I was rather surprised to see so many angry protestors riles up over a rather abstract issue. The World Trade Organization isn't a war, there isn't a draft, the protestors are from an affluent nation and what is the WTO anyway? The WTO is, as I understand it, the treaty and organization behind what we call the "global economy" something which is often celebrated and seldom criticized. The global economy has been with us for along time and for most average types it means that the objects in there homes probably come from all over the world, often from countries they've never heard of. A person would need a lot of time and money to travel to all the countries represented by a small closet full of shirts and slacks.

Some of the protestors, I understand were from United States labor unions. This global economy has been especially tough on them as the United States has turned from a manufacturing economy to one based on services. Think that's just a cliche? Maybe, but I know people who actually make their livings by shopping for their clients. The whole dotcom revolution, where internet companies who have no revenues and negative net earnings are highly valued by the stock market. One problem with the Web is that it doesn't make many tangible products. Tangibility, made by "brick and mortar" companies (like GM is "brick and mortar" because they make cars) isn't flashy enough for the current crop of stock marketeers who want to invest and make money in ideas. In that kind of economy, the autoworker or steelworker gets a bit left out.

Brick and mortar is easy to get overseas. In poor countries without an infatuation with human rights and with no labor unions to speak of, it's pretty easy to make things cheaply. Remember that at a certain level workers aren't considered people or even assets to a corporation, they are a liability because they cost money. The drive towards productivity has been the worst thing to ever happen to workers because it means, "do more work for less money." Somehow the general public in America has been tricked about the real meaning of this. But not the union workers. They know the score because they keep the scorecards and when they match up their checks with their bills they know that they're losing ground each and every week.

The global economy offers countries a greater incentive to be ecologically destructive. That's why the environmental groups took to the streets of Seattle. It's actually not that these smaller countries are out to destroy the environment, but they do wonder why they should spend money preserving their rain forest while we spend money pumping noxious fumes into the air. They wonder why we tell the world to behave and have still wreaked havoc on our own ecosystem in order to have the world's highest standard of living. Yes, you've heard it all before -- our population uses up a disproportionate amount of resources. You've heard this so often you're bored with it and don't think it's important. But the Seattle protesters did think it was important.

Anarchists and malcontents took to the streets as well. These are the people who have been left out of the global market economy. Even in the richest country someone has to lose. This global economy has created a crises among our young and here's why -- youth is defined by the principles of freedom and creativity. But lately, in order to get a good job and enjoy a decent standard of living, our young have been asked to grow up fast, perhaps too fast. Drifting around the country is looked on with scorn by potential corporate employers. People are encouraged to study trades, not disciplines of thought, in college. The global economy has been horrible at employing and meeting the needs of people like:

Philosophers of all persuasions
Artists in all fields
Avant gardists of all types

The global economy is the horse which carries corporate culture to the masses. But not all people can live within corporate culture, so they took to the streets in Seattle.

Then the cops came in, a big blue and brutal menace against the rights of Americans to speak up against something which is disturbing them. Did the protesters go too far? No, they didn't . Our government went too far. I don't remember any public referendum on the GTO nor do I remember Bill Clinton actually addressing the concerns of the protesters. If those with money and power can shove corporate culture down the throats of the American people, then the American people would do well to act up and destroy some property.

Three weeks ago Michael Maiello thought that the WTO was some new pro-wrestling league.