[core_dumped]

An asteroid does not have the ability to care about those things, it’s a rock. It can’t choose to leave the earth alone in the name of empathy.

Corporations are made of humans, who, it’s been shown, care about other humans a lot of the time. I think the more we rely on these power structures for our own self preservation, the more we start to weaponize them against weaker forms (normal people) as a form of active defense.

I like the reference to Cthulhu, it really is like a higher order life form. Workers are the cells, infrastructure the body, and the c-suite is of course the ravenous mind. You as a human don’t care what happens to a cell in a Petri dish, the same way corporations don’t care about what happens to individual people. As a human, I find this evil, and wonder if there are perhaps other higher order life forms (economic systems) we can construct that aren’t as harmful to their own composition.

[jampekka]

When acting on behalf of a corporation (e.g. as an employee), humans are quite limited in what they can choose. This is very commonly used to justify actions that even the human themselves may find immoral. E.g. "just doing my job", "have bills to pay", "just following orders", "if I wouldn't do it, somebody else would". Not only are the corporations psychopaths (i.e. amoral), they are structures that turn humans psychopaths when they are on the clock.

We seem to agree that structures like corporations are best seen as something that transcend the individuals that they comprise. And I think there are less harmful forms of organization, or at least what corporations can do should be limited by e.g. states and unions significantly more.

I avoid (and criticize) the use of "evil" because it usually muddies more than clarifies, and has weird metaphysical connotations. "Harmful" I think captures it better.

[hsuduebc2]

I agree with you. I was hyperbolic to make a point. Instead "necessarily evil", "harmful necessity" would be more appropriate.