-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 07/29/2016 09:36 PM, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 09:45:40PM -0300, juan wrote:
On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 13:43:12 +0300 Georgi Guninski <guninski@guninski.com> wrote:
Anyway, I meant that in a free market (FM), you will still have corporations (possibly under more politically correct term like FM corporation).
'corporations' are a legal fiction created by the state, so no.
When > 1 humans associate for the purposes of shared economic activity/ incentive in what we may as well term "business", it is in their interests to face the world as a named entity.
I think this is Georgi's point - in a FM we are free to associate with one another as we so choose. So in Georgi's case here,
FM corporation ~= business ~= economic activity association
And of course, where there is no government, there shall be no "corporations" as created by governments. Any group calling themselves a "corporation" would have a meaning different from the current meaning, thus "FM corporation".
I like the generic term "syndicate" for any association of persons, including meta-associations of groups, seeking common goals in support of common interests. Its vaguely ominous connotations tend to counteract the spin doctored implications of other terminology. The first corporate charters were in effect for a limited time, with assigned missions to benefit the interests of the Crown or, in nominal democracies, the public interest. Today, corporate persons are immortal, mutable in form and function, and "the public interest" is broadly interpreted as economic activity of any kind. In present usage, a corporation is a fictitious person created by private fiat per a State-delegated "legal right," and itself has full civil rights in matters pertaining to commerce. Today's standard boiler plate corporate charters specify a corporation's mission as "all lawful purposes." So in modern usage, a corporation is a commercial syndicate with special privileges granted by the State.
THE QUESTION: The question I think always shall be, is how to transition to an anarchic society, in consideration of existing interests. I.e. how to peacefully transition existing entities/ structure/ interests into an anarchistic/ truly free market reality.
How can one "peacefully" tear the dominant syndicates ruling an entire civilization to pieces? Those who own and administer those syndicates have devoted their lives to the acquisition and retention of power, at the expense of others and in competition against a broad spectrum of rivals and adversaries. The modern Democratic State exists for the sole purpose of protecting and advancing the interests of dominant economic syndicates and their owners by any means necessary, with deadly force topping the go-to list. A whole art and science of nonviolent strategic conflict addresses methods of applying coercive social and economic measures to modify the behavior of dominant syndicates including their State sponsor/clients. But an existential threat to these syndicates will ultimately result in their application of deadly force, and a response in kind. Anarchy is not a proposed form of government or social order; it is an informed critique of governments and social orders. Or it is a delusional belief system indoctrinated by propaganda. Or it is violent opposition to social order of any kind. Depends who you ask. If you want an anarchistic society, you will need to keep units of sovereign governance small enough that everyone can observe and play an active role in their governance. You need to govern that State in a manner that never delegates decision making power; decision making by consensus assures that very few non-emergency decisions will be made at all; thus, State interference in private affairs will be very limited. In short, you need to model your State as Bands, Tribes and Nations governed by open Councils acting on consensus only. And you need to site it on a world where no other kind of State exists or can arise, because hierarchal governance in a caste system includes efficiencies that will enable other States to take yours over shortly after they see advantages in doing so. At best your Anarchistic State may survive by imitating the organizational methods of antagonistic States - - but then, you will no longer have an Anarchistic State.
I am implying evolution. Revolution - we see how well that went after the fall of the Tzar, to the various CIA instigated revolutionary coups from Lybia to Syria, Ukraine to Yugoslavia, none of which resulted in nor were intended to result in an actualisation of an anarchistic society.
The problem with revolution, is that it is ideological extremists who give enough of a shit to pick up a gun and start shooting (for example) police, citizens and government officials, and the outcome is that the ideological extremists end up holding the seats of power and institute something -other- than anarchism. Such extremists as our world's history have seen, tend to sociopathy, rather than the benevolent, side of dictatorship.
