In the old days, a King would grant a favoured vassal a legal monopoly on the provision of some sort of goods or services; but nowadays the rulers inject invisible subsidies - at the early stages, and for many years, to ensure the success of those corporations that they wish to establish as a part of the totalitarian system.
These vast subsidies are concealed by fairy-tales about how mega-corps were founded by a rag-tag band of eccentric college dropouts who had a bright idea, working from their Mum's front parlour.
They then launched some tiny start-up that (somehow) made no money for many years; yet (somehow) managed to expand more and more, recruit more and more people, and (because their service was so incredibly cheap (or, amazingly, provided "free" at point of use!)...
And eventually these supposed genius slackers (somehow) ended-up with a large-majority market-share in an enormous new business...
At which point they (suddenly!) become one of the biggest, wealthiest, most powerful corporations in the history of the world - and dictate to nation states and international organizations alike.
Such is the immense power of invisible subsidy.
Pretty much.
ReplyDeleteYou can also see the dishonesty in how they switch justifications at the drop of a hat. If it's a favored person, then whatever is done is great: "he was just too smart to study at the university". If it's an unfavored person, then nothing is good enough: "you have a Nobel prize, why not two, what's wrong with you?"
@NLR - I'm a great fan of reading Wikipedia "biographies" of the famous/ notorious.
ReplyDeleteIt's particular fun when they feature the prestigious things that someone *didn't* do - along the lines of "she was intending to become an international concert pianist/ prima ballerina/ supermodel... but instead decided to train as a remedial school teacher".
Or we get told about (on the one hand) the various glittering offers that were turned-down; or (for street cred) blue-collar manual labouring jobs... that were done in undergraduate vacations, and lasted two weeks.
Another one is to go back two or more generations, to give an impression of... whatever gives the intended effect.
So someone whose personal biography was to be born to rich parents, in a posh house, educated at private boarding schools, and a swanky Oxford college - who starts their Wiki biography with something about the deprivation and prejudice of their remote ancestors: some great-grandparent who was allegedly a Russian peasant, or a Welsh coal miner.
And then there is the matter of race and ethnicity - where (woke) celebs are allowed to assert almost anything about their "real" identity, based on some individual particular supposed ancestor, at almost any point in history going back to the time of William the Conqueror.
Then there is the claiming of being the true author of some vast achievement, on the basis of some real-but-remote involvement, perhaps as a member of some team numbering thousands. ("Her contribution was *decisive*; it couldn't have happened without her".)
It's fun to imagine what any of Us could write, given such license!
Speaking of Wiki entries, I've noticed an ugly new phenomenon of young status-seeking academics who actually write Wiki entries on themselves and instead of 'Academic Publications' have 'Media Appearances'!!
ReplyDeleteWhen Miles Davis was asked by a TV interviewer if his music had been out of the pain of slavery he said, "No because my father was rich".
ReplyDeleteAlso, this shows that if people only look at one part of a system, then things may seem a certain way, but if the system as a whole is considered, then a different picture emerges.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, "AI" is a prime example. People look at the end result and are impressed (or pretend to be) but the system as a whole requires human thinking at every stage and shows that it is parasitic upon real labor and real resources rather than economically productive or autonomous.
The Horatio Alger myth is strong. Warren Buffets father was a member of congress and Bill Gates father a partner in a major law firm. They like all of us get by with a little help from our friends
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