Nader

[Dhlazare at aol.com]

Good God, do you really believe this?  I think Nader is shallow and boring.
Rather than criticizing capitalism, he criticizes something called the
corporate structure.  His rap is an endless lament about all the terrible
things corporations do -- the consumers they rip off, the rivers they poison,
the air they pollute, etc etc.  This is true enough, but it begs the question:
if corporations are so uniformly terrible, how can society, any society,
tolerate them for more than instant?  Nader's endless bleakness is belied by
all those fruits of corporate production that fill our lives, everything from
running shoes and blue jeans to appliances and computers.  Not even the most
relentless naysayer can maintain that this stuff is all bad, yet Nader comes
as close as is humanly possible.  This is precisely what make conservatives of
so many undergraduates.  The listen to Nader and his message of fear and
depression, and they just laugh and move on.

His message is one of defeat and despair.  The more the economy grows, the
more consumers take it on the chin.  Do you think this guy ever kicks his
shoes off, pour himself a beer, and put some dumb rock-n-roll record on the
stereo?  I doubt it -- he's probably too angry at brewers for pushing what is
in fact another addictive drug, too beside himself with worry that his amp is
drawing electricity from some distant nuclear power plant.  

Dan Lazare

<< 

 We had hims peak at OSU law last year. He was here testifying against the

 awful tort reform bill the legislature passed. I thought he was

 mesmerizing, just wonderful. And yes, he talkeda bout some of those things.

 

 I am sorry to see you joining in the pack baying against tort lawyers,

 which means plaintiff's laywers. Of course the defense tort bar and the

 unsurance lawyers do not love Ralph. Sure, a  lot of plaintiffs' tort lawyers

 are sleazy. But what they do is help injured people recover from harm done

 to them, often by large corporations. Yeah, if we had national health we

 wouldn't have this problem. But tort reform anad damages caops are no

 substitute for national health. Ralph is is on the side of the angels, a

 real American hero. He has probably done as much for as many Americans as

 any living human being.

 

 --jks

 

  >>