Many centuries ago, two or more persons trying to grapple with the frightening prospect of facing the peril of liability that their partnership would face in the business they were creating, decided to create an imaginary person to hold the liability of the partnership; and the concept of a corporation was born. As an imaginary concept it was incredibly successful. Corporations were not only an alternative to partnerships, they came to hold the ESSENCE of the partnership. They became very skilled in fooling people of their existence and of their right to exist; especially, the legal profession. Today, in a world where even entire nations are challenged to their right to exist, seldom is a corporation duly incorporated in the laws of some country ever challenged to its right to exist. Patents are awarded to corporations in lieu of individuals, even if such individual is the actual inventor; and corporations routinely require employees to agree to cede their inventions, if any, to the corporation.
Corporations today claim to be "corporate citizens". Yet unlike individuals they owe no allegiance to the United States or any other country, and they can change what country and state they are incorporated in overnight. And, unlike individuals, they can be world-wide, operating in many countries simultaneously, claiming to be corporate citizens in all countries that they operate in. They pay taxes, as corporations, in these various countries; as they manipulate their products, services, personnel and assets to take advantage of the different tax law loopholes in the different countries.
And now the United States Supreme Court has ruled that, as citizens, they have First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of free speech that allow them to advertise in behalf of political candidates, or in behalf of their opponents. We are only a Supreme Court decision away from corporations being allowed to fund candidates directly; and only a Supreme Court decision away from corporations having, as citizens, voting rights; at which point they would require employees to give up their voting rights as they presently do their patent rights, and vote in their place as they choose.
Most of us individuals accept our own existence. But corporations, whose real existence is based on a falsehood, exist only because we BELIEVE they exist. If someone asks a person where he or she lived when ten years old, he or she would likely give a detailed answer, down to the address of the house or apartment or whatever he lived in, and probably a description of it. It is unlikely that he or she would say "I believe I.....". If asked why he did not, he would likely say something like "I don't have to believe, I can remember". This all goes to show that, for us material yet sentient beings, BELIEVING is a crutch we use only when necessary. Yet it is this crutch we must use to believe that a corporation is real. Yes, they pay real money and sell real products and services. Yet it itself is not real; even as the ether pervading all space that 19th Century scientists believed was real, is not.
Little clues of this environment of unreality come to those who work in a corporation day in and day out. The incompleteness and insincerity of memos passing back and forth can be a clue. The knowing that all the buildings and facilities, down to the coffee pots and copy machines, can be sold overnight, adds to this energy of non-genuineness. There is a pattern of people in a corporation having no name other than the corporation or the department they are working in. In this atmosphere it is easy to come to question the essence of our own existence.
But how do I maintain a sense of my own authenticity?
In Jungian psychology and philosophy all we know of another person is our perception of him or her, and that perception is a part of ourselves. Similar can be said of corporations that we perceive. When another person dies, he or she lives on as a part of ourselves in our memory of him or her. Similar is true of corporations; but with them, as they merge, divide, change their name, become something else, or possibly pass to the hands of receivers; that memory becomes lost in a sea of confusion. It is here that their unreality is truly unmasked; which is only fitting, since they were not real in the first place.
And yet, even as there is group consciousness, there is corporate consciousness, for they are indeed a group and so have a group consciousness. In that group consciousness is their essence, and that IS real. But that is all, plus of course their assets and inventory. Real persons they are not, and never were. And in that truth even a corporate worker can find his or her true authenticity. For his perception of the corporation is but one part of himself; and all the other parts, that have been resident in himself throughout his life, can be witnessed nonjudgmentally along with the corporation by his aware ego, anytime, even in the short walk between his desk and the coffeepot.
Copyright (c) 2010 Dave Smart
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Dave Smart, the lead coach of Transcendence Coaching and Mentoring, has had extensive education and experience in co-active coaching, and Jungian psychology and philosophy. He helps clients
find their true, authentic self. If you are feeling lost and disoriented in the workaday, corporate environment, coaching is for you. Check out TCM's website: http://www.transcendencecoach.com .
