On Corporations

Rough thoughts. Ive always been fascinated by the definition of corporations/companies as entities in the eyes of the law, when they just seem like pieces of paper. But they most definitely are entities -- and they are evolving. From rebellious teenagers (don't tell me what I can do say the executives who bend and break the rules on wallstreet) to ones with awareness of the world they create (and trying to improve the world as they understand it).

Comments

[Simon]

So maybe Corporations are virtual organisms. As you say, they exhibit characteristics and are evolving. Yet there is a paradox. I work for a big (thousands of people) organisation, but what is this organisation beneath the surface? Buildings (can see and touch), payroll (money in, money out), transactions (the org I work for doesn't make things, like a factory does), policies and strategies (just words or real?). It cannot exist though without people. Empty building and papers blowing in the wind, would no longer be a corporation. Since the real substance is just people (funny old human beings), why do we allow corporations and big organisations to have so much power over us? Is it a kind of illusion we buy into. If so, what happens if we opt out? If everyone working in a corporation said "let's stop working and go and picnic outside today", who could stop them? But we have accepted a virtual deal - you pay me, I will conform. Society if it exists seems to need this. Then, sometimes, there is a revolution, old style, the "workers" seizing "the means of production". At some point (Paris 1968), the police or army are called in by 'those in power'. But that only works if enough people are still buying in. Sometimes a critical mass of people decide enough is enough. Then a huge change can occur. It need (should?) not be violent (the fall of communism in the Soviet bloc was an internal non-violent change. Ghandi also encouraged non-violent change which had a huge effect). The big changes. violent or peaceful, seem briefly real, but then things sink back and one 'system' of conforming just gets replaced by another. Maybe where you Heather are operating (on a smaller scale) is in that cusp after 'the revolution' (chaos, creativity, no clear rules, things up for grabs) but before it 'solidifies' again into a new hierarchy and rigid structure that results in a new kind of enslavement. Sounds great!