A fairy story that some try to sell about the European Parliament is that efforts to influence the Parliament originate only from “authoritarian” countries ruled by undemocratic governments.
No doubt these regimes carry out such attempts. As seen recently, they are even prepared to fork out millions of euros in bribes to “influence” the Parliament.
But it would be obtuse and hypocritical not to assume that other powers, as democratic as can be, and large corporations (not just Google) are just as ready to do the same thing. After all, not so long ago in Germany, the existence was discovered of a sophisticated American system to spy on what then chancellor Merkel and her colleagues were planning to do.
I am astonished to note that this aspect tends to get totally ignored by people who project themselves as knights in the battle that must be waged to ensure that the European Parliament is safeguarded from all abusive foreign interference.
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RELATIVISM
It had always been obvious that Pope Emeritus Benedict was endowed with formidable intellectual qualities. That this meant his ideas had to be taken on board as a matter of course was less obvious. Most of all in such regard, the stand that was his on the matter of so-called “relativism”.
In a nutshell, it turns around the view that there exist a number of moral judgements, appreciations... (one could call them beliefs in values) which cannot be changed, trimmed, stretched, overturned... according to the times and the circumstances that prevail. It hardly needs saying that in the end, the “values” in question are recognizable for having been received by human beings through some divine agency. Which means they cannot therefore be “relativised” by any kind of change.
The problem with this is that man’s history shows how change for better or for the worse, continued to happen right across and all along the range of humanity’s values and beliefs, as the material and social circumstances defining humankind’s existence changed. So how is it possible to expel “relativism” from any appreciation of human experience?
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“FOOLISH” CONSUMERS?
It is difficult not to conclude from the way by which some Maltese corporations and private companies deal with their clients that they consider the latter as simpletons or fools. They see us all as ready to accept being treated like so.
A recent instance of such an approach was supplied by the state corporation that churns out the bills for water and electricity consumption, ARMS. For payment to be effected they used, up to quite lately, to send with their bills envelopes pre-addressed to their goodselves, postage pre-paid. If one wanted to pay by cheque, one had just to put it in the envelope and post. Now, they announced they would not be sending such envelopes any more, though one could still pay by cheque and send it to them by mail. The measure they explained, was meant as a contribution to the protection of the environment.
Who’s going to believe that? Naturally the procedure is being introduced to save money for the corporation and to oblige more consumers to affect their payments by electronic transfer. As usual, it will be those clients who are least well-off who will be worst affected by this “pro-environmental” measure.