Noam Chomsky stirs the brain.

I have just finished reading ‘Power Systems’ which is a series of questions put to Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian. This is not a review of that book instead it is a request even a plea, that all those interested in the growing and ever rising power that has created present day United States and its hugely damaging effect on the US and our country and world. Once upon a time we clearly knew who our enemies were, i.e. Hitler etc, now its kind uncle corporation x or y. This book is a need to read…Go to your library get a copy and read. [Power Systems, Noam Chomsky published by Hamish Hamilton 2013.]

Chomsky asked this question,

‘Why should, corporations be granted personal rights? He then went on to say, ‘By now corporations have rights way beyond persons of flesh and blood. They are immortal; they are protected by state power. In fact, the basis of a corporation is limited liability, meaning as a participant in a corporation you’re not personally liable if it, say, murders tens of thousands of people at Bhopal. He was referring to the Union Carbide explosion in Bhopal, India which killed about twenty thousand people in 1984.

The US has created its corporations as untouchable and uncontrollable within the US and by the use of international treaties such as NAFFA and the TPPT and such like means that weak governments like ours hand over legal power to foreign owned corporations, who can and will sue the government which in turn means our citizens become serf’s under US laws. This subject has been well covered by various blogs and organisations.

Thinking about this subject led me to think about human values and the link to possible negative changes in our social value beliefs:

Who is the most valuable; a person who builds a house or the corporation that owns the bank that lends the money to finance that build? Today it’s obvious that the bank or corporation is in the more powerful position. It seems to me that while the builder is absolutely vital to the construction of a house and without whom no building could take place. So it appears that we have sold our very souls to corporations who have no social agenda or conscience. The obvious fact is that corporations seek to and do control all aspects of our existence, from the food we eat to the air we breathe.  They’ve covertly taken over elected governments, often by buying individuals, the main stream media, and universities; all without citizen consent.

A good example took place while I was writing this, Radio NZ was talking about the downward trend of wage increases and to whom did RNZ go to for comment on this issue, they went to the banks and discussed the issue with some unknown chief bank economist, who naturally pushed the usual line, that once business picks up wages will pick up, which is just crap. What would he know about the effect on wage earners…yeah right! No contact was made with real working people so it would appear that they don’t really count.

The main stream media gave massive coverage to Phil O’Reilly chief PR man for Business NZ in his condemnation of the Greens and Labour plan to take over power supply to bring prices down. O’Reilly believes that higher prices will lead to higher wages…and this is simply corporate propaganda pushed by a corporate stooge and who is paid hundreds of thousands to do so. What does O’Reilly do for NZ, he does absolutely nothing. It was ironic that the same RNZ interviewed the boss of the WareHouse where he said they are working to get everyone of their retail staff [about ten thousand] on $18.75 per hour which agrees with the Unite Unions livable wage campaign that this should be the minimum wages. The only real problem with this smart move by The WareHouse is their dependence on the deaths of thousands in the sweat shops of Bangladesh. They Warehouse is without doubt a part of the criminal chain that rips off workers via the contracting with the corrupt owners or backers of massive sweatshops all around the world. But that’s OK what we can’t see means we can pretend that it doesn’t exist.

So get the book by Noam Chomsky, its in the library, clear your mind and digest, be critical and consider the words, but even more importantly think about what you might do, what action you might take, because if we don’t take some action in thirty years time we might be another Bangladesh.