A John Berger Sentence

A John Berger Sentence

John Berger, the noted English artist and art critic, who turned to published writing and later became a prominent philosophical writer, surveyed the world around him and wrote this rather long frightening sentence :

"Everywhere these days more and more people knock their heads against the fact that the future of our planet and what it will offer or deny to it's inhabitants, is being decided by boards of men who control more money then all the governments in the world, who never stand for election, and sole criterion for every decision they take is whether or not it increases or is prone to increase PROFIT." (John Berger)

In Berger's mind, I believe he thinks, profit must be an endpoint these men on boards base their personal
understanding of the most important element in their lives. Not children, or wife, or immediate / extended family, or music, or profession; but, the almighty lust after profit, gaining more and more for the sake of more and more. Profit, in their minds, must be like the Holy Grail of their living, gotten in spite of all odds, not even death would get in the way since off shore accounts last forever, the names listed are secret.

This is a world wide phenomena far beyond our shores where money, profits, have become the God head for those who have plenty but seek more. Their's is one a demential living devoid of rounded depth which limits interaction with people other than those of similar intentions. The disease of lust for profits is insidious while acting in concert with selfish characters
whose personalities parallel their own. They beget one another. They are, in the end, devoid of character.

The fear they illicit is that they have little or no real empathy for the ordinary citizen going about their daily business believing in a dignity of the human condition. They substitute their personal lust for more riches, therefore power, rather than having a universal love for all of mankind.

Ronald C. Downie