These days, I don’t often have time to write an entire entry, but today I’m making an exception.
For my 150th entry, I want to discuss the mythology surrounding “government” and “corporation.”
I’ve notice a trend in the perception about organizations like the Federal, state or local governments. When people refer to them, it is with great reverence … as if they were “gods” (with the little “g”).
For instance, “the government” makes policy, determines how to fairly treat each other and keeps us safe. What I don’t hear people say is that the “government” is not some mythical being in a far away place, all-knowing, all-seeing and all-wise.
Instead, each and every government is comprised of people, just like you and me. And if anyone should understand that, it is here in the Washington, DC, area.
Are the people working in government smarter or better than those who don’t? Emphatically, in my opinion, no! In fact, I like to think that “common sense” is an intelligence that often escapes the folks who have to work in government. I keep running into people who work for the government saying, “Well, it’s always been done that way” or “Why mess with success?” while having to upgrade their systems to keep up with the rest of society.
More and more, “government” has been telling people what to do, including what foods to eat, what to wear and where to go, all in the name of keeping people safe. We need someone else’s approval to do something, or need to follow the rules others have set down. The bad news is that this is simply one group of people imposing rules upon another group. What really riles me is when the government excludes itself from its own demands, such as the Congress and the president. That is simply the folks who make up the “standards” realizing that they are not easily followed or even unfair, yet feel others needs to obey them. It’s not a benign, god-like thing looking out for the best in others.
There’s also another organization that people have a mythology about, it seems to me. And that has to do with “corporations.”
I have never worked for a business that made decisions I’ve agreed with all the time. In fact, most of the time, the organizations I work for have not done what I thought wise at all. Currently, I work for a newspaper, and I truly hope to retire from there, so I still hope that the management will be forward-thinking enough to keep the place running and needing me until that day comes, hopefully in about ten years.
But I find the same mythology that encompasses “government” surrounding “corporations” as well.
The notion seems to be that some obese white male, smoking cigars and drinking cocktails, is sitting in some office at the top of the building making decisions that no one “below” him can understand. Instead, the truth is that there are managers of all flavors and ages, each trying to make the business a success, not impose his or her will in order to make others suffer.
This concept seems to be behind the show Undercover Boss, in which a corporate official “slums” with the ground-level employees, learning what their lives are really like. I’ve seen managers who don’t perform the main body of work being done by a business, and they lose touch with the service they are there to provide. But most managers are very conscientious people, trying to balance the best for the business and the best for employees and customers.
Granted, I’ve experienced what it is like to work for a supervisor who looks out only for himself or herself. It’s tough because often what that person wants is not compatible with what the rest of the world is seeking–we are all individuals, after all.
But overall, corporations/business, like governments, exist to provide service for all of us. If we stop using the government, it will fold up and die (in many cases, but not all). In the same way, a business that has no customers is no business at all.
We need to stop thinking about organizations as if they were monolithic and inhuman or wise and sympathetic as the Greeks or the Romans looked at their pantheons. We’re dealing with people and need to remember that fact.
Here’s a video about individuals vs. government: