Comment by MrLeap | Hacker News Reader

Comment by MrLeap | Hacker News Reader

I've managed to write 15 pages on a topic this aligns with over the last few weeks. The thesis is that Feudalism never went away, it just transitioned from kingdoms to corporations.

Putting ramparts and a moat around your primogeniture home owner's association lost to the advantages afforded by consolidation of production and trade. The traditions, structures and expressions of human nature have changed very little.

I'm sure this is probably some high octane confirmation bias, but this story just sings to me about what I've been writing about.

The landed members in this council meeting are outraged that one of their own is ignoring the duties of their vassalage. Is anything sacred when peasants who aren't even in your kingdom can listen in on your chancellors, stewards and spymasters? To the landed of the realm, this is a legitimate affront to the value of your titles! That's casus belli if I ever heard of it. I wonder how many employees are trying to rainbow table the journalist.

If you reveal sensitive information to someone in confidence, and they betray your trust, of course you're going to feel betrayed. And of course you're going to hold back on other sensitive information in the future.

Most Googlers realize this as well, which is why they too are upset with the leakers. It shuts off any visibility that they would have otherwise. Visibility that can be used productively to alter company policy, like was done with the defense contract.

Ultimately, preserving the confidentiality of sensitive discussions, is part of the social contract that benefits the employees themselves in the long term. Going on an anti-corporate diatribe and tearing up this social contract isn't doing anyone any good.

You're accusing me of engaging in diatribe? Audacious!

Google has 88,000 employees. I don't know what their definition is for "All Hands", but it's probably a lot of people. I think there's a saying about this. 88,000 people can keep a secret if 87,999 are dead?

I know you're hardly the first, but I laughed when you called them "Googlers" instead of Google Employees. I can't wait until Google calls up its levy of Googlers to arms and they hit the campaign with retinues holding bright blue-red-orange-blue-green-red standards. I believe the feeling of betrayal is real but it's still funny.

I assert this is more about loyalty to your liege/realm/company than a practical thing to be upset about. The people doing the cursing on a hot mic seem to have built their identity around the company they work for. I get how that could happen but it's still peculiar to me, I firmly believe that no matter how many times they say it, the company you work for is NOT your family, unless it's a family owned business and they are.

It just occurred to me that you might think I'm being anti-corporate because of the comparisons to feudalism. Maybe you felt an instinctually negative reaction when you read the word. I'm much more dispassionate myself. Taking the emotion out of the words allow you to see that the systems have enormous similarity with merely different vocabulary, like angular vs. react, except feudalism isn't as dystopian as angular (Ha Ha, google joke). Peasant::Non Managerial Employees, Youtube:Google:Alphabet::Duchy:Kingdom:Empire. It's there, you just have to look!

You might be interested in what the Georgists and geo-libertarians have to say about the more common "royal libertarians" (the term they actually use).

http://geolib.com/ http://cgocouncil.org/cwho.html

Similar sentiments are to be found among mutualists, agorists, etc. Ownership of land specifically is ownership of property stolen from the commons during the era in which enclosure occurred. Those who pit absolutist interpretations of property rights against the need for democratic and responsive government are the intellectual and often financial descendants of kings and feudal lords. To the extent that other wealth is often derived from land wealth at some stage, it's often tainted as well. This is closely related to Proudhon's "property is theft" (specifically excluding labor-made wealth) and similar ideas going back to Saint Ambrose and Basil of Caesarea in the fourth century.

This is the real "trickle down" economics, but it only extends as far as the modern equivalent of courtiers and lesser gentry - not to the vast majority. Those on the system's fringes are often most wary of threats to it, often seeking to secure their position by loudly denouncing the unblessed rabble who would displace them in a truly free system.

Private property laws as a moral value go back to at least the old testament. Ahab and Jezebel get vengeance from God for sneakily trying to take their neighbors property without compensation for example.

Yes, the Old Testament is full of examples of how an idea being old isn't the same as it being good.

I am very interested in reading as well. Is it handwritten?

I typed it, with my hands. So far it's 15 pages, 8800 words.

I'm worried that once I fill in the blanks and edit, my #1 supporter CLGrimes will be gone and I'll be skewered in the e-court of e-opinions. Can I count on you to wait for me?

And my ax!

But, seriously, I'm also interested in the comparison of kingdom to corporation.

E: spelling

I also love the argument :)

I will wait, happy to read it!

Someone had been spying on Google? How does it feel to be tracked in real time?

It's ok, they don't have anything to hide right? Just like the rest of us...

Where can we read the 15 pages?

You'd have to come over. I have no idea what i'm going to do with it when I stop, but I feel an easy 100 pages in me before I'll have to start increasing the font size for length.

If this metaphor is interesting to you, this pithy comment I wrote here ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16565135 ) is related.

Based on the link you provided, I can confidently say you have a lot of skill at writing engaging prose and turning ordinary into story.

You should write a book or short stories or something!

Wow, thank you!

We'll see if I still have it takes, or if I'm just a one-hit wonder. I've been out of the game for a long time. About 25~ years ago, when I was in 3rd grade, I was published my first and only time. I landed a poem in a young authors compilation.

Here's the poem, verbatim.

People with big noses are funny, Because they need lots of money, To fix their nose, that looks like a fire-hose, what they really need is reconstructive surgery.

Since then, I've grown a lot. My art has grown more egalitarian and inclusive. I'm still nervous about re-entering the scene. I'm worried it'll get dredged up, take twitter by storm and cause me to lose my job.

Upvoted for "primogeniture home owner's association" which is lovely. I like the argument too, please make the rest available.

Alright the interest has motivated me. I'll start posting episodically on joshleap.com as I jazz it up. Since I don't have a comment system people can give me stuff or validate my ego by email, it's a puzzle in my profile.

I would love to read what you've written thus far, if you're willing to have an audience :)

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