Collective Psychopathy

At the moment I’m about 3/4 of the way through Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change (a great book by the way, if I have time when I finish I’ll post a review). Today I ran across something in my reading today that caused me to really stop and think for a moment. In his discussion of what he calls the “prosperity system” (which along with the security and equity subsystems constitutes the societal machine, a system civilization has abused and misused, creating the destructive suicide machine/system we now live within) McLaren critiques the spiritual ethos of “the corporation.” Drawing from the work of former FBI consultant Dr. Robert Hare, McLaren lists six characteristics of corporations:

1. The display of callous unconcern for the feelings and well-being of others. (As evidenced in worker abuse, exploitation, and outsourcing.)
2. The incapacity to maintain enduring relationships. (i.e. when workers organize and demand better pay or better working conditions the corporations simply fires them and moves on to another vulnerable group)
3. Reckless disregard for the safety of others. (i.e. when persons experience health problems that are caused by a corporations productions and the corporations does everything within its power to minimize the problem so as to maximize thier profit. Watch the movie Michael Clayton and you’ll know what I mean.)
4. The display of habitual decietfulness, lying, and conning others for the sake of profit. (this works in tandem with number 3)
5. The consistent failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors.
6. In spite of the faults, they continue to demonstrate and incapacity to experience guilt or remorse and continue in the five previous behavior patterns.

Then, again drawing on Hare’s work, McLaren reports that these six behaviors are derived from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and together describe the state and behavior of a diagnosed psychopath. Our beloved corporations operate and behave no differently then the people we commit to asylums for having a serious, destructive illness. Clinically speaking, the behavior of our corporations–the so-called “glue” of our theocapitalist society–is indistinguishable from the behavior of those individuals we label as societal pests and parasites.

Just some food for thought.

~bh ><>