Re: [greenyes] FW: Corporation as Psychopath

[Jenny Gitlitz <jenny.gitlitz@no.address>]

Helen, 
You misunderstood my closing sentence--perhaps my fault for not articulating
it better.  Of course I think it is society's responsibility to reign in
corporate power!  What I was trying to say is that this reigning in is a
very uphill battle. The "balance" between corporate and civic power is not a
true balance at all; the playing field is not level.  Those of us not
blissfully ignorant of the consequences of consumption have to work all the
harder to enforce corporate responsibility.

And we have to do it soon. For many species, ecosystems, intact indigenous
people's communities, and indeed the very atmosphere: time is running out.
While we grassroots activists (and much of the world's scientific community)
bang our heads against the walls of corporate power and government inaction,
the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising.  Fish populations are
being decimated, rainforests are being razed, wild rivers are being tamed,
and toxics are accumulating in our groundwater, soils, and bodies.

I, for one, look forward to getting ahold of the book and movie Amy told us
about, and perhaps organizing a community viewing out here in the
Berkshires--wanna help, Amy?

Regards,
Jenny  

On 2/25/04 10:36 AM, Helen Spiegelman at hspie@no.address wrote:

> Jenny, who else is going to reign in corporate power?
> Society created corporations; it is going to have to reign them in.
> 
> And it is, indeed, going to require urgent and dedicated work by citizen
> activist groups.
> 
> Corporations have a "responsibility" to adhere to constraints that are set
> not by their own inherent rules but by rules that are established outside
> of themselves.
> 
> The purpose of "society" is to impose rules to protect the common good. The
> institution that we have created to do this is government.
> 
> We have to understand - and help others understand - that corporations were
> set up, as someone said earlier in this thread, to accomplish ends that
> were felt to be in the common good.
> 
> Then corporations turned into Frankenstein's monster.
> 
> Now we have to go back to the drawing board and get control over them
> again. We can't simply preach at them. We have to control them. And we have
> to do it the old-fashioned way: by convincing the Good Citizens of the
> Planet that it is necessary.
> 
> H.
> 
> At 07:17 AM 2/25/2004, Jenny Gitlitz wrote:
>> The assumption that it is society's responsibility to reign in corporate
>> power--rather than a corporation's responsibility to behave morally, is
>> wrong (not incorrect/wrong, but morally wrong).
> 


--Jenny

Jennifer Gitlitz
Research Director, Container Recycling Institute

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