Free Geek Mafia: Mile Zero by Dakan, Rick Page B

investigate it. The company won't be anywhere at all but in a series of post-office boxes in the Caymans or Belize and secure servers hidden away in secret data havens. Look at Enron..."
    "Here we go," Winston interrupted. Paul got the impression that Isaiah and Winston had already debated this example a fair amount. "Why not model ourselves after the paragon of right-wing capitalist greed and exploitation?"
    "Why not, indeed?" Isaiah countered.
    "Because they got caught?" Paul suggested.
    "They got caught because they were tied into real world enterprises and stock markets. Because there were people, the SEC could make arrests and parade them in front of the TV cameras. But if you look at what they were doing - which is the same thing a thousand other corporations are still doing today - they had hundreds of fronts and holding companies and shell corporations, each nothing more than an account number and a file somewhere. They moved money and assets and God knows what else without anyone ever noticing what was going on. Sound familiar? It should. It's what all of us do all the time.
    "I'm not talking about going public and selling stock. I'm talking about a privately held, foreign-based holding corporation that can let us pool our resources, launder money, provide ready-made cover, establish untraceable lines of credit, even buy and sell real estate and big ticket property. Hell, even provide health insurance. All without any of it being traceable past the corporate façade."
    "You're asking us to give up and join the enemy," said Winston. "To become part of the establishment that we devote our time to subverting."
    "What better way to subvert than from within?" asked Isaiah. "I use the best, I use the rest. I use the enemy."
    "I use Anarchy," said Paul, completing Isaiah's quote from the Sex Pistols.
    "And make no mistake. This is classic anarchy I'm talking about. No government control, the workers - us -
    controlling everything from the ground up. No one telling us what to do. Better than that - no one even knowing what's happening."
    "Corporations are the traditional tools of Fascism," Winston intoned. "How can forming a corporation be a tool of Anarchy?"
    "Don't get caught up in the labels," Amelia chimed in from beside Isaiah. "When he first told me about this plan, I was as skeptical as you. But look at the reality, the essence of what's being proposed. A modern-day corporation has all the rights but few of the responsibilities that a person has. And a transnational corporation is a person without any steady lord or master. A person who can travel anywhere in the world in search of opportunity."
    "Or prey," said Winston.
    "Or prey," agreed Amelia. "That's exactly right. And what does that sound like? Who else in history have Chapter 06
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    enjoyed such freedoms?"
    "Pirates," said Paul, understanding dawning on him. "You're saying corporations are the modern pirates."
    "Exactly!" said Isaiah, pointing at Paul. "That's it exactly. We've modeled our crews after the Pirate Crews of old - democratic, beholden to no one, taking what we need and living free. But it's time to evolve. Time to become the true pirates of our age."
    "The corporation isn't what we are," said Paul. "It's just a new ship for us to sail in." He'd been entranced with the pirate mythos the Crews wrapped themselves in ever since he first met Chloe. The comparison added a veneer of romance and daring that helped mask the sometimes brutal and tough parts of living underground.
    But he knew that Winston had never liked the metaphor, and looking at him now, Paul didn't see anything in the old man's stern visage to make him think he'd changed his mind.
    "That's it," said Isaiah. "I'd never thought of it that way, but you're exactly right, Paul. It's just another kind of ship. A ship that's just as quick and dangerous, but with bigger guns and better armor that can slip in and out of any port in the world without being noticed."
    "Ok, ok, I get it now," said