Way back in a high school sociology class textbook I remember reading that the religious impulse is rooted in human nature and that as a species we are hardwired to believe in something greater than self and that this explained the myriad polytheistic and monotheistic cultures that came and went over the eons. If this is true, and I am not saying that it is, but if it were true perhaps it explains the almost childlike belief held by some of our local business leaders that if the county is just good and deserving, tithes the expected tax credits and exemptions, demonstrates unfailing faith and deference and holds weekly Wednesday rituals and genuflects to a higher corporate power then “everything is going to be alright“. Just put up the bat signal, (or music video), and a fierce, courageous, prescient and wise but also loving and benevolent Savior, Inc., will lead us to employment heaven.
This blind unwavering faith in the inherent benevolence, wisdom and magical powers of big business exhibited by the economic development crowd; the chamber, SCDC, the port and their publicity arm The World newsaper, despite all empirical and scientific evidence to the contrary is what divides them from the more skeptical or commercially irreligious in the county. When considering both the benevolence or wisdom of big business think of the enormously profitable chemical giant, Monsanto.
President Obama, who clearly worships big business, recently signed a bill dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act” which “…effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future”. To a Monsanto shareholder the company’s lobbying expenditures appear to be paying off in the near term, or at least quarterly, and sales of its Roundup ready genetically altered seeds have grown exponentially along with sales of its herbicides and insecticides. All good except that now there is proof that bee colonies, critical to maintaining the human food supply, are failing due to insecticides manufactured and distributed by Monsanto amongst others.
Without adequate food the population cannot continue to grow and without population growth the current business model employed by most corporations today cannot be sustained. There is nothing wise about about this strategy and it sure as hell isn’t benevolent. Coos County has seen this play out right here when companies like Weyerhaeuser and Georgia Pacific bought up local mills and cut down forests faster than they could recover and then just packed up and went to South America and Indonesia leaving the fragments of their temples behind.
Unfortunately, The World newspaper still has the biggest bullhorn in the county and is too entrenched in the local customs and folkloric beliefs and much too cowardly to separate news from propaganda and to really analyze and disseminate the news in such a way that the public can make informed decisions. Without a free and independent press democracy cannot survive and we the people cannot properly participate in our own governance. Watch this piece about the state of the media today.
To paraphrase George Carlin, I like people but I don’t like groups because sooner or later they expect you to wear silly hats.
Finally, it is just plain embarrassing that the local press are asking us to believe in fairy tales instead of doing the serious business of reporting the real facts and supporting the real backbone and major employer in this country and county, the many small businesses not mentioned in the chamber music video. It is infuriating that the paper tries to silence anyone who questions the official narrative with name calling and ridicule and it is high time the public demand and insist on excellence. We are mad as hell and we don’t have to take it anymore.
These guys have had decades to turn this county around, it is NOT for lack of funding, gawd knows they’ve blown through hundreds of millions of Other People’s Money, and they have failed, and failed miserably. No need to hate I suppose, they just have to admit reality and move forward, like Bandon and Florence, and hell, even Lincoln City. Every little burg all the way to Lincoln City has lured tourists and business to their waterfronts. Coos Bay?
You can eat at Bennetti’s and watch Sause and Knutson ply the waters, since they maneuvered Charley Yates out of the water.
Shameful and shameless and we HAVE to change course or we continue to falter and fail. Thank you Chamber for what you THINK you are doing. It ain’t working, perhaps it’s because you are heady with your new digs downtown? Look around next time you waddle into your offices in The People’s two million dollar “palace”, guess what? No glass slipper there.
The World is a newspaper managed by, and with inexperienced reporters, who are mere children. They are led by the lyrics writing professor from 76 Trombones who failed at managing and publishing one of the lowest circulation papers in the Lee family. There is little doubt why circulation drops about 10% annually I expect no more from that garbage can liner.
And once that insane amateurish chamber video gets wide exposure, we will not have to worry abut any business coming here. If I were the airport board trying to fill the business park, or the port trying to fill the North Spit, I’d burn all copies of the video and replace the strutting unfeathered peacock chamber queen with a professional.
Great minds think alike, Mary. That’s why I called my book “The JOB Messiahs”. Worldly Saviors who promise Economic Salvation by bringing us jobs. But they haven’t done even as well as the worst of the televangelists.
Thank you M.