Collision Course – Kerryn Higgs

It matters not one iota what political party is in power, or what President holds the reins of office. We are not politicians, or public thinkers; we are the rich; we own America; we got it, God knows how; but we intend to keep it if we can by throwing all the tremendous weight of our support, our influence, our money, our political connection, our purchased senators, our hungry congressmen, and our public-speaking demagogues into the scale against any legislation, any political platform, any Presidential campaign, that threatens the integrity of our estate.

—Frederick Townsend Martin, 1911 Propaganda: “Business Finds Its Voice” The engineering of consent is the very essence of the democratic process, the freedom to persuade and suggest. —Edward Bernays, 1947 Corporate propaganda directed outwards, that is, to the public at large, has two main objectives: to identify the free enterprise system in popular consciousness with every cherished value, and to identify interventionist governments and strong unions (the only agencies capable of checking the complete domination of corporations) with tyranny, oppression and even subversion.…

The subject embraces a 75-year-long multi-billion dollar project in social engineering on a national scale. —Alex Carey, 1997 The Corporation and Persuasion The big corporation entered the US economy at the end of the nineteenth century and soon began to adopt professional public relations in its struggle with its opponents: first to counter popular resentment at the destruction of pre-corporate patterns of ownership and everyday life, then to contain dissatisfaction with the cataclysmic failure of the corporate economic system from 1929 to the beginning of World War II.

Corporations applied the new advertising techniques, so successful in the incitement of consumption as a guarantee of ongoing growth (see chapter 5), to the promotion of the capitalist system itself. They proposed what they called “free enterprise” as the natural path to the “good life,” defined as a life of material comfort and abundance.

© 2014 Kerryn Higgs All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Higgs, Kerryn, 1946– Collision course : endless growth on a finite planet / Kerryn Higgs. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-02773-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-262-32092-4 (retail e-book) 1. Economic history—1971–1990.

2. Economic history—1990– 3. Economic development—Moral and ethical aspects. 4. Economic policy—Moral and ethical aspects. 5. Free enterprise. 6. Sustainable development. I. Title. HC59.H523 2014 330.9—dc23 2014003794 1kitap1.com/en For Meg and Freddy, in the hope that the world you inherit will come to its senses soon. 1kitap1.com/en If we are concerned about our great appetite for materials, it is plausible to seek to increase the supply, to decrease waste, to make better use of the stocks that are available, and to develop substitutes.

But what of the appetite itself? Surely this is the ultimate source of the problem. If it continues its geometric course, will it not one day have to be restrained? Yet in the literature of the resource problem this is the forbidden question. Over it hangs a nearly total silence. It is as though, in the discussion of the chance for avoiding automobile accidents, we agree not to make any mention of speed!

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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