Cyborgs VS Humans

While I was visiting my brother and his family in Australia I was struck by how international corporations exist as powers unto themselves.   Everywhere I looked I saw large multinational companies selling the same products and services and claiming to be " Australian" or a tuned to the needs of Australians in some way.   The same strategy is used here in the US of course but I found myself feeling insulted by the mercenary nature of it all. I mean if McDonald's is allow just anyone in the world to be "lovin it" then what so special about my relationship with them?

Why am I as an American citizen so anxious to give them tax breaks and to prevent an increase in the minimum wage?   Hey I thought I was the special one,  now i feel kinda dirty.  Could it be that our most successful organizations are only superficially American? or Australian, or French etc?   Could it be that they really don't care who they get all lovey dovey with as long as they they can mine value out of their human customers?  Tell me it ain't so I thought I had the special relationship with Ronald McDonald.  

Lets face it,  most of large multinational corporations are primarily interested in their own existence and their bottom lines.  As Americans a lot of us grew up with the old idea that what was good for an American business would be good for the Americans, "it was probably the same with the Australians"

Over the last 30 years corporations have been asked to give less and less to the countries that provide the markets and citizens that they profit from.  But they are corporations not people, corporations don't feel gratitude because they are cyborgs not people.  You can appeal to a persons humanity because most of them feel empathy and have the ability become other focused.  Corporations are constructs that separate people from the risks and consequences of business activities.  The idea was to create incentives for people with money to invest in new ideas, but what happens when separating power for responsibility creates a machine that only cares about creating profit?  Well, you get an artificial construct that can take the blame for the questionable practices of the human owners.  You also get an instrument that has no inherent interest in anything but its own existence.  We regulate nuclear reactors don't we?  heck if we let them run wild they over heat and harm the surrounding humans they were supposed to help.  Large corporations are very similar. 

What makes  a corporation a good citizen of their country?  Well for one they need to pay  Is it because they can make a hamburger in Australia with a slice of beet root on it or a serve wine with their burgers in France?   Nope its by what they do for their fellow human beings that we should know them.

But we "we as in flesh and blood persons" should also be willing to demand some rent from the cyborgs when they want access to our infrastructure and our markets. After all without access corporations cannot generate profits.  Reasonable people can argue about the amount of profit is fair but not if the humans are powerless in the discussion.  Its pretty clear for the last 30 years that the humans are not getting good deal. 

Been there, done that, been unemployed, had my unemployment insurance reduced to give tax cuts the the cybors,  paid $4.00 a gallon for gas to benifit the cybors, paid a higher tax rate to benefit the cyborgs,  and watched my neighbors line up at food banks because the cyborgs want too much.   I guess I am just not "lovin" the way our own creations are treating us.  By "us" I mean humans.  You see I am a racist, corporations should serve people, " but not with a side of fries".   

Rollie Lobsinger, MSW

 

Stop Being So Realistic!

I have been thinking about Bernie Sanders and the 2016 Presidential Campaign a lot lately and I have heard a lot of pundits state that he cannot win because his proposals are too liberal to be taken seriously.   But when you look at the issues and the support he is getting it's clear he is resonating a huge number of us " us as in citizens of the USA.   Still, I suppose we have to be practical and vote for someone who can win, someone who can work with the right wing etc, right?

But I don't want to be practical. I want someone who will stand up for the big impractical ideas like Democracy, Equality, Justice. Someone who does not have to hold back because some large contributor might not be pleased with the wording. Let's stop being sensible and push for great ideals.  Look we just elected our first African American President!  This country is ready to grow and evolve!  Lets stop worshiping the extremely rich and by extension assume that they know something about leadership or morality that is unavailable to the common man.  Democracy is not a spectator sport!

This is a Democracy, we are not an oligarchy or an aristocracy, let's embrace our system like we mean it. Let's get the money out of the political process, stop pretending corporations are people, respect our thinkers and challenge each other to make America work for everyone and challenge each other to grow not just to argue.

Where Were You On June 26, 2015?

On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States of America recognized marriage equality and brought the nation one step closer to a place where their really is justice for all.  Do you remember where you were when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, when the Berlin wall fell?,

If you are an activist, a social worker a chronic do-gooder or just a citizen who thought something should change remember that this victory was constructed not by a few great people but many people adding their small actions together.

