SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the somebody-should-invent-a-cleaner-world dept.
Ever more the light seems to be shining in dark spots, and the cockroaches scatter. The Huffington Post reveals today that DuPont has knowingly been poisoning a small farm and community for decades, desperately trying to dump and hide the environmental, social, and medical fallout of their chemical C8. Despite their efforts, the scandal behind C8 cannot be so easily pushed down inside a landfill and forgotten like a painfully produced Atari video game. From the TFA:
That May, a group of DuPont executives gathered at the company's Wilmington headquarters to discuss the C8 issue. According to the minutes, attendees discussed recently adopted plans to cut C8 emissions at Washington Works, such as adding scrubbers to vents that spewed the chemical into the air. But they decided to scrap these initiatives. The additional expense was not "justified," the executives concluded, since it wouldn't substantially reduce the company's liability. "Liability was further defined as the incremental liability from this point on if we do nothing as we are already liable for the past 32 years of operation," the minutes read. "From a broader corporate viewpoint the costs are small."
One might think we would have learned our lessons from poisoning the world with lead, but clearly these executives never got the memo. Quite strange, given they're from the same company. I'm almost speechless at the scope of the harm and damage, knowingly and premeditatively, performed against all of humanity worldwide. The Chinese government announced today the arrests, and more than likely inevitable executions, of a score of executives and officials responsible for the Tianjin port explosions.
At what point does the harm that executives, in companies such as DuPont, meet thresholds high enough to discuss special prosecutions and the death penalty? When even China, who lacks a strong history of supporting human rights and consumer protections, recognizes that some executives and officials need to be "criminally detained" and ultimately dealt with, when can we in the so-called civilized Western societies perform the same? We've yet to even slow DuPont down.
[More after the Break]
DSM-IV Definition. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture. There is a marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules. Individuals with this disorder are sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths.
From the quote in the article (emphasis mine), can any reasonable person conclude that these executives do not need to be handed life sentences in prison at a minimum? It's not hyperbole to say that I could walk into a church, make racists statements, kill a half a dozen people, and receive a much harsher sentence than a group of executives that knowingly caused birth defects, miscarriages, cancers, among a myriad of other serious health conditions, up to and including grisly and pointless deaths. More maddeningly, to be commensurate, I would need to have children and begin a multi-generational attack on my fellow citizens to come close to what DuPont executives have done against a single community, much less the world.
It may be time to seriously, and a civilized manner, begin discussing how to bring these executives up on criminal charges, and even executing them. Especially helpful to remember in these discussions, that it is now TWICE that DuPont has knowingly poisoned the world and harmed MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of our fellow human beings . Forget about our reputation in the world now; We're the country that has deliberately been destroying the world for profit, and all of the documents and science exist to prove it.
So.... do we need a third time from the same company before we can start talking about preventative measures and justice?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 28 2015, @06:19PM
Thank you for writing this. It's a very important post. Without individual, personal legal culpability for the officers of corporations and board members, corporations will continue to run amok to the ruin of all, of the whole world and everything in it.
My experience as a long-time activist and student of the social sciences tells me we won't get anything close to that with our current systems of government--they're all too compromised by the status quo. They are paid to defend the status quo, not to seek the common good. The best people can now hope for is an occasional sacrificial lamb from that system, offered by the system, to keep the rabble at bay with weak comfort, "Sometimes the system does work..." But nothing systematic will change.
In the 21st century human society needs a revolution, in the broad sense of the word, to address all this. But we need a better model for revolution. The traditional varieties of bloody turnover have almost invariably re-created tyranny in different form, because people willing to kill and countenance slaughter to overturn power structures nearly always afterward say to themselves, "To the victor go the spoils..." But we also can't count on a system to reform itself, because we have seen that even within a system like America's with its Checks & Balances, that corruption and regulatory capture can defeat all systemic channels for redress.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday August 28 2015, @11:30PM
I feel thankful to a couple of people for their writings here, you included.
These revelations, among others in the last few years, have been quite shocking to me. It's not lost on me that I passionately argued for executions here. I'm a pacifist dude.
I agree that we can't have a bloody revolution. The hard truth is that I sincerely want to punch Obama in the face, but I would never wish him death or real harm (Doubt I could actually punch him anyways). Same goes for several senators that are amazingly passionate about the surveillance state and abridging our rights. Still doesn't justify any kind of harm coming to their persons. I will argue to the very bitter end that they are wrong, but I would afford them every kindness and human dignity in real life that I could. I think I could actually have a beer with McCain and be sincere when I thank him for his military service.
With these executives of DuPont? I would have them shot like dogs in the street, because that pragmatism is how you deal with monsters like ISIS/ISIL. Some men you can't negotiate with, nor rehabilitate. Some men literally will want to watch the world burn for their selfish pleasures, and only killing them stops them completely. That or a cement box to keep them in.
Some men (and women) are just monsters. Not assholes, but real life monsters walking amongst us that have no regard for human life.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:34AM
I can't disagree with that. Sociopaths who rationalize murder and poisoning societies have consciously committed their crimes. They deserve no sympathy from the community of man.
Washington DC delenda est.