Free Software Has No Kings or CEOs
The doors have just opened (minutes ago) for an American concert on the most American day (even if it should be a reminder of erosion of independence). Many people across the road are marching there, they want to see the "Kings" of Leon (in a country that now has a King, just like the kings and queens the Americans tried to divorce 250 years ago).
In "Silicon Valley" (built upon loans from foreign countries), companies are run by pseudo-kings (CEOs) and panels of monarchs (called "Board of Directors"; they can sack the CEO). They are funded and thus controlled by oligarchs, sometimes somewhere like China or Saudi Arabia.
What this means in practical terms is that those companies are not controlled by nations - not even a nation (the US) - but by some very rich magnates or plutocrats. The kingdom has a really bad distribution of wealth:
Yesterday we pointed out that the "entire population [of San Marino] could comfortably fit inside the Allianz Arena."
Well, 6 months ago it was said: "About 56,000 people control three times as much wealth as half of humanity. [...] The report estimates there are 56,000 of these zero-point-zero-zero-one-ers, and if they gathered for a party, the group would fit into the seats of a medium-sized football stadium, such as Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium or the Stadio Olimpico in Rome."
We need independence. The kingdom is a cross-border phenomenon, so national flags and other such symbolism overlook the core problem.
Free Software, by its nature, is not centralised. Users of it can take control. Free Software or Freedom-Respecting Software is deliberately made (in the licensing sense) in a way that assures no hoarding of power.
Free Software can help lead us out of the current imbalances. █