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Wednesday November 27, 2002 10:32
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Prisoners of the capitilist regime.
Totalitarian Capitalism
Corporations are seizing the genome, but that's only the beginning
By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 29th June 2000
Nearly everyone debating the mapping of the human genome now
agrees on
one thing: that the identification of our genes invokes an
unprecedented danger, as it might assist a handful of companies to
seize something which belongs to all of us. I wish this were true.
Terrifying as the impending capture of the essence of humanity is,
it
is far from unprecedented. The attempt to grab the genome is just
one
of many symptoms of a far graver disease. We are entering an age
of
totalitarian capitalism, a political and economic system which, by
seizing absolute control of fundamental resources, destitutes
everyone
it excludes.
On Saturday I met a campaigner from Kerala in southern India, who
told
me that, to the tribal people he works with, the ownership of land
is
as inconceivable as the ownership of air would be in the northern
hemisphere. I told him the bad news. In several American cities,
blocks of air, which (once legally transferred to a suitable site)
allow their owners to build skyscrapers, change hands for tens of
millions of dollars. There have been a number of legal disputes
over
the ownership of clouds, as firms battle for the right to make
them
drop their rain where they want it. Companies are now claiming
they
own asteroids and landing spaces on the moon.
None of these presumptions is any more absurd than the claim to
possess exclusive control over part of our own planet. But, as
property rights proliferate, almost everything which once belonged
to
all of us is being seized.
In Britain, for example, despite repeated pledges by the
government,
playing fields and allotments are disappearing faster than ever
before. Public squares are being turned into private shopping
malls.
Traditional stopping sites for travellers, some of which survived
for
five millennia, have nearly all disappeared over the last 15
years.
Knowledge is rapidly becoming the exclusive preserve of those who
can
afford to buy it. Intellectual property companies are monopolising
image banks and picture archives, while academic publishers,
concentrated in ever fewer hands, are able to charge outrageous
prices
for access to the work they publish. Companies are asserting
ownership
in perpetuity of the material in their electronic databases. A
firm
called West Publishing has tried to insist that it owned the
entire
archive of US federal law.
The biotech companies have been empowered to seize the human
genome by
the very people - Tony Blair and Bill Clinton - who are now
begging
them not to do so. Blair's government helped drive through the
European directive on the legal protection of biotechnological
inventions, which enables private companies to claim not only
human
genes, but also plant and animal varieties and even human body
parts.
Every asset, once secured by the new totalitarian regime, is
surrounded by a Berlin Wall equipped with border guards. There are
ranches in the United States in which you would be shot on sight
if
you tried to take a walk. Disproportionate responses to the
feeblest
threats are assisted by the private prison and security industries
now
seizing control of another fundamental asset: human freedom. We
cross
the economic frontiers at our peril.
The worst global inequality in history is a direct result of this
totalitarian capitalism. Two hundred people now own as much wealth
as
half the world's population for the simple reason that they have
been
empowered to steal it from the rest of us.
This empowerment emerges from an unwholesome union of neoliberal
economics and feudal law. Our legal framework, which pre-dates
democracy, protects property above individuals and individuals
above
society. We can't expect our governments to address this inversion
of
democratic priorities. The three men who could begin to reform our
legal system - the Home Secretary, The Lord Chancellor and the
Prime
Minister - are all lawyers, and all wedded (literally in the Prime
Minister's case) to the profession which benefits from its
iniquities.
Property-based law favours the interests of the rich, which, in
turn,
favours the interests of its practitioners.
The walls rising around us are beginning to look impregnable. But
before we can decide how they might best be demolished, we must
first
recognise that the enclosure of the human genome is just a single
cell
in the privatised global prison the new regime has built.
29 Jun
2000
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Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2>Reclaim the genome
>
> > >Is a universal arts / scientific / legal / political
project /
> > >demonstration / movement / happening starting 2001 and
staging
> > >throughout Earth. It shall mark the first reading of
the Human Genome.
>
>'Reclaim the genome' is een universeel artistiek /
wetenschappelijk /
>legaal
>/ politiek project / beweging / happening gestart in 2001, als
reactie op
>de ontrafeling van het menselijk genoom en kent navolging over de
hele
>wereld.
>
> > >Humanity has been (as of 1 Dec 2000) reduced to 30,000
repetitions of
> > >four chemicals.
