Late in the film Michael Clayton, when the title character, played by George Clooney, casts off his role of defending wealthy screw-ups and the giant corporations they work for and gives uNorth -- the mythical agrochemical multinational that's been knowingly poisoning groundwater for years -- what they deserve, the small crowd at the Capitol Theater in Arlington gave out a cheer. Like other films of this genre, the audience is on the side of the renegade lawyer/whistle blower/victim, and that is both the way the director and writer have set things up as well as the way it should be.However, what occurred to me as I sat there the other night was this: Why doesn't the same emotion expressed in the dark of the cinema follow us out when the film is over so that we may call corporations to task for what they are doing in the real world and how they are affecting our actual lives?
Instead, we shrug and allow this to continue all around us. Maybe corporations are so skilled at diverting our attention and obfuscating the truth that we don't know exactly what is going on; or maybe we look at the problems and just feel like they are too overwhelming to deal with; or maybe, sadly, we are so used to our comfortable and convenient lives that we choose not to look behind the curtain or to avert our eyes even when the curtain is pulled back by someone else.
It is sad and disheartening. Chemical companies continue to pollute the air, the water and the soil; agribusiness corporations and fast-food chains sell us processed food products that wreak havoc on our health; the energy and mining industries rape and pollute the planet; pharmaceutical companies convince us we need to be constantly medicated; retail stores screw workers from the US and abroad by demanding cheaper products to fatten their profit margins; insurance companies go to great lengths to avoid paying benefits to those who deserve them; financial services corporations keep us all in debt with outlandish interest rates; and the beat goes on.
This is not a few rogue elements operating in the system; this IS the system. Capitalism ensures that all decisions made by corporations use the bottom line as the only criteria. As a result, any concerns about public health, the environment or justice take a back seat. Meanwhile, the majority of us sit here and watch, saving our outbursts for darkened movie theaters.
7 comments:
Jim - I agree with you 100 percent! While industry argues that we must all make sacrifices in the name of progress and financial advancement – we have all become complicit in the fleecing of America – and other countries.
Although if we were to be faced with a blatant request to ‘sell out’ (whatever meaning that holds for each of us) for say a million dollars - most of us tend to think we would flatly decline. Particularly if it involved something as blatant as lying down while the water supply was being jeopardized. However it is the dozens of seemingly less grand decisions we make on a daily basis that are detrimental to society and life as we know it. Often we are duped into making these decisions because we do not realize the impact on us until it is often too late. For example – a few short decades ago, most of the consumer goods sold in East Boston were done so by merchants that specialized in their products. There were butcher shops and green grocers, bakeries and fish markets. As the Supermarkets and convenience stores took over, one by one these shops began to close. The primary people to be impacted were the merchants being forced out of business while the local consumer benefited from variety and lower pricing in many instances. With the development of these mega-grocery chains, we have obtained access to pretty much everything we want when we want it. We have also encouraged the use of illegal immigrant workers, the bankruptcy of our American farmers, and the spread of disease in the food supply along with the demise of the neighborhood merchant.
If you apply the same critical thinking to what is happening with the outsourcing of manufacturing and design to ‘low cost regions’, like Asia, South and Central America and India, you will begin to realize how detrimental to our economy and way of life these practices really are. Not only are we shipping out our jobs at a record rate, we are taking unfair advantage of the workforce and are not necessarily receiving the type of quality we have grown accustomed to for the prices we are willing to pay.
Everything you wrote is right on target, and they are topics I've thought about a great deal in recent years.
Your reference to the "dozens of less grand decisions we make on a daily basis" reminds me of a poem called "The Market Economy" by Marge Piercy:
Suppose some peddler offered
you can have a color TV
But your baby will be
born with a crooked spine;
you can have polyvinyl cups
and wash and wear
suits but it will cost
you your left lung
rotted with cancer; suppose
somebody offered you
a frozen precooked dinner
every night for ten years
but at the end
your colon dies
and then you do,
slowly and with much pain.
You get a house in the suburbs
But you work in a new plastics
Factory and die at fifty-one
When your kidneys turn off.
But where else will you
work? Where else can
you rent but Smog City?
The only houses for sale
are under the yellow sky.
you've been out of work for
a year and they're hiring
at the plastics factory.
Don't read the fine
print, there isn't any.
And your description of the destruction of our downtowns follows the destruction of our food cycle, which is described eloquently by Wendell Berry in "The Unsettling of America."
As depicted in the poem you printed, it does seem scary and insurmountable. The questions are indeed - where will we live and work? Although no one of us can solve the world's problems alone - we can certainly be part of the solution. We can do so by making informed and thoughtful decsions about how we live and work and by empowering our children to do the same.
I was born into a large family with very few advantages and little money. I also began my family and took on a lot of responsibility at a very young age. That being said, I have never been in a position to "throw away a perfectly good job". So - naturally after clawing my way up to a good paying position in a corporate environment, it was difficult for me to address the reality that my ideals were not in alignment with those of my employer.
I was making the same kind of money as many of my peers with college educations. I worked in a beautiful office building with professionals and was experiencing some instances of amazing personal and professional growth. All of that aside, it became increasingly difficult to ignore how quickly the company was shrinking in size - due to outsourcing and the movement of operations to "lower cost regions".
All of that being said, it wasn't until it became apparent to me that my contributions were not valued - did I begin to think that I should make a move. I finally reached a point - after several years - that I needed to do something that I could feel good - if not passionate about. That's when I quit - without a net. Although my departure probably sounds a little more altruistic than it was, as I continue on my job search, I am mindful of my conscience. I will - and have said no to "perfectly good jobs". In doing so, I only hope that I am setting a good example for my daughter.
Then again, I haven't been out of work for a year.
It is difficult to live in the US today and to disassociate oneself from the monster that capitalism has become. On the other hand, it is -- to some degree -- a cop out for me to say that, and I am guilty as charged.
The fact that you made a move based, at least to some degree, on your values is laudable. I have almost exclusively worked for non-profits as an adult, but still ... I could do more.
Ah - but isn't that why you teach?
Yes, but I am intertwined with capitalism in too many ways because I am too comfortable to embrace my innermost beliefs completely.
So aren't we all!! Seems like a perfect opportunity for a New year's resolution!
Post a Comment