NEWS ph photo Mike aketield WEST VANCOUVER author Herschel Hardin shows how the private sector hides behind the veil of corporate efficiency In The New Bureaucracy: Waste and Folly in the Private Sector. Hardin critical of stock market role From poge 33 it’s a classic case of how this bu- reaucracy, by, its own impulse, in-’ flates and wastes resources with no economic benefit. Whenever you have a society that doesn’t bow down before the free enter- prise ideology, you have a greater check on bureaucratic waste. That's where Canada’s lost out. We used to have a left-wing party that actually criticized the demi- nant ideology — the.CCF — now | . the NDP — but it no longer does. Spetiight: You say that advertising is ‘‘the most pernicious of all branches of the New Bureaucra- cy.” Please elaborate. . Hardin: It's pernicious because it affects how we think, how we see the world, what our values are. St doesn’t just waste money, time, ~ resources and energy, it distorts our society. TV aevertising in par- ticular is a very powerful pro- paganda medium and it's pro- paganda in the classic sense, in the Soviet sense in that there’s no right of response. When we see a Pepsi ad, we don’t get another 30 se- conds of propaganda saying, ‘don’t drink this stuff — it’s full of sugar, it won’t do anything for you, drink water or milk instead.’ It’s something no democratic society should ever tolerate. Spotlight: How serious a problem has this become? Hardin: At the larger level it’s disastrous, because the planet is at an environmental breaking point and this propaganda is a pro- paganda of materialism that freezes society in certain attitudes that are very difficult to over- come...We get 12 minutes of pro- paganda every day (on TV) infus- ing us with the values of material goods. It entrenches a fixed way of looking at the world that rational debate. can’t overcome. Spotlight: How does the media figure in all of this? Hardin: For one thing, the media are captive because they depend on advertising, so they can’t pro- vide any check on that branch of the New Bureaucracy. In fact in the 1980's, the media treated the bureaucratic cadres with great reverence. There's a great deal of . criticism now about the mergers and acquisitions movement, but while it was happening Robert Campeau was portrayed by the _ media as some great adventurer striding out in the worid to capture corporate assets...It’s tne same with stock markets. They're given a place by the media that they in no way deserve. Publishing listings of stocks every day in daily papers is a horrible waste. Even worse is the flashing of stock markets averages on the news and ;adio © when the actual economic func- tion of stock markets is quite marginal. Spotlight: You've said that if you were premier of B.C. you'd get rid of the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Hardin: Oh yes. Most of what the VSE has done is make work and taken money from suckers. Al- though it does produce something very marginal, it does so at such a huge overhead cost there’s no ra- tional point in keeping the VSE around. Spotlight: Did you come across anything that really surprised you? Hardin: The extravagance really suprised me. So did the exotic character of some of the far-fetch- ed stock market analysts: the fun- damentalists, the chartists, New age analysts...The amount of money and fuss that goes into producing a TV commercial for national distribution. {n the U.S., people fixing food were being paid $600 a day...hairdressers were pulling in $1,200 a day. In a way, the smaller things caught my at- tention the most because they were indicative of how out of hand things had become.” Spotlight: What does society need to do to get out of this mess? Hardin: Open their eyes. Step outside the ideology and look at things as they really are. 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Get Your Kicks with the Vancouver 86ers and Bobby _ - Lenarduzzi. KickStarters is a fun, free soccer clinic coming to a community near |. you, courtesy of McDonald’s. Join us for autographs and draws for prizes, team posters, even free tickets. Fill out the form below and bring it in soon to pre-register . as space is limited. See you there! PRE-REGISTRY DRAW Fill in this form and bring it to us here at the North Shore News, 1139 Lonsdale Ave., V7M 2H4. Your compieted form not only pre-registers your place in the clinic, it also makes you eligible for our KickStarters’ prize draw. Prizes will be awarded at the clinic you attend. So bring in this pre- registry form today. Space is limited. NAME: ADDRESS: CITY/TOWN Postal Code: Phone: Age: 6-7 10-16 * A second clinic will be held September 11 in North Vancouver CLINIC AGENDA DATE: Wednesday, July 22 LOCATION: Ambleside Park, West Vancouver Parks B, D & E TIME: 6:30 p.m. * Deadline for entries is Monday, July 20 at 12 noon. Approximate length of clinic is 2 hours. e Autographs and prizes will be awarded following clinic. Thi VOICE OF WORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER nev shore: SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY © FRIDAY