[Oe List ...] Wal-Mart and the weapons of mass destruction

[Herman Greene]

This well illustrates the ambivalence many of us feel and the difficulty we
have in making decisions about what is good for us and the Earth in our
economy. In the Center for Ecozoic Studies we are committed to "offering a
vision of an ecozoic society." An ecozoic society is a "society of life."
What is the best economy/politics/culture that promotes and sustains life in
a positive way? It's not something we of CES know the answer to, but it is
something we have opened a dialogue about. I hesitate to send you to our
current website, which is www.ecozoicstudies.com
<http://www.ecozoicstudies.com/> , because we will soon launch our new site
that is quite different. Still I have no where else to send you now. For the
last seven years we have published The Ecozoic Reader: Critical Reflection,
Story and Shared Dream Experience of an Ecological Age. We will soon launch
our new publication The Ecozoic: Reflections on Life in an Ecological Age.
We pick the term ecological because it is the most available term denoting
an interdependent, dynamic, diverse community of beings. It could be thought
of along the lines of "The Earth Belongs to All"  when all includes all
beings. 

 

Our next issue of The Ecozoic or "TE" will be on "cosmology and the ecozoic
society." Cosmology concerns what kind of universe do we live in and what is
Earth in the Universe? It also concerns "What is 'man' that thou are mindful
of 'him'"? The next following issue will be simply "Thomas Berry" and
reflections will be invited on "What Thomas Berry means to me?" The third
and final issue this year will be on "The Wisdom of Indigenous People."
Anyone is invited to submit articles/poetry/art/photos for these issues. Let
me know if you would like membership information (which includes a
subscription to TE).

 

I will describe what we are trying to do a bit more in later emails. This is
one way that we of OE can bring our wisdom and experience forward as social
pioneers.

 

Herman  

 

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of PSchrijnen at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 1:02 AM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Wal-Mart and the weapons of mass destruction

 

>From an April Fools day joke to an interesting conversation. 

 

Supermarkets have made it possible to provide superb produce all through the
year at extremely low prices. And of course, if they didn't provide
better/cheaper goods they wouldn't have put local shops out of business.
Here in my neighbourhood in London we have a mile a way a large supermarket
and a third of a mile a way lots of local grocery shops. Some products are
better in the supermarkets some in the local shops. They complement each
other nicely, given that people still walk to shops here. We use both. 

 

There is a small, but growing movement in the UK of buying food that is
grown locally, not so much in London for obvious reasons, but more in the
country side. And of course the supermarkets work closely with this. They
like to have their cake and eat it to, sell local produce at competitive
prices and provide the broad range of stuff most of us buy for a weekly
shopping list. 

 

Did the local shops in Ada go out of business because people stopped walking
to the shops or because they didn't provide good enough goods? Or some
combination of both? 

 

The Vermont experiment is interesting. But there is another side.  Do I want
my politicians to decide who can sell what? Before China closed its doors in
1750 it was the worlds most thriving economy. Obviously there must be
something in the water there that gets people to be entrepreneurial, as soon
as politicians step aside. 

 

Also, markets need regulation as the sub-prime disaster has clarified even
to hard nose investment bankers like Henry Paulson.  But given the state of
poverty in many western countries,  I wouldn't want to stop people being
able to provide for their families with the best produce for the cheapest
price. 

 

I was on holiday in Italy on a farm where Joshua (now 6) and I could pick
our vegetables every day to prepare them for dinner. They also made their
own wine. I did have to travel about a 1000 miles to get there, but it was
worth it. A highly valued experience from the good old days. 

 

Paul

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