Political leaders, journalists, academicians, sports figures, celebrities, corporate executives, governments, and ordinary citizens alike have expressed their sorrow over the deaths of corporate heads, industrialists, and business leaders such as Ratan Tata of the Tata Group and Steven Paul Jobs of Apple Inc.
The passing of Indian corporate tycoon Ratan Tata’s death has renewed several old questions as people around the world mourn and celebrate his life as a global role model. Why do people mourn the deaths of such individuals and celebrate their lives? Is it simply due to their extraordinary achievements? Is it because of their lifestyle that many aspire to live? Or is it because of their corporate philanthropy and individual charitable works?
The answers to these questions are more complex than a simple surface-level analysis suggesting it is merely an emotional and human response to the death of important public figures in different fields of life.
The marginalised conditions of abject poverty and destitution breeds dreams of survival and progress toward a better life of pleasure and leisure, where the lifestyles of business leaders, celebrities, and corporate executives serve as a reference point of achievement.
If society were one of either abject poverty for all or absolute prosperity for all, there would be no role models or examples to emulate in such an egalitarian world. Unequal social, economic, political, cultural, and religious conditions, along with marginalised life experiences, give rise to role models and celebrities in various spheres of life.
Tata, Steve Jobs, and many others fall into this category of individuals, where society and life experiences are divided by the availability, accessibility, and ability to accumulate enormous wealth—far beyond one’s capacity to spend, even across many lifetimes or generations.
The working masses have fought and established a democratic state and government to act as an impartial arbitrator, managing and mobilising available resources for public welfare in order to create a level playing field for the redistribution of wealth, promoting an egalitarian social, political, economic, and cultural life for all.
However, the state and governments have aligned themselves with corporate leaders and their corporations, rather than with the people. This creates a situation where the lives of individuals like Tata and Steve Jobs are celebrated, while the workers who generate wealth for these corporate leaders live in conditions of extreme destitution.
Such unequal power relationships breed vastly different life experiences in a society under capitalism. In such a society, even fundamental human qualities like mourning of loss and celebration of life becomes unequal life experience. Philanthropy and philanthropists become living deities or celebrities and role models for people living in the conditions of marginalisation and exploitation.
The history of philanthropy is much longer but Politicians used philanthropy as a tool in their political campaigns in 18th-century Europe, while corporations began employing it to gain a competitive advantage during the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly with the rise of “robber baron” industrialists like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan.
The secularisation of Judeo-Christian culture of philanthropy and charity serves as a tool in the public relations campaigns of corporations and their leaders, helping to conceal their exploitation of human beings and nature.
The corporate plunder of human beings and the natural world, supported by states and governments, accelerates conditions where life becomes a celebration for the rich and powerful, while everyday existence of life is a struggle for the majority of people. Philanthropy and philanthropists cannot hide the harsh realities of poverty, hunger, homelessness and climate crisis.
Corporate philanthropy acts as a shock absorber for corporate capitalism and its exploitative nature
Corporate philanthropy acts as a shock absorber for corporate capitalism and the other name of business. It diverts public attention from the exploitative nature of capitalism while making a moral appeal to the working masses, as morality is ingrained in the creative abilities of every worker.
Corporate philanthropists serve as missionaries of profit, appealing to the moral values of workers while simultaneously exploiting them. Furthermore, the philanthropic process confuses, delays and diverts the revolutionary consciousness of the working masses. Religious and corporate philanthropists are working together to achieve this objective. The so-called missionaries of God and corporates belong to the same breed of civilised barbarians. They celebrate their life while keeping the majority in chains.
Neither God nor so-called godly philanthropists, charitable organisations, corporate missionaries, nor their religious brethren can emancipate the working masses. Working people can only emancipate themselves by rejecting the culture that celebrates the lives of corporate philanthropists.
Working people do not need corporate philanthropists and celebrities as their role models. The workers are their own role models; their work, moralities, fellow feelings and creative abilities define their lives. Much like corporate wealth, philanthropic wealth is also generated by the workers themselves.
The working class does not require charities and corporate philanthropy for survival. Instead, workers need their fair share of the wealth they produce to live a dignified life filled with leisure and pleasure.
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*Academic based in UK
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