To start understanding corporate culture and its members, we must look at what corporations and their officers represent to their employees and the world. Simply speaking, corporations are by-and-large patriarchal family units. To their employees, corporate officers represent big daddy and to a lesser extend big mommy. Our parents are the ones that take care of you, guide you, sets the rules, nurture you, and model correct behaviors for you. Daddy teaches morals, integrity, honesty, good citizenship, caring, which are seen as forms of love. He makes long-term plans and teaches goal setting. Mommy supports, cares for, and nurtures you.

Companies, specifically their officers, have similar parental responsibility, as do parents. What they do reflects “normal” behaviors to their charges. Kids copy parents. And just like in the home, when the parents are too busy, disinterested, or uncaring of their charge’s welfare, darkness and anarchy results.

If one’s charges feel ignored, a burden to their parent’s lifestyles, an unimportant easily replaceable cog in the machine, the long-term outcome will be disastrous. Now, let’s apply this to the culture of the corporate officer and for that matter the government, the biggest corporation.

Remembering back to the 1960’s, it was a goal to work for a corporation. The corporation was trusted to be a good citizen, a role model that took “care of its own.” During retirement you would be cared for and medical insurance assured. Companies were viewed as working for the inclusive greater whole. The country was seen mostly as a cohesive unit, not perfect, but good and getting better. The officials set long-term goals that were concerned with the long-term viability of the company of which they were a part, not just filling their own pockets.

Then came the Seventies and corporate “raiders.” These heartless whores would sell their mothers for a dollar. They gobbled-up healthy corporations using the devil’s tool, venture capitol, which is conscienceless profit oriented funding. Their goals were to rape their victims of their virginal pension funds, and sell off any of its organs they could make a profit on; regardless of the cost to corporate health as a whole, and its family members. Remember, the pension funds held contributions from the employee and employer, but were held in the name of the company. The government allowed this theft, which said this type of behavior was OK. It was the equivalent of capturing humans and selling them off for body parts. Don’t think this isn’t happening in the more corrupt “third world” today.

What did this say to the employees who contributed to these pension funds? We don’t give a “rat’s ass” about you; you are less than unimportant! That message was heard loud and clear. And the “family” adjusted to the new models and learned how to be like their new daddy’s, heartless, egocentric whores without integrity, honor or morals.

Detroit, another example of this “me, me, me” thinking. In the Fifties and Sixties, the US automobile industry was respected for producing good quality reliable machines. In the Seventies, Detroit’s corporate officers started thinking solely about themselves. They decided, why retool, cheapening everything to squeeze the last drop of blood from our products? They reaped huge bonuses and unheard of retirements. The consequence to the corporate body and our economy was buyers bought foreign cars. But these officers didn’t care; they were making big money. Japanese goods were considered inferior, now they’re seen as superior. Detroit set this stage along with the unions, which demanded unreasonable compensation for their members while protecting decline workplace quality. Neither side cared about their products, or the consumer, or the country. Just me, me, me-and now.

Then came the Eighty’s and it brought a new version self-involvement, boomer kids, the so-called “ME & X” generations, “it’s all about me.” We completed the shift to ME, myself and I, from family and extended family (communities, corporations, and the country as a whole.) These are the generations of the undisciplined, disenfranchised, egocentric progeny. It was the era of the Savings and Loan fiascos that we didn’t learn from, and that spawned the technology shell game that ended with the “tech bubble” bursting.

All these generations have one thing in common, lack of connection. Our government sets this stage by what it allows and models.  From the lies of Tricky Dickey to Bush’s innumerable lies we saw what was being modeled as proper, normative-dishonesty. Clinton wasn’t honest either. The Bush administration held unfettered businesses would be good for all. Those profiting thought so. Nobody gave much heed as our Clinton era surplus disappeared into a multi-trillion dollar abyss. No one noticed the rich getting richer, as the lower classes were being enticed into the illusion of riches by easy unrealistic loans.

The government allowed the selling off of our assets to foreign interests; “outsourcing” our jobs at the same time as “free trade”. The government did nothing to rein-in Wall Streeters who packaged bad loans into “securities,” that were anything but secured. No one said a word when corporate officers took obscene bonuses, golden parachutes, and retirements. They didn’t own the companies, or create them, but were good at raping them.

The corporate culture of blind, gluttonous greed is at the heart of the matter. Gone are the morals and principles of our founding fathers of a unified Democratic Republic where all men are created equal. It is only lip service now, usurped by greedy lawyers. Right under our noses we allowed a revolution of misers, who now own what’s left of this country that wasn’t sold off. Gone is the wealth and inspiration of the middle class. Soon all will be working for the “company store,” the Walmarts of the world. Only this time the store is government backed. And they know how to manipulate with fear.

It’s clear that our corporate culture is destroying the world. Time to wake up and teach empathy and real accomplishment, not self-worth fomented from egocentric attainments.

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