I'll bite this one. Quoting Luthor Blisset (saeq@gmx.net): [snip]
For once and for all: Laissez-faire capitalism does not imply the existence of corporate entities! The left anarchists I know want to keep the means of production and distribution privately (or cooperatively) owned, and keep the free market of goods, services, and ideas... But they
Then they probably aren't anarchists.
want to drop the notion of state-sanctioned corporate entities with their own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of their members.
Anarchy won't work unless _everybody_ cooperates in good faith. And it ain't gonna happen. It is more likely that a state of actual anarchy would result in a minor restructuring of the democratic pattern of two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. [snip]
[3] All the left anarchists I know think they own their shoes, as you own yours. However, they question the utility of the corporate legal construction, and many (most? all?) deem corporate property (like intellectual property) a dangerous, shortsighted fiction whose time has come and gone.
Ideally, intellectual property (or more properly, knowledge) would always be in the public domain. For that to be viable, something, perhaps a gift economy, would have to replace currently competing systems. And it ain't gonna happen. Too many people enjoy not only the simple material benefits of capitalism (to name one), but more importantly, the power which it gives them to manipulate their environment to suit their will; and which includes, of course, people. Patterns of domination and so forth are obviously far too deeply ingrained in the human psyche to make viable any meaningful change towards flattening somewhat bottom-heavy wealth and power hierarchies. We now return to the ongoing coverage of the American Anthrax Attack. Regards, Steve -- Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.