BARBWIRE
by
 Little Eddie wept when informed that his $100 million gift had squeaked by
at the polls. Edward DeBartolo, Jr., had finally shown his dad, one of the
biggest shopping center developers in the world, that the son could go papa
one better: convince the public to subsidize half a billion in major mall
development.Tearful Junior had learned that retailing and politics are really the
same. It's all in the packaging. Wrap it in 49er red and the sheep will
give you their golden fleece, especially if you can convince the mayor to
dress up as Santa Claus.Of course, you have to spend money to make money. With the media
multiplying as fast at the population, it takes big bucks to adequately
influence the great unwashed into thinking right. Thus, last week we
witnessed the sorry spectacle of San Francisco 49er interests spending some
$2.5 million, some it tax-deductible, to convince San Francisco voters to
go tax themselves.Opponents raised only about five percent of DeBartolo's propaganda budget,
so their performance against the corporate welfare steamroller was quite
remarkable.Not so remarkable is that the vote could go DeBartolo's way in supposedly
bleeding heart liberal San Francisco. Look again. An organization called
Food Not Bombs has been trying to feed the poor in Baghdad by the Bay, with
brutal results."In San Francisco since 1988, Food Not Bombs members have faced over 1,000
arrests for such charges as trespassing and giving out food without a
permit," writes Jenna Ziman in this month's edition of Z Magazine (also
graced with a Calder Chism Daily Sparks Tribune cartoon)."The police have confiscated thousands of dollars of cooking equipment and
12 of the group's vehicles. In such cities as Montreal, Quebec City,
Arcata, Whittier, Chicago and San Diego, members sharing food with the
homeless population have been arrested, cited, photographed, videotaped,
interrogated and harassed by police. This pattern attests to the way many
cities are confronting the ills of society: by criminalizing poverty,"
Ziman writes.Governments can get away with this because officials have a weakness for
going with what works. The most successful political technique over the
past two centuries has been Social Darwinism, the totally fallacious
assumption that natural selection and survival of the fittest, which take
place over eons, also apply to short-term events. The arguably most
successful political figures of recent times have all sold some version of
Social Darwinism: from Hitler and Lenin to Theodore Roosevelt and a whole
raft of presidents who rationalized the conquest of the savage west in
Darwinian terms. It fit perfectly with the cowboy mystique of rugged
individualism. If you can't make it, there's something wrong with you. Go
someplace and die.Social Darwinism provided political cover for the rape and pillage of the
robber baron era a hundred years ago. It's still with us today. Food Not
Bombs would not be hassled without the police and politicians having been
convinced upfront that the hunger of the poor is their own damned fault.
Further, they should be discouraged from spawning and perpetuating their
flaws. This twisting of science bore bitter fruit when Hitler and Stalin
went to work at wholesale improvement of the breed through unnatural
selection by execution.Today, even polite company may talk about such things as keeping the poor
from having all those kids. Can the day be far off when we import the
techniques of mandatory abortion from our most favored trading partner, Red
China? We don't dare call it "genocide" or even the more modern euphemism,
"ethnic cleansing." No, corporate propagandists and think tank apologists
have come up with "personal responsibility." This is another example of
George Carlin syllable-creep: beware when a problem acquires an
increasingly longer and less human name. For example, "shell shock" became
"combat fatigue" and eventually "post-traumatic stress disorder."A few days ago, a reader from the University of Nevada called me. This
person is one of the most respected in his or her field. "I was educated in
my country, a poor country. But the education was free. America is the only
country where everyone must pay. This place is so rich, there is no reason
for anyone to be poor or homeless here. But there are, and even education
must turn a profit."Playing to the cowboy myth of standing alone is both dishonest and
historically inaccurate. Teamwork built this country. If you want to see
the benefits of every man for himself machismo, look at the flaky and
corrupt governments of Italy or Mexico.But tax-deductible corporate propaganda can apparently convince us that
down is up. It's perfectly alright for government to grant corporate
welfare (the textbook definition of fascism) but it's (gasp!) socialism to
help workers or the weak. They should take care of themselves, or move to
another state, or just curl up and die. Besides, too many of them sleep on
heating grates annoying paying customers standing in line for season
tickets.Money-losing sports facilities and subsidized redevelopments are an easy
sell just about everywhere. Look at the Oakland Coliseum and Reno's
National Bowling Stadium. Millions for the 49ers, but don't let those
do-gooders feed the homeless. Mr. DeBartolo even validated the Social
Darwinist marketing technique: the 49ers are like the homeless or stray
animals, don't feed us and we'll go away.Not all communities are so clueless. As I've written several times before,
states and municipalities all across the nation are passing living wage
laws. Baltimore led the way. Los Angeles and Minneapolis are among the
latest.They mandate that any company doing business at the public trough must pay
its workers a living wage, defined as the poverty line for a family of
four, about $7.75 an hour. Oddly enough, that's roughly the
inflation-adjusted 1968 minimum wage, in the peak year of U.S. dollar
buying power.Right wingers trash any government intervention as hurting the sacred free
market. That sacred cow is pure bull. There's no such thing as a free
market. Governments intervene all the time. Corporate propagandists have
made official meddling somehow acceptable for soul-less companies, but not
for their workers. That's why the eight-hour day and overtime pay are now
targeted for extinction in the house Newt built.Witness the sad fate of AB 506, the Displaced Workers Bill of Rights
killed by the Nevada assembly a few days ago. Every business entity in the
state came out to knife it. On the other side were trade unionists Tom and
Kathy Stoneburner and a few laid off workers. One had been fired six months
short of a 30-year pension and left with almost nothing.Jeff Ackerman, publisher of the Carson City Nevada Appeal, wrote more than
a thousand words against the bill, such as: "Corporate America came under
another attack by the oppressed brothers and sisters...looking for a sugar
daddy...sniveling...spoon-fed...mama's bosom...habitual complainers who
can't get off their duffs long enough to save themselves...world owes them
a living...Socialist manifesto...In the end it will be the private
businessman and businesswoman who will rescue the 'oppressed'...so long as
Big Brother butts out."Mr. Ackerman probably doesn't even know the history or authors of the
cruel gospel he unoriginally recited. So unfettered capitalism will cure
all that ails us? That means that those who cause our problems can be
trusted to solve them. If that's so, then please explain how more than
7,000 sweatshops employing almost a million workers can currently operate
in this country (according to the congressional General Accounting Office).Meanwhile, companies downsize, fire their own customers and ship jobs to
Bangladesh and Vietnam---all with liberal subsidies from us taxpayers who
find it increasingly hard to buy 49er t-shirts at Eddie Junior's malls.Be well. Raise hell.
Andrew Barbano is a Reno-based syndicated columnist and 28-year Nevadan.Barbwire by Barbano has appeared in the Sparks Tribune since 1988. This column originally published 6/8/97.Nevada Instant Type in Sparks and both Office Depot Reno locations. |
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