concept of the corporation and morality OCD?

[metalgear]

This may be one of the stranger posts in this forum, but I was just wondering, does anybody know of any research on the concept of the corporation in society and its effect on individual psychology or something like that? I ask this because I have been dealing with moral confusion and what may be OCD, and the strange thing is that all my moral confusion and such seems to vanish when I remove the concept of the corporation. My friends also seem to be having the same sense as well when I share my thoughts on this, though I don't think they are OCD as well... anyways I haven't seen any research on anything like this though, or is this probably part of a bigger problem? I don't really know much about psychology... anyways I would really appreciate any help with this!

 

I have a theory about why this may be the case, so for those of you who are interested here it is:

 

Well if I were to start from the beginning, the short of it is that for a lot of my life, there has always seemed to be this sense of moral confusion and a lack of clarity in my life, and in the lives of those around me. Later when I started exploring religion and such and became a Christian, I found myself exploring morality even more, but unfortunately I was surprised because I found myself even more morally confused, even in simple every day activities, for example I would feel guilty about listening to a friend play illegally downloaded music, or going slightly over the speed limit! Well I think I should say though that I don't really think religion was the source of the confusion and guilt, rather all it really did was to inspire me to explore morality more honestly and authentically.

 

At any rate, while exploring why I was so morally confused, I eventually came to realize that if I remove the concept of the corporation (i.e. the business corporation) from my thinking, virtually all the moral confusion would vanish... and after thinking about this quite a bit, it seems to make a lot of sense...

 

In terms of moral reasoning, this seems to add up: it seems that the problem really comes down to the fact that the corporation has no "will" or "being" we can relate to, but rather can only be related to through law and regulation. Morality is naturally entirely a relational engagement, not merely compliance to a written code. But playing fair in society and public law means respecting the personhood of the corporation (if we don't, the concept of the corporation falls apart). And since the corporation must be respected as a person, but has no relatable "will" or "being", the only way we can truly respect its personhood is through careful (that is, strict) compliance to law and regulation (as there is no will or being against which we can make a judgement about what parts of the law are or aren't important; in other words, you can't say something like, "I don't think Fred would mind if I borrow his lawnmower", supposing "Fred" were a corporation... his personhood has no capacity to mind or to not mind). But since it is virtually impossible to strictly comply (again, as by our nature we cannot perfectly comply to law, but look for a will behind it to make judgements against), we are far more likely to decide that either betraying the corporation's personhood a little bit is not a big deal (i.e. rather than judging that Fred won't mind me borrowing the lawnmower, I judge that minor acts of taking a lawnmower against official corporate mandate aren't wrong), or that morality altogether is no object. In other words, we must basically adopt a position in society that is essentially willing to play unfair; that is, to adopt a position of fundamental moral compromise.

 

Thus what it seems to come down to is that it seems that morality is essentially about playing fair... but it seems that simply the existence of the corporation in our society essentially places us into a position in which we choose not to play fair. Well as an artist and such, a dilemma like this is a pretty hard thing for me to reconcile...

 

Or again, maybe I really am just OCD, haha... well I was just wondering what you guys think of this, or whether something similar has been explored or is currently being studied... it's something I'm having difficulty reconciling, not just because of the ubiquitious nature of the corporation, but because its very existence seems to influence our social membership in countless ways. I've gone to see a psychiatrist, but it seemed he wasn't so much interested in what I was thinking, and his diagnosis was simply that I think too much, then he recommended some drugs... I'm entirely open to the possibility that those drugs may be necessary, but it seems to me that the concept of the corporation is a terribly artificial concept, and heavily influences the way we relate to each other, both socially and in terms of mental dynamics... would it be surprising if it did introduce some unnatural psychological complications? Well I dunno, I'm definitely open to the possibility of OCD or something, but I'm just wondering if his particular case is something formally recognized or studied...

 

Anyways sorry for the long post, and thanks for considering this, I would definitely appreciate any help I can get!

[John Cuthber]

It might help if you actually said what OCD is.

[iNow]

Obsessive compulsive disorder, I reckon.

[metalgear]

yeah sorry, that is right, I meant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder...

[bob000555]

I don’t know where all this talk of OCD is coming from. The behavior of which you speak doesn’t seem to fit the diagnostic criteria for OCD from the DSM IV, available here http://www.biologicalunhappiness.com/DSM-OCD.htm

 

As for the pondering of moral issues this seems rather normal and not at all disordered. The first few books of Plato’s “Republic” have given me great guidance in my thoughts on moral issues and the nature of morality. “The Republic” in it’s full glory(it is, in my opinion, the greatest book of moral and political philosophy ever written) is available here: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.htm .

[Theophrastus]

I, too, have actually quite recently read the Republic, and while I didn't necessarily agree with all of what Plato states, it is a very good book to establish philosophical inquiry into the nature of morality, virtue, and any other topic you might bump into along the way. (Thus I do second that recommendation.)

However, I don't see where you find the greatest influence to morality, the corporation, and secondly, can you please give a concrete definition of corporation, as it would be most helpful to understand the logic involved. (I got lost somewhere in the middle of the fifth paragraph)

 

ps: If you read Glaucon's initial opinion of morality in The Republic- Book 1, you may gain a little insight into my own thoughts

Edited April 22, 2009 by Theophrastus
addition of content

[metalgear]

I feel weird coming back to this conversation after all these years, but there have been many developments since I started exploring this idea... Still not sure if there is any weight to my theory that the concept of the corporation may introduce complications into social morality, but as I opened up to more people about what was causing this sense of paralysis in its entirety, I'd realized I'd held back on some details, and I was convinced to go back to everyone I'd discussed the situation with to disclose everything, so that everyone would have a fuller picture of the situation, and I wouldn't feel like I'd needed to hold certain things back anymore... so if anyone has ever wondered about the particulars of those in a situation like mine (and I'm sure people here have come across countless unique ones!), I am offering my own account below.

 

What I was hesitant to relate to others in the course of reaching out to study this problem, was that I was actually hung up on the idea of the corporation causing me to feel paralyzed, because as a religious person exploring my faith, I was convinced that in the book of Revelations (chapter 17 & 18), the "Great Prostitute" aka. "Babylon the Great" named in those chapters was referring to the concept of the corporation itself. Specifically, it states that the kings of the earth commit adultery with it (government agreements with big business, etc), the people of the world are intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries (consumerism, excess, etc), it sits on many waters (multinational corps), and merchants would mourn its fall (Revelation 18). I have a lot of thoughts about the possible references, but the point is I think it hurt things to not open up to people about my thoughts on about whatever connections or ideas I am exploring. Of course, I don't know if the connections are true or not, or even theologically sound, but it has been very liberating to openly share this with people, at the very least, whether or not there is any legitimacy. So I thought I'd come back add this as part of the narrative, for the sake of bringing things full circle!

 

Again as I've opened up about these things, I've found myself having more confidence in others and feel less paralyzed by the need for my mind to explore everything, strangely... though I suppose that sort of thing is not surprising to people here! Anyways, there really isn't anything more for me to say about all this... I'm still exploring this idea, but it definitely feels much less paralyzing. And at anyrate I hope this gives a bit more context to one of the many unusual and unique cases I imagine that people share!