🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4772s8$4dm@zippy.cais.net>, gahler@cais3.cais.com (Mark
Gahler) wrote:

> In article <476gfi$m65@madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu>,
> Michael Stutz <at118@cleveland.Freenet.Edu> wrote:
> >
> >Yeah, right.  And you must be an aging baby boomer married to your company.
> >
> >I found "Jerry's" list to be right-on accurate.  Why do you find it so
> >humorous -- do you think he's wrong?  Are corporate entities actually
> >gentle, caring beings?
> 
> I missed the original list but I'm sure it's the same tired old shit
> I've seen before. The reason "Jerry", Jay, or whoever needs to get a
> job is because then they'd learn that corporations are run by human
> beings who are just as petty, unorganized, and stupid as anyone else.

No argument here.

> Though sometimes they succeed despite their best efforts to fail.
> 
> Those who think there are corporate monsters under their bed are no
> different than the wackos who see Waco as some big government conspiracy. 
> I don't think our government or our corporations are capable of even a 
> small fraction of the shenanigans that society's paranoids think they are. 

In their dedication to the profit motive (out of necessity--profit and
"growth" is the definition of success, is it not?), they may feel forced
to neglect other human values, such as respect for the environment,
respect for the people who work for them, etc.  Since (1) corporations are
just organizations of people, and (2) organizational behavior is the sum
total  of the behavior of the individuals, and (3) the individuals are all
struggling to keep afloat in the highly competitive corporate world, then
where do they have time to behave in ways that do any good for society
(unless it helps their image or bottom line)?

Basically what I'm saying--no, CEO's are not evil (just greedy), nor are
lower level corporate decision makers.  However, the system is designed to
bring out the worst in group behavior.  You don't need to be paranoid to
see it and you don't need to invoke conspiracy theories--just examine the
reality of corporate behavior and think about what has happened in our
society the past few decades.  Don't buy into the corp-world brainwash
that all is hunky-dory--it's not.  Dan Ferber