Beyond The Politics of Cancer Alone

[William S. Lear]

On Thu, January 28, 1999 at 10:50:24 (-0500) Doug Henwood writes:
>William S. Lear wrote:
>...
>Of course our choices are constrained. But if you really believe there's an
>ecological crisis - and here James Heartfield can tell us why there isn't
>one - then it's not enough to blame corporations for the problem. The
>entire American way of life is ecocidal - suburbs, SUVs, Wal-Marts, 5000 sq
>ft houses in the desert with central air, etc. People acting alone as
>individuals can't do much to change all that, but you can't just blame
>"corporate polluters" for the problem.

Precisely so, and the converse (?) point is also crucial to recognize,
which is what I objected to.  "We" should no more be blamed for
systemic problems than should corporations --- sure, as individuals we
all have responsibilities, but the systemic problems are so huge as to
make any discussion of individual responsibility moot, I think.  So,
when you say, "Yeah corps pollute but we use the stuff", my objection
is "Let's neither focus on 'corporations', nor on 'we' as
individualized consumers, let's focus on the system that guarantees
that corporations will take the form they do, and that consumer
choices will be so narrowly constrained so as to guarantee the sort of
ecological (and other broadly societal) crises we see today".

Bill