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Part One:
THE EUROPEANS ARE AHEAD OF US YET AGAIN. We speak with Nathan Proctor, of USPIRG, about the Right to Repair. In recent years, corporations have put locking mechanisms into their products, so that we, the consumers, are unable to repair them ourselves. We have to send them to the manufacturer who may, for a significant fee, fix the product for us. Or they may simply tell us this product is obsolete, that replacement parts are not available, or that the company no longer services these items. We are left helpless, unless we purchase a new and “better” product.
In Europe, countries have passed legislation that prevents companies from blocking consumers’ ability to fix their own products. Once people buy a product, they should have the right to fix it themselves, without relying on an unreliable, uninterested manufacturer. Underlying the problem, of course, is our economic system — in which corporations are motivated to maximize their profits and not to allocate their resources in a way that increases the well-being of consumers, their countries, or the planet. Planned obsolescence and frequent re-purchases result in higher profits. Not so, if companies were to produce items that are durable or could be repaired easily and cheaply.
Part Two:
100 YEARS OF CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM. We talk to William Trollinger, history professor at the Univ. of Dayton, about the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S. Conservative Christians have viewed the Bible as historical, the word of God, and therefore unerring. Any idea contrary to a biblical teaching must, by definition, be wrong.
In the early 20th century, Christian fundamentalists saw their beliefs and their world (a white, Christian America) as under siege. So they felt compelled to get involved with various political issues. They found it hard to reconcile Darwin’s theory of evolution (by natural selection) with the Bible’s narrative of creationism. The Scopes trial emanated from attempts to prevent the teaching of evolutionary science in public schools. Similarly, because Communists were atheists (viewing religion as “the opiate of the masses”), evangelical Christians got involved in the Red Scare in 1919, the Cold War, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s witchhunts against alleged communist sympathizers within the government. Trollinger traces similar involvement in supporting the Ku Klux Klan, and fighting wars around the world to “stop Communism.” Over time, their adherents became galvanized to openly assist right-wing Republican political candidates. They formed organizations (the “Moral Majority,” Christian Coalition), they did “PR” through their evangelical preachers (including on TV and other mass media), and they raised huge amounts of money for their favored political candidates (through super-PACs, etc).
