The Systems View, Part I: The Environment and Corporations

The Sunday, 9 Jan 2005 edition of the San Francisco chronicle contains a couple of articles on the environment and pensions that appear to be entirely unrelated, on the surface. But when you look at things from the standpoint of General Systems Theory and examine the deeper system, the problems those articles describe turn out to be entirely interconnected.

The Environment

The first article, by a teacher named Troy Jollimore at California State University, Chico, is a book review entitled "How Societies Commit Suicide" (page E1). The book is Collapse, by Jared Diamond. That book chronicles the downfall of civilizations who destroyed the very ecosystems that sustained and supported them. In other words, they found out the hard way that their supply of resources was not inexhaustible.

One of the more interesting features about that book, according to the reviewer, is the author's conclusion that those civilizations share a tendency to "cling stubbornly to their core values," refusing to examine them or consider change, even in the light of changing of circumstances--and such societies are unlikely to survive.

The reviewer takes exception with Diamond, on this point, as do I. After all, what "power" is it that the American consumer has? Political power? Hardly. Money dominates the election process and corporations provide the mass of the money, even when it sometimes masquerades as "individual contributions".

And consumer power? Again, no. Since 1998, I've been calling for a boycott on a substance that is effectively a metabolic poison. (See What's Wrong With Partially Hydrogenated Oils?) The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been trying to get it outlawed since 1994. And the science goes farther back than that . How successful has those efforts been? Judge for yourself. The FDA managed relatively weak labeling law that takes effect in 2006, but which has a big enough loophole that the problem will not entirely go away.

How do we finance the massive public outreach necessary to educate all of the consumers needed to effect a boycott?

Government funding could work, of course--but where would they get money, and how can knowledgeable people acquire the political influence to make it happen, in the face of massive corporate lobbying?

Since there's no profit in taking that action, only an extremely-well financed non-profit could do it. But even then, how could it compete with the dozens and scores of profit-making corporations that are advertising massively unhealthy products and making them sound like the best thing ever?

Why should we spend enormous amounts of money telling everyone about ingredients in the food supply that are manifestly unhealthy, and make them read labels conscientiously to avoid the stuff, when we could and should simply make it illegal?

Even if consumer action were effective, why should the American public live with the childhood obesity and epidemic levels of disease that these substances are causing?

Clearly, protection of the consumer is what government is all about. To underscore the point: Europe and Canada have both outlawed partially hydrogenated oils. And they've made genetically modified foods illegal, as well. But we can't even get genetically modified foods labeled in America. Basically, the political power of the average consumer is all but non-existent, compared to corporate influence.

Here, however, the reviewer has overlooked a deep, systemic connection that derives from the pressure that financial markets exert on corporations. Perhaps more importantly, he has overlooked the fact that we the people are unwitting accomplices in creating that problem--and that Bush's proposed "reform" of social security will exacerbate the problem to an unimaginable degree.

Resources

Eric Armstrong is computer systems designer, writer, and philosopher. He is currently working on a book that uses the principles of General Systems Theory to explain how America's epidemic of obesity and disease stems from profitable, but unhealthy, ingredients in the food supply; how the corporate financial system (and our own retirement plans) are complicit in the problem; how the American political system allows it to happen; and how our problems with the environment, a dwindling standard of living, and even our problems with the global economy all stem from the same constellation of systemic interactions. At www.treelight.com/health, he focuses on nutrition and fitness. At www.citizensAdvisory.org, his forming non-profit is working to get the money out of politics. At www.artima.com/weblogs, he writes about software, web technology, and development tools.

Corporate money has hijacked the ballot box. The Citizens' Advisory aims to take it back. Our goal is to put people in charge of the political process. The voting-advice system recommended by the Citizens Advisory lets people choose advisors they trust. Done right, that system will enable multi-party coalitions in cyberspace. The system appeals to voters because it's convenient. It appeals to social activists and their organizations because it levels the political playing the field and empowers them with a stronger political voice.