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| Nonprofit founded in 1988 |
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Clinton's
Actual Sin Revealed
by Jan Lundberg The biggest media story in recent U.S. history is by far Bill Clintonís recent affair with a former intern. Itís no mystery that we are served up this treat: The whole ship is probably sinking fast right now, but we get a sideshow spectacle. The systemís narcissism distracts people from the main problem: profiteers continuing to fulfill their unfortunate programming of greed. Clintonís impeachment trial was irrelevant to societyís real worries. To try to convince us otherwise, he bombed some questionable folks preparing no doubt to invade our shores. Diplomacy and economics are reserved for favored trading partners. His main job is to protect the status quo of big business and thus keep voters employed and therefore pacified. So Clinton did something else to ìmove beyondî his scandalous embarrassment: he called for quick economic growth globally as a response to stock market fluctuations and international financial crises. Growth is not what is called for when it means more roads, cars, trucks, questionable products needlessly packaged, and more greenhouse gas emissions. A different kind of growthóqualitativeó has been articulated, but such concepts are rarely allowed in the halls of power (save when a White House visit included Richard Register of APMís Ecocity Builders). Katie McGinty and her boss Gore, the two most visible ìenvironmentalistsî in the White House, know betteróthere are alternatives to killing the planet, but pedal power businesses donít buy election campaigns. Clintonís real sin is his actual job: representing the transnational corporate agenda and maintaining our consumerism. Surely the meanings of ìrobust growthî or ìincreased consumer spendingî (the U.S.ís prescription for recessionary Japan) bode ill for our frying, sweating planet Earth. Anyone who wants more manufactured products soldórepresenting toxic mining, chemical releases, and global warmingóis an unwitting enemy of the environment. Todayís circumstances include overpopulation, structural inequity between classes of people and the rapidly destabilizing climate. One gets so exasperated and grieving for species being driven extinct. We endure a saddening loss of both freedom and hope, although this result is not necessary. Alternative economics based on laws of nature and positive cooperative efforts is worked out in joyful detail and is in play around the world. Competition as a necessary feature of society is a fraud; one example of proof of this is when a modern ìsuccessfulî person already suffering from the lack of extended family finagles a fortune at othersí expense and finds him/herself divorced, lacking supportive friends, etc. Neither a new pattern of behavior toward the Earth, nor a different system based on sustainability, is possible on a large scale under todayís circumstances. So the dominant power structure and multinational trade hold sway, and the traditions of native peoplesóthe model of sustainabilityó have been largely lost, to our extreme detriment. Upon an economic crash of historic proportions and resultant chaos, violent self-survival tactics may obliterate much of the knowledge about sustainability. On the bright side, the only thing the human race and Earth would have going for them is a drastically reduced population of consumers. Or, we may ìregain the gardenî and need not suffer the term ìconsumerî anymore. As we are just another species in a limited environmentólike a colony of bacteria growing as much as the petri dish allowsówe will resume a population size of centuries ago once the fossil-fuel free lunch dries up. It is amusing if not painful to thoughtful persons that Clintonís sex scandal comes before real news such as the growing pattern of fossil-fueled weird weather. But, before the Lewinsky bonanza of titillation, reason and reality were already absent from perhaps 95% of mass-communicated public discourse anyway. Some meaningful stories might have been able to shine through and find mass coverage if not for Clintonís exposed libido. For instance, economic collapse in Asia and Brazil. The Y2K threat has been downplayed by corporate media. The focus on Clintonís adultery has been a fail-safe distraction for the masses whose job-assignment from on high has been to consume to the max and nurse a hell of a debt load. Clinton is really telling the people to increase the pace, to fry on! Therefore, the actual conspiracy is the joke on not Clinton but on you and me and every being outside the economic systemís elite. The advantage to our rulers, of the basically meaningless sex scandal of the lame-duck President, is that people are observing reality and discussing real issues less. To paraphrase Dan Quayle, itís a victory for the forces of status-quo economic aggression. - JL
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