The breadth and depth of his work is sure to inspire, as Aristotle did Plato, future generations. But it is Ralph Naders desire to inspire THIS generation to action. Nader's ideas are basic and universal and it would be a great thing for society if some of Nader's basic principles would be applied, now. Nader reminds us in these writings that citizens must be ever active in demanding a better standard of living, maintain a constant vigilance of their political representatives and demand at the very least a modest accountability of all societies players, including and especially businesses.
"For Justice", "Imagine Justice" are some of Naders slogans.
Worthy ideas.
Ideas worth sharing.
This book is a collection of writings covering less than half a decade, organized by relevant topics and chronological. Despite the age, specificity and dynamic social and political topics addressed in these writings, the reader should find the information relevant now and in the near future. The majority of the subjects and themes remain active topics of debate even a decade after Mr. Nader's critique and many of Nader's conclusions have resulted in no less than prophetic materializations in recent years. Be it that Mr. Nader is never stagnate in his efforts to encourage, motivate and educate the public as to their abilities to effect a broader social reform through participation in their communities and local politics, this author is sure to remain relevant. Areas of focus are the environment, consumer protections, corporate corruption, poor government administration, nuclear power, etc. (to name a few). The breadth, depth, clarity, persistance and longevity of Nader's work is sure to inspire decades of future generations to demand better standards of living, maintain vigilance over their elected representatives and demand modest accounting of all societies' players social stewardships, especially those stewardships of elected officials and business.
What should not be shocking is the precision with which Nader anticipated and forewarned americans and policy makers that the 2008-20.. financial disaster(s) would be placed on the backs of tax payers and that the cause would be banking deregulation and corporate gambling. One of the underlying themes in Nader's work is the lack of community participation, corporate loyalty to workers, waining national patriotism, environmentally neglectful practices and toleration of blatant human rights violations by corporations whose main goal accumulation of power and money on the worldwide stage, often revealed through exposed corruption and always active at erroding consumers rights and citizen's political powers. In the book Nader exposes himself as a propoant for adequate corporate accountability, protection of citizens voting powers, transparancy in government, renewable energy, etc. Also, he is uniquely keen on teaching, coaching and mentoring the reader about the concerted efforts made by special interest groups to errode their voting powers. Nader denouces the medias complicencing in perpetuating the idea of the constitutionality of the two party system which has in fact no basis in the constitution and was warned against by the founding fathers.
Nader advocates for corporate responsibility and denounces the fraud, failure of Free Trade Agreements (which promised to raise all boats in prosperity, but in all fact have decreased living standards of participating communitees) while enriching corporations, their managers and owners. These trade agreements do require corporation to advocate for workers rights and allowing for trade in products made with slave and child labor. Corporations are given not incentives to improve the communitees they dominate nor protect workers rights to organize and fair political representation. Revealed are agreements which dictate the enforcement of the lowest standards resulting in negative incentives to abuse and drain communitees rather than increase their standards of living: free trade is actually enriching businesses while lowering the worlds standards. Nader is a long proponant of a living wage and shows estimates of how workers today are more productive yet less valued as measured by hourly wages.
Nader is also critical of the complicity of the media/journalism, motivated by rating and political access which over sensationalize the trivial at the cost of facts and relevancy and all this done without charge on the public's airwaves.
The author directly and indirectly, uses fact, current examples, historical facts, relevant observations, opinions from generally respected sources and some emotionally charged language in his attempts to inspires and motivate the individual activity in both local and national social issues and prompts personal questioning about one's community participation and responsibility to monitor government representatives, actively holding them accountable, by use of one's voting power. He frequently reminds us of our own civic rights and responsibilities. Not unique to Nader but of unique quality to Nader is his assertion that corporations are not humans and that they should not have the same rights and citizens: that citizens need maintain their status as the means for which laws, policies and government are to serve. Nader consistantly refutes the attempts and claims of corporations at having the same legal rights as human beings and citizens. This is also prophetic in that a Texas corporaton in March 2010, inspired by the recent supreme court ruling that corporate campaign contributions can be unlimited, has applied to run for political office. Nader reminds us that corporate history has little to do with benevolence over those they employ and control, and is princably dedicated to power and money without loyalty and patriotism.
Nader is accused by some to be culpable (as many other social activists) of taking advantage of current trends for brief financial gain, influence, exposure or fame. I generally did not find these errors evident in this broad collection of writings. Nader chooses to work on current issues in order to affect change while the best opportunities exists and prior to passage of undesireable consumer policies and laws, being it better to stop laws from being enacted than attempting to repeal them after the fact. His writtings therefore repeat themes as they return to the forefront of discussions. He often predicts/warns with surprising accuracy of potential future outcomes. Nader constantly advocates for other organizations which makes it seem unlikely that he is the beneficiary of many of his own efforts.
It appears to me that he is always the organizer and may prefer to inspire others to action and leave them organized to deal with a specific task, allowing him to focus directly on top political players and corporate corruption. I did not find Ralph Nader to be extreme in his views nor did he over emote his cause using irrelevant minutia. Although, Mr. Nader uses different literal strategies in this text to promote his agendas and detailed his ideas. His underlying convictions and assumptions are solid, based in evidence, historical perspectives, expert opinion and solid reasoning. Readers should find that his views pass the common sense test. Regardless the dynamics of his approach and presentation, Nader's causes are relevant and important to the majority of citizens.
Opinions should always be welcomed in a free society, yet some are better than others. Nader's opinions are direct, insightful and truthful. His record of vigilance says a lot for his character and this book is in keeping with his reliable past. His tone is frequently warning which can fatigue the reader to think that so much could be wrong with society. It might be easy at this point of fatigue to accuse Nader of over sensationalizing and perpetuating his own image or acting out of paranoid delusions. But it is the depth of the material which is fatiguing and not any perversion nor dementia on the part of Nader. A patient and properly paced read of "In Pursuit of Justice" is highly inspiring, motivating and hopeful if not prophetic. It says a lot about Ralph Naders capacity and base of knowledge, that his arguments can remain relevant and accurate while covering so many varied subjects.
I am gratful for having been introduced to this book. It is acceptable reading for all ages although younger ages will require some coaching and mentoring so as to direct their energies to the hopeful end of Nader's warnings. This book is gift worthy. A direct reading of Nader's writings will reveal that he is blunt, fair, inviting of critics, insightful, fearless and seldom misdirects his audience for his own gain. I find Mr. Nader to be one of the most socially alert and politically relevant individuals of our time. His advice to act rather than hope for those in power to rescue us is a prophetic warning which if heeded may have averted the 2008-20__ worldwide financial devastation.
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