FM Corporations/ businesses/ entitities

[Steve Kinney]

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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 at 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)



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