Quote:
Originally Posted by kerry edwards
Dammit, I typed out a long reply and lost it.
I agree that the corporation cannot command loyalty and nationalism is essential for this. I think Hitler saw this very clearly.
However, I still think the corporation is the dominant institution in the modern world, and the nation is its adjunct. I see the question of secularization as the question of whether a society with an amoral (immoral?) central institution can survive in the long term. Will it's lack of a moral center push the world towards fascism or religious fascism because the lack of a moral commitment in the center of our productive lives produces too much alienation? Can privatized and individualized religion suffice to meet the problem?
I think this issue is partly why I am in favor of modifying the capitalist corporation along the lines of the Mondragon cooperative model. It introduces a level of commitment and moral life to the corporation, thereby reducing alienation without losing the advantages that capitalism and a market economy have provided and without resorting to traditional religion or fascism.
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In terms of the corporation as the model of a faith institution, clearly it cannot substitute for religion. Morality is imposed on the corporation, not the reverse. In other words, government, the will of the people, enacts and enforces laws that govern corporations, not the reverse.
I would argue that corporations have no "business" in the morality game. Their motivation should be very narrow -- profit for investors. To balance this and protect individuals and the environment, an outside omnipotent agent is required, government.
The government should also balance the excesses of the individual. What I mean by that is that people should go through life with their own self-interest as paramount. Why? Because I know best what I need. You know best what you need. Etc. Occasionally our needs are in conflict. We require an outside agency, the government, to arbitrate our various competitive needs. Thus was once the role of God and it required few codes to enforce. With divinity no longer responsible for morality we require a myriad of laws to govern relationships between us.
B