Bill,
and Sphere of Balance,
I wish I could contribute more. I don't have the internet at home now. I'll look into the acoustics issue - but expect limited improvement. In order to counter this problem - I'll post my script here. Thanks for your suggestions on presentation - the first two or three videos were really awful. I'm getting better, but I decided against looking directly into the camera, and I'm happy with that decision. Anyhow...this video picks up on your comments overleaf that seek to attribute blame to the rich.
http://youtu.be/xkgysLObEY8
On Blame.
The religious, political and economic ideological architecture of societies is not merely a false rationale for action - but perverts the very calculus of moral reason. Amplified by the inclusive/exclusive dynamic of religious, political and economic identity - in terms of which the other is not morally justified, but disregarded, or else demonized, the accident of inter-ideology throws up endless variations upon the same viscious theme: Catholics and Protestants, Christians and Muslims, Shia and Sunni, Isrealis and Palestinians, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R, rich and poor, slaves and slave owners, capitalists and the environment. In each case the ideologically defined 'other' is excluded from moral consideration by the ideological rationale - that by constituting self-justification, not merely defines the purpose of action, but provides the moral compulsion to act. Acting rightly, but in relation to ideological falsities believed to be true, great evils have been, and are being justified.
Denial of the developmental nature of knowledge - from 'less and worse' to 'more and better' over time, is unfortunately a feature of all religions. Looking backward to divine authority for fixed, sacred truths, this backward relation to knowledge informs political and economic ideology. Thus excused any responsibility to truth, or to reform in face of subsequent discovery - ideologically justified political dynamics and economic practices remain past any value they may once have possessed, even unto becomming the cause of great harm. For example, in the founding document of capitalism, 'the Wealth of Nations' 1776, Adam Smith argues: '...it's not the generosity of the butcher and baker that provides my supper, but their self-interest.' It's a seemingly reasonable argument when applied to a village economy in which all parties are included and morally equivalent. However, taken as a fixed, sacred truth, that same ideological justification of self-interest prompted Exxon-Mobil to release millions of gallons of carcinogenic sludge into the water-course in Venusueala, rather than spend money on waste-water re-injection. The people and environment of Venusuela were external to the ideologically defined interests of Exxon-Mobil, and weighed against an imperative to profit - were simply disregarded.
Another of the principle philosophical justifications of capitalist ideology is Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons' - which justifies private ownership on the grounds that any freely available resource will be over-exploited. Again, applied to common grazing land the logic of the argument seems sound, but the massive heat energy of the earth's molten core is a freely available resource that could supply the whole world with an effectively limitless supply of clean energy. Why is that not over-exploited? There is not in fact any scarcity of energy, but becuase scarcity increases the value of an owned resource - fossil fuel companies have no motive to apply renewable energy technology, even as oil runs short. So we're heading into an energy crisis as a species divided by ideological falsities - and having applied science to political ends, are armed with nuclear weapons. Driven to..., and prevented from..., by the rationale of ideologies false to reality - humankind will become extinct.
Only by accepting a scientific understanding of reality are we forgiven, and can we forgive. A scientific conception of reality - physics, chemistry, biology, evolution and anthropology imply that the earth is a single planetary environment, that humankind is a single species, and that the ideological constructs of societies occured only really quite recently in the development of knowledge from 'less and worse' to 'more and better' over time. A coherent scientific understanding of reality is more recent still - such that, while true that the Catholic Church made a Grand Mistake not embracing science at the point of conception, the long view of our evolutionary history allows that, we really didn't know any better. We need to correct that mistake, to accept a scientific understanding of reality in common, that subsequent generations do not inherit the deathbed grudges we bear - for they will be better people living in a better world, the real world we would have inhabited had we known then what we know now.
