So the question becomes: How are the wage-slaves and ground level grunts (the ones working at these companies and thinking they’re helping to better society) to be reached with the knowledge that what they’re doing is counter-productive? How do you make a compelling case to someone that they’re the problem and not the solution? Further, how to you get them to take action to make a change? Especially when that change would mean turning their back on their source of income?
There are some similarities to our present political situation here in the US, but this is more than just a political allegory. It is a very real question that reaches to the roots of the human condition. We humans, for all our abilities, are capable of incredible self-destructive stupidity, and we seem to revel in that.
FWIW, I’m squarely in this boat. I’m guilty of assisting in turning my industry on its head, and possibly in a way that might not be helpful to the greater good. The coward’s refuge is to suggest that if I weren’t doing it, someone else would be, so it’s inevitable and we’re all fucked no matter what. But that’s my easy fallback when I think about what it would mean not to have a paycheck. I’d imagine I’m not the only one here in that boat, though I wish I was. I’m really conflicted. I recognize that this is no small thing. Life, man.
