"There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so"...

True about corporations, although the Democrats have had to at least pay lip service to various restraints on these organizations, while think-tanks and propaganda funded by businesses such as Koch Industries, which are more dependent on taking resources from the earth*, find ways to depict interference with their founders as an injustice. 

The Koch organizations, such as the “libertarian” Cato Institute, broaden this indignation to interference in any money-making enterprise.


There’s a long history of this kind of propaganda, a history I would have to tell in parts to do it justice. A good book on its origins is The Road from Mont Pelerin. (Some of this propaganda, however, had been around since the slave trade inspired 18th-Century economic thinkers on the true meaning of “freedom.”) The rise of socialism after WWI led a group of academics to join forces in Vienna in Privatseminars to oppose it, re-packaging “laissez-faire” economics in a wide variety of ways, all under the banner of “neoliberalism.”

The United States, still very influenced by social Darwinism and Christian puritanism, needed much less repackaging than other countries, so proponents there adopted the word “neoconservatism.” These views became dominant after Ronald Reagan took office, and hegemonic after the collapse of the Soviet Union.


My next post will discuss the role of Christian fundamentalism in this history.

*8/22/20 FN: Republicans (Such as former VP Cheney) are the traditional party of these industries, as a great scene in the 2018 film Vice shows. I can't find it on-line, but at 1:17:22 we are told that, per "FACA," an appropriate government employee must be present at meetings with these industries' representatives. A call is made to Doug, the receptionist at the department of energy, who has been working there for 3 months. When he arrives, they tell him to "just sit there and be quiet." When energy CEO's arrive and discuss Iraq, we briefly see Doug sitting just outside the room listening to what appears to be an ipod.
 
There seems to be a break in this tradition, though, as a recent Common Dreams article shows.

From Reagan’s presidency until today the Christian Right has controlled the Republican Party.


In foreign policy, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the faithful decided that the Bible demands that Israel control the Middle East and the US dominate the world. At home, as this article shows, they are also heavily influenced by Dominion Theology, calling for the “unfettered pursuit of profit” while engaged in “spiritual warfare” in what Pentacostal minister C. Peter Wagner calls “‘the Seven Mountains’ of modern society – family, religion, arts/entertainment, the media, education, business, and government.” Meanwhile, the supposedly rebellious Libertarians promote a slightly repackaged version of the same doctrine – Mises Institute contributor and Ron Paul aid Gary North is himself an extremely influential Dominionist.


I’ll finish this history in my next post.

Getting back to the environment, there are signs that people are seeing through all these obfuscations – Here’s an article about the global movement agroecology – Such news brings me hope for our “pale blue dot.”

It's pretty simple, "I can have easy money here and now, God'll take care of the rest and I'm going to heaven... fuck it!"

I thought we were talking about fossil fuels and alternative renewable energy sources... ?

I just found an interesting paper connecting the Spanish scholastics with the Austrian School of Economics – I thought I’d put it here for future reference.