Greed is good

I always felt like capitalism was the most legal way to legitimize our most dark thoughts. Exploiting workers for our own profit, abusing of people’s trust, it’s always centering around this emblematic quote of Machiavelli:” The end justifies the means”.

No matter what you think, that is the stereotypical (often true) image of capitalism, so when the school invited us we students to listen to debates about responsible economy I almost died of laughter (I felt like the Joker in Batman) and couldn’t stop having that wicked smirk waiting for serious businessman in costumes selling us-I mean lecturing us on how to achieve sustainable development.

Does Marketing ring a bell? Well what if I told you there is more to it than you think, more accurately Social Marketing, let’s skip the definition and focus on its function which is, to summarize it in my most earnest way, selling customers “ideas, you heard me well, “ideas”, now you see where I’m getting at? Exactly let’s say this World Forum for a Responsible Economy was the perfect place for corporations to engage in in marketing plan to ensure their company is the greenest of them all.

So with my skeptical mindset I was there to hear more greenwashing statements than engaged sustainable development ones, and as a matter of fact they brought the best of the best, CEOs, damn they’re good I said to myself. Slides after slides, from recycling to anti-poverty plans, the meeting felt less like a debate and more like a presentation of each company’s achievements, I told you CEOs, the best of the best.

Here’s my two cents, “you can fool some people sometimes but you can’t fool all the people all the times”, easy and catchy yet it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi that ensures that this forum should be more about raising awareness against greedy behaviors and less about bringing those same greedy businessman (not all of them, I assume some are good people).

I always was fascinated by ethics and you can feel a liberal leftist vibe coming out of me, and as a matter of fact I am one of those bobos the cozy-business right hates the most, well that depends on their own perception. Anyways the journey was reaching a wall, till I happen to go see a documentary called the corporation in the afternoon, which happened to contain a more subtle narrative that is often provocative but mostly thoughtful. Raising issues on the unethical behavior of corporations, as fascinating as may it sounds the documentary is 12 years old but still relevant especially in the actual economic context.

Profit driven corporations were supposed to be the core issue of this lecture day, my thirst wasn’t satisfied till this documentary which I felt like would be better if it was presented as a film debate, it’s a crime that we couldn’t discuss this urgent issue that is corporations selfish greed, especially our generation, millennials loomed with heavy stakes such as wealth and income inequality or climate change, both which are direct consequences of this dire treat.

Is it possible to end on a positive note? I’m not so sure but I’ll try to, hope is a powerful drug but it never was my thing, but as a fan of quotes (you noticed right?) I could end with this one: «Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable”. Try Imagining me saying this while having the same wicked smirk as the Joker: I “hope” CEOs will heed my call or else.