"Just a possibly useful "anthropomorphic" notion encompassing the fact that the corporation as a social entity has developed some general attributes resistant to human control, which can be seen as traits, "instics", even a "culture". Any comments on the validity and utility of this view?"
I tend to regard macro/micro analogies as always creating cause for caution; in this case I think the proposition of regarding said entities in the singular may be a mistake. My observation has been that the divisions within these firms are often de facto independent companies that tend to have little in common with each other (other than viewing other internal divisions as being competitors).
"Maybe you are right -- I am not an expert on American affairs -- but even so, a decade ago USA was still signing international treaties. I am refering to the new trend of cancelling existing treaties just "because they can", trying to reshuffle the deck of cards for the forthcoming "new order". "
It is not a new trend. The US attitude towards international law and institutions has always been a suspicious one; if the administration proved sympathetic to a measure it usually followed that congress and / or the senate would be vociferously opposed (you need to bear in mind that a Gore administration sympathetic to something like the Kyoto treaty or the ICC would never have been able to ratify it). For example, the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 was not ratified by the US until 1988. When it did so, it added several 'reservations' it had with the treaty. Similarly, the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 was not signed until 1977 and has never been ratified. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1979 has never been signed by the US. The time the US seceded from UNESCO (1984) springs to mind too; the US promptly terminated all payments to said organisation. It was not u
ntil 1995 that the US considered rejoining and its arrears to the UN were not paid until 2000 - and only in part. Historically, speaking the Clinton adminstration was much more favourable to the UN than previous Whitehouse incumbents.
As for the new order, the US has been seeking to engineer one for at least fifty years and, once they make up their minds what exactly it consists of, I am sure that they will have every success.
---- This message was posted by kharin to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25670>
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