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> C. S. Lewis Figures. Back then, corporations weren't such a huge thing. Now we've got growthism. No matter how much money a megacorp makes, it's always gotta

by titzer 5y ago

> C. S. Lewis Figures. Back then, corporations weren't such a huge thing. Now we've got growthism. No matter how much money a megacorp makes, it's always gotta make more for its shareholders. If the CEO and board are not going along with that, they will be replaced. Corporations are stuck on a hedonistic treadmill divorced from the finite capacity of a human stomach to be sated. Conscience? Since when did a corporation ever have need of a conscience? In short, Lewis lacked imagination.

svieira 5y ago
Lewis came _after_ the East India Trading Company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company) - he's talking about corporations that resemble the fever dreams of _Neuromancer_ and _Snow Crash_, not the (relatively) puny things we have today. He didn't lack imagination at all - he's saying that the moral busybody is _worse_ because their impetus is a better one, so they have more focus and energy to pursue their goals than the hedonist / greed-driven individual.
- titzer 5y ago
  I understand what he is saying, I just disagree. We are blind to the horrors of our own system when we apologize for it and point the finger at things that we fear and distrust. It's nothing more than an intentional distraction from the evil that already exists in this world. I suspect that he got himself into these contortions trying to apologize for a Christian view of God as all-loving but wrestling with the problem of evil. Especially because those robber barons and mega companies of the day mouthed Christian platitudes all along their conquest. I just ran out of patience with the "socialism bad" reductionism that underlies a lot of sophisticated-sounding analyses but ultimate amounts to "just let me do whatever I want, look those baddies aren't that bad, maybe they're even good!"
beaconstudios 5y ago
He specifically talks about robber barons, who were the greedy corporations of their time.
angelzen 5y ago
You have never experienced Soviet bureaucracy and its petty spitefullness in the name of fighting on behalf of the oppressed. Though the DEI commissars are quickly filling that void. Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!

by titzer 5y ago

svieira 5y ago

Lewis came _after_ the East India Trading Company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company) - he's talking about corporations that resemble the fever dreams of _Neuromancer_ and _Snow Crash_, not the (relatively) puny things we have today. He didn't lack imagination at all - he's saying that the moral busybody is _worse_ because their impetus is a better one, so they have more focus and energy to pursue their goals than the hedonist / greed-driven individual.

titzer 5y ago
I understand what he is saying, I just disagree. We are blind to the horrors of our own system when we apologize for it and point the finger at things that we fear and distrust. It's nothing more than an intentional distraction from the evil that already exists in this world. I suspect that he got himself into these contortions trying to apologize for a Christian view of God as all-loving but wrestling with the problem of evil. Especially because those robber barons and mega companies of the day mouthed Christian platitudes all along their conquest. I just ran out of patience with the "socialism bad" reductionism that underlies a lot of sophisticated-sounding analyses but ultimate amounts to "just let me do whatever I want, look those baddies aren't that bad, maybe they're even good!"

beaconstudios 5y ago

He specifically talks about robber barons, who were the greedy corporations of their time.

angelzen 5y ago

You have never experienced Soviet bureaucracy and its petty spitefullness in the name of fighting on behalf of the oppressed. Though the DEI commissars are quickly filling that void. Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!