The Brave Pedestrian

By Ken Whitehead, Growth is Madness Civilisation as we know it will no longer exist within 30 years. This bleak conclusion is not one I have arrived at lightly. However, wherever I look the evidence suggests that we are heading towards a major ecological breakdown which the majority of us are unlikely to survive. A number of critical environmental problems are coming to a head and the fall out from these will dwarf any attempts we can make to tackle them. If the pitiful attempts that have been made so far to tackle the environmental crisis are any guide, then major ecological breakdown is inevitable within a few years. Once civilisation starts to unravel, it will happen quickly. Crop yields will fall considerably as the effects of climate change and peak oil really start to bite. It is likely that one of the first casualties will be the current banking and financial system, which is unlikely to be able to withstand the strain. Thus wealth will offer no protection. Compounding t...

Every schoolchild is taught that there are three organs of state, namely Legislature, Executive & Judiciary. What they don't teach is that there is a fourth organ -- a secret one: CORPORATES. Companies. Also known as Big Business. They are the ruling classes. We The People are the masses. Unknown to us, the corporate sector is closely involved with every legislature that is elected, and every government that is formed. It funds every political party in mostly secret ways, and  it extracts its price in ways that you and I will never realize. Companies get a huge advantage from being a "legal person", from having huge budgets for giving bribes to political parties, individual legislators and government officials. The sort of white-collar criminality that companies routinely get away with is so large and so widespread, that it is invisible. For instance, telecom, power, insurance and building construction companies have made cheating customers into such a rout...

The money-power and clout of corporates distorts our governance and judiciary. The common man's fundamental rights go for a toss wherever they are in conflict with the commercial interests of companies. For a variety of reasons, the entire judicial mechanism works in favour of corporates, leaving citizens with no genuine judicial remedies. Generally, courts are against "piercing the corporate veil" -- a handy excuse for not entering into the many wrongdoings of a company, its subsidiaries, associates and its holding companies. If courts started doing that, many false claims being made would stand unveiled! Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share