My Corporate Dystopia

What the heck happened to it?

At its best, science fiction imagines a future that illuminates the present, but on the subject of the social role of the corporation, science fiction has long been backward-looking, out of touch with the reality it would analyze. The cultural imagination at large shares this error, though it is difficult to say how much this defect in science fiction is a result of the cultural error and how much it is the cause. But it would be difficult to overstate how deeply the specter of the villainous corporation shapes American political thought. The influence is more visible the farther to the left one moves along the political spectrum. Occupy Wall Street was probably at least as much influenced by science-fiction visions of corporate dystopias as it was by any kind of organized political thought. There were unmistakably Maoist elements to Occupy, but the sinister connotations of the very word “corporation” are by no means heard by only those ears attached to the addled heads of committed leftists.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was set in 1992, Blade Runner in 2019, yet here we are, well into the 21st century, and there is still no colossal Tyrel Corporation bestriding the globe, and nothing like the corporate sovereignties of Jennifer Government. As myth, the corporate dystopia remains undiminished in its power. But the function of myths is to illuminate reality, and the reality is that there is no Tyrel Corporation today, and none on the horizon. If you want to know what the corporation of tomorrow looks like, don’t think Cyberdyne — think Groupon.

…The fetishization of the political through regulator-heroes such as Jennifer Government relies on the point-counterpoint of corporation and state; without the threat of the monolithic, immortal, all-powerful corporation hovering silently in the cultural background, the rhetoric and philosophy of (for instance) Elizabeth Warren is faintly ridiculous. Which is not to say it is entirely indefensible in every particular — Senator Warren is right in demanding to know, say, why nobody at HSBC has been charged with a crime as a result of the bank’s money-laundering case, which involved such worrisome entities as Mexican cartels and Saudi financiers of terrorism. (Senator Warren might think about addressing some of her questions to the president rather than browbeating his underlings at a politically safe arm’s length.) But the overarching narrative — if not for the far-seeing, brave, and selfless heroes of the political class, we’d end up living in the world of Jennifer Government — is a fantasy, and a childish one at that.

I’ve never understood the “progressive” mindset that fears big corporations more than it fears big government.

18 thoughts on “My Corporate Dystopia”

  1. I’ve never understood the “progressive” mindset that fears big corporations more than it fears big government.

    Perhaps it’s because they can get hired by the government but not by corporations? You’re less likely to fear your employer than the “other side.”

  2. Here in Seattle the “Corporations are not people, Amend the Constitution!” loonies are rampant.

    No, they aren’t people.

    But they do deserve due process. And access to the court system. Protection from unrestrained eminent domain. And the ability to own property. The right to assemble. And to write about it.

    If you’re making the claim that they -don’t- deserve free speech, then you haven’t paid any attention at all.

    The court case in contention involved an evil corporation smaller than Thomas Paine’s printing gig. Or Benjamin Franklin’s.

    And yet the common Seattle response is “So? They’re wrong, burn them!”

    (All while promoting non-profits as holy, even when the CEOs are making 5 million dollars a year.)

    1. “No, they aren’t people”

      ah, corporations most certainly are people. More specifically, corporations are voluntary associations of people. People do not lose their rights by associating with others – we have an explicit amendment in the Bill of Rights to underline that.

        1. Frightening isn’t it.

          Probably why they also like to refer to broad swaths of people as “The black community”, “the Jewish community”, and multitude other such “groups” (that really aren’t voluntary associations at all). That way they can make “special” rules to deal with their unique needs.

  3. “I’ve never understood the “progressive” mindset that fears big corporations more than it fears big government.”

    It’s a mystery. My best stab at it is that they think they will always control the government, but big corporations are controlled by Republicans (even when they’re not).

    During discussions in the college social science courses I took, “we” — as in “We’ve got to do something!” — always meant “United States federal government.” Even when I pointed out that, “Yes, we’ve got to do something, but ‘we’ can mean state or local governments, private charities, or concerned individuals.” all I ever got back was blank stares.

    “We” always meant the federal government and nothing else. It was part of their identity, I think.

    1. More like part of their indoctrination. What do you think government schools have been doing (for at least as long as I started attending them, back in ’89). I remember very well having that same royal “We” perspective.

  4. Maybe it’s an out-group thing, like imagining that all corporations are bands of Vikings looking to sack our villages.

    1. Except…

      If you’re imagining the main goal of a corp as looting and pillaging the populace … why would you think it’s -better- to explicitly give them permission to do it (a) armed, (b) with much stronger protections from lawsuits, and (c ) with an explicit monopoly also enforced with force?

    2. Because without those protections the IRS would have trouble meeting their revenue targets?

  5. People always “assumed” that it would be the conservatives that sided with corporate America.

    But we now see the growth of a progressive-led corporate world which aligns itself closely with a progressive-led government.

    One needs only to look at the cozy relationship between GE/NBC/Disney and the media companies (save one) and this administration.

    1. Even more so Google’s very cozy relationship. The US even sent Google CEO over to the DPRK and look how that worked out.

      1. Speaking of Google… Rand, the Google+ links on every post invariably give me an Unresponsive Script alert when I load your main page.

  6. There may be no Skynet but we do see the rise of autonomous drones and 3D printing.

    The distopian part of today’s reality are the FB style of data collection and sales, the evils of google, and how the Obama campaign harvested these methods to drive wedges between race, class, religion, gender, and age or as they bragged at the time, micro-targeting.

    You will find many progressives who will point out how evil FB or google are but they think nothing of their demigod and savior doing worse things.

  7. The answer is quite simple: corporations = profit motive -> selfish greed. Government = non-profit -> selfless civil servant.

    Prog love of government regulating the People “for their own good” has been a feature for at least a century, going back to Wilson & Teddy Roosevelt. You can find the roots in the Populist movement before that, as well.

  8. Government and big corporations are symbiots. The big corps don’t need protection. It’s the little guys that could use it but will never get it.

    Government is never going to get smaller on its own. It has to be forced, which means we need to elect a majority made up of a real minority… those that haven’t yet been corrupted and will make it smaller.

    I’m not holding my breath.

  9. Would it really be that bad working for Energy Corporation and getting to see Jonathan kick a** regularly?

  10. I’m sure you have encountered people who point to the alleged benefits of a large-scale government program and claim that there is no way those benefits can be provided privately. The apparent assumption is that if something isn’t run by a government, it can’t be done on a large scale.

    The contrapositive of that is: If something is large-scale, it is run by a government. That, in turn, means large corporations are governments. In other words, undemocratic governments are allowed to mess around with our society. All this nonsense fits together.

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