Corporate desires

EDITOR: Two pieces in Sunday's paper ("Endangered otters latest threat is from courtroom, not sea" and "What conservatives overlooked in &‘Avatar' ") shed light on some of the core fallacies that underlie our current capitalist system as it continues to try to control nature for commerce.

Both the otters and the Na'vi have something a corporation desires. In the case of the otters, it is urchins and shellfish, and in the case of the Na'vi, it is the mineral "unobtainium." In each case, the corporation, working with the government, offers relocation as a form of reasonable compromise. When the otters and the Na'vi reject the offer, the cost is destruction of habitat and death.

The misconception David Boaz has about the "unreasonable" Na'vi, which also applies to the otters, is that both species view their habitat as property and are just holding out for a better price. Instead, I submit that they view their habitat as part of the "commons," that priceless, shared intersection of resources where all creatures are connected in the web of life.

If the otters and the Na'vi are part of a "lefty dream," then count me in. I've had enough of the conservative corporate nightmare to last seven generations.

JOHN GARN

Graton