Corporate Ethics: Oxymoron

It troubles most people when they begin to realize that Capitalism is a belief in capital. People, families and basic human needs have absolutely no bearing on the theory and practice of business as we have inherited it. Those considerations have been foisted on the non-profit sector and government by design. As a trained educator, I wish that we would return to a system of educating our children that emulates the earliest history of the craft in America. In the early days, group of families would join together and pay the wages of a trusted teacher, charging them with the responsibility of conveying vital skills to their offspring. The biggest reason that schools as we know them are still with us is the benefits they hold for corporate interests. What we have devolved to is unworkable, except for employers. With the children away from home all day, the mothers (for it is still usually the mothers who provide care for their children)are available to the labor market. This "service" is not nearly as much about education, as providing labor today as well as a well-trained workforce for tomorrow that can get to work in a timely fashion, accept meaningless tasks without question, act civilized, line up, patiently await their turn and jump through myriad hoops before being rewarded. Capital dictates these things, or at least it has up until now. We are beginning to see cracks in the monolithic structure of our capitalist system.

Many who advocate change are quick to hide behind the fig leaf of saying that capital is good "in it's place", that profit must remain part of our culture or that "Money is not the root of all evil, lust for money is the real problem." However, capital, the sources of it and methods for securing it have grown so corrupt, that it has become difficult to justify the entire system. Would an ethical person allow their neighbor to go homeless? Would they steal money from a young family knowing that it might force their children to go hungry? Would an ethical person give someone a drug if they knew that with it came the very real possibility of death or other injury? These are all too common occurrences in our daily lives under Capitalism.

The very concept of ethics presupposes it's opposite. This duality is part of our veil of tears, to be sure, but to truly understand the morally decrepit basis of the current system, one need not look further than the driveway. Two generations ago, virtually every block or two one could find a market. Merchants were supported by several dozen families,(sometimes fewer)who knew that they could count on that store keeper to give them the best available quality for the most reasonable price. Many people, my relative included, made it through The Depression by growing vegetable gardens and sharing their surplus produce with the grocer for consideration when buying more pricey items, like milk, meat or cheese. This same trust existed with the shoe salesman, the bike dealer, doctor, pharmacist, the garage and the clothing store owner. People were the driving force behind the economy. (pun intended) Now, most folks hop in the car, driving all around town to try to find the best deals. My father-in-law will clip coupons for things at three different stores then spend money and time going from place to place, trying to get ahead by playing one supplier against another! With loyalty like that, how could a grocer develop a relationship with your customers? Now that we have the scan-able cards for "loyal" customers, the data collected about our purchases, which allows us to be marketed to in new and better ways can be another profit center and way to exploit us.

How can we expect corporations to see past this mind-set when we refuse to do so ourselves? Often, we forget that we are supporting, one way or another, this system that we cannot fathom. If we try to divorce ourselves from it, we find it in other areas of our lives. Years ago, we could all walk to the grocery store, now the closest one to where I live, two miles from city center, is over a mile away. There had been several groceries closer, but one by one they went out of business, driven out by the deep pockets of larger chain stores who claim to have better selection, but always with a price. Capitalism only gives us something when something of greater value is taken away. The green space that used to exist for children to play in, or the clean water and flood control provided by undeveloped land mean nothing to the Capitalist. "How cheaply can we get it?" and "How big a mark up will the market support?" are the only considerations of corporate decision makers.

Luckily, there is a growing movement that is asking what is really important? Truly considering the needs of others. Interestingly enough, these are the same people who have been willing to do without for themselves to make life a little sweeter for others. People who have been willing to get out of their comfort zone and actually learn from others, and folks who just want to share the bounty of their lives with others. We are blessed to have them among us. When J.F.K. said: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." It would have been nice if Corporate America would have listened half as much as the Peace Corps Volunteers, the War Resisters, the Ecologists and the social change people did. It is past time to reign in the excesses of the ultra-wealthy, put the kibosh on the dehumanizing effects of capital, and begin to realize that the corruption caused by our current system is as absolute as the corruption that comes with absolute power.

The Party Who Cried "Wolf!"

I'm perplexed. I thought that all good Mothers and Fathers passed down certain information to their children that is required to to replicate cultural values and societal norms. The old story of the boy who cried wolf was one of those things that I thought "we all" knew. In light of this weeks news regarding the USDA Official who was fired over a slanderous video posted on the web, we should all be aware of the lengths that "conservative", right wing fear mongers will go to make waves, try to gain attention and undermine our Commander in Chief, his administration, and our nation generally. It seems that the more worked up they can get us, the more important they feel. As you may recall, things did not go well for the boy who cried wolf. Have none of the right wing pundits heard that if you lie repeatedly, eventually no one will listen?

