The World According to Ash

“Enough, one must go on, these are things that one thinks but does not say.” –Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz

“It was their everyday duty.” –Primo Levi, on Nazi brutality

I recently read the morning paper. I shouldn’t have done that. I also recently read Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi. I shouldn’t have done that either, but for different reasons: it demanded too much grief and asked too many questions. Less recently, I went to a public meeting about a new pet-coke plant that Consolidated Energy wants to put next-to-the-refinery-next-to-the-freeway-next-to-the-asthmatic’s-worst-nightmare. I also shouldn’t have done that, and not just because it involved fighting Read the rest of this entry »

Almost sixty years ago, Eisenhower warned us about the sinister consequences of the military-industrial complex — collusion between big business and government that gave both a vested interest in perpetual war. Since then, Eisenhower’s catch-phrase has been modified to keep up with an economy that has outstripped Eisenhower’s gravest imaginings. We have the contractor-industrial complex, the terrorist-industrial complex, the agro-industrial complex. Basically, just keep the hyphen, add some industry, end with complex and you’re pretty much set.

In that spirit, I add my own offering to the hyphenated complexes crippling America: the non-profit industrial complex. Okay, so the name might not sound so sinister — the image is more bunnies and ducklings than F-22s and exploding Hummers — but the consequences are in many ways just as real.

What we have in America is a non-profit industry invested with money from people who cause the problems non-profits are fighting. What we have is a bureaucratized form of doing good that rejects the motivations of big business while depending on its models. What we have is an industry based on originally radical demands that have been public-relationed, grant-moneyed, and mission-statemented into futility. What we have is corporate America’s favorite decoy: Read the rest of this entry »