The problem with "revolution" is semantic: We are taught that a revolution is an armed conflict that replaces one gang of rulers with another gang of rulers, who may or may not bring plans for a new social and economic structure with them. My favorite definition of "revolution" equates it to "the world turned upside down." We are taught that revolutions initiate radical changes in social and economic systems, but I maintain that revolutions are the end result of radical changes in social and economic behavior. We are taught that Great Leaders with Great Ideas change the world, but I maintain that changes in technology, population and environmental conditions change the world: Those Great Leaders with their Great Ideas show up /after/ irreversible changes in social and economic life have already taken place. They represent new dominant syndicates, seeking to displace institutions of governance created by and for the exclusive benefit of earlier dominant syndicates. Their role is to modify the institutions of State power to codify, control and exploit the new order, for the sole benefit of the new dominant syndicates. According to this model, the "shooting war" phase of a real revolution serves the sole purpose of removing dead-end resistance to rule by new dominant syndicates that have already eclipsed the power of previously dominant syndicates.
We must always remember it is never the arm chair pundit ("oh I wish our democracy elected representatives actually represented us") crowd who will change the world.
So historically, revolutions seem to be more a devolution than an evolution of the status quo. If you have counter examples, please highlight them now.
The French and American Revolutions removed the institutions of Monarchy to make way for a New World Order where insurgent Mercantile and Industrialist factions share power with the older "landed" Aristocracy. That New World Order developed under Monarchy; its revolutions only restructured political power to reflect a new arrangement of economic powers already in place, and establish the new dominant syndicates as its "legitimate" rulers.
So it is that I hold far greater hope for a better/ anarchistic/ direct democracy type of future, via the pathway of evolution, and not revolution.
No evolution, no revolution. Unless by "revolution" one means overthrowing the State to replace it with a new State administering the same social and economic systems the old State evolved to control and exploit. In this case, revolutionaries are those who seek power for its own sake through violent means; that is not likely to end well.
And so it is also that we owe it to our future generations to consider pathways to peaceful transition of existing interests, into that better future.
The real future includes the collapse of industrial economies, accelerated looting of under-defended territories, and a major human population crash. This is the picture presented by current and historical geophysical data. Any plan or strategy that does not work in this context does not work. Absent a paradigm shift that replaces "progress" with "disaster mitigation, management and recovery," application of political theory and practice can only produce worse outcomes, not better ones. My proposed solution is radical decentralization of industry and agriculture; adaptation of "low technology" not dependent on centralized heavy industry to replace "high technology" where and as it has real survival value; moving as many people as far away from population centers as possible; and distributing field tested strategies and technologies for the above as widely as possible while the networks and economies to do so are still up and running. Large scale industrial processes that systematically destroy the essential survival resources of future generations have to be halted as soon as possible. Hydraulic fracturing to harvest petrochemicals permanently destroys water tables. It is now decades too late to "stop" global warming, but not too late to limit the rate of onset, severity, and duration of large scale climactic disruptions on the way to a "new normal." Genetically engineered 'food' crops destroy topsoil ecologies, poison water supplies and threaten the genetic integrity of plant species necessary to large scale human survival. The longer these and other grossly destructive industrial activities continue, the lower the resulting long term carrying capacity for human population in affected regions. Preparation for and mitigation of the "end of the world as we know it" provides more than a lifetime of challenging, satisfying, useful work. Any real progress in these areas will produce a better future, sooner, for more people. Ready? Go! :o) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJXoXQ/AAoJEECU6c5XzmuqrbIH/A70Jg7n/+fslrQzvktchiO/ KCapJyqBPOQ6zH2fcnsPIvHCb5dgIA7MXqGK/gkGEqHvzJoLNhN8/67AxLbSlJuZ lSmngmPwE/jvgQVLb4t8c9zKimqeNJulZxht1vNW5Q7QQT9APXzAgJ0CdtVXcDsS +eVWcEcvTWWPg/IfC0Dv1QeH74mrFMpQzNDkLPIzM/HfR4ApQMnPjja4VEnNw/Xo zo/iyuEcp8I5XlRPigGO23Kj19EJ7RJgwuXmp3bJXz5GiaIK7XnmPBMlnSHeIbZU PFnh3ZRP10ty0EmptlMbLVhmekh80WVQZAwMEQJsiBqkDgBo6NSG/6QGCCZKBbc= =TwU/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----