(This was originally Item #2 in
THE PROBLEMS WE GET INTO WHEN WE DO NOT HAVE A SEPARATION OF POWERS BETWEEN THE STATE AND COMMERCE: JANE JACOBS
The GM rice and GM flax outrage is part of the Democracy Movement that is currently sweeping over North America.
It illustrates one of the WHY’s we don’t have democracy in Canada or in the U.S.
If a people fail to maintain a separation of powers between the commercial and governance (guardianship) functions in their society, they succumb to corruption. The current situation is completely predictable.
There are steps that must be taken to evolve, or to strengthen democracy. But those evolutions will be futile if we don’t also get the corporations out of Government (bureaucracy and agencies) and out of the Universities. I say this from experience and on the authority of:
Jane Jacobs’ book Systems of Survival (1992).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_of_Survival
Jacobs describes “two fundamental and distinct ethical systems, or systems of survival as she calls them. These systems supply ethical direction in the conduct of human life.
Jacobs uses the term “ethical syndrome” rather than “ethical system”. “Syndrome” in her usage does not mean “disease” or “disorder”, but merely, from its Greek roots, “set of elements that go together”. She argues that each syndrome arose naturally out of different modes of human behavior, but that they can conflict and cause serious problems if not understood.
(INSERT: the two sets of ethics are different because they each serve a different functional need of the society, one evolved for the guardianship of resources and the other for the commercial function of the society.)
The subtitle is “A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics”
In the preface, Jacobs explains, “This book explores the morals and values that underpin viable working life. Like the other animals, we find and pick up what we can use, and appropriate territories. But unlike the other animals, we also trade and produce for trade. Because we possess these two radically different ways of dealing with our needs, we also have two radically different systems of morals and values – both systems valid and necessary.” [1]
The end point is that if a people do not understand and if they allow the “two radically different systems of morals and values” to be used in the wrong territory (commerce in government and vice versa), corruption is the consequence. Jacobs points to Africa for example. Today we needn’t look so far.
The GM flax and rice stories are testament to the need to get the corporations out of Government and out of the Universities, the separation of powers that is critical to prevent the corruption of the democracy, a thing we must achieve if we are to be successful in the Democracy Movement.
Rallies for democracy (No Prorogue) and work on Proportional Representation are not sufficient. Corporatocracy is running the show through politicians, but MORE IMPORTANTLY through the bureaucracy, agencies of Government and through the “educational” system, our Universities.
The values of corporatocracy are in direct conflict with democratic values. We will not evolve democracy unless we are able to separate the powers. The quislings working within Government and the University on behalf of the corporate interest must be sent out of Government. They belong on the corporate payroll, not on ours.
It is up to us, through Government, to fund our universities. Corruption is inevitable when the Government hands over governance AND sells our universities (the knowledge base) to the corporations.