Beyond The Politics of Cancer Alone

[William S. Lear]

On Thu, January 28, 1999 at 13:09:13 (-0800) Daniel writes:
>Bill wrote: "I gotta object here: like we have a @!#$!@# choice?  The costs
>to individuals even to organize with other folks is huge.  Consumer choice
>in this country is just a fantasy.  Robin Hahnel's expositions on the
>immense problems with externalities makes it clear, to me, that
>market mechanisms practically *guarantee* a situation described above."
>
>Forgive me, I think you're hurting yourself, Bill. There are many choices to
>be made. You can buy your potatoes chips with olestra, and leak through the
>butt, or you can buy potatoes and make them yourself. No matter how I phrase
>the choices, they will seem silly and trivial. But, small choices
>accumulate. You can sell your body to the insurance/drug/md golden triangle,
>or you can go to the library and read a wealth of research that shows that
>vitamins and supplements are a better bet, and cheaper, too. These are
>choices.
>...

I am perfectly aware of this, so your little lecture on personal
behavior helps little.  What I'm concerned with is *collective*
behavior.  That of individuals, while important, counts for next to
*zero* if we are interested in challenging the structures of power.


>Confucius said: "If good does not accumulate, it is not enough to make a
>name for a man. If evil
>does not accumulate, it is not strong enough to destroy a man. Therefore the
>inferior man thinks to himself, 'Goodness in small things has no value,' and
>so neglects it. He thinks, 'Small sins do no harm,' and so does not give
>them up. Thus his sins accumulate until they can no longer be covered up,
>and his guilt becomes so great that it can no longer be wiped out."

Right, and this will create lots of virtuous individuals who have no
clue as to how to act in common.

Small choices with a big fat 0 in the collective action dimension do
accumulate, and do "make a difference, but they still add up to a big
fat 0 in the collective action dimension.

Bill