ATDTDA (5): The American Corporation

[Joseph T]

On Apr 4, 2007, at 6:09 PM, Joseph T wrote:

>
>
> On Apr 4, 2007, at 5:09 PM, Paul Mackin wrote:
>
>>
>> On Apr 2, 2007, at 4:52 AM, Dave Monroe wrote:
>>
>>> Not to step on anyone's (John's, Paul's, whoever's) toes here, I  
>>> HOPE,
>>> but, while circling back to The Vormance Expedition, this again  
>>> caught
>>> my eye ...
>>>
>>>   "'Evolution.  Ape evolves to man, well, what's the next step-- 
>>> human
>>> to what?  Some compund organism, the American Corporation, for
>>> instnace, in which even the Supreme Court has recognized legal
>>> personhood--a new living species, one that can out-perform most
>>> anything an individual can do by himself, no matter how smart or
>>> powerful he is.'" (AtD, Pt. II, p. 147-8)
>>>
>>
>> My thoughts on the passage would be more or less as follows:
>>
>> 1.  This "evolution" Pynchon is describing is of course more  
>> "weird science."
>>
>> 2. The real-world situation being referred to is simply that of  
>> several "natural persons" banding together to act as a single  
>> entity under state (and sometimes federal) law in the legal system  
>> in ways similar but by no mean identical to the way a natural  
>> person can function.  If this  is the granting of "personhood" to  
>> a corporation, so be it.
>>
>> 3. As to the 14th amendment  (equal protection under the law) ,  
>> the obvious presumption would be that if it's illegal to deny  
>> protection to natural persons for reasons of race, color or creed,  
>> it would be problematic to deny protection to groups a such people.
>>
>> 4. To go along the the joke, if common sense (with a little  
>> marginal help from the 14th amendment) conspired to confer civil  
>> liberties upon synthetic persons known as corporations, it is also  
>> true these rights since the late 19th Century have been gradually  
>> eroded away by federal law (Sherman Antitrust Act, etc, etc.)  
>> though not nearly enough so in the opinion of most p-listers.
>>
>> P..
Natural persons get old and die, natural persons can be held  
personally accountable for their crimes, can be jailed, have motives  
as citizen's or members of families and communities, invest money at  
their own risk.
It's a truly different kind of animal and Pynchon has invested a lot  
of energy tracing the history of violence, slavery, colonialism, and  
playing both sides of every political or moral divide which marks  
corporate entities.

Corporations from the beginning were called legal "fictions". The  
creature unearthed, de iced, taken to the great city, is a fiction   
(sentient rock, alien, criminal deity, time traveler, serpentine  
meteor ala King Kong,...), but I think it’s effects, whether a  
metaphor for WW1 or 9-11..., are intended to be seen as real.
J T