Monday, July 26, 2010

Christian Incorporated

Just a small thought to share today, but one that might grow a bit with time.

Consider first that the modern forms of capitalism are almost exclusively a product of Christendom . The political Christ (as differing from the historical Jesus) and the corporation overlap the same times and places and peoples. This may well be more than historical coincidence when you consider the impact of the Bible story about how it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to get a rich man into heaven.

As a second point, take note that to be incorporated, a corporation, is to be part of a collective endeavor of many individuals grouped to be considered one body in the eyes of the law, the corporation the "entity" subject to the law's judgments, the responsibility for the moral and lawful behavior of that entity spread and diluted down the chain of command within the structure of the organization.

Interestingly, most interestingly, the owners of the corporation, the shareholders, are not held responsible for the actions of the corporation, the entity they essentially own as their slave. The law never looks at them when their slave transgresses any semblance of reasonable moral behavior in an effort to meet the demands of it's owners.

I'm thinking part of the motivation for creating corporations in the first place might well be so the shareholders may believe God Almighty will cut the line of moral responsibility at the CEO as do the courts of mankind, leaving them untarnished by the title of "rich man" (regardless of the degree of ill-gotten wealth they've accrued from the labors of their slave). It is a time honored tradition common to both religion and the corporate world to practice wishful thinking, to believe that believing compels reality to comply with the desires of the majority. Such fools. Do they really think an omniscient God is going to miss them trying to smuggle a camel load of accountability into Heaven hidden beneath something as transparent as that?