Whenever we get a blatant case of corporatism, where government is peddling its influence or using its monopoly on violence on behalf of a specific business, it's always "Oh, what a nasty, corrupt company" and never "what a nasty, corrupt state".
At the moment, we're similarly faced with McDonalds, who have paid a metric fucktonne of money to sponsor the Olympics, insisting on something that was in their contract being honoured. No-one is as outraged at the naked profiteering that the Olympics has become as they are at someone who paid a lot of money trying to recoup it legally.
I don't agree with the laws, I don't agree with all the crap that's come with the Olympics, but it's funny how the rule of law and morality have become divorced.
No-one really objects to the rule of law being applied to murder, theft, assault, etc. But it's almost as though the law has taken on a life of its own and has become divorced from being a clear codification of reasonable morals and ethics and turned into a Hydra of arcane, hair-splitting nonsense that drains us of our reason and stamps all over our will.
What moral purpose is there to a law which defines "ZIL lanes" for Olympic plutocrats? What moral purpose is there to a law which defines what you may eat in specific parts of London? What moral purpose is there to a law which disallows you from using the current year in your own marketing efforts if it is not approved by LOCOG?
There are really too many laws, regulations, statutory instruments and rules in our lives. You can't reasonably be expected to comply with things if you're not even aware they exist. "Ignorance is no excuse for the law" was a reasonable thing when there weren't hundreds of thousands of laws, rules and regulations micro-managing the minutiae of our lives. I think, perhaps, it is time to rethink that maxim.
But in the meantime, remember that it's business taking advantage of things that are offered to them by corrupt authorities. In the American parlance: don't hate the player, hate the game.
