Are Corporations People?
I was wrong.
The 2012 election was finished and one of the leftover artifacts is the famous quote by Mr. Romney: “corporations are people”. Sadly, about a year later, I have come around on this subject. Not in the way that Mr. Romney wanted me to think, that somehow individual civil rights should be shared with a construct of law: the corporation. What I did realize, is that each corporation is powered by thousands of individuals, people.
These people are dehumanized by the massive centralized body of the corporation, then they are dehumanized by us the consumers, the people who interact with them. We take out our anger on the other human, the front line and the masters who pull the strings, remain invisible and unharmed. We do the same to people who work for the public sector. We lump them into that block of the army of those we hate.
We scold them on the telephone, we curse them on Twitter and Facebook. We join in on some mob hate fest. But, are we really in any way reaching the source of our anger? How about this for a strategy, lets conquer them by showering the people who work for corporations like people. People who have joys, sufferings, pains, pleasures, smiles and who share our basic human goal: making a living.
In fact, being a bully, aka an assertive consumer, has become a heroic figure. Corporations take that into account, figure the losses and cater to the bullies. The bullies then get bragging rights about how they got something out of the big blue meanies. In fact, all they did is get pacified with tokens that are entered into the balance sheet. In total the rest of us still get no crumbs from the spoils the bullies gather.
Since I do not enjoy being a bully I have now started to shower my fellow people with kindness and manners. I charm and show them my gratitude. I realize that the monolith of the corporation will not be weakened if I cuss out a customer service rep, or her supervisor. Gosh, I sound like another Norther Californian hippie, but really, the hippies did not invent kindness, it’s an old school virtue.
“Friedrich Nietzsche argued that kindness and love are the “most curative herbs and agents in human intercourse”. Being kind is not for the weak. You have to bite your tongue, you have to repress some of your aggression that poses as assertiveness and individualism. You have to put your little ego on the side for a bit and think of the other human.
Imagine millions of customers not acting like entitled pricks every day. Now, think about the millions of workers that will be happier at their jobs. Maybe treat their families better when they come home. Imagine all the dogs down the line who will not be kicked. Maybe just for one day we can choose to not complain about something. Maybe we can acknowledge the other people.
I don’t have the solution as to how to humanize corporations. That is another whole topic. But, I know sure as hell, we the people, when we actually encounter other people we have to show our humanity to each other. One of the simplest and most undervalued human virtues is kindness.
