Apr 26, 2005 16:46
All human beings are alone, and therefore no one is alone.
You can volunteer and hope you choose wisely, or wait to be picked and hoped they choose wisely.
If you ask questions, people leave with answers. If you give answers, shouldn't people leave with questions?
POLITICAL TIME!:
The human being is no longer the dominant creature on this planet. The corporation is.
The corporation is composed of people the way the human body is composed of cells. The human body is controlled by its cells; the body couldn't live without the cells, but the cells serve the body's will. So do people in a corporation become subservient to the corporation's need for profit; it's like a mob mentality.
We ain't so advanced. Darwinism still holds; it's just gotten complicated. In nature, the strong/quick/hidden survive because nothing outdoes physical prowess amongst animals. Humanity came along with intelligence to build weapons which outdid the physical prowess of animals and became dominant. Civilization developed to the point that human beings didn't have to spend their whole lives farming, etc. to live. What to do with the extra time? Eventually demand for specificity of job came along, but if people were to be, say, blacksmiths, or builders, or medicine men, they needed a way to get food. Trade was conceived; I give you a service/product in exchange for food. Eventually, currency was invented. I give you a service/product in exchange for currency which can be given for food. As society advances, people become dependent on currency as they get further and further from sources of food. Since currency becomes required for survival to most people, it can purchase any service from the starving- murder, bribery, hush money. Currency is meat - whoever has the most money has the best chance of survival and the best life, so eventually the Captains of Industry come along, hoarding all the money at the total expense of others. Better motives - the greater strength in numbers of the masses who form unions and the moral strength of, luckily, those like Teddy Roosevelt - undo the Captains, so the modern corporation is formed - an entity formed of (not IN, OF) the interests of stockholders (or really, the single interest of increased profit), who include the executives that hold stock and thus make more money the more money the corporation makes. The corporation, a collective of several parties' interests in money, becomes an entity that lives solely for money, and having so much money, has been able to purchase anything it wants - murder, etc. Favorable bureacracy. Lawyers. Presidencies? Even "rights" - corporate rights to develop, rights to trade, rights to hire people at next-to-nothing wages, etc., which in case you were wondering are enforced worldwide by the IMF and World Bank. (Countries lose funding if they don't give corporate rights and/or the people in power get a cut of the profits if their governments enforce the rights. See Venezuela, NOW.) The only reason corporations still make products that work is that all the money in the world can't make human beings stupid enough to buy faulty or dangerous products consistently; but surely corporations know that what matters is not having the better product, but rather having the most desired product. Hence, advertising. The enemies of the corporation are, 1, the consciences of human beings not enslaved to corporate will; judges who rule against corporations no matter how expensive the lawyers are, politicians who make anti-trust laws, protestors who refuse to purchase products the exploit or hurt other people, and, 2, the competitive nature of capitalism, wherein plenty of people (and even corporations) make THEIR money by exposing the wrongs of corporations - e.g., the press, unions, and rivals within the industry. To battle number 2, corporations consolidate, try to absorb rebellious businesses (including the press), etc. To battle number 1, corporations try to look good, act philanthropic, keep up appearances, slowly work their metaphoric fingers into the branches of government which have managed to remain moral, and keep the people as stupid and dependent as possible. The corporation doesn't want to take over the world, or maybe it does; but it really doesn't need to or care about such power, cause as long as it can continually increase profit without having to answer for any practices, it's happy, whether the people are free and democratic or poor and impoverished and under the reins of tryanny. So there will probably never be a 1984, an official plutocracy, or any DOOM! DOOM! situation for humankind. Most likely the world will just get more and more like it is now as coprorations extend their power: the few rich get richer, the many poor get poorer, and the middle class who write livejournal entries about corporations becomes more and more useless and worthless and brainless.
Currently, just like the Republicans who are trying to eliminate the filibuster so they can elect whoever judges they choose, corporate-beholden politicans are trying to form an oversight committee for Congressional organizations that would be able to eliminate any they felt wasn't performing. To be stocked by the President, this committee could easily simply eliminate the FDA, the EPA, and other consumer-and-citizen-protection groups, cause, well, they're evil since they hold corporations back.