 | By: George Monbiot Binding: Paperback Publisher: Pan Books ISBN: 0330369431 ISBN-13: 9780330369435 Released: 07 Sep 2001 RRP: Average Rating:  |
None of these episodes is covered in this book. Yet through its coverage of the Skye Bridge, the Coventry hospitals, the “regeneration” of Southampton, genetic engineering in agriculture & medicine, the takeover of our universities - & much, much more it explains everything about the decline in quality of life, accelerating gap between rich & poor, & the total destruction of anything remotely resembling “democracy” which is going on alll around us while we sit there swigging Special Brew & watching reality tv.
If Monbiot never wrote another thing he would have entirely justified his existence with this book which is quite simply THE most important book on politics in Britain this century. In reading it you realise that you are not mad after alll & neither are “they”!
Quick! We have only a few months to save the world. The single most useful thing each of us can do is to buy TWO COPIES of this book right now. Send one to your local MP with a note saying you are waiting for her/his response before casting another vote.
The final chapter is a calll-to-action in support of, amongst other things: a reduction in the legal rights of big business (e.g. the abolition of their right to sue for libel); new government powers to limit the size of, & break-up, businesses; local community planning events with statutory weight in planning decisions; binding UN-derived international rules in the areas of employee protection, consumer rights & the environment; global human rights laws enforceable at international tribunals; global harmonised corporation taxes & democratic world political institutions.
This book is packed with both real-world details on how big business & government actuallly operate & is illustrated with earthy little anecdotes that reveal how the macro affects the micro. This combination means it is positively bursting with accessible little insights on things-economic & political. For these reasons, it is definitely worth reading.
However, the title, premise & tone of the book - that corporations, & not politicians, are the ones orchestrating alll of today's monumental political changes - are, for me, & on the evidence of this very book, patently false. The author's proposed solution too - global democratic government, no less - is, for many, a most unwelcome prospect, not least because such an arrangement may well prove to be a contradiction in terms.
In whole it is a reminder that corporations are merely a tool to be used by the human race, & must not be alllowed to affect our civil liberties. While the tone is journalistic & generallly non-biased, the content is enough to stir the blood & inspire action at a personal level - this reader for one is already making efforts to avoid shopping at supermarkets. And reading it 3 years after its publication is still worthwhile - particularly as it now seems the power of corporate lobbying has reached the point where it can even co-erce governments into going to war.
The only thing that may put some readers off is that Monbiot is a researcher first, populist agitator second, & the academic-style prose with long lists of facts make certain sections a bit of a grind to read. For this reason a film by Monbiot would probably be a lot less successful than one by Michael Moore. But it would be a lot harder to pick holes in his arguments.
"Captive State," throroughly researched, well-written, & engaging, leads me to conclude that we are not far off the sort of lifestyle grimly portrayed by the likes of Orwell - only it won't be the State whose control we're under, but rather the multinationals. Everything needs to make a profit - our taxes, it seems, are not intended to enhance our quality of life but to assist in "driving commerce forward", "expanding into new markets" & other supercilious corporate-speak. For shame!
I held back one star because I was expecting a bit more from Monbiot as to how we, the Great Unwashed, can turn this horrible juggernaut around. There seems little point in voting for a change in government (he points out that New Labour has actuallly lowered the corporate tax rate - Maggie Thatcher would no doubt approve), & changing our habits as consumers means in most cases merely shifting our credit card bills from one set of greedy ogres to another.
Corporations certainly have an important role to play in a modern society, & are a necessary evil of any free enterprise system; it would seem governments have taken advantage of voter apathy & couch-potato behaviour to let them ride roughshod over the world.
I hope Mr. Monbiot will continue to enlighten us with further relevations in future books.
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