Bonus Auntie
December 3, 1999

The problem presented by the World Trade Organization is deceptively simple.

The World Trade Organization continues to function because insufficient numbers of people are willing to put aside their bullshit little problems and deal with the big picture. It represents the voice of power and most so-called activists -- I say this because they talk a lot but do precious little useful action -- are too petty and disorganized and greedy to go get any power.

Activists, generally being volunteers, are the worst for sticking their asses with the ethical pins of action. It's a good excuse to do nothing: to demand everything exactly EXACTLY exactly your way with the smug unconscious awareness that this is impossible. This lets you then wave some little signs and spit on some cops and nag the world about how dispossessed you are.

Disorganized and greedy go hand in hand. What did the man say? "Divide and conquer!" Use the weaknesses of the enemy against him. If activists would quit freaking out about their little agendas and collide on the big picture, develop a coherent plan, and implement it, nobody could stop them, any more than anybody could stop Bill Gates from getting into a position that only the Justice Department can get him out of. It's human nature to be disorganized -- Tower of Babel is a prime example, we tried it once, it failed, so we couldn't get our asses together to build another one -- so any group that is organized is a thousand times more likely (with apologies to Neal Stephenson) to get something done.

However, most of these groups are so greedy and shortsighted about their own nonsensical (in terms of the Big Picture) little agendas that they don't accomplish squat. I've heard the claims: the WTO is racist, sexist, strongarms the third world, and probably masturbates in bookstores. If that's so clearly true, why doesn't every woman (half the world right there), non-white (most of the remainder) and impoverished (okay, this I understand, if you're too malnourished to stand up, you're going to have trouble speaking) and anti-masturbation-in-bookstore bubba on the planet band together and kick these rich assholes out of power?

I'll tell you why: because the women and the non-whites and the anti-masturbation folks are so greedy for power to take over and run things are bullshitly as the WTO does that they won't even share their body counts and energy. The proof of this is the simple existence of the WTO, or sexism, or racism. There are more women than men; if we wanted to reform things we fucking could do it tomorrow.

Instead we're all so divided on irrelevant minutae that we're willing to let the planet be sabotaged by money cancers who have better organization.

You say that's not true? You say that's unfair? Look at the numbers and it becomes painfully clear that we as a species are so dedicated to our own aggrandizement that we're fucking ourselves out of a pretty sweet deal here on Earth. Nothing gets done without sufficient force, whether it's charisma (Alexander the Great) or numbers (plague rats in the Dark Ages) and that force has to be directed, or it wilts like a limp dick.

Until we start forgiving the sins of etiquette to focus on the sins of shitting in our own nest, this is going to stay the case. Remember that when you drink your millenial champagne and make your New Thousand Years resolutions.