Monsanto and an excerpt from "On Dialogue"

This morning I was watching a documentary show on Link TV that was critical of the Monsanto Company. I had always just assumed that Monsanto was a Japanese corporation. But I learned from Wikipedia online that Monsanto is an American Agribusiness corporation, founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901.

Here is the same video that I saw on Link TV:

The World According to Monsanto

Here is an excerpt from "On Dialogue":

From the book "On Dialogue : an essay in free thought". Copyright © 1996 by Robert Grudin. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

p. 6

Dialogue and the Free Society

I lie in bed with a bad case of flu. My room is pleasant, and after a while the pain and fever give way to bronchitis, which calls for a few more days of rest. My wife, who takes care of me, my children, who visit my room, are now more sympathetic, less dependent on me than when I was well; my office has been informed, and my colleagues have promised to leave me alone until I rejoin them. As I lie in bed, peaceful solitary days slip by. I am amazed by the way my house, my business, which seemed so contingent on my efforts, now run happily without me. I read the newspaper, but from my isolated place in space/time, even local events seem to be happening in another world. Gradually I begin to feel vacuous, unnecessary. Am I really Robert Grudin? Certainly not Grudin the supporting father, not Grudin the indispensable colleague. Suddenly I feel imprisoned; I yearn to be up and out --- to reassert an identity that has begun to erode. I am not free without my obligations.

pick up again on p. 8:

Dialogue and Self-Transcendence

We come now to the most radical formulation of the idea of liberty. The idealist tradition since Socrates, the great religions and the mystics have taught that the most desirable form of liberty is not a freedom of the self but a freedom from the self:

a transcendence of confining individuality.

To some, this is a spiritual quest pursued through meditation and prayer; to others, it is a philosophical exercise requiring concentration and inquiry. This latter exercise is often conducted dialogically. Through dialogic imagination I can posit an "other" (a loved one, a friend, a stranger, even an enemy), focus myself on this other, detail this other until it has spirit, autonomy, volition (using one's will). To the extent that this is successful, I can achieve an interpersonal understanding impossible under other circumstances; and beyond this I have the opportunity temporarily to look back on myself, as though in a far-off mirror, as a distinct and limited entity.

Dialogic self-transcendence is valuable not only for personal fulfillment but also for artistic achievement and social renewal. Writers, consciously or not, resort to this strategy in developing character, idea, event and place, while actors and actresses enter into dialogic relationships with the parts they play. Without this process we would have dull fancy and tame art. Social possibilities are equally dramatic though less frequently explored. Here dialogic thought allows us to extend awareness not only beyond our personal isolation but also beyond our own gender, age group and ethnicity. With concentration and insight we can project living will into otherwise alien individuals and groups; in so doing we cross barriers that might otherwise cause disaffection or confrontation. Dialogic thinking, which deflects self-interest in the name of interpersonal understanding, becomes in the process a force of social evolution.

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Another good book is: "Embracing Contraries : Explorations in Learning and Teaching" by Peter Elbow. Copyright © 1986 by Oxford University Press, Inc.