Weekly transmissions from Adbusters, the journal of the mental environment
As much of the world seeks desperately to avoid the fate of the millions who have died due to the coronavirus, one industry (among others) stands to profit: Big Pharma.
Lo and behold, which company received $483 million in Warp Speed funding? That's right: Moderna. (Moderna's share price soared after the announcement.) Slaoui later sold off his Moderna stock. But only after the likes of Elizabeth Warren called him out for his "huge conflict of interest" — and presumably, after he turned a very pretty profit.
Big Pharma makes the medicine that you need. But it is not on your side. (Remember the opioid epidemic?) At your expense, it is going to make a killing by exploiting this crisis.
For the wealth and weal of all, it's time to rein in Big Pharma's unchecked greed. It's time for the U.S. to join just, humane societies in instating universal health and pharmacare.
As the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has made clear, much must be done to curb Big Pharma's rampant avarice. Let us know what you think should be done to prevent a healthcare monopoly. Send us a direct message, email us at [email protected], or call us. (Our number is at the very bottom of this email). And stay tuned for more activist-oriented briefings.
While digital tools are indeed democratising, they have also cultivated darker aspects of human nature. Yet both collectively and individually, we feel ill at ease. We prioritise ourselves over others, and we omit things which don't sit comfortably with our worldview and our needs. Somehow we feel more empowered, but also more vulnerable, confused, scared. We celebrate facile extroversion and performance, over serious concern and rumination.
The transcendent neoliberal capitalist order may be invulnerable to blows struck by the weapons of slaves. But it will disintegrate in the presence of a stronger master.
Zacharias would grow / into an effective anarchist ...
... left home at 18 and got a job / in a coffehouse, burned cars / walked the streets with a moon / met men and women on the make / trying to escape, comfortable / in the dark under the sky ...
