01/24/07
I just started reading the satire Jennifer Government, by Max Barry.
It seems to be an anti-capitalist, anti-globalist, anti-corporatist, anti-privatization satire by someone who's never heard of anarchocapitalism, and only skimmed through libertarian ideas. In his novel, all of America (which includes Australia!) has privatized government. For some reason, this means that the corporations take over, and everyone's last name is of the corporation that employs them.
To my mind, this isn't so much witless as clueless. Markets, freed, don't lead to corporations taking over everything. Partnerships and sole proprietorships are everywhere, and would probably grow in influence in a freer market than we have now.
But Barry is one of those anti-corporate types, who see corporations as the worst thing in the world. It strikes me as rather silly.
The last name
gag is simply a funny idea. But can it be good satire? It reveals the author's lack of realism, not capitalist reality's hidden entelechy. Capitalism is much more likely to lead to corporations kowtowing to a greater individual diversity than before.
A far more realistic nomenclature would be the evolution of naming one's last name in net terms.
Call me Timo Wirkman.net.
Still, the book isn't bad so far, and the little kid parroting anti-statism at school was funny. I'll continue reading. For a while, anyway.
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