To the editor:
What we are dealing with is corruption. It comes to us in the form of economic development, a beast, constantly consuming/directing resources to thicken its lifeblood: capital gains.
At the heart of this corruption are people, leaders, businessmen and the lawyers who serve them — all unscrupulous and seemingly insulated by their positions in or around government, now primarily used to impose the dead-end solution of economic development.
Such people have failed to understand the course of economic development in modern history. In short, it has only financially benefited the few who worked to impose it, leaving most others out in the rain.
The negative psycho-social impact this kind of development has had would require reading a larger body of work for detail. Suffice it to say it has been damaging to our society; it undermined the confidence we had in the most basic structures of it.
The corrupt in power fail to understand how economic development has put our planet’s health in danger. (So far, what we have been hearing is that it’s simply not economically feasible at this point to deal with climate change. The market has yet to swing that way!)
Since the corrupt lack the moral compass required to understand a history they either don’t know or cannot care about, they are incapable of forming certain kinds of judgments. By following the numbers alone, they cannot apply any imagination to what they can do.
Besides moral understanding and the retention of some basic scientific knowledge, imagination is needed for the idealistic pursuit to end corruption. Without this understanding, practicality has no place in the function of our government.
Because well-informed practicality no longer has any play, governance has necessarily degenerated into a perverse form of gamesmanship which we are mainly spectators of. Those who play make up the rules (laws and ordinances) as they go along — without our consent and in the interests of those clandestine business partnerships.
This has been happening for a long time. Study economic development in Boston, for example, or the shady business deals that were designed to break unions in Detroit. Think back to the deaths of native peoples who lived too close to gold deposits. Look up the Economic Uncertainty Index, the Suit Index, the Fear Index.
Do this and you will see the heart and the nature of the men who serve it. You’ll hear what will ultimately be their hollow promises for prosperity.
Pushing economic development with so much debt accrued in a world thick with political uncertainty and fear on top of the opioid epidemic is done by the corrupt and the corruptible.
One of the greatest difficulties we face with these folk is that they believe that they are doing the right thing and that they are entitled to do it! Therein lies their stupidity and dangerous ignorance.
Consider community development, human development, as opposed to economic development.
Imagine a small village where its economy is well in place, understood and practiced — where there is cohesion, safety, and above all, contentment. Then you will see what we do not have. This lack people feel every day.
And remember, though the power of corrupt politicians and businessmen may extend beyond the imagination of anyone, they can be beaten by close scrutiny. Our whispers and knowledge, they must be beaten, for they have no shame.
Please consider these items. Doing so will keep us from allowing the corrupt to continue working on an uncertain future that few have hope for.
John Douglas, Nashville
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