Communities vs. Corporations: Organisms and collective action problems

In this post, I will look at corporations and communities through a life sciences lens to see if it can help us understand why things are the way they are.

Part of the reason corporations exert such influence in today's world is because they are a very effective way to solve collective action problems. Corporations are basically organisms whose DNA is focused on the maximization of returns for those who have invested in them. Yes, corporations must manage expections of their customers and other stakeholders, but the bottom line is that they exist to make money for their shareholders. This goal always trumps any other goal they might profess to have. This goal is so deep in the DNA of a corporation, that it will not only seek this goal by navigating its existing environment, but also seeking to make its environment more amenable to that goal (e.g. via lobbying, propaganda). The Supreme Court has cooperated trmendously by investing corporation with the rights of legal personhood in 1886 (Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad). I would expect that the powerful corporate interests of the time had a significant role in this decisions, despite the supposed independence of our courts.

This decision basically put corporations on equal footing with real people in pursuing "their" self-interest in our society. If we think of corporations as organisms, this is equivalent to a virus like AIDS convincing its host organism that it is "safe," allowing it to replicate and expand without fear of incurring the wrath of the host's immune system. Corporations can now operate with and through us, literally with immunity.

What is the current state of the evolution of corporations? I would suggest that the tables have turned 180 degrees and humans have now been incorporated into corporations and serve THEM. Like mitochondria which were incorporated into cellular structure long ago to provide cells with energy, we have been absorbed into the life of corporations and fuel them to their own ends. They do not serve us; we serve them.

In the Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra provides a new way to think about life and what is alive. His definition is:

• Membranes that separates self from non-self. Life is defined by a relationship within the internal systems of the self and between the self and non-self.



• A Metabolic Network - This provides energy to the self through the intake of raw materials which are used to "feed" the self by turning those raw materials into the structures that perpetuate the structure of of the self.
  

Most of you already know that the cells that compose your body are not the cells you were born with: you are composed of a mostly new set of cells that turnover approximately every 7 years. This is the perfect example of the above: by feeding ourselves, our physical structure constantly recreates itself, and thus we are "alive."

Corporations have a structure, a metabolism and a boundary between their self and everything else. Raw materials pass into the corporations, are transformed and sold producing money, allowing the corporation to live and grow.

Without getting into a debate about whether we have been truly incorporated into corporations, it is clear enough that people are an essential component of their metabolism.

Corporations are large and exert tremendous power by virtue of their ablity to act with a single will as outlined in their mission statement and interpreted by the executives and validated by the investors. They are powerful by virtue of their size and wealth. We cannot help but be involved in their metabolic systems. There are many corporations that have annual revenues greater than the GDP of many countries. And in the US, in 1976 the Supreme Court ruling in Buckley vs. Valeo said that money is equivalent to speech. And thus corporations can SPEAK LOUDER than people generally can. (Except the billionaire owner/investors of those corporations, whose interests are obviously pretty well aligned.) This also reinforces their power over the middle and lower "working" classes.

I do not want to suggest that corporations are evil: there is certainly a mutualistic relationship between people and corporations. But what I will say is that we (real people) have been complicit in unleashing the beasts of corporations across the planet. We worry that robots will get too smart and take over the world, but corporations have already done it! They are the real Frankenstein we need to worry about. Not only have we invested them with serious power, we have also turned over to them the tools of propaganda and influnce (also known as marketing) that allow them to shape our reality and convince us this is all for our own good!


Marketing propaganda constantly reminds us that we lack important things (that we are inherently flawed) and need to buy products to be happy. It's like a modern, corporate version of original sin. We must constantly pay tribute to the dieties of Beauty and Status through their various charlatan priest/corporations, and then thank them for the "services" they provide to us. We thus participate in our constant reinslavement. (Perhaps this is what the Rastafarians call Babylon.)



This is not a system that serves the billions of regular, working people around the planet. It does not serve the workers whose benefits and security are being eroded, it does not serve the consumers who are made to feel flawed and needy, and it does not serve their host communities, as environmental and other problems are externalized by the corporations and the burden of addressing them falls to those communities. All in all it's a pretty raw deal.



What's the alternative? Good question. I certainly don't have the full picture, but here are some thoughts.


It is very possible to reassert control over corporations, at least in theory. All corporations are chartered in one of the states. It is possible to revoke the charter of corporations, and this is an options we should take more seriously, starting with the most egregious offenders. Yes, some companies may choose to go "offshore," but if they do business here, and most of the world's consumption is still in the US, we have the power to require that they behave themselves. And if they are so evil that they would rather leave than do business here, then good riddance.



We need to send the message that corporations are our invention, and are here to serve us, the people. We need to remind them of who is boss. But that requires organization of the general citizenry.



In the past, communities were the fundamental building blocks of society. Recently corporations have made major inroads, but a return to a stronger, modern form of community could be our salvation. Unlike corporations, which have a reductionist single issue agenda (make money for investors), communities are intrinsically multiplex in their goals. They exist to serve the people who live in them. Commuities serve whole people. Corporations reduce people to consumers and then exploit them for the profit of investors. Which sounds better to you?



The problem with communities today is that a combination of wealth, consumer orientation, and mobility has combined with American individualism to gradually erode and weaken our communities. This has been well documented by people like Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone.

But we can recreate them. And it all starts with slowing down, letting go of our fear of each other, sharing time together, and seeing what emerges. Relax and enjoy the organic process. That's all there is to it. Not complicated, but hard as hell to actually do. Wanna try?