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Comment by ahelwer | Hacker News Reader

Yeah yeah we've all read Taleb - no virtue without sacrifice and all that. I basically disagree with your premise that you can only question corporate power while not working for a corporation (strong "yet you participate in society, curious" energy [0]). Let's be clear here: humans banding together to accomplish goals greater than that which they are individually capable is a good thing. Now we just have to decide the governance model. Currently we have the unchallenged shareholder/executive system. Why not create a parallel power structure representing employees?

[0] https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha

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My perspective comes from Hannah Arendt and her opinion that goodness demonstrated publicly necessarily becomes corrupted.

> Let's be clear here: humans banding together to accomplish goals greater than that which they are individually capable is a good thing. Now we just have to decide the governance model. Currently we have the unchallenged shareholder/executive system. Why not create a parallel power structure representing employees?

Why are you so sure that you are motivated by a desire to improve the world? I think the correct assumption is that you are deeply selfish and, mostly, what you want is to maintain and bolster your advantageous position. I think your perspective is adequately explained by that assumption.

Even if we assume that you want to improve the world, why are you so convinced that you know how?

> Why not create a parallel power structure representing employees?

There already exists a parallel power structure that represents all employees, suppliers, and customers. Its the structure of government.

Of course it's selfish. I believe myself & my fellow workers should have more of a voice in how companies are run - more power. This is because I, yes, believe we can run the company better for society as a whole. I live in society and wish to live in an even better, more just society.

More power for you is directly linked to making society better. What a fascinating coincidence.

I do believe that putting more power into democratic structures (and thus more power into their constituents) will make society better, yes. Not really a fringe opinion. Not to get too frank but this type of nietzschean-style attack against the presumed underlying motivations of ideological opponents only really works if you're an exceptionally talented writer & study of human behavior.

> My perspective comes from Hannah Arendt and her opinion that goodness demonstrated publicly necessarily becomes corrupted

I checked your profile for info to contact you privately to ask, but there wasn't anything, so my apology for the public request. Could you suggest any of Arendt's writings, especially around this subject? I've seen her referenced in interesting contexts and would love to read more.

The bit about the impossibility of doing good in public is from The Human Condition. She gets it from Machievelli, who dared to "teach men how not to be good".

I'd recommend a collection of three essays called Crises of the Republic. If you like that, then check out The Human Condition.

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