The Machine

[H2O Man]

"The machine that we built would never save us" -- Jimi Hendrix


A machine is defined as "an apparatus using or applying mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task." And a corporation is defined as "a group of people or company authorized by law to act as a single entity." Neither machines nor corporations are human beings, though humans have obvious associations with both.

Willard Mitt Romney said corporations are "of course" people. The US Supreme Court ruled in a similar fashion in Citizens United. These are, of course, the same people who have decided they have the right to limit women's health care, based upon their religion. I think the majority of people -- despite the election results -- wish that the court focus more on the rights, responsibilities, and needs of actual living human beings.

This has me thinking about an environmental activist who died last year, Jerry Irwin Mander. His 1978 book, "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" was interesting. I have his 1991, "In the Absence of the Sacred," which has quite a lot of interesting information in it. And he was friends with Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons, who I've also been friends with since the 1980s. The book delivers parts of Oren's thinking, and it has a lot to say about machines and corporations.

I'll keep this relatively brief by just skimming over some of Mander's thoughts on corporations.

1. The profit imperative. For profit is the ultimate goal of all corporate decisions.
2. The growth imperative. Profits = growth = profits.
3. Competition and aggression.
4. Amorality. They aren't huan, and thus have no conscience.
5. Hierarchy.
6. Dehumanization. Both the community and environment are objectified.
7. Exploitation. This includes resources and labor.
8. Ephemerality. They are legal creations that exist only on paper.
9. Opposition to nature.
10. Homogenization.

This is not to say that there are not corporations run by socially conscious, good people. There are, of course. But these are a tiny button on a large coat. By no coincidence, they are not the ones that have coated the environment with toxic wastes. Nor are they the ones that coat their puppets in DC with contributions. Those contributions have strings attached.

Are we thus helpless? No. Now, in one of his essays, Mander quoted the late journalist A. J. Liebling: "Freedom of the press is guaranteed, but only if you own one.” I'm reminded of when a friend was complaining about the quality of the television news. My brother scolded him, saying no American had the right to complain about television when there were public libraries. That Amendment 1 provided rights, but also responsibilities.

Back in the late 1700s, when a hostile foreign force was oppressing my ancestors, including outlawing education, my great (X7) grandfather was a hedge school master. Classes were held in fields off the highways and biways. At its best, DU serves as a hedge school along the information highway. It helps us think outside the box that the corporations that sell the media create to trap our thinking. That box too often limits even intelligent people to binary thinking. And that, of course, includes people being puzzled by the Native American vote, for one small example.