Lethal Illusions

One of the principal teachings from when i was a real Dungeon Master was “If you believe in an illusion, it can kill you.”  I was reminded of this today when i read this quote from Vandana Shiva

Jerry Mander goes further in his brilliant book “In the Absence of the Sacred”.  In it he identifies the Eleven Inherent Rules of Corporations and this fiction’s key effects.

Amorality: Not being human, corporations do not have morals or altruistic goals. So decisions that maybe antithetical to community goals or environmental health are made without misgivings. In fact, corporate executives praise “non-emotionality” as a basis for “objective” decision-making.

Corporations, however, seek to hide their amorality and attempt to act as if they were altruistic.. Corporate efforts that seem altruistic are really Public relations ploys or directly self-serving projects.

It is a fair rule of thumb that corporations tend to advertise the very qualities they do not have in order to allay negative public perceptions. When corporations say “we care,” it is almost always in response to the widespread perception that they do not have feelings or morals.

If the benefits do not accrue, the altruistic pose is dropped. When Exxon realized that its cleanup of Alaskan shores was not easing the public rage about the oil spill, it simply dropped all pretense of altruism and ceased working.

Or as so cleverly and concisely put by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary:

Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.