Sunday, January 27, 2008

Dupont and Napalm

Dupont, it seems, has been attempting to buy up all recorded copies of the military marching tune "Napalm Sticks to Kids." Dupont, a maker of napalm, most likely sees this type of song as a threat to its consumer-friendly image. After all, Dupont has its fingers in every aspect of our society, and you better believe it's still profiting on the death of human beings. In 2003, before the U.S. could "sanitize" Saddam Hussein's report to the United Nations, DuPont was listed as one of the companies that supplied Saddam with materials necessary for his chemical, biological and early nuclear weapons programs.

Why should this bother you? Well, if you enjoy smoking pot and wonder why it's illegal, you can partially blame DuPont. If you're wondering why hemp is illegal, you can partially blame DuPont. While FDR was trying to improve working conditions, DuPont/General Motors was working its employees to death and assembling a terrorist group known as the "Black Legion" to fight unionization efforts in the American Midwest.

DuPont also helped the Nazis in Germany.

Scary? You bet. For more history of the company, click here.

How does this relate to you? Because this company is so streamlined into our culture that it's impossible to boycott. How do we quantify or qualify the positive contributions of a corporation or the negative contributions? DuPont's war profiteering may be bad, its collaborations with the Nazis may be horrendous, but this IS the same company that gave us Spandex. Sure, DuPont poisoned babies on a regular basis (then covered it up), but they also invented Teflon.

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