If it gets big enough someone will create a conspiracy theory about how evil it is. Even soy has its detractors. Oil, for sale banks, pharm tobacco, more about ticketmaster, De Beers, the federal government, and the military-industrial partnerships seem to deserve some amount of derision. But Microsoft? Google? Soy? Where do we draw the line?
6 thoughts on “Big Soy”
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Concentration of power makes people uneasy because we intuitively understand that such entities cannot really measure the harm that they do, and so do not even have the opportunity to control their behavior. Monetary reward is the only real feedback such entities get, and money only measures localized utility, not global harm.
It’s not about specific behavior – one group might think an action constitutes “conspiracy” and another group, seeing the opposite action, would also label it “conspiracy”. It’s about fear. And the only way to get rid of that fear is to limit concentration of power, period.
I think this is a real trend: our large organizations have taken actions that, while not really conspiracy, are certainly incompetent (Lehman) and corrupt (Catholic church). Power brokers have become complacent in assigning responsibilities to their cronies (such as GWB’s appointment of the incredibly unqualified and incompetent Mike Brown to FEMA, or the Enron board of directors allowing Ken Lay to run the show).
It makes sense to limit concentration of power, just like it makes sense to limit the weight of personal automobiles. Car crashes will always happen, but if the momentum is reduced, the harm will be reduced. Incompetency (and yes, evil) will always happen but if the size of the entity is limited the harm will be limited, too.
josh: well said. I think you have hit at the crux of the issue. Thanks.
I agree with Josh here. To put it simply, concentration of power or attention creates conspiracy. It can be viewed either positively or negatively depending on how one will view it. While conspiracies may be done on these large names or products, still the popularity never dies. They are just there. They continue. I guess the question here is not where we should draw the line but how. People are going to create conspiracies. I somehow view it as a natural part of nature.
I’ve always found it best to sell conspiracy rumours
All it takes to form a conspiracy is for two people to plan to take advantage of another. In a world with economic agenda, conspiracies abound!
Well! thats quite natural.
And I totally agree with this phrase in first comment.
“It’s not about specific behavior – one group might think an action constitutes “conspiracy†and another group, seeing the opposite action, would also label it “conspiracyâ€. It’s about fear. And the only way to get rid of that fear is to limit concentration of power, period.”