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This is why I don't operate in these power structures. From 1995 to 2005 I worked for corporations and seeing it was harmful to my well being, I decide to provi

This is why I don't operate in these power structures. From 1995 to 2005 I worked for corporations and seeing it was harmful to my well being, I decide to provide computer services directly to the public. Now I set my own rules, and I work very hard to set my own ethical spaces where people are forced to do the right thing if they want to operate in my world. I have found that people want to do the right things, but that they need people around them for encouragement. Treat everyone, even the most hardened criminals like they have it with in them to change and all the need is people to believe in them. For me, the dead world of the labor force takes on a symbolic meaning. Words are like super powers, the have resonance and meaning. Look at the etymology of words and the source meaning will always give you the correct answer to what you are energetically putting your life force into. corporation (n.) > mid-15c., corporacioun, "persons united in a body for some purpose," from such use in Anglo-Latin, from Late Latin corporationem (nominative corporatio) "assumption of a body" (used of the incarnation of Christ), > noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin corporare "embody, make or fashion into a body," from corpus (genitive corporis) "body, dead body, animal body," also "a whole composed of united parts, a structure, system,community, corporation, political body, a guild" (from PIE root *kwrep- "body, form, appearance"). Corporations are dead things. Start small and make choices that slowly shifts your energy to people and things that actual have living essence like small business and endeavors that benefit the common good. We can't do in every part of our life, but just a slight shift can be like a cascade effect over time.

