I sometimes wonder if the way zoos operate is a microcosm of the way we manage natural resources around the globe. Perceptions of what the average environmentalist thinks of as being the best way to manage natural resources are built in institutions that receive the majority of their research funding and operating money from corporations; either directly or through their many philanthropic organizations and professional societies (Bill & Malinda Gates, Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie foundations & the AMA, WHO for example). Like my boss man said, Its all about the Benjamins... hes the only president anyone actually listens to! (The fact that he wasnt a president is part of the joke). Like the zoo managers, we end up with a cadre of intellectuals completely indoctrinated into a manner of thinking that promotes a paradigm that is fundamentally tied to market forces. In this way, all life becomes a commodity and ultimately subject to the will of the head zoo keeper and down through his/ her caretakers (not that there cant be some discussion at all the different levels, but only to the level of thought that an indoctrinated group of intellectuals can entertain (such as to the extent of Darwinist theories) and only to the extent allowed by the head zoo keeper who makes the final decisions). If we are unaware of how this works (which appears to be the case in my opinion), it renders the many environmental management agencies and advocacy groups into being the Public Relations arm of the corporate benefactors of the imposed paradigm... which is why huge sums of money go into researching one issue (global warming) at the expense of other issues (Fukushima) while we are being told we must turn off our baby making bits and spank ourselves for putting out too much CO2; while, in turn, there is no honest mainstream discussion (beyond political bantering) or opposition within the agencies and major environmental groups (Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, etc...) to the real environmental destroyers. I would argue that the real destroyers are the many national and international corporations who engage in environmentally destructive resource extractions among many other environmental, health damaging and socially destructive industrial endeavors (Nuclear energy, hydraulic fracturing, GMO). I would suggest that we would make a huge amount of progress if the environmental management and advocacy organizations would stop chasing grants and focus on an honest assessment of the issues and an honest dissemination of relevant information that is out there to the people. In doing so, perhaps we might all benefit as everyone aspires to reduce their CORPORATE footprint. When you expand the concept out and consider the idea that the average human is just another part of the human exhibit at the zoo; while subject to all the same stress induced behavioral manifestations (my head tends to bob sometimes), it paints quite a picture that might shed some light on a lot of the social ills that keep cropping up (cops = zoo keepers). Right now I’m picturing the president and his entourage pushing Queen Elizardbeth, Daddy Bush and Henry Kissinger around in their wheel chairs to check out the sites for their wonderful new “monkey” exhibits. (Probably a horrible conjugal visit for a select few).
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 16:03:08 +0000
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