Financial Firms – Universities of Evil
This morning, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and respected rationalist, Chris Hedges, levied a brutal assault against the corporate citizen’s moral code (or frightening lack thereof) that seems set on consuming every decent and egalitarian institution this country has left.
From the article on Truthdig:
“The iron goals of greater and greater profit, order and corporate conformity dominate their [corporate underlings] squalid belief systems. And by the time these corporate automatons are managing partners or government bureaucrats they cannot distinguish between right and wrong. They are deaf, dumb and blind to the common good.”
While the indoctrination described in the article is widely applicable, it is written specifically referencing the modes and methods of financial firms. In a way, these firms serve not only the nominal functions of their mission statements (the shifting around of funds and the recordings of profit) but they also operate to systematically erase the moral tendencies of their employees. They are, in effect, Universities of Evil.
These bodies finely sort through their employees and empower the least decent, the least human of their lot and grant them the equivalent of Evil Tenure. The recruits who are able to effectuate the most harm to the largest number of people are held up above their peers, lauded, given the highest marks, and put into greater positions of authority and job security.
These esteemed graduates then move on to contaminate other institutions (government structures or other corporations) with their hard-learned psychoses. These Bad Will Ambassadors then take up their wrongful place as the most esteemed members of our business community, and the idols of our celebrity and wealth-driven pop culture.
It is only through this hard-earned career path that Graduates of Evil can move on to post-Golden-Parachute life of corrupting children, inspiring sociopaths, and drop-kicking puppies.
So contact your local Evil Recruiter and see what the fuss is all about. With an advanced degree in Evil, you can learn the following marketable skills:
Soul Capture
Drinking Tainted Goats Blood
Puppy Punting
Doomsday Device Construction
Dark Portal Conjuring
Master-Level Dissembling
Apocalypse Creation
and Derivatives Trading
Call now! Operators (of the Dark Arts) are standing by!
Russ-
This is a fascinating little clip. The thing about it that intrigues me is that much of Mr. Hedges critique could be leveled at global capitalism as a whole. I would argue that scale, specifically distance and anonymity, is the way to avoid most of the sociopathic characteristics that pervade giant corporations.
Symptom one, callous unconcern for the feelings of others is far more easy when the other is anonymous rather than known. It is an extremely difficult business practice to sustain in a small, local venture. Ditto for building enduring relationships. A local concern cannot continually treat the consumer like crap unless it has a monopoly (e.g. cable companies) .
I once saw a study tracking this concept for the denial of insurance claims relating to back pain. The distance (geographical) between the insured and the claims representative, local versus non-local, was a key factor in the claims denial rate. It is far easier to deny insurance claims impersonally over the phone or internet than it is face-to-face. Empathy is influenced by immediacy.
Similarly for the reckless disregard for safety, it is a practice that cannot be repeatedly gotten away with by a local merchant. Accountability is too direct.
Likewise for habitual lying and conning, much easier for a faceless corporation that can hide behind a website and a 1-800 complaint number, than a merchant who has to stand behind the counter of her or his own store.
I have long thought one of the great flaws of American democracy was the practice of treating inanimate corporations as people under the law. As it stands, Hedges fascinating critique indicts the global corporation, and give us one more reason to shop locally.
Nice find.
Keep up the good work!