Sorry, that goes against policy. Sorry, if we do that we are setting a precedant for future activity. Sorry, it wouldn't be in the best interest of the company to help out that person. Sorry, doing that pro bono isn't something we want to be involved with. We are a business.... it's about making money.
Being involved in the charitable end of business you would think that the above words would be a reflection of the 'NON' charitable side of business but you would be wrong. Those are direct statements over the years from people who run charitable organizations.
I guess I was raised by a mom who would give anything she had to someone who was in need. She has never been someone who is overly materialistic even though she is a pack rat! But the pack rat in her is more about nostalgia, memories, and remembering the good ol’ days.
My mom taught me that if someone needs your help.... you help. But I watch every day as business becomes the front for not having to help people. We can hide behind business, corporation, policies, bi-laws, all we want but the reality is always in our face that when we turn down helping people we just 'chose' not to help. It has nothing to do with business and everything to do with loving your neighbour.
And even loving your neighbour, in our culture, has seemed to have made a semantic transition of meaning. It no longer means give unconditionally. It means give to others so that you can build a good network of potential connections that will benefit your future.
Business is the anti-christ of our culture. It is the anti-community; the anti-healthy humanity; and the anti-good will towards man. For instance, business wants to help build culture but only if it increases revenue. Business wants to help community but only if it means happy customers that come back to buy more. Business wants to help humanity but only if it gets a tax receipt. And business will always be nice to its neighbour because that brings repeat customers[1].
Is this bad? Is it wrong? What I know for now is that we are living under a democratic corporate fascism under the guise of simple democracy. Corporations are destroying our world. Presently, they are here to plunder and take what they can from those of us who are willing to give[2]. And corporations are the idols of most businesses worldwide. Owners of businesses want to be the ones that are bringing in mass amounts of money. The small businesses are just smaller versions of their larger idol the 'corporation'.[3]
The one thing I liked about church was this. If the people didn’t like the leadership they spoke with their pocket books and their feet. You could simply stop giving or leave. And in both cases if one occurred on a mass scale the leadership was finished.
The problem with our society is that the rulers have put laws into place to throw us into jail if we stop paying taxes. And secondly, we can’t just up and walk out of the country ‘en masse’ because simply put, ‘There is no place to go!’.
So we are in a bit of a dilemma. The dilemma being, “How do we take back control of our lives, our communities and our countries, in the confines of corporate fascism?”
If we had a policy set in place that after every 7 years everyone’s balance got set back to zero and we all started over then maybe we could do it but alas that doesn’t exist.[4] Or if we could buy land somewhere and start our own communities apart from the government and big business then maybe we could do it. But again, what land and with what money?
And there is the other dilemma. Securing the money needed to get land or reducing the equation, getting the land. Where can someone without money either get money for the land or get the land without money without getting help from big business.
Everyone wants money and more of it. I am no exception to that rule but I will be blatantly truthful. I want more so I can give more. I want a large screen tv so that I can have friends over to watch a movie. I want a car so I can go visit people or let people borrow the car. I give my tv’s away if I get a new one (free of charge). I got a new table given to me the other week. I gave ours away to someone who needed one. I want a ranch to raise cows, horses, food, make my own energy, and have people live on the property with us as an eco community. I want but only for the purpose of sharing and being independent of the corporations that exist.
I want power over my own life and in order to do that I need to get out from under the thumb of the corporations. There is where the bigger problem comes into existence. Big business is what our country is now based on. And big business runs government. So in order to get to a place where I am not dependant on big business I have to use big business to get enough money to separate from them. Or do I?
There has to be businesses out there that are doing it right. They are working within the community for the benefit of the community in a way that isn’t trying to take more then what it gives. There have to be Sustainable businesses[5] in existence. And these businesses are the ones I want to align myself with or even create. But again another challenge exists. Within the structure of our communities how can we create a sustainable business?
For instance, what about a coffee shop? Could we make this both practically and philosophically sustainable? What I mean is this: Does coffee serve a purpose to our community? Is there a trade off value for the community? For example, is paying money/items for coffee the best use for community resources?
Where does the coffee come from? Why do we need it? Are there more needed resources that should be sold/bartered. What about the communal aspect of a coffee shop? Is that a needed aspect to community? But do we have to have it in a business format? Could the community look at the business as a way of them helping the owner and at the same time the owner providing them with a place to congregate and philosophize?
(Taking a break from this….will write more late)
[1] Recognize that I am talking in generalities. Not every known business in the world is like this. Some business are legitimately trying their best to be ethical, loving, moral and a benfit to humanity. These business are the ones we should be looking to for an example.
[2] We give willingly because we have been lulled into the belief that we need what the corporation has to offer.
[3] And even though I am using words like corporation and business, remember, that its people running them. And so again corporations and businesses and hence why I believe that businesses are a ruse in order to make it 'okay' to be immoral in the treatment of others.
[4] This is the big problem. And oddly enough the realization of this came to me through playing video games. Whoever started the game at the beginning of its release (or even during beta testing) would be the people who ended up dominating the game world. In some games the server resets every so often to level the playing field again but in games like WOW you would see people out of frustration head to other servers that were new because on a new server they could become King.
[5] By sustainable businesses I mean businesses that are actually beneficial to the community who by that definition would be dealing with the culture, community and eco system in a sustainable way.
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