-Caveat Lector-
Teo One Thousand wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
The world is a crazy place folks (as i 'm sure everyone on this list
agrees
;-) ) and it's easy to lock ourselves in our homes, sit at our computers
(which are actually more powerful weapons than we think!!) and look to
the
past. It's time to look to the future and realise where we are heading.
Richard B.
Richard this was an excellent post! Some comments I would make are that
it is
ultimately unclear (at least in my mind) who really does run the show,
whether
it is the corporations or the politicians. The rise of corporatism and
it's
sublimation to fascistic agendas is very true and has been going on for
some
time now. Your comments vis a vis the third world are excellent
observations
of a principal that some will not see, and that is that fascism is not
just a
military dictatorship that one can hang ones hat of defiance upon, but
instead
it is in our lives every day when we eat a Chiquita banana, or buy some
other
corporate product. Corporations are promoting an agenda, just as you
describe
so very well, with their think tanks, and their advisory boards. I
would like
to illustrate one other thing and that is the UN and the IMF. The UN
has as a
matter of course many NGA (Non-Governmental Agencies) in attendance at
meetings. These groups are probably dominated by corporations, there to
promote their agenda. The IMF forces economic plans onto sovereign
nations
(really taking away their sovereignty in the bargain) that are devised
by
corporations and run by international bankers.
Teo1000
Thanks Teo, it's nice to know i am not alone (may i also thank William
Tunstall - most gracious). I do agree with your comments on the UN and the
IMF to an extent and will make my case over the weekend. It is a difficult
subject to resolve and much easier to come up with questions instead of
realistic answers. It would be nice to hear from others on the lsit
regarding this discussion.
While still on the subject, we have an early example that shows exactly
how corporate hegemony is to be exercised. One of the Candian Provinces
(was it Ontario?) passed a "no fault" auto-insurance law: an extremely
efficient and inexpensive way to deal with liability claims arising from car
crashes. Under the NAFTA-like agreement between USA Canada, an American
insurance company sued and succeeded in forcing Ontario to drop their
legally adopted insurance scheme! The European Commission is similarly
beginning to push its nose increasingly into what many would consider to be the
"internal affairs" of European countries.
Before anyone sends me flames minimizing the extent of such intrusions up
tillnow, please note that these super-national structures are very much
in "sales mode", and are therefore currently on "good behavior". When
their power is consolidated -- for example when the European currency
eventually 'kicks-in' -- and it's too late for nations to back out, then be
prepared for a strong
downward pressure on workers rights and progressive programs -- you can
see the future, and it is the third world. The American Civil War shows
what happens when states, which thought they had voluntarilty joined a
federal union, try to withdraw.
The Internet is a potentially powerful tool to help the people of the
world understand the predicament they're in, by "going around" the mass media
and the well-publicized pronouncments of the "spin-to-order" corporate
"think tanks" (Personally, I think "policy bordello" is a more appropriate
label than "think tank".)
The net also has tremendous limitations and is imminently vulnerable to
suppression, as we have seen recently in the USA, Denmark, Hong Kong, and
Italy, and as S.314 and S.390 (!) forebodes for the future. I'm not one of
those crypto-anarchists who sees networking as the "ultimate tool of
democracy" -- those guys are living in a virtual-reality dream world. But,
until we start making effective use of the Internet for democratic purposes,
it's OURSELVES who are setting the limits -- not the authorities. After
they kick us off the net, then we can blame THEM. Those of you barricaded
in with your PGP arsenal might as well move to Waco and buy an AK-47, the
two weapons and refuges will be equally useless in any real struggle.
Everywhere capital is looking for new markets to develop, the US
government has announced the "Discovery of Cyberspace": the latest "unoccupied"
territory to be conquered and exploited. You have to admire their chutzpa,
in openly publishing a "Magna Carta", which lays out how Cyberspace is to
ceded to a new generation of Robber Barons, as insulated as possible from
responsible public oversight.
Thus the post-war corporate third-world paradigm finally sends its
marines to the beachheads of Cyberspace. It may be time for us Internet natives
to have an appropriate pow-wow before we, in our turn, are wiped out. Any
CTRL suggestions ?
Richard B.
DECLARATION DISCLAIMER
