The Danger of Shortsighted, Self-Destructive Corporate Agendas
In the 21st Century, market forces are probably the most powerful agencies shaping our modern urban lives. It wasn’t always the case — the 20th Century was dictated largely by political influences; the eras starting from the Renaissance and leading up to the Industrial Revolution were primarily driven by science and technology, while the Middle Ages and ancient times were largely determined by religious factors.
The Monetization of Death and Destruction
Every year, thousands of hopeful immigrants escape from repressive Communist regimes around the world in the hope of making it big in capitalist America — what we call the “American Dream.” This statement applies for most well-meaning, industrious entrepreneurs in this nation, as aspiring capitalists seek to make their fortunes by the manufacture of products that are life-enhancing and beneficial to society.
There are, however, some problems with this paradigm — enough to spawn a decidedly toxic strain of capitalism that is focused on and driven by the destruction of life rather than by its enhancement. Indeed, some of the most lucrative industries in this century, as well as in preceding ages, have successfully monetized the destruction of human life, rather than its enhancement, in a variety of ways. Some of the most significant examples include armaments, tobacco and alcohol — industries that are, in fact, regulated by a dedicated government agency. In addition, however, there are industries like pharmaceuticals, media, food/sugar, and information technology, which have been incentivized to maximize their profits by promoting destructive policies and agendas.
Some of the more obvious examples of this kind of destructive capitalism include the promotion of overseas wars by the military-industrial complex as a means for boosting arms sales, and the glamorization of cigarette and alcohol consumption through advertising. But no less nefarious are the measures pursued by Big Pharma to induce an over-dependence on opioids and vaccines among consumers, or media sensationalism and disinformation as means to boost media consumption among an unsuspecting populace. No less sinister are the widespread deployment of preservatives, seed oils, refined sugar, toxic pesticides and GMOs into the urban diet by the food industry and the funding of academic studies designed to promote a misleading narrative around dietary practices, involving the demonization of healthy fats and protein, as pursued by the sugar industry.
This principle is equally true historically as it is in the present day. In the past, some of the most lucrative industries have included the opium trade in China and South Asia, the global slave trade, and the manufacture and trade of arms and munitions. Indeed, Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist and inventor who financed the Nobel Prizes in a variety of disciplines, made his fortune in the manufacture and sale of cannon and armaments.
Dehumanizing Industrial Trends
Economies of scale incentivize the large-scale production of commodities over custom-made, hand-crafted goods, often at the expense of quality and craftsmanship. This pursuit of short-term profits at the expense of quality also leads to the kind of cost-cutting measures described earlier — including the use of cheap, even toxic, ingredients and synthetic chemicals, preservatives and dyes in edible commodities. Practices such as the pasteurization of milk, the deployment of GMO seeds and even adding refined sugar to a variety of foods are further examples of destructive measures undertaken by (food) corporations in the pursuit of a wider profit margin.
The most significant corporate trend towards competitiveness and the maximizing of profits, though, is the trend towards mechanization and industrialization. The motivating factor is primarily greed — maximizing the profit margin even at the expense of quality and craftsmanship, if necessary. This inevitably results in the displacement and replacement of the human element from the manufacturing process with soulless machines. With the advent of AI, furthermore, the effect of mechanization is now increasingly being felt even in those pursuits that were traditionally perceived as being the exclusive domain of human endeavor — the arts, hospitality, the financial sector, skilled labor, etc. This trend towards dehumanization — removing the human element from all aspects of life — is even being felt in the entertainment and advertising sectors, which appear to be inordinately focused, especially in recent years, on the glorification of violence, death and destructive vices of every description.
The Self-Destructive Paradox in Industrial Dehumanization
Paradoxically, however, if the overarching goal for big industrial enterprises is to eliminate the human element from the system, the end result for big industry is inevitably inherently self-destructive — the long-term effect of this trend would be to undermine and destroy its own customer base. This paradox is clearly apparent when we consider some very simple case studies (or thought experiments, in the vein of the renowned physicist Albert Einstein):
- If arms manufacturers promote endless war in order to boost their armament sales, the ensuing large scale destruction of human life, potentially leading to nuclear catastrophe and mass casualties on a global scale, would decimate the customer base for future arms sales.
- If alcohol, tobacco and drug manufacturers and producers promote the consumption of harmful substances to maximize short-term profits, the resulting deaths of millions of potential long-term consumers would devastate their future customer base.
- If pharmaceutical manufacturers produce drugs and vaccines that maim or kill their consumers, the ensuing reduction in quality of life, if not widespread human casualties, would seriously erode their customer base.
Similarly, if mechanization and AI put millions of skilled professionals out of a job, it would result in millions of people losing their livelihood and, consequently, their purchasing power. This would devastate their consuming ability and, thus, the customer base for all manufacturers.
Corporations may be able to work around this eventuality by shifting their focus to an overseas consumer base in developing nations, for example. However, as globalism becomes increasingly prevalent and people around the world become increasingly aware of their rights as consumers and as a labor force, the trend is changing for manufacturers. It is no longer quite so easy to exploit or manipulate the workforce as it was in the past.
Corporations have a long history of pursuing dehumanizing, life-destroying agendas in the pursuit of short-term profits. During WWII, for example, several major US corporations, including Standard Oil, Ford Automobiles, UBS Bank, etc., directly helped finance the Nazi war machine. They profited immensely in the bargain and were even, in many cases, prosecuted in US courts of law for their wartime collusion with the enemy. During the early 20th Century, multinational corporations funded the destabilization of Latin American nations to their economic advantage, giving rise to the phenomenon of “Banana Republics.” During the 19th Century, it is posited by some historians, there is evidence that the Bolsheviks and Communists in Russia and China were financed by Wall Street bankers, in the pursuit of some incomprehensible economic strategy that presumably involved the dehumanization of society.
We can see, from these examples, that big business and big industry have historically pursued an agenda of the systematic dehumanization of society in the pursuit of short-term profit. Their policies of immediate self-enrichment, fueled by greed, feed into the economics of dehumanization. In this way, they seek to monetize the removal of the human factor from life and economics.
A Path for the Future?
In the present day, we see this process of dehumanization most glaringly in the prevalence of AI and the philosophy of “transhumanism.” The policies that encompass this agenda represent only the latest means for multinational corporations to acquire short-term profitability by pursuing dehumanizing and life-destroying policy trends that inevitably lead to the long-term devastation of their own consumer base, thereby, ultimately putting themselves out of business. Such “vulture capitalist” ventures are, consequently, engaged in self-destructive, suicidal policies that are dangerous not only to themselves, but to the lives of countless others that are destroyed in the bargain.
Their is no easy remedy to address these trends, but one step in the right direction, in my opinion, is a clear-minded awareness of how these trends affect our lives. If more of us become conscious consumers and educate ourselves and one another about making informed, intelligent choices in our consuming habits, we can, perhaps, begin to make an impact towards reversing these destructive trends. The alternative is to sit haplessly on the sidelines and look on as corporate greed literally destroys our civilization and world!
2 thoughts