The emergence of a dominant and repressive ideology is the biggest threat to human welfare on this planet since the plague years of the middle ages. The ideology is all the more dangerous for its lack of a label more descriptive than "Globalization." In the twentieth century three big ideas fought it out to determine which set of national values would dominate. Communism, capitalism, and national socialism each took the stage in a competition for the hearts and minds of the people. (And was it Lyndon Johnson who said "When you have them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow?") Whatever…
In fact the Nazi paradigm won out, but given the excesses of World War 2, public relations affirmed the need for a certain amount of repackaging of the peculiar alliance between corporate wealth and big national governments. Voila, the multinational corporations and "globalization." But let’s step back from name calling. It’s tasteless at best to compare common criminals like Ken Lay and Dick Cheney with competent administrators like Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco. Wait… that may not have come out right.
Here’s the point… today Dan Gilmor encourages us to write our congressvolken regarding the AT&T buyout of Bell South. I’m here to tell you that a letter to congress is spit in the ocean. However, we do have a chance to affect the local market. During the nineties the Wisconsin Public Service Commission was emasculated by ideological buffoonery in the guise of free market economics, but the PSC is the agency that can make a difference in terms of services and rates and market control in my community. Working to strengthen the Wisconsin Public Service Commission’s role in public utility regulation and governance is where I can be most effective.
So sure, I’ll register my concern on a macro scale with the Democrats who represent me nationally - Baldwin, Feingold, Kohl. But I’ll also be working to see that a regulatory framework is restored that will prevent the excesses of multinational corporate greed from spoiling the place where I live. And I have to work to grasp an understanding of just what a government of, by and for THE PEOPLE means, as distinct from a government in partnership and service to large corporate bodies.
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