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?<\/p>\n
Such is the premise of scholar and author Mark D. Diehl\u2019s latest book, \u201cXVII (Seventeen):\u00a0 Book One<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0He believes as institutions grow larger, \u201c\u2026generation by generation the compliant edge out the wild, and conformity and obedience to hierarchy are now becoming our most important survival skills.\u201d\u00a0 Diehl suggests that the people most likely to survive and successfully pass on their DNA to the next generation are what he considers \u201cthe most corporate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey 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:\u00a0 We are evolving into a corporate species,\u201d says Diehl.<\/p>\n Although fiction, Diehl\u2019s book is a natural progression from Ayn Rand\u2019s objectivist works, and describes a world in which corporations control all of the world\u2019s diminishing resources and all of its governments, dividing the world into two types of people\u2014those who unquestioningly obey (Accepted), and those who die (Departed).\u00a0 From this viewpoint, Diehl believes \u201cHumanity is not the pinnacle of evolution, but merely a step in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Diehl believes that if humanity continues to follow the course it is now on, \u201cThe 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 \u2018superorganisms,\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to be integrated into the larger (corporate) whole, Diehl believes we will be forced to \u201c\u2026surrender our uniqueness, our compassion, and our willingness to stand for what is right\u201d in order to survive.\u00a0 And given that situation, Diehl believes the \u201c\u2026most human among us become outcasts, because humanity is being cast out.\u201d<\/p>\n Could humanity face such a future?\u00a0 Considering the current state of affairs in the world, Diehl\u2019s scenario at once appears both fantastic yet chillingly plausible.\u00a0 As he points out, \u201c\u2026as organizations conquer nature and expand, they leave nothing behind upon which individuals might live.\u00a0 In a world with depleted resources and increasingly concentrated political and economic power, the choice is clear:\u00a0 Surrender or die.\u201d<\/p>\n Diehl paints a picture in which an overpopulated world facing limited resources must serve their corporate employers in order to survive.\u00a0 Corporations rule in the name of God, and everything from food to medicine to shelter must be grown from genetically modified organisms because \u201cnatural\u201d has been declared illegal.\u00a0 People are also \u201cimproved\u201d through genetic modification, and receive their \u201ceducation\u201d from implants which directly link them to approved sources of knowledge, giving new meaning to the term \u201cbrain trust.\u201d<\/p>\n For those who conform (i.e., become \u201cworker bees\u201d), life consists of perpetually serving their employers, with the \u201creward\u201d being they are \u201ctaken care of\u201d by the corporation.\u00a0 But the \u201creward\u201d has a steep price\u2014corporate workers are required to relinquish all aspects of their individual lives.\u00a0 Should they fail to conform, they are cast off into what Diehl calls the \u201cZone,\u201d a desolate, violent ghetto where chances for survival are few.<\/p>\n So could humanity already be going down this path?\u00a0 While chilling to consider, the signs may be all around us.\u00a0 Consider the influences major corporations already have on governments, the move toward a \u201cone-world, new-world order,\u201d genetically-modified organisms, and the lessening of individual rights while the strengthening of government control over all aspects of our lives.\u00a0 Diehl\u2019s novel may well serve as a wake-up call for humanity.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever asked the question, \u201cWhere might all the increasing power wielded by the multinational corporations in our world today lead us?\u201d then you\u2019ll want to hear what Mark D. Diehl has to say.\u00a0 Diehl joins Amerika Now<\/a> this Saturday, December 7th<\/sup>, at 11 pm Eastern, 8 pm Pacific.<\/p>\n