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Explore, enjoy and protect the planet |
 
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Letter from the Chair
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to Sierrans: Al Gore may have been the star celebrity at the recent Sierra Summit*, but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s barn-burning speech about the corrupting influence of corporate money on American politics and media and the consequent threat to democracy, healthy capitalism and environmental protection was nothing short of astonishing. The speech was the kind of masterful political advocacy that surpasses even Tony Blair’s considerable rhetorical talents. I can only scratch the surface of his thesis in this column; you must read the transcript (at http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org) to fully appreciate his arguments and the passion that underlies them. “The only way we can protect the environment is by ensuring our democracy…because without that we lose all of the other things that we value”. According to Mr. Kennedy, the greatest threat to our democracy is the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics and media. This is not a diatribe against corporations and capitalism. He recognizes the positive role that corporations play in our economy and calls himself a strong advocate for free-market capitalism. But corporations are “amoral” (neither moral nor immoral). They are, by law, concerned with maximizing shareholder value, and they are incapable of exercising the kind of moral judgments that democracy demands. Therefore, he says, they should not participate in the political process. This is not a new idea or a partisan one held solely by Democrats. He points to similar sentiments expressed by Republicans Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower (who famously warned of the danger of the “military industrial complex”). Corporate money in politics – “a system of legalized bribery” - promotes corruption that is ignored by a news media similarly controlled by corporate money. An example is the fox-in-the-henhouse phenomenon – staffing agencies charged with protection of the public good with industry lobbyists who subvert the very laws they’re supposed to be enforcing. But Americans – most of whom get their news from talk radio and television networks dominated by the right - aren’t aware of this; they don’t see a connection between corporate campaign donations and a diminution of our environment and quality of life because: “[W]e have a negligent and indolent media and press in this country which has absolutely let down American democracy…The news departments have become corporate profit centers. They no longer have any obligation to benefit the public interest; their only obligation is to their shareholders, and they fulfill that obligation by increasing viewership…by entertaining us, by appealing to the prurient interests that all of us have in the reptilian core of our brain for sex and celebrity gossip. So they give us Laci Peterson and Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant, and today we’re the best-entertained and the least-informed people on the face of the earth.” This is no minor complaint. “[T]he news media in this country is letting down American democracy, and democracy cannot survive long without a vigorous news media.” And if we lose our democracy, we will lose the battle to protect the environment. What exactly are we fighting for? Environmentalists have been unfairly marginalized as “tree huggers…pagans who worship trees and sacrifice people”. But Mr. Kennedy describes our motivations as anthropocentric: we fight to ensure our children’s health, to preserve the infrastructure of our economy, to protect our cherished traditions, and to preserve the nature that inspires our culture and nurtures our spirit. Americans have been sold a false choice of economic prosperity vs. environmental protection. The truth is that “good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy”. If we “treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation”, we can enjoy “a few years of pollution-based prosperity”, but it will be an illusory prosperity whose real costs will borne by our children. I have left out so much in this short review. Read the transcript and let the power of the words and the passion of his voice speak directly to you, and be moved. Ann Drumm *See my column in the October Compass for a review of Mr. Gore’s speech. |