Rethinking Lifestyle

In an article, “The Corporation As Psychopath,” Michael Jessen states, “Our economic system will eventually change. As currently structured, the system is unsustainable for both people and the planet.”

Believe it or not, there was a time when corporations did not exist. Now “…they determine what we wear, where we work, what we read, what we listen to, what we watch, and what we do.” Many corporations are larger and more powerful than most countries. One result is political apathy in western democracies because people sense that their governments are mostly incapable of loosening the corporate grip on society.

In law, a corporation is defined as a “person” and, according to Noam Chomsky, “…its legally defined mandate is to pursue its self-interest regardless of who or what suffers as a result of its actions.”

In his ground-breaking book, “The Corporation: the Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power,” Joel Bakan asks the question what kind of a “person” a corporation might be. Using standard checklists for personality types and mental disorders, he concludes the corporation is a psychopathic personality.

“A Corporation has a callous unconcern for the feelings of others, an incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, a reckless disregard for the safety of others, a pattern of deceitfulness, an incapacity to experience guilt and a failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviour.”

Such psychopaths are normally locked up to protect the public. But in the corporate world they are allowed to dictate to the rest of us how we should live. Sad that many are willing to march to the beat of a psychopath’s drum.

Fortunately there is a push back beginning to happen. Within the corporate world there is a lot of window dressing going on right now to appease our new consciousness about social and environmental sustainability. A lot of money is being spent on “cleaning up the corporate image.” A case in point: change the traditional designation of “tar sands” to “oil sands.” And, hey, Walmart is going “Green!” But there is reason to be skeptical. The bottom line is still what share-holders care about, not much else.

Here and there corporations have gone through a conversion of sorts and have in fact incorporated social and environmental sustainability into their mandate. For example, Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, the world’s largest carpet manufacturing company, is determined to “give back to the planet instead of taking from it.” Such corporations will survive into the future. Psychopaths will eventually be “locked up.”

Meanwhile there are a lot of things we as individuals can do to loosen the corporate grip on our lives.

1. Resist the temptation to buy needless goods and services psychopaths thrust at us.
2. Avoid doing business with multi-national corporations as much as possible.
3. Buy needed goods and services from local people and businesses you know personally.
4. Reduce your need to accumulate ever-more stuff, especially stuff from a distance.
5. Recycle, share and cooperate.
6. Petition lawmakers to limit the powers of corporations.