The all too popular belief that political action futile and that " the government always wins"  got taken down a notch today.  Its clear that Democracy can still function if citizens remain faithful and hopeful.

There is one man who I wish had lived to see this day, my college theater processor, who helped me to challenge the attitudes of my background and see all people as people. This flamboyant and wonderful man who heard me say hateful  things and yet made it his priority to teach me rather than just label me and write me off. What kind of faith in people must it take to remain that kind and that patient.  Thanks Steven I know you would be joyful today.

Where were you on June 26th 2015?

A SOCIAL WORKER SPEAKS FOR MARS

A SOCIAL WORKER SPEAKS FOR MARS 

“Where there is no vision, the people perish." - Proverbs29: 18   

The exploration of Mars is a social justice issue just as it is a scientific and economic issue because the process channels human resources and intelligence to create new possibilities for all of us – including the disenfranchised. Why should we go to Mars? As a social worker I have been told that I cannot advocate for the exploration of Mars without contradicting my values and my profession. I am told we need to focus on the problems that we face here on earth and that the colonization of Mars is a luxury that we cannot fund without harming the struggle for freedom and dignity faced by minorities, women, immigrants and the poor. The message is the same from my colleges and from the general public. We have troubles right here; we cannot afford to divert either the money or our attention from them. It is assumed that space exploration only drains resources away from the programs that address poverty, healthcare, education, therapy, and social justice. This is not only false; it is the opposite of what our history has shown us. The settlement of the new world allowed repressed and impoverished peoples from the old world undreamed of opportunities to own property, influence government, create new art forms and challenge the limitations placed on them by the old world. We must to go to Mars to create new economic and social opportunities for the poor and oppressed of earth. The settlement of Mars will create new opportunities by launching a new period of innovation and growth that is sustainable and independent of proprietary technologies or profit driven markets. Mars will create social and economic opportunities for the disenfranchised that will never be available with limited resources here on earth and the established hierarchy of haves and have-nots. Where else will new and valued positions within the world economy come from? Certainly not from a global consumer economy that must continually deskill labor and automate the production of goods and services to compensate for rising energy and material costs. As human labor continues to lose its value and become the cheapest and most negotiable component of the global economy, we need to ask where the political will may come from to end poverty. We need a new frontier to raise the value of every individual so that economic choices are made to invest more in human welfare instead of less. The most powerful of the negative outcomes that result from global devaluation of people is hopelessness. This is demonstrated every day by worldwide drug abuse, religious extremism, expanding military budgets, and the growth of racial separatism. In the United States, generations of black youth have self destructed because participation in gang culture is the only option that appears to be attainable. This pattern is repeated the world over wherever the value of people is minimal zed and where people have no reason to believe that they can progress under their present circumstances. This lack of hope is manifested as a lack of commitment to the values of the broader culture and it is not only seen among disenfranchised minorities and the poor but also among the youth of the middle and upper classes. Would so many youth be involved with promiscuity, drug abuse, violence and crime if they had something more to strive for? Would depression be the most commonly diagnosed mental illness in the Western world if more of our youth believed their efforts were meaningful and productive? In “The Pale Blue Dot” Carl Sagan states that without a “telos” a (sacred mission) we are left without hope of transcending our circumstances. This appears to be the case among our youth and among the poor. The global expansion of religious and political extremism is another indicator of hopelessness and lack of direction. All of us search for meaning in our lives - in the absence of positive alternatives, violent and destructive choices can become more acceptable, especially among those who feel powerless. This new century has already been marred by campaigns of genocide and ethnic cleansing. It seems unlikely that this will ever end if we cannot create real hope and real opportunities. No doubt there will be social problems on Mars, but there will also be new resources, new technologies, new social structures and new energy with which to address them. We will find new ways to solve the problems of those on earth as well as new reasons to live, learn and grow on Mars. We will also make discoveries and encounter problems we have never dreamed of. Ultimately, we may even find that the differences between the members of the human family are inconsequential compared to the challenges of colonization and vastness of the new frontier. How will the future judge us? As visionaries or otherwise? Generations to come may ask why we did not act. And what could have been more important than our moral obligation to the future? Will we be condemned for our short-term thinking? As a social worker I know that personal or social change is not possible without hope. Hope for healing, for dignity, for a decent standard of living, for the future of our children. 

Fortune favors the brave. 

Rollie Lobsinger MSW