Say it isn't so, Joe

Hey, it's okay - you can still do something! In fact, you're already on the right track. Your so-called movement learned long ago that you should seize the media. Become the media. (For argument's sake, let's call this the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy.) You put up slick websites with catchy domain names and multimedia presentations, publish glossy magazines, produce polished videotapes and put on public access cable shows. You get your word out.

I have this idea, and it's radical, believe me. I think that perhaps instead you should seize corporate power. Yep, you heard me right - become the corporation. Be The Man.

Look at money this way - it's not a symbol of greed or oppression; rather, money is stored choices. If you screw up, you can fix those mistakes with the proper application of cash. If you decide you want to take a new tack on your life, you have the freedom that the nest egg gives you to pursue your ideas and desires. Heaven forbid you decide you want to settle down and have a life that isn't lived out of jail cells and knapsacks; that isn't free, you know.

The only trick is that you have to earn some this elusive greenback, and you aren't going to do that singing slogans and getting gassed in the streets of Seattle, DC, or soon Philadelphia or L.A., are you?

So what can I do?

Governments are becoming less dominant in the face of growing multinational corporations. The only way to keep power in such a system is to become multinational yourself. You can pursue your own policies within that framework once you acquire the wealth and position to do so.

Stop complaining about the so-called evils of profit and make some. Then apply it to your goals.

"Green" companies and investment funds abound now. Companies are often valued on their business model rather than what they actually produce. You can rail against market forces all you want, but the laws of economics are universal in a social group - you might as well try to fight gravity. You need to work with it, rather than against it, to have the maximum impact.

"But I can't do that!" I hear you saying already. "The Man will crush me under his heel." Not true. One thing that you're entirely right about is that the only thing the corporate entity believes in is money. If you're profitable, it can overlook anything, and I do mean anything.

Lead, follow, or get the Hell out of the way

So, do you want to help the third world economically? Maybe instead of complaining about the IMF and World Bank you can build an alternative structure. Give countries an alternative. Compete the IMF and World Bank out of existence, or failing that, into mending their ways.

Maybe you want to stop the hegemony of American-owned corporations. Fine; start educating people in the third world so that they can compete and start their own corporations. I don't mean teach them to read and write a few words and count to a hundred. I mean educate them in science, in engineering, in economics, in law, in finance, in marketing. I don't even necessarily mean building a whole system of granting degrees at first, which is long and arduous. Just educate people. The surest way to affluence is education and knowledge, but a degree doesn't mean you're educated. Our country wasn't built by men with degrees, but it was definite built by educated men.

Want to close the ever-widening gap between the information haves and the have-nots? Start a company that figures out a way to get people connected to the 'net for cheap. Or free. Work on networking poor neighborhoods. Start training academies in the neighborhood like Cisco's, and harvest the talent you find there for your operating company.

Perhaps you'd like to secure your own place in the world? Stop reading those 'zines and websites, and start reading the Wall Street Journal and become an entrepreneur. Afraid of doing it yourself? Try new collectivist business models. Don't have capital to get equipment? Dumpster-dive the refuse of corporate America and bootstrap yourselves.

The megacorps aren't going to do it for you, and dragging them down and trying to stand on their carcasses isn't going to raise you up very far. You have to do it yourself. Sell out, but keep and promote your principles. The market will sort it out.

restlessmind