CDR: Re: Jim Bell arrested, documents online

[Ken Brown]

Eric Cordian wrote:
> Alan Olsen wrote:

[...snip...]

> > He seemed to think that the only target of this would be the government.
> 
> I think this is a reasonable observation.  You really have to be acting
> under color of authority to strongly alienate enough people, who have so
> litle recourse against you, that millions will bet a buck on your
> continued good health in the hopes that an anonymous assassin will prove
> them wrong and collect the pot.

I'm not so sure about this. 

I've taken part in political demonstrations against private companies &
I've worked in offices that were picketed or invaded by demonstrators. 
I've also worked in a building whose windows were broken by a bomb in
the street. The bomb wasn't directed against us, but against another
business on the other side of the street - the Harrods department store.
On another occasion Harrods was bombed in protest against their selling
fur. Farms that breed animals for experiments have been attacked and
there have been attempts on the lives of the managers and owners of such
places. 

[...snip...]
 
 
> > I think that there are more people out there who would go after Bill
> > Gates or John Tesh than there would for various little known public
> > officials. (This could be a case where fame could have an even bigger
> > downside. About six feet down.)
> 
> Oh come now.  You have real recourse against Bill Gates and John Tesh
> short of killing them.  Bill Gates and John Tesh don't claim they have
> God's authority to kill you if you don't do what they say.  They don't
> order your house raided, and your children terrorized at gunpoint.  They
> don't force you to choose between going to prison or going to war.  They
> don't accuse you of treason and try to have you executed if you tell their
> dirty little secrets.

Gates & Tesh may not do that but there are companies that have done -
and more importantly there are people who think that companies do behave
like that even if they don't. Think of Shell in Nigeria. Or Harlan
County, Kentucky.

One of the things about AP is, if it works, millions of people with
untrue ideas can still get things done.

Anyway, the distinction between business and politics is less clear than
you make out - or seems less clear to many people in countries outside
America. In most places the government is in the pockets of the people
with the money - and in most places presidents and governors are quick
to join the ranks of the men with the money. Citizens of countries that
have experienced the rule of people like, say, Marcos, or Suharto, or
Kenyatta, aren't likely to believe that your American companies aren't
agents of the US government, and they aren't likely to believe that your
American politicians don't have interests in  the companies. What
happens if millions of people outside the US are pissed off (maybe for
no good reason) with the corporate leadership of Exxon or Coca-Cola or
Microsoft or MacDonalds? Maybe if only because they are pissed off with
the USA  and those companies stand for the USA in the minds of others (&
however wonderful your USA is someone, somewhere is going to be pissed
off with it). The only American politician millions of people have heard
of is the President (who is presumably reasonably well-defended).
Representatives of big companies make much more likely targets for
non-Americans.

Anyway, big companies make big targets for some kinds of
revolutionaries, as do big fortunes. Some of them like killing the rich.
This already happens. Not a lot, but it happens. AP might make it more
common.

Ken