I have worked in video editing. Anyone who has, knows that it isn't hard to make anyone out to be nearly anything you want them to be with enough footage and a creative approach to that craft. The fact that the message on the original video recording was the exact opposite of what appeared on the net is neither surprising or odd when you consider the source. Boys who cry "Wolf" always end up on the wrong end of the stick in the end. I remember the flush of, no, the torrent of vehement hate that followed the posting of this slanderous viral video. It makes me glad that most people said that they hate bigots, but how were they to know that the person who posted the slanderous content was one himself? It is not my job to forgive this kind of assault on real life people, media decorum and our nation's officials. It is my job to point out what it all means for the future of our country.

This particular "commentator" crossed so many lines to perpetrate his hate, that he needs to be shunned. If he has a flock, it needs to be removed from his control before they are decimated. Perhaps then he will understand the value of speaking truth and exemplifying that truth through action.

Oddly enough, I didn't want this post to be about a single person, or even the two main characters in this seamy affair, but all of us. One Nation, you know, the one we supposedly hold above all others? Why is it that when Republicans steal elections, lie to the general public and congress, take us into illegal and unjustifiable wars, get their way for two straight terms in the White House with a sympathetic congress and in the process, drive us to the brink of utter collapse and failure as a nation, they are able to paint even moderate Democrats with the broad brush of "unpatriotic" for not supporting the folks doing the very real damage to our way of life. Then, when these same "supporters" of the terrible regime have their darling policies vetoed by popular vote, they turn on the American Way with such vehemence?

For all the gloom and doom, self-righteous rhetoric that we hear spouted by the right today, you would think that we would have degenerated into a communistic police state by now. Oddly, that was mostly undertaken by the former administration. Stripping away the life savings of millions of hard working Americans was the sole purpose of the friends of the former administration, those who collapsed our economy with their unimaginably simple shell game. Selling things that only exist on paper is almost as brilliant a scam as the Federal Reserve itself, but that is another story. I'm glad that in this case, the cretin was caught lying, I just wonder how many times we will allow people like him to lie to us while continuing to believe in them.

Stop Poisoning Our Medicine Chests!

I'm starting this with a thank-you to some of the women that I have borrowed heavily from to write this piece. It requires a special person to attempt to bring about change in a fifty billion dollar per year industry. Rebecca Sutton Ph.D., Jane Houlihan, Annie Leonard and Jennifer Predinger made most of my points for me, and I am just trying to keep the facts interesting for you! I encourage you to learn more to help you decide what to do about this tragic trend. First off, men use an average of 6 personal care, and or cosmetic products each day. Women use twice as many and adolescent girls over sixteen products on an average day,each containing about a dozen chemicals, 80% of which have never been tested for safety. Anything in "common use" in 1938 was grandfathered in to current legislation. "Better living through chemistry" was the watchword of the last century, but as we learn more, we find deadly culprits amongst the magic bullets that science has provided us. We need more heroes who will stand up for our right to be free from the onslaught of toxins in the environment, especially those we seek to wash and decorate our bodies with.

If you are concerned about your health, I would send you to the most comprehensive website I have seen detailing this health threat. safecosmetics.org will help you find safe products that you can use to make your daily toilette safe and effective. I studied this subject for quite some time before I started forming an opinion, but twenty years ago when the red flags were raised, public opinion was against any reasonable regulations of toxic chemicals, especially in beauty products! Unless you did quite a bit of research yourself, guessing what products contained neurotoxins, hormone disruptors, or carcinogens was a shot in the dark. Because of heroic women like those I mentioned, we finally are beginning to understand the errors of our ways.

Only eight of the thousands of cosmetic ingredients that get rubbed onto our faces, hands, hair and bodies each day have been regulated. Even terms such as Herbal, Natural and Organic have absolutely no meaning in the industry. Adding to the insanity are little known facts that make one stare off into space as if in a dream. You may know of Herbal Essence shampoo. It's the number two brand in America, well it contains petrochemical compounds which add to our daily body burden of toxic and carcinogenic compounds. Estee' Lauder advertises that they "help in the fight against breast cancer", but their products contain chemicals that produce the disease!

Since the average American spends over 150 dollars per year on these things, it would be nice if we knew that they were not making us sick! A recent study of young women, age 14-19 found both methylparaben and propylparaben in the blood or urine of every girl tested. These women are especially vulnerable to these hormone disruptors. In their rapidly changing bodies, this is not the sort of imbalance that we should be creating in them. Sixteen chemicals were routinely found in these young women, the direct result of their cosmetics use!

