I just returned from a lecture by Dr. Vendana Shiva who eloquently described a conflict in the world that I suspect could be at the root of so many domestic and international problems we are faced with. This was my first introduction to her. She described the economics evolved in colonialism, newly embodied in corporations, that are systematically creating massive profits while leaving wastelands of poverty and political tension. Dr. Shiva (what a fun name) offered very powerful ideas for breaking down barriers and creating a better alternatives to the international profit and waste shell-game that is now directing governments and generating conflicts. Dr. Shiva communicates ideas that I think could inspire people of all political persuasions (this crowd was certainly diverse) to take control of their lives away from corporocracy (not her word, my clumsy one) and demanding real democracy and independence, ideas that promote the creativity and ingenuity of individuals to solve their own problems without being impeded by the counterproductivity and exploitation of corporate/government entities. I have not yet digested or further explored her message, but I found it very insightful. I suspect she goes much deeper than someone who can be dismissed as just an anti-WTO left-wing activist. I'm striving to earn my living and enjoy my work for myself, and never again dilute my productivity and pride into some inhuman corporate entity's prosperity. Dr. Shiva made me feel very good about that, even feel a bit revolutionary for becoming more individualistic and self-reliant in (of all places) America. I found it hard (in the last 2 minutes) to get much by or about her just Googling. Anyone out there familiar with Vendana Shiva, or feel like tossing in a comment?
Colonialism is the process of exploiting large numbers of foreign people to the benefit of your economy. It is just a subset of the larger process of "free-market capitalism", where large numbers of workers are exploited to produce goods and services that they are never adequately compensated for. Unfortunately for us, communism took root in the one country perhaps least prepared for it - the Bolsheviks simply continued the Tsarist way of governance under a new guise. Those of us in leaning towards the socialist way of life are usually dismissed as anti-American or at least in favor of the kind of abuses rampant in the Soviet Union, Cuba, China or North Korea. Why can't we consider countries that do a great job of combining socialism and freedom, like Denmark or Sweden? People like Dr. Shiva serve to point out the very real fact that America is neither a democacy nor a free market. We have been fed a mythology since kindergarten about our not-so-great nation - I think that the most subversive thing we can do as Americans is to insist on making the myth real. Let's have free and fair elections. Let's have equal opportunity. Let's have freedom of speech. Let's have a representative government that resonds to the needs of the whole people. Let's have a right to privacy and to self-determination. Is this revolutionary? Is this un-American? Apparently so, and so therefore be it.
