I recently read a book which gave some interesting insights into business, whereby a group conscious of the destructive personality of big business, developed a checklist using diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organisation and the DSM-IV, the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists, to determine the personality profile of a typical corporation.
They found the following: The
operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social
"personality": It is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and
deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not
suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.
Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, clearly
demonstrate harm to workers, human to health, animals and the biosphere.
Concluding this point-by-point analysis, a disturbing diagnosis is delivered:
the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the
diagnostic criteria of
"psychopath." How about that!
In sharing this with one of my daughters she responded - I've been
reading a book recently on the same subject myself re: all business leaders
being psychopathic. Having worked with diagnosed psychopaths myself (we use the
DSM-IV at work), it seems obvious that the traits seen as most depolorable in a
social context are those actively sought by the multinational corporations
(callous, lack of empathy, grandiose sense of self-worth, strong belief in
predator/prey world view, charming on first contact, shallow affect,
manipulative etc). If these people are running the world, we really are in trouble!
It is into this context that Christians need to speak, because money is not the solution to all problems and our culture has lived a politically led lie for decades. Scripture says that the 'love of money is the root of all evil' and sadly many millions around the world are feeling the effects of this serious political mistake.
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