Tue Mar 27 23:36:03 EST 2001

PBS aired a great documentary last night about the chemical industry "Trade Secrets: A Bill Moyers Special Report." Hopefully it will remain here for a while:

I would have never known about it had I not caught Bill Moyers on CSPAN a few days earlier addressing a national journalist convention. It's hard to summarize properly. In one segment, doctors at Mt. Sinai tested Moyers' blood for traces of commercial chemicals. They found something like 81. Not a problem for him apparently, but potentially for a 21 year old pregnant mother. Other disturbing facts ... 55% increase in cancer among young people since 1972 ... 68% increase in testicular cancer in young men over the same period.

The documentary had its roots in the release of some chemical industry documents, due largely to the Freedom of Information Act. Amazing stuff. Suffice it to say that they've been quite naughty over the years. Big surprise, unlike so many other industries ... like oil.

It raises the larger problem. Large corporations have evolved to the point where they can act with virtual impunity. Having amassed huge financial resources, they are quickly able to deploy both legal and media campaigns to protect their interests. The phenomenon is most lethal when directed towards campaign contributions ... perhaps the most evil malignancy out of all our democracy's ailments.

The trend has been out of hand for arguably several decades. I think a case can be made that it's gone too far out of hand. Big business has virtually won the war. Do people even know what a counter culture is anymore? Do folks even remember the word "hippie?" Tie dyed t-shirts are often more associated with deadbeat, burned out potheads ... than with ecologically conscious minded, artistic sensitivity.

Who stands between us and them? The hacker.

Despite how annoying it might be to spend hours cleaning off the "Love Virus" from your hard drive ... hackers keep larger corporations on their toes. So what if you couldn't access Yahoo stock quotes for an hour. Somebody needs to operate outside the system ... and hold equal if not greater power than the system's rulers. Unruly as they may be ... and potentially lethal and malicious ... like the random chance nature uses to balance out life on the Savannah, they serve an important role.

As our culture advances technologically, with almost equally growing ignorance in understanding how to use it (eg., we currently have NO IDEA how the combined effect of currently available commercial chemicals affect young people .. none ... no tests whatsoever), remember to praise the hackers. May their code never segfault. May their logins never be traced. One day soon they may be all we have left.