Evil Politicians! Film at 11!

[MantaRay at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/14/96 6:31:42 AM, you wrote:

<<The colony at Jamestown VA, circa 1609, was a for-profit project of the
Virginia Company, an investment-capitalist concern, out to make a buck (or a
pound, rather) for its shareholders.  Maybe not all of the colonies were
established strictly for profit, and maybe the motives for founding the
colonies were not the same as the motives for founding the country, but
clearly the aroma of "business enterprise" was present here from the very
beginning.  >>

Wow, someone agrees with me, AND has historical evidence to back me up! What
a country. I'm not being as hardline on my def. of "corporation" as others,
because I don't necessarily equate business enterprise strictly with
19th-20th century defs. of "corporate." I choose to associate business
enterprise with the political machinery which places the profit motive first,
and I can hardly agree that this is not inextricable with our current social
fabric. So if one still wants to "idealize" indivdualism (which I don't think
was "hijacked" either) as community's binary opposite, more "individual"
power to ya. BUT I just think it is a mistake to assume that the corporate
power structure today is not progressing on these same ideals to fill its
coffers (choice, competition, merit blah blah blah). They are just words that
blur to suit the political rhetoric of the time. I don't necessarily see the
difference between todays "corporations" and the Church or the monarchies
that provided it with a philosophy to flourish. 

MantaRay