anti-modernity … 792
In chapter 792 we quote the great Edward Goldsmith recognizing the noxiousness of modernity:
[from his essay: “My Answer” (2003)]
Economic development has always involved, above all, the usurpation by corporations and/or the State of functions that were previously fulfilled by the family and the community for free — that are then monetized, commodified and in the former case sold via the market.
Corporations are still viewing with greedy eyes functions that are still fulfilled by families and communities in the Third World. The Chairman of Campbell Soup pointed out not long ago how important it was to open up the Mexican market, which would occur with the passing of the NAFTA treaty. “Consider,” he said, “that in Mexico there are still 38 million families that make their own soup!”
It won’t take long for these families to deteriorate under the terrible pressures of mass society atomization and “development” and be forced to buy industrialized, ready-made and packaged soup.
Failing to appreciate the efficacy of “community-based economics” plays into the hands of the corporations by helping to justify the takeover or “privatization” of all those functions previously fulfilled by this other key social system, such as the maintenance of social order and participatory democratic governance.
