The Declaration of Independence had it right when, in its inspiring preamble, it aroused a nation of rebels by espousing the inalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Period.
And growth today poses a direct threat to all three of those stated goals.
Growth in all its aspects -- economic growth, growth in profits, growth in sales, growth of population, growth in income - is a threat to life. It has become clear that the imperative of ever more growth, the ethos and driving force of modern corporate capitalism, is leading to the destruction of the very biosphere that sustains life on this planet. It is a threat to liberty, too, because one country's growth -- America's -- requires the constant assault on those weaker countries that threaten us. The globe is a finite place, and at this point, with seven billion people crowded upon it, for one group -- that is to say 313 million Americans -- to prosper and grow, requires that 6.7 billion others give up something. In other words, for America to grow, it must be in a constant state of imperial domination and war, which also means a state of war at home, with all the concomitant restrictions on freedom that state inevitably entails.
For decades or longer even, there has been a carefully maintained American myth that the growth of global capitalism in general and of this country's capitalist system in particular has been only beneficial to mankind, really with no downside, but that has been a lie...
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
