[215] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Democracy or Corporate rule? You decide...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Fri Apr 27 00:50:14 2001
Message-Id: <200104270449.AAA28302@gold.mit.edu>
To: Wally <wally@sub-zero.MIT.EDU>
cc: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>,
"Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>, mit-talk@MIT.EDU,
alsmith@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 27 Apr 2001 00:26:37 EDT."
<Pine.LNX.4.21.0104270018450.3010-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
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Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 00:49:08 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
Oh well, and I thought we lived in a democracy...
(actually I know we don't, but I think if we all demanded
it, we *could* live in a democracy...) And I may be angry, but I
sure as hell ain't mad...
> > To make more "slots" for young researchers, we could as a society,
> > decide to fund more research beyond just the hidden subsidies for
> > industry via DOD, DOE and NIH.
>
> Are you mad?
>
> There is no 'we', there is no 'society', and there is *no damned way* that
> anyone with real power is going to listen to (for instance) 50,000 people
> marching quietly down an empty street.
>
> Ha ha I got *topical* all of a sudden.
You may like to study the history of the anti-war movement to learn
otherwise... not by pulling on any non-existent presidential heart-strings,
but by requiring so much "man" power to keep society under "control" that
when the president asked the pentagon for 500,000 more troops to send to
Vietnam, the pentagon said "No, we need them here." Never underestimate
the power of collective action...
>
> To the point: Do you really object to the fact that corporate interests
> and government interests are the same?
I do b/c it says, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."
Got that, *People*, not Corporations. It doesn't say Corporations once,
yet it says people many times. Corporations are tyrannical hierarchies
with decision making power accessible only to a select wealthy few. They
are closer to Stalinist Russia in structure than to any interpretation of
democracy. They are not fit for *governing* any free society and their
power should be kept within limits to prevent such conflicts of interest and
abuse of democratic rule. That is why we need to bring back anti-trust
law enforcement, labor-law enforcement, and regulatory law enforcement and
make publicly funded elections.
>Do you really think that the
> culture of hell-for-leather technological and scientific development in
> this country can *ever* be separated from the money that powers it?
You get what you settle for...
Aimee
