As corporations grow increasingly larger and wield ever more power and control, is it possible that humanity will be cast out, and only those individuals who conform and adhere to a corporate hierarchy will survive?
Such is the premise of scholar and author Mark D. Diehl’s latest book, “XVII (Seventeen): Book One.” He believes as institutions grow larger, “…generation by generation the compliant edge out the wild, and conformity and obedience to hierarchy are now becoming our most important survival skills.” Diehl suggests that the people most likely to survive and successfully pass on their DNA to the next generation are what he considers “the most corporate.”
“They have the least dangerous jobs, live in the safest neighborhoods, and have the best access to health care; extrapolate this for several generations and a distinct pattern emerges: We are evolving into a corporate species,” says Diehl.
Although fiction, Diehl’s book is a natural progression from Ayn Rand’s objectivist works, and describes a world in which corporations control all of the world’s diminishing resources and all of its governments, dividing the world into two types of people—those who unquestioningly obey (Accepted), and those who die (Departed). From this viewpoint, Diehl believes “Humanity is not the pinnacle of evolution, but merely a step in it.”
Diehl believes that if humanity continues to follow the course it is now on, “The next stage for us is what happened to bees and ants millions of years ago: The collective is becoming more important than the individual. We are evolving into a corporate species, divided only into so-called ‘superorganisms,’ just like the beehives and anthills. The corporation is the new superorganism of humanity, and those of us on the outside have about as much chance as a grasshopper covered in a swarm of biting ants.”
In order to be integrated into the larger (corporate) whole, Diehl believes we will be forced to “…surrender our uniqueness, our compassion, and our willingness to stand for what is right” in order to survive. And given that situation, Diehl believes the “…most human among us become outcasts, because humanity is being cast out.”
Could humanity face such a future? Considering the current state of affairs in the world, Diehl’s scenario at once appears both fantastic yet chillingly plausible. As he points out, “…as organizations conquer nature and expand, they leave nothing behind upon which individuals might live. In a world with depleted resources and increasingly concentrated political and economic power, the choice is clear: Surrender or die.”
Diehl paints a picture in which an overpopulated world facing limited resources must serve their corporate employers in order to survive. Corporations rule in the name of God, and everything from food to medicine to shelter must be grown from genetically modified organisms because “natural” has been declared illegal. People are also “improved” through genetic modification, and receive their “education” from implants which directly link them to approved sources of knowledge, giving new meaning to the term “brain trust.”
For those who conform (i.e., become “worker bees”), life consists of perpetually serving their employers, with the “reward” being they are “taken care of” by the corporation. But the “reward” has a steep price—corporate workers are required to relinquish all aspects of their individual lives. Should they fail to conform, they are cast off into what Diehl calls the “Zone,” a desolate, violent ghetto where chances for survival are few.
So could humanity already be going down this path? While chilling to consider, the signs may be all around us. Consider the influences major corporations already have on governments, the move toward a “one-world, new-world order,” genetically-modified organisms, and the lessening of individual rights while the strengthening of government control over all aspects of our lives. Diehl’s novel may well serve as a wake-up call for humanity.
If you’ve ever asked the question, “Where might all the increasing power wielded by the multinational corporations in our world today lead us?” then you’ll want to hear what Mark D. Diehl has to say. Diehl joins Amerika Now this Saturday, December 7th, at 11 pm Eastern, 8 pm Pacific.
LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.gcnlive.com/CMS/index.php/component/k2/item/268-corporate-humans
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