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That meme doesn't make sense though. Governments have a monopoly on violence. Corporations do not.
by yucky 4y ago
That meme doesn't make sense though. Governments have a monopoly on violence. Corporations do not.
- cercatrova 4y agoPerhaps in a libertarian utopia with no government, corporations may also have a right to violence just as individuals do.
- kodyo 4y agoIndividuals have a right to self defense, not to initiate violence. Government, having granted itself lawmaking power, grants itself a monopoly on the use of violence to enforce its laws.
- cercatrova 4y ago> Perhaps in a libertarian utopia with no government
- yucky 4y agoOnly if we invent new meanings for words.
- dredmorbius 4y agoThe East India Company did, when ruling India, with its own private armies. See also private militia and police services, e.g., the frequently-renamed Blackwater / Xe / Academi / Constellis. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(company)> There are of course a vast number of other examples.
- dredmorbius 4y agoAnd just to bring that point home: "More than 1,700 environmental activists murdered in the past decade – report" Killed by hitmen, organised crime groups and their own governments, at least 1,733 land and environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2021, figures from Global Witness show, with Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras the deadliest countries. <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/global-witness-report-1700-activists-murdered-past-decade-aoe https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/global-w...> Not exclusively corporate, but also not exclusively states. For the most part I find the distinction between these two (and other) forms of power to be largely a red herring. The real issue is power and its accountability, not the specific form it takes. Though at least in theory, a government can be made to answer to those it governs.