Puff the Magic … Corporation?

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Sometimes I don’t know where things come from. Shower Thoughts! Sure. But. . . wha…? I dunno.

So I’m pondering this topic, and happen across a cartoon:

Of course, I don’t much like to hotlink, nor leave things unattributed, so a quick search and I find this comic, drawn by Joshua Wright. I’ve never seen it before. And a lot of the panels are in a similar vein as the one shown above.

I suppose I could have said they’re Honey Badgers, because they don’t care. But I was pondering the excessive amassing of wealth the world’s billionaires are doing, and the image of some of our more notorious billionaires sleeping on a pile of loot popped into my head.

The more I pondered the metaphor, the more I realized that the dragon is more like a corporation, since they’re so long lived, don’t give a single fuck about people, and exist for their own benefit. OK, sure, kinda like a Honey Badger. But anyway. . .

Corporations aren’t people, either. I like to think of the gallant prince who comes to slay the Dragon as. . . well the CEO of a yet-to-be-formed corporation. OK, the metaphor breaks down (as metaphors are wont to do). But the more I think about it, the more I think the metaphor is pretty good:

• Dragons collect gold and treasure from hard-working townspeople. Usually by stealing it, though I guess occasionally the townspeople, tired of rebuilding their burned up husk of a town, might offer tribute to the Dragon to try and pacify it and keep it from burning up their town.

• Dragons hoard their treasure. They don’t spend it, or any such pedestrian thing. They simple want to have it. To smell it. Feel it beneath their bellies.

• Dragons don’t ask. They don’t have to. Much like corporations. They don’t fear the townspeople, nor even the Brave Prince. Maybe another Dragon. Sure, they fear that. When they aren’t colluding.

Like I said, the metaphor breaks down, of course. So when I was thinking about the origin of Dragons, I was stymied. I mean, how does the Brave Prince turn into a new Dragon? Wait, they don’t turn into a Dragon. OK, they transmogrify into a Dragon (and yet they’re separate and distinct, unless they are a god-like founder/messiah CEO). When companies first get started, they don’t have that much power. Do Dragons grow mean? I don’t think so. I think Dragons just focus solely on their own desires, and thus if it’s not in their own interest, then it’s unimportant and irrelevant.

Starting to sound more like a Dragon, aren’t they?

What is the purpose of amassing so much wealth? What is the purpose of greed?

I don’t actually think the accumulation of wealth is the end-goal. I think there are a number of reasons why individuals want … more. And to be clear, no corporation “wants” anything. Corporations aren’t people, they don’t have feelings, they don’t care, they aren’t self-aware or sentient. They are run by people, and those people, those individuals, are driven by motivations they feel. Individuals make up these corporations, remember, so we should look at their motivations.

I was listening to a podcast¹ where they were discussing Purdue Pharma, the Sacklers who own it, and their role in the Opioid crisis. At one point, the “extreme greed” of . . . whoever was at fault (Richard Sackler? I can’t rightly recall) was brought up. And they alluded to “there’s something deeper than greed going on”. I chuckled a little bit. Greed is rare, I think. I don’t actually think people just want more money.

Consider: Even people born wealthy, even extremely wealthy, seem to want more money. I don’t think it’s purely about more money. I think it’s about ego or pride. I mean, come on, you have a gazillion dollars. But you were born into it, it’s not really yours, right? Mommy and Daddy gave it to you. The only thing you did was be born. Now think about how Mommy and Daddy got that money. Were they born into it? If not. . . how do you compare to them? I mean, if your parents had nothing, and built an empire, then wouldn’t building your own empire show them you can do what they did? That you’re just as good as them, if not better? Of course, only on TV do people give up their vast family wealth to start from scratch and make a new empire. In real life, you keep all your hard born money, and simply make a lot more.

Of course there are other reasons people want to accumulate vast wealth, and it’s in the paragraph above. People don’t want money so much as. . . an empire. And all that an empire gives you (assuming, you know, it’s your empire. Woe be anyone in the empire who isn’t the emperor). And that could be just about anything, but basically it’s power. Power to do whatever you want. And when you can do whatever you want, there are often² zero consequences for your actions.

Ultimately, everyone wants to control their own destiny, at least as much as they can. Don’t you? Do you like being told when to get up, so you can get to work by 9³?

So what’s controlling a person’s own destiny have to do with Corporations? Well, like I said, Corporations are made up of people. So people do everything they can to increase their control over their world. One obvious way is to become more “important” to the Corporation, right? I mean, your power increases the more your value to the company increases. And thus what’s good for the company is good for you. And there’s no shortage of the lengths people will go to in order to demonstrate their value to the company.