It’s easy to point fingers at secret societies, shadowy governments, or deep-state operatives. But the real power doesn’t need to hide. It’s right in front of you—legal, structured, and normalized. That’s why no one questions it.
Businesses aren’t just part of the system. They are the system. They dictate laws, policies, and the way you live, work, eat, and sleep. They don’t have to conspire in the dark when they already own the light. And as corporations grow, shifting from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, they aren’t just selling products anymore—they’re governing you.
Not with guns. Not with votes. With necessity. With monopoly. With control.
### The Rot Beneath the Machine
Joel Bakan said it best in *The Corporation*: businesses exhibit psychopathic traits. No guilt. No empathy. No hesitation. Maximize profit, minimize liability, and if people suffer in the process? That’s just the cost of doing business. Not a flaw. A feature.
And we designed it this way. The legal framework of a corporation demands it. If a business doesn’t prioritize profit, it dies. If a CEO grows a conscience, they’re replaced. If an employee speaks out, they’re silenced. The system doesn’t allow morality because morality doesn’t scale. Efficiency does. Optimization does. Profit does.
Think about disaster. Any disaster. Earthquake, flood, famine, war. What happens? Does a corporation step in to help? No. It pivots. It monetizes. It thrives. The worse things get for people, the better they get for business.
Hurricane wipes out a city? Construction firms raise prices. Food supply dwindles? Supermarkets jack up costs. People lose their homes? Private equity sweeps in and buys them for pennies. You don’t need a Bond villain. You don’t need a sinister plot. You need a market that rewards suffering and punishes mercy.
### The People Behind It
Now, let’s presume the people running these corporations are good. Let’s give them every benefit of the doubt. Even if they were the kindest, most selfless, most well-intentioned human beings, the machine they serve would still be ruthless. Even if they wanted to help, the system would not let them.
But that’s not reality, is it?
In truth, many of them aren’t good. Many are opportunistic, manipulative, and fully aware of the power they wield. They aren’t just caught in the system—they shape it. They form alliances, create policies, push agendas. Not out of necessity, but out of desire. They know they are consolidating power, and they do it anyway.
They sell you obedience as convenience. They buy your loyalty with cheap dopamine hits. They own the platforms where you talk, the banks where you save, the food you eat, the news you consume. They cultivate dependency. They push for a world where businesses don’t just provide services but dictate how you live.
Not everyone in power is a psychopath. But enough of them are. And the ones who aren’t still play the game, because it’s the only way to win.
### The Shift: From Selling to Ruling
It used to be about selling. Now it’s about ruling. The transition from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism isn’t about accountability—it’s about consolidation. Companies aren’t just producing goods anymore; they’re setting social norms, controlling narratives, shaping governance.
Governments are bloated, inefficient, full of red tape. Businesses are lean, precise, brutal. And as people lose trust in politicians, they turn to corporations. They already run the economy. Now they run morality, policy, even daily life. Who decides what you can say online? A corporation. Who decides whether your bank account stays open? A corporation. Who decides which medications you can take, what news you read, what opinions are acceptable? Corporations.
It’s not dystopian fiction. It’s already happening. And the more we rely on businesses to provide stability, the more control they take. They aren’t conspiring. They don’t need to. The machine runs itself.
### The Final Stage: Living Under the Machine
So here’s the final stage of this system. You live under a psychopathic entity that doesn’t wear a mask, doesn’t hide in the shadows, doesn’t need to be secret because it’s already woven into your life. It’s your bank, your grocer, your employer, your landlord, your news source, your entertainment. It doesn’t care about you. It can’t care about you. Caring is inefficient.
And if it comes down to your survival versus the system’s survival, the system wins. Always.
Comments