Thought for the week ahead

Many of the left-right conflicts facing our country today rest on some basic assumptions about the rights of corporations. This is of increasing interest to me because it fuels the passion of free-market fundamentalists and their all out assault on democracy.

Over the weeks and months ahead, I hope to be educating myself (and you) about the insidious takeover of all aspects of our culture and government by global corporations. In the meantime, I hope you'll read this excellent piece by Thom Hartmann.

An internet search on the phrase “corporate personhood” will find thousands of sites discussing or devoted to the topic, and models of legislation to remedy the error of 1886.

But the first step, as always, is awakening people to the root cause of the problems we face - the use of corporate personhood by a handful of the world’s largest enterprises to insinuate themselves into governments and seize control of legislative and regulatory agendas. As enough voters learn the history and realize the consequences of this, the solution - ending corporate personhood - will become more and more possible, and Paine’s and Jefferson’s original idea of democracy representing “we, the people” will come back to life.

Ironically, any careful study of John Locke's very own philosophies would find them at cross-purposed with the free market fanaticism of his so-called followers today.