Please support the legislation that is going through Congress now. Called the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, it deserves everyone's support. If for no other reason than to guarantee the safety of our children. We all have to wash our faces, brush our teeth and wash our hair. Please learn more about the ways we are doing it now as well as the safest ways that it can be done. You will never go back to poisoned products once you know and understand their impacts on our health and welfare.

Welcome Home!

As Rainbow Family of Light and Love folks know, when you come over the last hill into a gathering and hear the words "Welcome Home!", you know you are surrounded by others who, whether they share your values or not will make sure that no harm comes to you, that you will be supported and integrated into their community. From this perspective, abundance is honored and respected, as are the folks sharing their experience with you. Sustainable systems are born of complex logical thought that defies logic. Spirit, alive in the environment guides the hand of experienced practitioners of sustainable landscape management. The very microbes and relationships that exist in permaculturally managed land is Welcomed Home! The relief that is taken off any organism, when it realizes that it is fully supported and integrated is immense. An analogy that a friend once used is lobbing in our "pitches", slow and easy over home plate so Mother Nature always hits one "out of the park".
Achieving ones highest purpose, optimal performance, or some say, soul purpose requires not only the fixed point in one's mind, upon whose axis revolves our direction and sense of calm, but an appreciation of these points in others that allow us to revolve around, and pick up inertia from, upon successful passing. like orbiting planets, our social and familial interactions determine both our own and other's happiness. By what powerful lie do we neglect our fellow man? How can we justify treating others as if they don't matter or have in them the same value and ability to perform miraculously?
The concept of loving one another predates Christ, Buddha, Mohamed, and most certainly the hippies. However you come to it, the meaning is the same. The rest of us are just glad you did! Make sure to let folks know that they are appreciated as integral to your way of life and it will transform them as well as everyone they interact with. Let go of your own narrow vision and groove on the flow involved in working with others, pretty soon you will be performing miracles!

Zeitgeist: Food System

As anyone familiar with permaculture can attest, the three legged stool that creates the stable basis of it's practice as well as the foundation of a sustainable future, rests on attending to People, Profit and the Planet. This overabundant process requires that we think differently about our relationship with one another and the planet.
The "Planet" leg of the stool is about lobbing our "pitches" right over the plate into nature's sweet spot, giving her the opportunity to thrive and hit one out of the park every time. Rather than demanding corn out of every available acre, plant grapes, asparagus and perhaps nut trees for a triple harvest of high profit nutrient dense foods, not just "commodities" that produce dollars at the expense of water quality, unnecessary demands on transportation and ill health amongst the world's inhabitants. The reductionist approach to our commercial landscape has created mono-culture of demonic proportions. Raping the earth of her soil, nutrients and tilth.
Similarly, creating artificial demand for products full of empty calories and fat laden goodies simply for profit is the antithesis of permacultural values and logic. People are much better served through food systems that nourish them and sate their hunger and thirst rather than creating disease and mayhem within their bodies as so many "products" do today. I once worked at a cannery that added ingredients labeled "not-for human consumption" because they helped reduce biological activity in the "product". Permaculture asks not, what will create the biggest profit, without considering the affect that the decision will have on the earth and her people as well.
Lastly, and this is occasionally the most difficult leg of the stool to comprehend or put into practice, is "People". Equitable distribution of surplus, for there is always a surplus, is one of the ways to consider people in the process. Giving away food that has been produced abundantly in a permacultural system is similar to taxation. It requires that you think about the needs of others, care about their well-being, and understand the connection between us and "them". We are actually all one. Unlike taxation though, the relationship is best practiced face to face and reorients us to our community and basic human needs, values and possibilities.
We are, after all, living in an age that demands reestablishing connection to the planet and one another. Capitalism was based on the myth of scarcity. What ever comes next will acknowledge abundance, rewarding thrift and conservation of the Earth as well as Creator's gifts (Air, Fire, Water and Spirit)which provide all things in abundance if we don't despoil her or them. Throughput and externalities will be integrated our future or we as a species will perish.

Another One Bites The Dust

When I hear that a friend, acquaintance or even a stranger has passed the veil at their own hand, it often gives me pause to question why. I'm curious about the source of their pain and what threshold must have been met to push them toward this choice rather than the myriad of others that are open to each of us. Having seriously considered suicide several times myself, I know the depths of depression that lie beneath the surface of many minds. After all, there are things that each of us sees in life that are tremendously disappointing, isolating, repugnant, senseless and vile. However what makes one person follow up on feelings of disappointment, self loathing or desolation, by killing themselves, while another resolves to make the best of a similar, or perhaps even a more difficult situation? I suppose that my ego would be placated if I could only answer the questions:"Why?" Why did they do it? Why did I not know they were in need of help? Why did they feel that they had run out of other choices? Why didn't they tell someone about their feelings? Why didn't they ask for help?

