Hey Everyone!! :-)
I'm back with another peek at what Alyce is up to, today. Whoever knew it could all be so complicated? ;-) Enjoy!
Excerpt from science fiction satire novel:
I gestured at the office scene. "So that's supposed to be a politician taking a bribe from the company that is causing this destruction?"
"Correct. We thought that displaying the two scenes side-by-side would help make the connection between them obvious."
"Well, the end result is what happens, but it's not quite as obvious as just shoving a bunch of cash at someone. At least, not usually."
"What do you mean?"
I pointed at the office scene. "There are laws prohibiting that kind of thing. Some politicians might break them, but there are ways around them that don't carry the risk of going to prison, so that's usually what they do."
"Can you elaborate?"
"Well, the most common way for people to legally bribe politicians is to make campaign contributions to them. They give them money that the politicians can use to help them get elected again. But there are laws limiting how much money people can give directly to politicians, so a lot of the time corporations and rich donors who want favors from politicians will give money to PACs ̶ Political Action Committees ̶ that work to help get politicians elected. Technically, politicians aren't allowed to be directly involved with PACs or to coordinate election strategy with them, but they can usually get around that because it's hard to track. Not that anyone tries all that hard."
"So wealthy people give money to these PACs and then politicians allow them to pollute your planet? And why does no one attempt to investigate if a politician is not following the laws regarding these PACs?" asked Squid-boy.
"Mostly no one investigates because the investigations would be done by either law enforcement or the media. Law enforcement works for and is controlled by politicians, and almost all politicians skirt those laws, so they don't want to encourage investigations of that kind. And large corporations that sometimes want to be able to legally bribe politicians own the media; at least, they own the media that has the largest audience. So, they don't allow their employees to pursue investigations into violations of those laws, either."
"As for your first question, it's not quite that direct, either. It's not so much that politicians allow certain companies to just pollute, usually. That can happen, but it's not how it's usually handled. What they do is either repeal or refuse to pass legislation that would regulate manufacturing practices and waste disposal. So, since there's no law against dumping chemicals in rivers, and it's cheaper to just dump the chemicals in the river than to dispose of them safely, corporations end up polluting. Because from their perspective there's no reason not to."
"But don't your people wonder why their representatives allow such a lack of regulation when it results in danger to your populace and damage to your planet? How do they justify not having those laws?" asked Yax.
"Well, that's kind of complicated, too."
He gave me his Devil's grin again. "We have time."
"It's a lot of things that combine to allow the status quo to continue. First, people are pretty busy just trying to make a living. It's hard for most people to take the time to really look into what's going on and untangle it all. Especially, since, as I said, the mainstream media doesn't do anything to enlighten the public because the companies that own them are often involved in the corruption."
"Since people are so busy, they're mostly dependent on what they hear on the news. And, generally speaking, the news just reports what politicians say. It's rare that they do any fact-checking or challenge the assertions politicians make. So a lot of people just think that what the politicians say is true."
"But it often isn't true. A lot of them pretend that there's no scientific evidence showing that the pollution damages the planet or that the changes in the climate aren't caused by human activity. They lie and claim that contaminated water doesn't make people ill, that there's some other reason for people who live in areas where the water is polluted to be sick. Or they lie and say the water isn't contaminated at all and try to prevent anyone from testing it, or if it is tested they try to prevent the test results from becoming public."
"That's incredible!" cried Yax. "How can anyone believe them?"
"Some people believe them because they don't understand the science and they don't want to believe the government would lie to them. Most people don't believe them, but they're too busy to think about it much if it doesn't affect them directly. And, again, the mainstream media doesn't do anything to bring it to their attention. Anyone who does try to bring public awareness to these problems is discredited as hysterical or unreliable or biased against business. Corporations spend a lot of money ensuring that politicians won't regulate them and they don't want public outcry to override their bribes, so they work pretty hard to make sure that people don't pay attention to what they're doing."
"But I do not understand, how do they hide it? The effects of their actions are being felt by your entire planet," interjected Squid-boy waving his tentacles around his head.
I shrugged. "The effects of climate change are just starting to be felt by most people. And it's not as if what is happening is new; it's just more intense and happening more often. Storms like hurricanes and tornadoes, droughts, floods, wildfires, these are all things that have always happened. It's easy for politicians to lie and say that just because the storms are larger and more frequent, or the wildfires happen more often and in more places, that isn't evidence of climate change. Or, if it is, that it isn't caused by anything humans are doing."
Squid-boy made a gurgling sound. "But that is patently absurd! Even your own scientists are in agreement; the evidence is overwhelming that the pollutants your species has been dumping into the environment for more than a century is a direct cause of the changes in your planetary climate. No rational dispute of these facts can exist!"
I snorted. "And what ever gave you the idea that human beings are rational, sugar? A lot of people don't want to believe it because their political opponents say it's true. And the politicians they like say it isn't true. And the media they listen to either says it isn't true or doesn't talk about it at all."
"So they disregard evidence and deny facts? That's nonsensical!" exclaimed Yax.
I gave him a wry smile. "Welcome to America."
Now Out:
Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/2J40wLq
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/2UODFWv
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