A thought, arising from a dream, which is probably important and probably worth developing into an essay: part of the mess we're in, as a civilisation, is because, in law, we treat corporations as if they were persons. >>>
For example, in the US, corporations have the right to make political donations, because they are legal persons. More generally, corportations may enter into contracts, sue and be sued, and own property, because they are persons. >>>
However, this doctrine appears to be applied only when it is helpful to corporations, and not otherwise. So let's turn that on it's head, and work out what the consequences would be for corporations if they were subject to the same restrictions as other persons are? >>>
For example, one of our problems is huge companies which have become over-mighty citizens on a world scale. They do this by working across many jurisdictions. Actual people cannot do this, it is illegal immigration and/or working without an appropriate visa. >>>
Ah, but, you'll say, corporations don't actually do that, they set up new corporations which they own and control in the jurisdictions they want to operate. >>>
But (if corporations are legal persons), that's illegal. You can't own a person. You can't even own a share in a person. That's slavery, and it isn't tolerated anywhere outside the Gulf States. >>>
Which means, also, of course, that actual organic people who walk around on two legs, can't own corporations or shares in corporations, because owning persons is illegal. >>>
There must be many other things which the law requires ordinary persons to do (or to refrain from), which it does not require corporations to do (or to refrain from), because if it did the whole structure of capitalism would collapse. >>>
For example, should a corporation under eighteen years of age be permitted to enter into contracts? >>>
It seems to me that the legal doctrine that a corporation is a person only when it suits a corporation so to be and not otherwise, if made explicit, becomes legally untenable; and that if we undo that doctrine, much that is wrong with modern capitalism also unravels.

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More from @simon_brooke

22 Nov
It just happens that wandering through Velen yesterday I picked up a crafting diagram for the Black Unicorn blade. I'd hardly have noticed – one picks up a lot of crafting diagrams in @witchergame – except that the Black Unicorn got a mention in #NightCityWire this week. >>>
There are 'goodies' you can get, apparently, in @CyberpunkGame, if you connect your game to @GOGcom and you also have a copy of @witchergame linked to GOG. And one of those goodies is said to be the Black Unicorn blade.



>>>
So wow, I thought, was this a blade added in a patch to @witchergame with the intention of being carried forward into @CyberpunkGame? Sadly, no. It first appears, actually, in the Dark Mode DLC for Witcher II, and then again in Witcher 3.

witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Uni…

>>>
Read 5 tweets
13 Sep
Reading this piece by @tconnellyRTE I've finally come to an understanding of who Johnson truly is, and how we got into this mess. >>>

rte.ie/news/2020/0911…
Johnson thinks he's Peter Pan. He's not: he's one of the Lost Boys. >>>
Probably because of some trauma in childhood (and, from what one knows of his parents, this isn't at all surprising) Johnson is incapable of advancing, emotionally or intellectually, past the level of a four year old. >>>
Read 6 tweets
7 Aug
Thread: an analogy about the world's - and Scotland's - dilemma. It's long; bear with me, I think it's worth it. #1/18
We all understand what happens if you jump out of a plane with a parachute. Before you deploy the parachute, you will accelerated downwards under gravity, and you will continue to accelerate until you reach terminal velocity. #2/18
If you hit the ground at terminal velocity, you will almost certainly die. #3/18
Read 18 tweets
23 Jan
A bit of a thread about Scots language, Scots orthography, and erasure: how our past and identity are deconstructed.

So, let's start: how many letters are there in the alphabet?

>>>
If you answered 26, go to the bottom of the class.

Next, how do you pronounce the last syllable of the placename 'Cockenzie'?

>>>
If, for you, it sounds like the Dutch 'Zee', also go to the bottom of the class. But the two answers are related, and the relationship is hegemonic.

>>>
Read 20 tweets
12 Jan
Another bloody thread on #ClimateEmergency. Sorry.

Current world enegy consumption per annum is about 14,000 million tons of oil equivalent, or about 162,820 terawatt hours. >>>
That's equivalent to 1.8 million of the largest wind turbines currently available running at peak output all the time, or 5,701 nuclear reactors the size of Hinkley Point C. >>>
Let's be clear - I don't believe we can safely build nuclear reactors at all. But if we wanted to get to carbon neutrality by 2050, even assuming energy consumption does not rise AT ALL, then to do that by nuclear energy would mean building one every two days from now on. >>>
Read 8 tweets
12 Jan
I think the main reason I listen to @PolGaloreScot is to be annoyed. Being annoyed is useful. It causes one to challenge one's own thought.

So this week, what they're being intellectually lazy about is federalism, and Scottish parties.
I have blogged about federalism rather a lot, as folk may remember. The US, as everyone knows, allocates two seats in its Senate to each state, whether that's California with 39M people or Wyoming with 0.5M people. >>>
California gets rather more seats in the House of Representatives - 53, against one for Wyoming; but that's still nothing like the 80/1 population ratio. >>>
Read 27 tweets

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