Funny thing is, these questions are moot. Not everyone values life the same way. Luckily, though this is moot as well, some abide by religious prohibitions on suicide. Others "chicken out" or simply "can't fathom" what would push someone to this level of physical, mental, or emotional pain. Our egos are forever lying to us, lying in wait for a crucial moment to work their subterfuge and debilitating ways upon us. Few are even aware of the methods by which this overarching mental construct has power over us. The ultimate selfishness behind the act of committing suicide is both hedonistic and liberating. But completely ignores the fact that none of us are completely alone, unless we choose to be.

Long, long ago, I found peace in seeing the paradox, "We are all both independent agents and integral to each others lives." Whether we honor one another or not, the fact is inescapable. We must always strive for a balance between there two diametrically opposed ideas. "No man is an island." it has been said, but who could ever thank adequately the people whose daily efforts fill our cups, bathtubs and sinks? How many of us voice our appreciation appropriately to folks feed us, warm us, teach us, inspire us, or for that matter build our homes?

For some, the paradox is like a stone in the shoe. The constant chafing and pain of it eats at them from the inside. It is easy to see how, in a culture that holds John Wayne characters up as a litmus test for self-sufficiency, keeping everything under control, and being steeled against any and all relationship, we could begin to feel like less of a person when we know that we cannot make it alone. We also forget the sweet pleasures of truly loving one another because we have been bamboozled by those who claim that our history lies on a "foundation of puritanical values", not realizing that the Puritans, and their hate and prohibitions are all, long dead. Our country was not "based" on Puritan, or even Christian values, but on realizing that a series of independent states could not stand the test of time.

Although I always regret when people die senselessly, especially at their own hand, I take heart in knowing that, however you want to say it, their purpose was lost to them, their reason for living had been obscured, by their estimation the world would be better off without them, their karma ran over their dogma. Whatever it was that led them down that terrible path has now passed from the Earth with them. Their spirit will live on amongst those who knew them, or were touched by their passing, and at least that part of them has the power to change the world, unfettered by physicality, greed or deception. Blessed Be those who are left here to pick up the pieces. May we all realize the need to love one another back to a place where we can all feel welcome, safe, honored, respected, challenged and provided for!

Let the War Glorification Begin

As we prepare for America's collective birthday, the annual migration and tumult that takes place, in urban areas, in the countryside and in normally quiet neighborhoods around the country is amazing. In addition to the decking out of halls with red, white and blue, flag-like lawn chairs, ties, paper plates, napkins and lawn ornaments, we have casual Independence Day clothing, special sales and seasonal events that have woven themselves into a fabric of distraction unequaled by even the most adept illusionist. This relatively new holiday of early July surpasses the pagan and enduring celebrations of Winter Solstice (Christmas), Rites of Spring (Easter) or even Halloween. Even though campers have fled to the relative quiet of the woods, (many of them bringing explosive devices with them)and family picnics are going on around our cities, the few people left in each neighborhood seem bent on making as much noise as possible. Luckily, we have the technology to make plenty of noise without too much effort. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to launch tons of exploding devices skyward eliciting oohs and ahs while scaring young children and pets.

Don't think for a moment that I don't enjoy a good fireworks display. The beautiful showers of sparks, the eerie light that beautifies onlookers with large soft sources of light, and the colorful displays have an undeniable special beauty. Who wouldn't like that part of this dubious holiday. For better and worse, we define our history by the wars we have fought. We revere the fallen as proof of our value as a nation. I think that too often we confuse our indoctrination with the actual facts. The recounting of our war studded history neglects the fact that a tiny minority has always forced our hand in the entry to all of these conflicts. The "reasons" behind our involvement in war have been overshadowed by the fact that a few people stood to make boatloads of cash from them, and the folks who would lay down their lives in the process have always been valued as less than the lives of those well insulated millionaires who stood to profit. We surely pair war glorification with our identity as a country. This, I fear, has the power to fuel our own undoing.

Spewing hazardous chemicals, the terrible loudness, frivolous waste and harm to our own people and property overwhelms the mind. This is all done in the name of celebration? Thousands of Americans will require hospitalization today, July Fourth, because of fireworks injuries. Hundreds of thousands more will suffer minor injuries that will be treated with drink, ice, various salves, bandages, home remedies or a combination of these five. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage will occur today as well. Errant fireworks are indeed little bombs, too often in search of something to destroy. I have seen cars destroyed, siding blown off or melted, fires started, windows broken and bodies damaged by fireworks. This side of the equation is sickening, sad and senseless. I have personally experienced lasting effects from exposure to pyrotechnics and even so, I love a good salvo. Oddly enough, we live in a culture that lives for the moment and how we get to live afterward is of little consequence to us.