarketeer/pro-corporation person just to make YOU happy? Sorry, not gonna happen.
I'll maintain a healthy scepticism, if you don't mind. Then again, I should probably save my breath every time I rail against the above evils/annoyances. Why would anyone bother changing their fucked-up ideas/beliefs just to make ME happy?
Who was it recently said that I shouldn't resent the big corporations too much, because they have created the wealth that I also enjoy. Allow me a riposte. That may be partly true, and it may certainly be true that corporations rule every aspect of our lives these days, as much as we may like to think of ourselves as individuals. However, I would say that the corporations benefit a whole lot more from the system than me or any one individual, save maybe for the occasional CEO. Am I really such a huge recipient of their wealth, living in my 110 dollar a week dumpette? I'm sure that Nike and its CEO are doing a tad better out of the arrangement than I am, but that's not the worst of it. I also happen to share the planet with people in such nice places as Indonesia and China and the Dominican Republic and India and other places that are used for sweatshop labour. Whatever small crumbs a sad miserable creep like me may acquire, that's still royal wealth compared with what those at the coalface in the so-called developing countries are given. Excuse me for pointing out that the whole textile industry for one looks like a vast network of modern slavery. Why do vastly wealthy companies like Nike have to pay the absolute minimum they can get away with, apparently less than legal minimum wage in Indonesia? Would it REALLY kill them to provide people with 3 dollars an hour instead of 1 and a half? Of course it isn't just Nike, they're all up to it. Human nature at its most Darwinian, the corporate person is as ugly and psychopathic an individual as you're ever likely to meet. Corporations have the same rights as persons, by a quirk of history. Legally they are persons.....persons without heart or soul, persons with nothing but appetite. As we move forward, it seems we are starting to become more and more like the corporate individual. Wasteful, and unable to see beyond ourselves and our own stinking avarice.
I'll maintain a healthy scepticism, if you don't mind. Then again, I should probably save my breath every time I rail against the above evils/annoyances. Why would anyone bother changing their fucked-up ideas/beliefs just to make ME happy?
Who was it recently said that I shouldn't resent the big corporations too much, because they have created the wealth that I also enjoy. Allow me a riposte. That may be partly true, and it may certainly be true that corporations rule every aspect of our lives these days, as much as we may like to think of ourselves as individuals. However, I would say that the corporations benefit a whole lot more from the system than me or any one individual, save maybe for the occasional CEO. Am I really such a huge recipient of their wealth, living in my 110 dollar a week dumpette? I'm sure that Nike and its CEO are doing a tad better out of the arrangement than I am, but that's not the worst of it. I also happen to share the planet with people in such nice places as Indonesia and China and the Dominican Republic and India and other places that are used for sweatshop labour. Whatever small crumbs a sad miserable creep like me may acquire, that's still royal wealth compared with what those at the coalface in the so-called developing countries are given. Excuse me for pointing out that the whole textile industry for one looks like a vast network of modern slavery. Why do vastly wealthy companies like Nike have to pay the absolute minimum they can get away with, apparently less than legal minimum wage in Indonesia? Would it REALLY kill them to provide people with 3 dollars an hour instead of 1 and a half? Of course it isn't just Nike, they're all up to it. Human nature at its most Darwinian, the corporate person is as ugly and psychopathic an individual as you're ever likely to meet. Corporations have the same rights as persons, by a quirk of history. Legally they are persons.....persons without heart or soul, persons with nothing but appetite. As we move forward, it seems we are starting to become more and more like the corporate individual. Wasteful, and unable to see beyond ourselves and our own stinking avarice.
posted by Craig Armstrong at 12:22 AM
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