>
>Sinds 1 dec 2000 is de mensheid gereduceerd tot zo'n 30.000
opeenvolgingen
>van slechts 4 moleculen. Er zijn meer dan 6 500 000 000 mensen.
>
> > >There are over 6.500.000.000 humans.
> > >Over a period of nine months two different groups of
scientists
> > >worked to unravel the complete sequence of DNA, the
blueprint of a
> > >human being.
>
>In een periode van negen maanden werkten twee verschillende
groepen
>wetenschappers aan de kartering van de volledige keten van DNA, de
>blauwdruk
>van het menselijk wezen.
>
> > >There were chosen 16 anonymous American volunteers for
the little
> > >book of humanity, or a book of little humanity?
>
>Er werden 16 anonieme Amerikaanse vrijwilligers gekozen voor het
boekje van
>de menselijkheid, of zouden we beter zeggen het boek van weinig
>menselijkheid?
>
> > >We want 30,000 images photographic or art of humanity
as created.
> > >one for each gene of the genome.
>
>Voor elk gen van het genoom, en de definiëring van de chemische
>samenstelling ervan, willen wij 30.000 kunstige of fotografische
indrukken
>van het menszijn.
>
> > >We fear that mankind might now encouraged by money and
ambition
> > >attempt to create a new 'humanity'.
>
>Wij vrezen dat de mens, nu geld en ambitie meer dan ooit zijn
doen en laten
>beheersen, er toe aangezet wordt een nieuwe 'mensheid' te creëren,
>(schoongemaakt van alle ongemakken die het leven divers en
interessant
>maken, de basis van het leven tot nu toe?)
>
> > >We find such a thought ... terrible or wonderful?
>
>Vinden wij deze gedachte ... verschrikkelijk ... of wondermooi?
>
> > >We want 30,000 scientific opinions.
>
>Wij willen 30.000 wetenschappelijke opinies.
>
> > >Reclaim Genetic is also an educational project.
>
>Reclaim Genetic is ook een edukatief project.
>
> > >Why do the general public not know about such important
issues?
> > >We want 30,000 general opinions.
>
> > Want waarom weet het overgrote deel van de bevolking niet
af van zo'n
>essentiële toekomstbepalende factor? Wij willen 30.000 algemene
opinies.
>
> > >What do you think?
>
>En wat denk jij?
>
> >
> > >How will this science affect insurance, ethics, the
future
> > >generations?
>
>Hoe zal deze wetenschap de bescherming, ethiek en de toekomstige
generaties
>beïnvloeden? Wat zijn de kenmerken van deze kleine groep mensen
die het
>hele
>menszijn willen (en zullen?) veranderen? Door wie en wat zullen
zij
>gefinancierd worden? Wie zijn zij die hiervan niet afweten? Wie
is de
>mensheid? Wie heeft het recht hierover te beslissen? Wie heeft
het recht te
>bepalen welke weg de mensheid op moet gaan? Is dat niet aan de
mensen
>zelf? Is er zoiets als het recht op eigen zeggenschap van elk
persoon,
>toegepast op de mensheid als identiteit?
>
>(die laatste zin begrijp ik niet goed.)
>
> > >We do this for humanity's sake.
>
>Wij doen dit in het belang van het mensdom.
>
> > >We mount this manifestation wherever humanity is.
>
>We zetten deze manifestatie op, overal waar mensen zijn.
>
> > >Because maybe We are humanity.
>
>Omdat wij zelf de mensheid zijn.
>
> > >We may wonder will there be copyright on our genes?
>
>Wij vragen ons af: bestaat er auteursrecht op onze eigen genen?
>
> > >Without legal guidelines insurance companies may now
refuse cover to
> > >those with flawed DNA...
>
>Zonder ethische wetten kunnen verzekeringsmaatschappijen nu
weigeren hen te
>verzekeren die een 'foutje' in hun DNA dragen.
>
> > >We wish to see a universal human rights declaration
appropriate to
> > >what we believe is a universal wish to halt such
research.
>
>Wij willen een declaratie van de rechten van de mens die, wat wij
denken
>een
>universele wens is, dit soort onderzoek een halt toe roept.
>
> > > We ask for 30,000 legal depositions to assist our
governments in
> > >their search for resolutions and new human rights.
>
>Wij vragen 30.000 legale verklaringen om onze regeringen te
ondersteunen in
>hun zoektocht naar resoluties en nieuwe mensenrechten.
>
Specifiek achtergrondmateriaal is beschikbaar.
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