I guess I was not saying we should be equally afraid of corporations getting too centralized as we are of governments, I was just confused that it seemed to conclude with that we should only be afraid of governments getting too large. Large internet corporations can wreak havoc on one's digital life. Is that as bad as getting physically put in a cage or struck by a drone? I'd argue no. Can it still be deeply harmful to individuals? I'd argue yes.
Maybe I misread the ending of the article and that the author meant that we should worry about the centralization of any org, and more so about the centralization of government orgs.
> Maybe I misread the ending of the article and that the author meant that we should worry about the centralization of any org, and more so about the centralization of government orgs.
> These patterns, if true, are seem important regarding the ideal scales of both business and government. And I fear the U.S. public is insufficiently aware of them, as we seem to be on the verge of a historic increase in the scale and depth of government management of society.
Maybe what hit me harder was the last line and the presumption that 1) it is a historic increase in the scale and depth of government management of society and 2) that we are also not seeing a large amount of corporate centralization. Maybe I perceive more corporate centralization than government centralization, as platforms have hundreds of millions or billions of users across 100+ countries, and I recall my 2005 political science class talking about the rising influence of multinational companies over nation-state governments.
We are not on the verge of greater government control on every aspect of our life. Since cars and helicopters became a thing, all "modern" governments have acquired unprecedented powers.
Previously, governments had an area of influence of roughly a few days travel from their centers of power: their area of influence was as large as their army's capacity to crush dissent. It's a "new" development in the history of humanity that you cannot be safe anywhere on earth: even in a remote forest/mountain, the government can come and massacre your community very quickly.
(In most countries, they'll most likely just tear down your houses [0] and imprison you, because that's less likely to cause popular uproar)
[0] Even a pretend democracy like France has strong regulations mandating to break people's homes. And french police/préfets are very involved in persecuting ethnic minorities (eg. Rroma people) and other "light housing" folks.
Maybe I misread the ending of the article and that the author meant that we should worry about the centralization of any org, and more so about the centralization of government orgs.