…in an often beautiful but sometimes insidious form. Although our behavior is studied through sociology and anthropology, our behavior is part of natural history (even when abhorrent).
Greed, in its incarnation of corruption, is a kind of aberrant nature phenomenon. Within nature, it is unique. There are no other animals that destroy their environment with intentionality.
One of the more unusual outcomes of natural history is politics. As the driver of America as the last, best hope, it is clearly failing. Individual rights, national rights, and even states rights (pay attention to this one, conservatives) have given way before the unstoppable avalanche of corporate rights.
An interview in the October 27, 2014 edition of Time caught my attention. Human rights attorney Bryan Stevenson gave an example of how government has shifted its spending priorities from the actual needs of citizens to corporate welfare: “Prison spending has gone from $6 billion in 1980 to $80 billion today. Those dollars are coming from education, health and human services, and roads.” He might have added environmental protection, public health, and so on…and on.
The powerful forces of corruption and environmental destruction at least are not unopposed. Examples follow:
The rights of whales and dolphins.
Wilderness preservation and expansion in New Mexico.
Dave Foreman and honest environmentalism.
Education and advocacy for the most endangered wolf subspecies.
Thom Hartman anti-corporate commentary.
Jim Hightower anti-corporate commentary.
{Desert Tarantula, Aphonopelma chalcodes, dlw photo October 14, 2014}