lookdangerous 4y ago
Any large group of people organized together for enough time forms a body - the body of tradition and regulation. A large body of text is also known as a corpus. Both the large groups and the large texts are dead in the sense that they do not change of their own power. They are static and closed to new information. Both text and groups must be re-animated by the individual.
generic92034 4y ago
While you may be less subject to corporate power structures the way you are operating now, you are still subject to all kinds of other power structures. As the GP has submitted, try working against the power structure of the country you are living in and you most likely will suffer greatly. The same even happens on lower levels (state, municipality, family?). And even regarding corporate power structures you are only avoiding a certain kind of their possible influences. For example, if a corporation buys up all water supply in your living area you can feel that influence, even if you are not working for them.
- jongjong 4y ago
  Agreed. You don't even have to work against them, if your ideas are seen as a threat, you will suffer. The worst part is that most of the people who will make your life difficult don't even understand what they're doing. They're just doing their job. Your ideas could be potentially highly beneficial to society, they might benefit everyone including those in power but if it's against their beliefs, you will be punished from all sides.
Ghexor 4y ago
I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment and your behavior. I'm grateful for everyone of us out there working with strong moral boundaries. Thank you! I also disagree with your perspective on corporations. To me they seem very much alive - in a less recognisable form, more complex than we can grasp with human minds. I argue mainly because I'd like to keep the term as something free of judgment. A group of people that comes together as a larger body or organism can be quite beautiful too.
- DanHulton 4y ago
  > A group of people that comes together as a larger body or organism can be quite beautiful too. Sure, but that doesn't have to be a corporation. There are all kinds of terms that describe that, and they don't come with the clear emotional and interpretational baggage that "corporation" does. The term honestly isn't free of judgement, it carries with it a _lot_ of associations, and you can't just ignore them and pretend they're not there. Well, I mean you can, but you can't expect others to do the same. They're likely to interpret what you're saying as something else entirely. For example, try talking about "a corporation of churchgoers" and see what kinds of reactions you get. =)
  - fasterik 4y ago
    If they're a group of people working toward some common purpose within an organizational structure that's legally recognized, that's a corporation. Just because it's become a bad word in certain sectors doesn't mean the concept is inherently corrupted. >For example, try talking about "a corporation of churchgoers" and see what kinds of reactions you get. I would point out that most churches are 501(c)(3) corporations ;)
cscurmudgeon 4y ago
What are your thoughts on big vs small govt?
- alexvoda 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- dang 4y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
  - cscurmudgeon 3y ago
    You can go over my comment history to see how it started. I have put in a lot of effort putting in good comments on solid topics and then I see comments like polluting this space and go unchecked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35923149 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35923149 At this point, if I can export my contributions and not have my data locked up here, I will be happy to quit this site.
vuciv1 4y ago
How do you do this? How do you make money to survive?
fasterik 4y ago
There is nothing inherently good or bad about a group of people working toward some common purpose. In principle, given the right value system, incentives, and organizational structure, you could create a corporation that does an extraordinary amount of good in the world. The problem is bad power structures, not power structures per se. Just because corporations as they exist today have problems doesn't mean that we should give up on organizations of people entirely. It means we need to do the necessary work in philosophy, psychology, economics, business administration, etc. that will enable the creation of more effective and ethical power structures.
- lazide 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - fasterik 4y ago
    Yeah I get that it's more hip to be cynical. The problem is that cynicism is often an unconsidered attitude without any real substance or rigorous argument behind it.
    - lazide 4y ago
      Hardly. You assume that the current condition is not due to everyone already doing what you’re describing as best as they can. The issue is that they are, but the inherent corrupting influences of wealth, power, and human nature counteracting them to produce the current outcome. At the end of the day, this is the wheel. And the wheel will keep turning, regardless. Not understanding that just makes proposed reforms naive or ineffective, and usually the end result is worse. The end problem is not one that can be actually solved. But the borders can be moved one way or another, a bit at a time.
      - fasterik 4y ago
        The thing you're ignoring is that humans have reason, which is able to produce behavior that goes against human nature and its corrupting influences. There's a reason why some people give away large sums of money to reduce suffering in the world instead of spending it on themselves or their genetic offspring, for example. I would argue that we have made substantial progress in overcoming human nature through cultural evolution in the past few thousand years, which is a small fraction of the history of our species. I think your argument relies on an assumption that our current culture is somehow inevitable, but that seems pretty obviously false to me. To take another angle, we could remove humans from the picture entirely. The problem of how to get autonomous agents to work together to accomplish a task is a computer science problem. I don't see a fundamental barrier to solving that problem. Getting humans to cooperate is a special case of that problem, with the extra requirement that you need some domain knowledge in the social sciences to be able to convince people to cooperate. Again, there's no fundamental barrier preventing us from doing that research. That doesn't mean it's easy. But that's why I'm skeptical when someone claims that the problem is simply unsolvable. Whether intentional or not, people who deny that progress is possible are reinforcing and justifying the status quo.
r00fus 4y ago
I’d go one step further. Corporation are literally the undead. They live forever, devour our work product and consider themselves persons.

lookdangerous 4y ago

Any large group of people organized together for enough time forms a body - the body of tradition and regulation. A large body of text is also known as a corpus. Both the large groups and the large texts are dead in the sense that they do not change of their own power. They are static and closed to new information. Both text and groups must be re-animated by the individual.

generic92034 4y ago

While you may be less subject to corporate power structures the way you are operating now, you are still subject to all kinds of other power structures. As the GP has submitted, try working against the power structure of the country you are living in and you most likely will suffer greatly. The same even happens on lower levels (state, municipality, family?). And even regarding corporate power structures you are only avoiding a certain kind of their possible influences. For example, if a corporation buys up all water supply in your living area you can feel that influence, even if you are not working for them.

jongjong 4y ago
Agreed. You don't even have to work against them, if your ideas are seen as a threat, you will suffer. The worst part is that most of the people who will make your life difficult don't even understand what they're doing. They're just doing their job. Your ideas could be potentially highly beneficial to society, they might benefit everyone including those in power but if it's against their beliefs, you will be punished from all sides.

