From nv91-asa@lurkers.nada.kth.se Thu Jun 30 13:06:17 1994 Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 13:05:02 +0200 (MET DST) From: Anders Sandberg Subject: Earth Help To: mage-l@wizards.com Message-ID: Earth Help ---------- Earth Help is one of the largest environmental organisations today. The organisation try to prevent greedy corporations and uncaring states from destroying the environment by showing the public what they are doing, preferably in as spectacular or disturbing way as possible. They film how seal hunters club the cute pups. They reveal how landowners in South America are supporting death squads to remove Indians from their land. They organise peaceful protests against nuclear dumping or deployment of nuclear weapons. They are one of the Syndicates most dangerous weapons. Actually, the Syndicate supports many environmental organisations. They are simply doing the dirty work for the Syndicate in attacking its enemies, controlling public opinion and changing the Market in useful ways. By making the public demand more eco-friendly products, the Syndicate can raise the prices and often use lesser quality of the raw materials to get that "eco-look". And the Technocracy can even decided what products are good or bad for the environment to suit their plans. The Progenitors (or their pawns) simply publish research showing that something is (or isn't) damaging the environment. Corporations and groups the Syndicate doesn't like are attacked by the environmentalists, and often forced to pay huge fines after their activities are revealed. Since the Syndicate has its tentacles everywhere, it can provide the environmentalists with dirty insider information about their targets, such as rumours about dumping sites or secret pollution. By focusing on spectacular and newsworthy matters like cute animals, dramatic actions or atrocities committed by ruthless people Earth Help makes the environment fit the media. It also causes public consciousness to focus upon issues the Syndicate wants, not what really matters. After all, krill can't compete with seal pups in the news. And the other environmental organisations have to follow the trend, or else be left behind with no sponsors or public support. But the most important use of Earth Help is to make lots of profits. Donating money to the environment is popular. Everybody is doing it, it is "in". Children at school organise door-to-door campaigns. Many corporations want to show that they are committed to a better world. Humanitarian organisations like to help. Everyday people sometimes send in some money, partially because they have a bit of bad conscience knowing they aren't living very eco- friendly. But donating some money stills the conscience quite well. Earth Help is really organised like a big international corporation, although it doesn't look like it. Most members are just support members, paying their dues and receiving the Earth Help Newsletter. More devoted members handle the local organisations, mostly matters of administration, lobbying and research. Then there are groups of active members, which take part in the direct actions against polluters. They climb chimneys wielding banners, they film pollution, they hinder dumping of toxic waste and do other spectacular and newsworthy things. While their actions are illegal, Earth Help has many good lawyers and the protection of public support. Besides, Earth Help has never condoned any illegal actions, and the members who do such things are always doing it without the knowledge of the organisation. Over the local organisations, which are carefully designed to be tax- exempt as philanthropic or charitable associations, is a central international organisation, Earth Help International. EHI runs the large scale planning, has contacts to the United Nations and most of the largest environmental groups. It is Earth Help's face on a global scale, and is very good at appearing well in media. Its spokespeople are all sincere, knowledgeable and convincing. It also distributes the income from the local organisations, investing much into Earth Help Foundation. Actually, the Foundation *is* EHI and controls the organisation completely, although its not apparent on the paper or even to most members. The Board of Directors of the Foundation decide which direction Earth Help should move in, what projects should be encouraged and which local organisations should be helped. They decide which local leaders to promote into the international organisation or demote by sending them to far off corners of the globe or into unimportant positions. The Foundation also invest the money of Earth Help, apparently only in ecofriendly investments. But there is great difference between the apparent ecological responsibility and real world. In practice the Foundation invests in things it will make a profit out of, and then try to make the investments look ethical. It uses several cleverly hidden holding companies and daughter foundations to control several corporations. Its on this level where the Syndicate really controls Earth Help. At least one board member is a Syndicate Acolyte, and most members have exactly the right mindset. Besides, the Syndicate control a lot of the owned corporations too, and own much of the capital invested in the Foundation. The founder, who currently has retired to the Caribbean, has become very rich in using the resources of Earth Help for his own profit. And by designing everything carefully, its even legal. Its impossible to attack Earth Help. Anybody who criticises the organisation indirectly criticises all environmental organisations. He will get a massive public opinion against him, and most people tend to assume that he is secretly paid off by the Polluters. There is practically nothing illegal going on in the organisation, and the actual illegal actions are dubbed "Active Civil Disobedience", which makes most people regard them in a much more positive light. And finding the dirt on the EHI would require the researcher to evade the subtle traps of the Syndicate. And even if he can find any dirt, most accusations will simply not stick due to the good reputation of Earth Help. Theme: Hypocrisy and sincerity. Earth Help doesn't really help the environment very much. All their actions are directed towards showing the public what is going on, but very little is actually done to help nature. Instead the generally sincere and reasonable members help further the cynical manipulations of the Syndicate. Mood: Political Correctness driven to an extreme. Spokespersons carefully selected from minorities, except when the impact wouldn't be good. Non-sexist language. Friendly fanatism for the environment. Idealism as an armour and weapon. Story Ideas: Earth Help is used to attack the local Verbena. An Earth Help team films the remains after a ritual, adds a bit of footage of other dead animals and clips it together with some standard neopagans (including an interview where one member explains that they sometimes use a little blood in their rituals). This biased but actually formally correct footage is then dispatched to the media, causing a public outcry against neopaganism, which people start to think encourages animal sacrifices (and God knows what else...). Any objections and protests can be easily dismissed either by "No, we're not claiming all neopagans perform animal sacrifices. There are obviously just some who does." or "Do you really defend people who do *this*?" (show picture of horribly mutilated animal). How to defend your reality when everybody feels disgusted about it? The Syndicate sends Earth Help against Pentex. By documenting certain of the activities of the subsidiaries they cause massive public outcry. Will the Traditions help Earth Help attack Pentex in their area, when they know this will strengthen the grip of the Syndicate over the economy. If the players are involved in environmentalism they might meet Earth Help close up. After they have discovered a local waste dump, Earth Help appears and quickly starts to make the media notice it. At first the players will undoubtedly like cooperating with Earth Help, which is very good at making the public aware of the problem. But sooner or later they will start to realise that the organisation is merely interested in this, not in helping cleaning it up. And Earth Help has a tendency to simply take over all situations and use them to further their own goals. An ex-member of Earth Help runs for the local elections. She has an intense green profile, and has massive support by the organisation. She is charismatic, intelligent and seemingly unpolitical. "I only want one thing. An end to the rape of nature around here.". If she wins she will start to act to protect the environment, which will require some rather repressive means. But everyone gladly agrees since its for the good of every living being... and for the Technocracy. Old and inefficient industries are forced to leave and are replaced by modern ones fitting Technocratic Reality better. Public control and environmental surveillance are increased to "nail the polluters". Restoration projects efficiently remove or tame nodes and ley-lines. How to stop her? She is after all doing something for the environment... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! nv91-asa@hemul.nada.kth.se GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y