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calibraxis | 9 years ago

"an extreme individualism has stepped in as the alternative—a go-it-alone perspective narrowly focused on getting an education and becoming successful on one’s own merit."

It's ironic. Corporations are anything but individualist. They're collectives. Almost always top-down authoritarian structures that resemble fascism closer than most fascist governments. And full of bureaucracies that have nothing to do with making products, like marketing & finance depts.

And in this article, "education" is a euphemism synonymous with college. Not talking about self-learning. Some administration that gives people certificates.

discuss

order

dang|9 years ago

We've asked you before to stop using HN primarily for political arguments and ideological rhetoric. Doing so is an abuse of this site. You not only didn't stop, but continued to do nothing else; therefore we've banned this account. If you don't want it to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com with reason to believe that you'll use HN as intended.

For those who are wondering, HN is intended for gratification of intellectual curiosity (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Intellectual curiosity is far removed from political battle, and much weaker a force, so it needs protecting. Occasional political comments aren't a problem, so long as they're civil, but using HN primarily for politics is not ok.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13247955 and marked it off-topic.

vixen99|9 years ago

"resemble fascism closer than most fascist governments".

Except of course that (1) the corporation only survives ultimately by selling a product or service that someone of their own free will, wishes to purchase; i.e., it is of more value to them than their cash. (2) local conditions excepted (no other job available), people are not forced to work in these organizations.

Making products is all very well but if your potential customer doesn't know about it and/or its production is not financed properly, the activity is a waste of time.

hyperdunc|9 years ago

"own free will"

Well that's had highly debatable. Consider the amount of resources corporations spend trying to convince people what their will should be.

dredmorbius|9 years ago

Standard Oil. Southern Improvement Corporation. British East India Company. Opium Wars. American Telephone and Telegraph. International Business Machines, German operations, 1930s & 1940s. Monsanto. Coca Cola. Tobacco. Detroit, the Big Three, and the safety and efficiency wars. Microsoft and the DoJ. Microsoft vs. DR DOS. Microsoft vs. Novell. Microsoft vs. Lotus. Microsoft vs. Netscape. Microsoft vs. Linux. Apple, Intel, Google, Cisco, and the anti-poaching cabal.

Edward Bernays. Dole Fruit Company. The Pinkertons. United Steel strikebusting. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

I'd strongly recommend boning up on your history.

internaut|9 years ago

> "education" is a euphemism synonymous with college

Peter Thiel has described at length this kind of error

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJIpBexKhQ

It has always impressed me how doctrinal higher education as a terminal goal has become for the middle class. I personally believe it is utterly worthless for 9/10 of the people going to college right now. The students would be better off doing almost anything else.

newdayrising|9 years ago

Until you need to get a job and a bachelor's degree is required simply as a method to exclude candidates.