Re: (fwd) Signs of the Times

From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Wed Dec 20 2000 - 04:22:00 MST


IAAI "Michael S. Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com> wrote:

|Because governments are corporations which all of us are members of,
|then that government cannot exclude one citizen more than another, which
|is why only governments are bound under these discrimination laws.

I first read that and concluded you made the standard misteak of using the
nasty "be" ("27 meanings, all contra-factual" :-) verb.

Governments enjoy a power monopoly over a territory ultimately using weaponry.
I fail to see corporations doing that on their own, except maybe in parts of
Latin America where U.S. companies have used that technique (with the approval
of the local fascist government, I might add).

Those who define governments as corporations make a special version of the
age-old Thoreau argument on social contracts. Except for people who leave
one state to become subjects of another I know of nobody having written a
social contract. How can one allow one's forefathers to write a social contract
in stone, as it were?

No. States simply consist of local power monopolies giving some people the
power over some territory. The "us vs them" syndrome of human behaviour.
If one idealizes states as corporations, then one should also idealize the
mafias and mobs of this world as such. Power monopolies can allow themselves
to make any discrimination against the subjects of their power monopoly.

One could argue that you wrote about *U.S.* govnerment and that the laws
(esp. one called "constitution") allow you to bear arms and theoretically
overthrow the government in case it goes "bad". In practice, you can forget
that pipe dream. You may have your rifles, but when the opposition has a
much larger arsenal of weapons, technology, and people you lose. Irak had
a large force (the 4th largest, if memory serves) but lost hard. Why would
any small group win over the U.S. Government, given those statistics?

I just wanted to add my USD 0.02 to point out some contradictions in
your belief system.



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