The Corporabanktocracy As a Natural Phenomenon
In his book Breaking the Spell, Religion As a Natural Phenomenon Daniel Dennett contends that organized religions are systems which evolve according to the same Darwinian-type processes that drive the evolution of living organisms, through the dynamic adaptations of memes instead of genes. Since I read it a few years ago, I cannot shake from my mind the notion that the corporatocracy which largely runs our lives today evolves in the same manner. In this vein, it seems that the recent economic crises has provided the corporatocracy the opportunity to acquire yet another adaption which augments its fitness for survival: this new meme of banks being “too big to fail”. It seized the opportunity, and now we have an advanced system which I think can accurately be re-named “The Corporabanktocracy”…….or rather, I should say the reverse, it has us.
Question: How did this happen?
Answer: Pride
Our infatuation with man-made things and unnatural thought patterns has fertilized this natural phenomenon. Our Pride (the worst of the 7 deadly sins for this very reason) in what we consciously perceive/conceive is our vulnerability which keeps us complacent, inviting a larger system to hijack our identities through our nervous systems at an unconscious level. It’s happening while we work, got to school, produce things, consume things, and watch sports. The corporabanktocracy is controlling our identities, and we scarcely notice. Even when we do notice, the system counters our awareness with new memes. For example, should a person become aware that he is developing and promoting an identity as a potent producer/consumer, thus strengthening the fitness of the corporabanktocracy, we call this “branding”, and it is embraced as a virtue associated with another already-established meme, individual “success”. Again, this occurs mostly unconsciously, while our conscious minds are too occupied with other tasks to take notice. Our Pride makes us believe that we are conscious of our motives, when we are not, so we are disinclined to take action. Against whom? Against ourselves? Yes, indeed. We should admit that our unconscious motives are stronger than, and frequently conflict with, our conscious ones; and that the humility to see that we are not in charge of ourselves will open up our conscious minds to accept the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and of Mother Nature. Humility is the only known antidote for Pride. The latest findings in neuroscience support this analysis. “Our behavior can be guided by sensory information of which we are completely unaware.” –Physiology of Behavior, (11th Edition, 2013), Neil R. Carlson
Although helpful, we do not need modern brain science to inform us of the ignorance that our Pride engenders. This evolution, of the corporabanktocracy, has been going on for centuries. It is not new, and no new ideology or solutions are necessary. Many wise people have made these very same observations, and have warned us of the potential consequences. Here are two of my favorite examples:
“Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed, by the soft arts of luxury and effeminacy, into the pit digged for your destruction. Despise the glare of wealth. That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty almost desire to be enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue.” -John Hancock
“Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who are constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves effectively by democratic procedures. A society, most of whose members spend a great deal of their time not on the spot, not here and now in the calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it.” – Aldous Huxley
This continuing evolution will not stop until the human organism, or the planet, or both, have been sucked dry. We can counter it only by humbly returning to that which sustains us as living organisms, to the unconscious intelligence (Yang) of living things, to the wisdom (Yin) of mother nature. To assist each other in this endeavor is the mission of Nature Mix LLC.
PS, Thanks to Barbara Todish (banned from academia, btw) for inspiring the simple yet profound and important notion that my physical being does not have my identity. Rather, my identity has my physical being…..and “I” am neither. Although I find her various manifestos nearly incoherent, I highly recommend them.
