Violence in corporate America, does it exist? This might come off as a vague connection but stick around for a bit. Let’s think about what the American mind-set is, “I’m going to work hard and make as much money as possible no matter what.” There’s not a lot of room in there for things like looking after the wellbeing of others. Most stories you hear about business are about ethical issues around people trying to obtain more money then they actually earned. Some American businessmen are willing to do a lot of desperate things in order to obtain large amounts of money (Large relative to the individuals situation). People even disregard their morals in order to further their gains. That’s the point I want to focus on.
The act of suppressing moral judgement for personal gain is a slippery slope. If someone is willing to cheat others out of their hard earned money that goes towards feeding their family in order to add to their bank account, what’s to stop them from later suppressing foreigners in order to acquire cheaper labor leading to greater financial gains? If a businessman doesn’t even care about his employees why should he care about people who aren’t even his own countrymen? Chinese labor anyone? It may not be violent in the sense of murder, but forcing people to work 12+ hours a day for minimal pay could be seen as physically endangering others in regards to their health and wellbeing. Which, isn’t that what violence is? So now instead of violent acts being committed out of passion they are now being committed for capital gain.
Sure this isn’t the run of the mill story when it comes to violence in our culture but I think it’s definitely worth taking a look at corporate America from another perspective. It may not be violent in the traditional sense but it is violent in nature.
What about companies who create and sell weapons? Gun manufacturers like Smith and Wesson or military contractors like General Dynamics Corporation? What ethical responsibilities do they have? Can they make and sell any weapon? Are they at all culpable for what their weapons are used for? What if they sell to known terrorists? "Enemies" of the United States? Are they culpable in violence committed?
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite ideas is that of "structural violence," which might be something that interests you on this topic. It's essentially just the idea that because of the impersonal and procedural nature of our social systems-- like capitalism or the corporate business structure-- people will inevitably be harmed. What status does that violence have, then? Who-- if anyone-- is being held accountable for it? In a way, to me, structural violence seems "worse" than personal violence. At least with a personal attack, you have an individual to answer for their actions.
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