@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 Sender: •••@••.••• (Eric Loeb) Subject: Re: cj#386> Drugger: CALL TO CITIZENS A Response to Dugger's "Call to Citizens:" Duggers said, "We are ruled by Big Business and Big Government as its paid hireling, and we know it." I'm sure we all agree. I also agree, however, with the responder who questioned Dugger's recommendation to form another political party. Why would a third party be immune to the forces that have deranged the idealism of the other two? But still, the U.S. is at war. The multinational corporations have a comparable level of combined power to our government. Our laws treat the corporations like people, but they do not have human sympathies. It is the job of corporate leaders to conquer this country if they can. We should not hold that against them, but we should not let them succeed. So, sure, we must to fight for our freedoms, but let's be careful to plot a good strategy. Big Business may be feeding on us, but it is still *our* pet lion. We have conquered the world with it, and it can also give us the power to feed and clothe the world. The multinationals should be brought to heel, not destroyed. Industrial capitalism is certainly a potential danger to our republic. Efforts have been made throughout our history to reconcile the obvious tyrannizing effects of industrialization with the values of the revolution [1]. Consider the experiments in republican industrialization tried at Lowell, Massachusetts prior to the Civil War. The Boston Associates founded experimental textile factories in a sincere effort to "resolve the social conflict between the desire for industrial progress and the fear of a debased and disorderly proletariat." So, the founders created total institutions. The workers lived in corporate boarding houses, participated in compulsory religious services, and they were kept under strict supervision at all times. It was hoped that the workers would thus avoid the vice of their British counterparts and become instead an enlightened model community of republican virtues. The Boston Associates expected their totalitarian systems to be model republics, and it didn't work. Within a few years trouble-makers were agitating for more freedom. That's not a surprising sight to our modern eyes, but the original motivations for the experiment are still valid. We need to reconcile the hierarchical tendencies of industrial capitalism with the egalitarian ideals of our republic. I would suggest that the experimental industries of Lowell should be tried again as republics. After all, the world's republics have out-competed the world's totalitarian regimes by a wide margin. Why shouldn't we expect that corporations run as republics will also out-compete those run as dictatorships? Perhaps market forces will suffice to ameliorate the repressive tendencies of dictatorial corporate culture. So, let's fly United Airlines whenever we fly! Are there other huge employee-owned companies? Let's be sure to buy from them. Agitate to turn your company into an employee-owned venture, and if it already is, use Voice-of-Freedom tactics to subvert the morale of your totalitarian competitors. Since employee-owned companies are guided in part by their employee/citizens, they are more likely to respond to the complex long-term dynamics of employee health and loyalty, customer satisfaction, and reputation for honest dealing. These "intangible" factors are hard to quantify on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but they are sometimes painfully obvious to the employees themselves. Flying the Friendly Skies and Voting Democratic, Eric Loeb MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/loeb/ •••@••.••• References: John Kasson (1976) "Civilizing the Machine, Technology and Republican Values in America, 1776 - 1900", Penguin books, ISBN 0 14 00.4415 9 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland •••@••.••• | Cyberlib=http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib Materials may be reposted in their entirety for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
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