General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Capitalism - Good or bad ? [View all]Mairead
(9,557 posts)The rhetoric of Capitalism's apologetics notwithstanding, private-profit corporations are non-democratic feudal entities: economic baronies.
Like political baronies in the middle ages, they shield the ones running them from personal economic and legal responsibility while allowing them free rein to plunder and pillage as they wish.
The "publicly-owned" private-profit "baronies" today are almost perfect microcosms of our political governments. The rhetoric is democratic, but the reality is feudal.
The ones in charge get to be in charge by processes we "owners" have little or nothing to say about, and once they have the power of the office they get to do whatever they want to do unless stopped, while the power to stop them is so diffused that effective resistance is nearly impossible to organise, or is actually illegal.
Margaret Mead noted that history has many examples of ruling classes being so stupid/evil/self-centered that they destroyed the world and people they controlled (e.g., Easter Island). But, she said, it's only recently that they've had enough power that they can kill everyone on the whole planet. She had in mind atomic weapons, but it looks like they're going to do it with the CO2 and methane from making "stuff" instead.
Can we somehow organise in time to stop them? Do enough of us even care enough? Or are we counting on the scriptwriters to save us?
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