Ghexor 4y ago

I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment and your behavior. I'm grateful for everyone of us out there working with strong moral boundaries. Thank you! I also disagree with your perspective on corporations. To me they seem very much alive - in a less recognisable form, more complex than we can grasp with human minds. I argue mainly because I'd like to keep the term as something free of judgment. A group of people that comes together as a larger body or organism can be quite beautiful too.

DanHulton 4y ago
> A group of people that comes together as a larger body or organism can be quite beautiful too. Sure, but that doesn't have to be a corporation. There are all kinds of terms that describe that, and they don't come with the clear emotional and interpretational baggage that "corporation" does. The term honestly isn't free of judgement, it carries with it a _lot_ of associations, and you can't just ignore them and pretend they're not there. Well, I mean you can, but you can't expect others to do the same. They're likely to interpret what you're saying as something else entirely. For example, try talking about "a corporation of churchgoers" and see what kinds of reactions you get. =)
- fasterik 4y ago
  If they're a group of people working toward some common purpose within an organizational structure that's legally recognized, that's a corporation. Just because it's become a bad word in certain sectors doesn't mean the concept is inherently corrupted. >For example, try talking about "a corporation of churchgoers" and see what kinds of reactions you get. I would point out that most churches are 501(c)(3) corporations ;)

cscurmudgeon 4y ago

What are your thoughts on big vs small govt?

alexvoda 4y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
dang 4y ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
- cscurmudgeon 3y ago
  You can go over my comment history to see how it started. I have put in a lot of effort putting in good comments on solid topics and then I see comments like polluting this space and go unchecked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35923149 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35923149 At this point, if I can export my contributions and not have my data locked up here, I will be happy to quit this site.

vuciv1 4y ago

How do you do this? How do you make money to survive?

fasterik 4y ago

There is nothing inherently good or bad about a group of people working toward some common purpose. In principle, given the right value system, incentives, and organizational structure, you could create a corporation that does an extraordinary amount of good in the world. The problem is bad power structures, not power structures per se. Just because corporations as they exist today have problems doesn't mean that we should give up on organizations of people entirely. It means we need to do the necessary work in philosophy, psychology, economics, business administration, etc. that will enable the creation of more effective and ethical power structures.

lazide 4y ago
[flagged]
- fasterik 4y ago
  Yeah I get that it's more hip to be cynical. The problem is that cynicism is often an unconsidered attitude without any real substance or rigorous argument behind it.
  - lazide 4y ago
    Hardly. You assume that the current condition is not due to everyone already doing what you’re describing as best as they can. The issue is that they are, but the inherent corrupting influences of wealth, power, and human nature counteracting them to produce the current outcome. At the end of the day, this is the wheel. And the wheel will keep turning, regardless. Not understanding that just makes proposed reforms naive or ineffective, and usually the end result is worse. The end problem is not one that can be actually solved. But the borders can be moved one way or another, a bit at a time.
    - fasterik 4y ago
      The thing you're ignoring is that humans have reason, which is able to produce behavior that goes against human nature and its corrupting influences. There's a reason why some people give away large sums of money to reduce suffering in the world instead of spending it on themselves or their genetic offspring, for example. I would argue that we have made substantial progress in overcoming human nature through cultural evolution in the past few thousand years, which is a small fraction of the history of our species. I think your argument relies on an assumption that our current culture is somehow inevitable, but that seems pretty obviously false to me. To take another angle, we could remove humans from the picture entirely. The problem of how to get autonomous agents to work together to accomplish a task is a computer science problem. I don't see a fundamental barrier to solving that problem. Getting humans to cooperate is a special case of that problem, with the extra requirement that you need some domain knowledge in the social sciences to be able to convince people to cooperate. Again, there's no fundamental barrier preventing us from doing that research. That doesn't mean it's easy. But that's why I'm skeptical when someone claims that the problem is simply unsolvable. Whether intentional or not, people who deny that progress is possible are reinforcing and justifying the status quo.

r00fus 4y ago

I’d go one step further. Corporation are literally the undead. They live forever, devour our work product and consider themselves persons.