How to Save the World - what do you think of my ideas?

Hi! I've now added a summary version, and then a summary of that too! Hope it makes it more accessible. I do want the whole argument there but it ought to give people an easier way in to it. I did this before I saw your comment. Maybe I need to break the main essay up too! Your feedback is greatly appreciated! :-)

I've boiled it down to fewer than 100 words: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rericswan/summary3.html I hope people will read this.

Thank you very much for your comments! Yes, big business is primarily concerned with making money, but when it gets to the point of sponsoring politicians who let it get away without paying tax and making money at all costs, it ceases to be morally neutral. Have a look at these links: http://www.resurgence.org/2006/lang236.htm http://www.projectcensored.org/downloads/Global_Dominance_Group.pdf (and this is also interesting http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1808236,00.html) If we are effectively to change the situation we need to think strategically. The dominance of the corporate media makes it almost impossible to change things. In the summary of my essay I spell out the tricks they use. Here's an excerpt from this page http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rericswan/summary1.html (see original for clickable links and better formatting!): ...Do you know what I found? In virtually every case, big businesses' relentless chase after profit was to blame. Yes, the love of money. (If you doubt this, read the full essay and follow the links yourself.) And here are some related important points: è Profits are not the same as efficiency or contribution to the general good, and are often not related to these at all. è When a company is "floated" (when you can buy shares in it) it is under enormous pressure to make more money. This becomes its most powerful driver. That is how capitalism "works". è Companies that are not completely ruthless in their search for ever-increasing profits run the risk of failure, takeover and collapse. The people at the top will do just about anything to prevent this. è This includes buying politicians. For example, Blair has been bought by Rupert Murdoch (look down that page). è Furthermore, politicians do what is necessary to get and stay in power. In so-called "democracies" they need access to the media, and favourable coverage if they want to be elected. Many media outlets are controlled by big business, and, in any case, access and favourable coverage require a great deal of money, which politicians these days largely get from big business. è Big business is happy to provide the money ...if the politicians do what they want. To a large extent this means letting them get away without paying tax, but many governments effectively subsidise big businesses from taxpayers' money, not least the UK and the USA. è That is why, in fact, the UK and the USA are not democracies but plutocracies - we are governed by the rich, for the rich. They don't want you to know: scapegoating, distraction, lower standards of education, lies... n Of course they don't want you to know. So what do they do? n Scapegoating is one of their well-tried techniques. è They put the blame for society's ills either on an entirely innocent victim or on a bit-player. è Single-mothers, asylum seekers (driven from their countries by our governments' policies), Gypsies/Romanies/travellers and "Neds"/"Scallies"/"Chavs" (the latter actually related to poverty, rampant consumerism and the underfunding of education...) are common scapegoats in the UK. n Distraction is another. è The inevitable logic of "market-driven" competition for profit leads to a lowest-common-denominator "dumbing down" of our media. è By hooking people on trivia, and encouraging an obsession with "celebrities", "reality TV shows" and the like, they are (1) making more money for themselves (directly, as people pay to watch or read, and indirectly from the use of these celebrities to damage self-esteem and, very much related to this, push materialism) and also (2) they are draining people of the time, energy and ability to find out what is really happening. (Get rid of your TV and you'll see what I mean!) n Our education system is increasingly obsessed with getting kids over various supposedly academic hurdles but also appears increasingly to be damaging the ability of kids to think. è The "computers in schools" initiative is one example of this. è Teachers are also consistently denigrated (and scapegoated!) and their professionalism denied. è Rich individuals can now effectively buy schools in the UK and influence what they teach (or what they don't teach!) n Blatant lies, repeated often, are a standard technique. I won't give any examples here as this is supposed to be a summary, but you'll find hundreds of examples if you follow up sites such as Medialens on this page.