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corporate religions by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - December 16, 2001 |
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The aim is to unite everything in a Corporate Religion. Pick the odd one out of this list: L. Ron Hubbard, Shoko Asahara, Marshall Applewhite, Luc Jouret and Richard DeVos. The first four are regarded by sociologists as leaders of New Religious Movements. The last is a respected self-made millionare business entrepreneur with close connections to the Republican Party. For most people there is no implicit connection between the quintet, but for a new breed of business analysts, the post-millennial business landscape may become a very dark battleground indeed. Corporate Religion is the title of a recent marketing and organizational development book written by Jesper Kunde and B.J. Cunningham (London: Financial Times Management, 1999), which subconsciously signals the move of branding techniques into the realms of internal employee motivation (coercion?), confirming an unfolding trend which was exposed in the early 1990s by author Douglas Rushkoff in several books partly about new media and memetics. Everyone is now familiar with the Nike Swish and the arguments for globalization. Agitprop organizations Adbusters and RTMark have created many colorful diversions highlighting this turbo-idiocy. To understand the new phenomena requires an in-depth appreciation of the subtleties of human behavior and how our internally generated values-systems can trap us. There are precedents: Oliver Stone's thinly-veiled satire on Scientology, Wild Palms (1993) exploited a wealth of psychological detail and fascination with VR technology. Business gurus such as Tom Peters, Anthony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, and Tom Hopkins have 'stolen' behavior modification techniques that were originally part of General Semantics, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and the research legacies of Milton Erickson, Clare Graves, B.F. Skinner, Gregory Bateson, Stanley Milgram, and Abraham Maslow. Before Reagan's 'Voodoo Economics', political analyst Bertram Gross presciently foresaw that explosive technological growth and breathless geo-economic rhetoric would hide neo-authoritarian mythic-membership structures used to control host populations. His book Friendly Fascism: The New Face Of Power In America (New York: M. Holt, 1980) is not as well known as the writings of Noam Chomsky, for example, but is as yet unsurpassed in its study of the changing socio-economic conditions which have brought these new structures into being. Buckminster Fuller, the friendly visionary, noted in his book GRUNCH Of Giants (St. Martin's Press, 1983), that the emerging network of multinational companies was simply continuing the piracy tactics of historical monarchies and feudal kingdoms, leaving the majority of Humanity remaining in serfdom. Dave Arnott, author of Corporate Cults: The Insidious Lure Of The All-Consuming Corporation (New York: AMACOM, 1999), is the latest business analyst to question our reliance on the corporation mythos for personal meaning, and the invasion of private commerce into education, family childcare, and healthcare. Arnott's controversial hypothesis (which reflects his conservative worldview) has met with resistance from the business press, but is worth considering. The explosive growth in part-time/temp job markets and broadband versions of the Internet may make Corporate Religions a reality. Profit viruses are already at the heart of Multi-level Marketing (MLM) companies, the most famous of which is Amway, co-founded by Richard DeVos. Neil Stephenson's influential Cyberpunk novel Snowcrash (New York: Roc Books, 1995) foresaw the cross-bonding of emerging Corporate Religions and Machiavellian politics. Not only would the Internet turn history's first global communications network into glorified online shopping malls, but would also create an oligopolistic environment where behavior modification technologies are mis-applied. If Kunde and Cunningham's book can attract advertising industry accolades, Stephenson's satire is no longer funny. How much do you value your freedom? [1] Christopher Locke. Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices. New York: Perseus Books, 2001. 36. |
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Scary Cult Girlfriend and Banana Love Reasons Not To Like Your Job The Corporate Religion Tough Sell Profit Viruses Viral Marketing Lycos Chat Transcript: Dave Arnott Friendly Fascism: A Review By Dale Wharton Make Money Now, Ask Me How! It's The Dream Life Corporate Religion Fast Company Tom Peters! She Did It Amway Yahoo Braodcast: Dave Arnott Interview Adbusters: Culture Jammers Headquarters RTMark Explore The Amway Opportunity! Disinformation Dossier On Memetic Engineering Disinformation Dossier On Douglas Rushkoff Pure NLP Institute Of General Semantics Tom Hopkins International Dreamlife: Anthony Robbins Ziglar Training Systems Buckminster Fuller Institute: Grunch Of Giants (1983) The Gathering Darkness: America In The Twenty First Century The Return Of The Hidden Persuaders Hypnotizing Slackers For Starbucks, And Other Visionary Acts Of Marketing Research Why Is Madison Avenue Gripped By Insanity? Dreamlife |
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