Corporate Mind

Lately, I’ve spent time in the company of what I can only call ‘corporate types.’ I call them that because they displayed so many of the characteristics of corporate life, and in fact, they all work in corporate environments. But it has so infected their behavior and way of life that their personalities are inseparable from it. I don’t know how this happens. I have worked in corporations but probably not at high enough levels, and at no time did I feel it necessary to subsume my personality to the corporate mindset. Which is probably why I am a writer right now. And yet, that is what essentially happened to these people. They traded their individuality for the corporate good—which somehow, became entangled with their own good. ‘One Mind—One Purpose.’

Isn’t that what happens to those who choose to climb the corporate ladder?

I feel I have to describe some of these behaviors and characteristics. First of all, there is the dedication to materialistic acquisition. There is no other way to demonstrate one’s success in the corporate environment. One has to wear the same outfits, yes-man one’s betters to the same degree, push the same papers, live by the same reports. In fact, one’s day is filled with conformity in corporate life, and looking out-of-place, saying something out-of-line, being a loose cannon in any way, is highly discouraged—daily—hourly—moment by moment. Those who cannot stomach this constant pounding into conformity usually leave and start their own businesses. Or they become artists or craftsmen. Or they become teachers or social workers or musicians or nurses. Something with some life to it, some creativity to it. This is the antidote to corporate mind.

Which brings me to my point—how this corporate mindset has infected our politics.

Think about it. The elevation of the corporate good as the ultimate goal. The diminishment of science, social programs, the arts. These are all antithetical to corporate mindset. These things produce too much independence, too much thought—and far too much innovation and even competition—which is a threat to the corporation. The maintenance of the old school corporate world is the ultimate goal, and everything else must give way to its pre-eminence. And so we get to one of my favorite subjects—manipulation. This is at the heart of corporate mindset. The corporate world is—is it not?—a civilized society where overt hostility is not allowed. Instead, a great deal of subtle manipulation is employed, along with a certain amount of withholding of approval, a large portion of insincerity and a fair dollop of backbiting is used to get one’s way and force people to do –or not do—what you want.

Do you see the parallels to the Republican political practices?

They have manipulated the public skillfully, using all these methods, from backbiting opponents relentlessly to an appalling amount of dishonestly about their true goals. All this stems from the corporate mindset—the corporations that must be protected—at the expense of everyone else.

Of course, they will not tell you this. They will never admit it, and that too, is part of the corporate mindset of manipulating people to do what you want them to do while convincing them it is good for them. Unfortunately, when the people discover they’ve been ‘gamed’ all along, the anger grows—and grows—and eventually the anger turns to a demand for redress.

Let’s see how long the gaming of the public goes on—and what form the demand for redress will take.