Who is Driving?

“I think corporations are living things. They’re very alien to us and hard to recognize, but they’ve convinced us to give them religious rights, give them political power, give them movement, and they can disappear and reappear elsewhere. They’re psychopaths”

– Chris Ryan

I have always been intrigued by the concept that Governments and Corporations are living entities. Not only are they self-serving organisms, but they also control humanity. We are no longer driving these systems. They are driving us. A person who tries to divert a corporation from profit through growth, and the organism will replace you.

I first heard of this notion through listening to and reading Chris Ryan. His book Civilised to Death explores his theory in detail.

Reading Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck laid it out almost a century ago.

In the 1930s, Oklahoma became known as the dust bowl. Drought and the Depression.

Generational farmers forced off their barren land, a tenant threatens to shoot the tractor driver ripping through his land, and eventually, his house.

Don’t shoot me, I am just doing my job.

I will shoot your boss.

You can’t shoot him; he is just doing what the President of the company tells him.

I will shoot him.

Well, he is just doing what the bank tells him.

I will shoot the manager of the bank.

Well, the bank is in another state, and the manager is just doing what the President of the Bank tells him.

Well, I will have to shoot the President of the Bank.

Well, the President of the Bank is just doing what the board of directors wants.

What do the board of directors want?

To make more money.

“The great corporations are the creatures of man, yet they rise up and dominate him. They have no soul to save and no body to kick.”

– Jack London

The weather has cleared, so we go for a run this morning.

By some miracle I don’t trip over.

Home, breakfast, and the good news that our coffee shop will open after the Chuseok holiday.

Coffee. Standard piccolos, but I can never resist the espresso granita. Frozen espresso with a spoonful of thick cream.

Shell orders a fragrant sweet tea that reminds me of mulled wine.

In the afternoon, we go for a walk in Central Park. It is a beautiful autumn day.

Dinner is omelette soufflée for something different. Seperate the whites and whick them, fold back into the yolks. I fry off some chorizo, cherry tomatoes and onion.

Finish in the oven.

It is good, a light texture. I am not sure it is worth the effort.

Washed down with beers.

Another slow day.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

– Lao Tzu