(*A tirade inspired by Salt, Sugar, [‘n] Fat)
Let us NOT count the ways we are addicted. It’s too depressing. Too déjà vu. Or so it seems for all the changes we don’t make in our lives when faced with massive evidence. Take for example, our addiction to ideas—such as competition, efficiency, capitalism, bottom-line, etc. as being the prime drivers of innovation and progress. And by progress, shouldn't we mean, that which advances mankind—not that which conspires to addict or enslave as seen in the old tobacco trials; and now again (yes, déjà vu again and again and again) in recent revelations about the processed-food industry? Take a look:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/TV+Shows/The+National/Health/ID/2341079476/How much more advanced might we be if we cooperated for the benefit of mankind? Why are we still playing grade-school versions of “king-of-the-dirt-mound?” Haven’t we matured at all? Isn’t that what our CEOs are still up to: pushing and shoving for top-spot on the virtual mound at Wall Street? Pushing and shoving in two-piece pin-stripes? Pushing and shoving adulterated and faux foods down our blissful throats? Pushing and shoving “new and improved” electronics down our virtual throats so we feel driven to dump perfectly good ones into 3rd-world, unregulated waste sites? Pushing and shoving because we are so push-able and shove-able—abetted by Salt, Sugar, ‘n Fat?
And what of our esteemed scientists who have sold themselves for a mess of (processed, bliss-point) pottage?
Why are we so enamored by the big boys (and those few girls) who cudgel their way to the top by obsessing about the bottom-line? Those who buy up “competitors” to co-op or bury products and ideas, or to sell off thriving company assets for a quick profit (and bonus); or those who bypass the buy-up and resort to stealing, maligning, or killing ideas or products that threaten their ideas or products?
How long this blissful ignorance? How long before we recognize the catastrophic damage that our obsession with competition and bottom-line has wrought? How long till we understand that every beneficial progress could have been achieved faster and further by men and women who had matured past the stage of juvenile pushing and shoving? But alas! the powerful “haves” prefer competition. It is the plush curtain that hides the faux-wizard of their superiority and entitlement.
