In Dr Seuss's book, The Lorax, the Onceller is a faceless,
straightforward, capitalist exploiter who ruins the world of the Brown
Barbaloot's and Swammee Swans. He and his family whack down the forest of
truffulla trees to make thneeds (that everyone needs).
A thneed is
something of many uses - mainly its use is for the Onceller to make lots of
money from exploiting people's naivety, labour and of course, the natural finite
resources the ineffectual Lorax claims to speak for.
Now.
In the end, the Onceller loses it all. the land is degraded and devoid of all life and the Onceller sits in his tower, grieving over what he has done.
The Onceller is a
fool. He could have done it better.
He created
something everyone needs. A thneed. A thneed can be anything.
It can power homes. It can level cities. In the wrong hands a
thneed can be strapped to a missile and within forty minutes, it could
devastate London.
The only way these
thneeds can be controlled is in the hands of the state. But of course,
the Onceller would have problems extracting profits if the state where to own,
process, protect and "deliver" these thneeds.
If the Onceller
was to own these thneeds outright, if anything went wrong, he would be to
blame.
So.
How to extract
profit from something too dangerous for him to own?
Well...
Why not create
corporations that service, protect and even though delivery of these dangerous
thneeds is out of the question, why not create delivery systems that
will, of course, never be used?
Oh, but there is a
snag. what if the country elects representatives who either take
complete control of these weapons from servicing through to protecting,
engineering and delivery? That would be a disaster to the ambitions of
the Onceller family, who want to bigger and BIGGER and BIGGER!
In fact, such a
government - one that may decide to serve the people of the country rather than
the profit taking Onceller family, could take over all of
the important industries and run them democratically for the good of
the people!
No!
This would be a
disaster.
So...
The Onceller
family have to create a political atmosphere in which freedom of speech is
upheld, though within well defined and controlled parameters. Any talk of
"sharing" and "for the good of all" must be slapped down and
derided as "extremism."
A political party
or parties should be sponsored by the Onceller family (the more the merrier as
this will give the impression of democracy, even thought the parties all will
be controlled to ensure the parameters are kept). The party or parties
will speak about using the taxes collected from the people all in the name of
freedom and progress and growth and deliver the cash to the Oncellers accounts.
This party must be
helped by a Onceller owned PR company. This company must of course ensure
people know what has been created for them - ie. thneeds and ensure also they
know that it is what they all need. And need more and more of. The
company will control TV, radio, newspapers and wrestle the internet from the
people. The PR company will ensure people are more interested in the
colour of Cindy Lou's shoes than in how Whoville is run.
Together the Onceller
funded political party or parties and the Onceller run PR company will tell all
of the Whos in Whoville just what they need. Thneed power and Thneed
weapons to ensure evil Grinchy countries will not develop their own thneeds
that could be used against Whoville.
Now, the original
thneeds were made from truffulla trees. Everyone could see that these
trees were whacked down leaving a desolated land. The eco system
collapsed Easter Island style.
The Onceller could
have avoided this PR disaster.
He could have
bought off another country, its government and its resource rich land. A
country far far away from Whoville.
The ruler of this
country, lets call him President Grinch, could have been enriched, at a small
cost to the Onceller family corporation, and through international aid sent by
the Onceller political party, amd he or she could keep his army well fed and
ensure they are given privileges for slapping down any attempt by the
people of the country to push for democracy and control of their own resources
that are being spirited out of the country.
An evil dictator,
one that that Oncellers PR company can now and again, when the dictator does
something particularly vile, denounce and then ensure through the use of Cindy
Lou Who's night life or love life, that people soon forget.
Whoville keeps
it's Truffulla trees, but Grinchville is decimated.
The Truffulla
trees from Grinchville are transformed into an intercontinental ballistic
missile system that is serviced and protected by Onceller companies who charge
Whoville tax payers billions to create and service these useless things that
everyone needs.
And then the Onceller
turns to the water system, electricity, schools, hospitals, trains, policing,
prisons, care homes...
And everyone who
thinks taxes should be used directly to ensure these things are run for the
good of the people and not profit are denounced as evil Grinches...
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