Aug 25, 2009
Robert Benmosche is a veteran of the corporate wars and the insurance industry's greed-fest. The former MetLife exec is now the new CEO of the beleaguered AIG, and recently he held an employee town hall to introduce himself to the troops.
I've been through a number of such affairs, and one thing about them is certain: they are carefully scripted and rehearsed events. "Questions" from employees are carefully screened and filtered for their fit with the scripted Message. Corporations know damned well that some reporter from Bloomberg or Marketwatch will inevitably obtain login credentials (usually, via an inside connection with an employee, to a WebEx or similar platform) and listen in. Therefore, they go in knowing that they are delivering a very public message.
So last week, Robert Benmosche decided to take an aggressive, blame-the-US-government rant to his employees, that, in classic Alice-in-Wonderland fashion, shifted blame from AIG to America. "It's not your fault, it's theirs," he told the AIG faithful, and on the topic of the company's debt to the nation, he added, "if they want out so badly, they should never have come in in the first place."
One natural question that arises from this brand of corporate bloviation is, "why do these corporations and their executives, who have been made unimaginably wealthy thanks to America, seem so anxious to smear our country with both their rhetoric and action?" It's an especially good question to ask in the era of offshoring, outsourcing, and domestic downsizing as we approach 10% unemployment.
The answer, actually, has been under our noses for many years. What follows, incidentally, also explains why poets and visionaries deserve a voice in our nation's discourse; for I now offer a quote from the American poet, Robert Bly's 1996 book, The Sibling Society:
Some of the feeling of abandonment goes back to the economic fact that the transnational corporations are abandoning the United States. A vice-president of Colgate-Palmolive observed: 'The United States does not have an automatic call on our resources. There is no mindset that puts this country first.'.. The president of NCR Corporation told The New York Times: 'I was asked the other day about United States competitiveness, and I replied that I don't think about it at all.'
As Bly goes on to point out in this chapter ("Benjamin Franklin's Pig"), this attitude applies to all nations: corporations feel as numb about European nations, Asian nations, and especially so-called "developing nations." To a corporation, a nation is merely a place where profit may be made; beyond that, every nation is valueless, meaningless. The corporation, being a legal "person" under U.S. law, is now the ultimate "Man Without a Country," for it equally rejects them all. Bly shows us both the reason and the result of this cold reality: "business has effectively become our government, and now rules American life on all levels." And remember, this was written over a decade ago; the only revision I would make to that statement is that corporations now rule the world on all levels.
Thus, Robert Benmosche's insult-laden tirade against the government and the taxpayers that pulled his company out of the grave is not strange or the least bit distinctive. He is merely reflecting the general consciousness that rules his universe. This is about much more than mere "Arrogance, Insolence, Greed" (AIG) -- for the moral weakness and depravity of conscience that drive this attitude are themselves driven by the power that we allow them. When you effectively rule the world, you owe no nation or region of it the least portion of loyalty, gratitude, or any other human feeling.
We will give Robert Bly the poet the final word on this phenomenon of corporate monarchy, which is so tragic for nearly every person living on this earth. This is also from The Sibling Society, a poem from "Poems for the Ascension of J.P. Morgan":
Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters,
Dropping bits of paper engraved with Hegel's name.
Badgers carry the papers on their fur
To their den, where the entire family dies in the night.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. The final deadline for our crucial Summer Campaign fundraising drive is just days away, and we’re falling short of our must-hit goal. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Robert Benmosche is a veteran of the corporate wars and the insurance industry's greed-fest. The former MetLife exec is now the new CEO of the beleaguered AIG, and recently he held an employee town hall to introduce himself to the troops.
I've been through a number of such affairs, and one thing about them is certain: they are carefully scripted and rehearsed events. "Questions" from employees are carefully screened and filtered for their fit with the scripted Message. Corporations know damned well that some reporter from Bloomberg or Marketwatch will inevitably obtain login credentials (usually, via an inside connection with an employee, to a WebEx or similar platform) and listen in. Therefore, they go in knowing that they are delivering a very public message.
So last week, Robert Benmosche decided to take an aggressive, blame-the-US-government rant to his employees, that, in classic Alice-in-Wonderland fashion, shifted blame from AIG to America. "It's not your fault, it's theirs," he told the AIG faithful, and on the topic of the company's debt to the nation, he added, "if they want out so badly, they should never have come in in the first place."
One natural question that arises from this brand of corporate bloviation is, "why do these corporations and their executives, who have been made unimaginably wealthy thanks to America, seem so anxious to smear our country with both their rhetoric and action?" It's an especially good question to ask in the era of offshoring, outsourcing, and domestic downsizing as we approach 10% unemployment.
The answer, actually, has been under our noses for many years. What follows, incidentally, also explains why poets and visionaries deserve a voice in our nation's discourse; for I now offer a quote from the American poet, Robert Bly's 1996 book, The Sibling Society:
Some of the feeling of abandonment goes back to the economic fact that the transnational corporations are abandoning the United States. A vice-president of Colgate-Palmolive observed: 'The United States does not have an automatic call on our resources. There is no mindset that puts this country first.'.. The president of NCR Corporation told The New York Times: 'I was asked the other day about United States competitiveness, and I replied that I don't think about it at all.'
As Bly goes on to point out in this chapter ("Benjamin Franklin's Pig"), this attitude applies to all nations: corporations feel as numb about European nations, Asian nations, and especially so-called "developing nations." To a corporation, a nation is merely a place where profit may be made; beyond that, every nation is valueless, meaningless. The corporation, being a legal "person" under U.S. law, is now the ultimate "Man Without a Country," for it equally rejects them all. Bly shows us both the reason and the result of this cold reality: "business has effectively become our government, and now rules American life on all levels." And remember, this was written over a decade ago; the only revision I would make to that statement is that corporations now rule the world on all levels.
Thus, Robert Benmosche's insult-laden tirade against the government and the taxpayers that pulled his company out of the grave is not strange or the least bit distinctive. He is merely reflecting the general consciousness that rules his universe. This is about much more than mere "Arrogance, Insolence, Greed" (AIG) -- for the moral weakness and depravity of conscience that drive this attitude are themselves driven by the power that we allow them. When you effectively rule the world, you owe no nation or region of it the least portion of loyalty, gratitude, or any other human feeling.
We will give Robert Bly the poet the final word on this phenomenon of corporate monarchy, which is so tragic for nearly every person living on this earth. This is also from The Sibling Society, a poem from "Poems for the Ascension of J.P. Morgan":
Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters,
Dropping bits of paper engraved with Hegel's name.
Badgers carry the papers on their fur
To their den, where the entire family dies in the night.
Robert Benmosche is a veteran of the corporate wars and the insurance industry's greed-fest. The former MetLife exec is now the new CEO of the beleaguered AIG, and recently he held an employee town hall to introduce himself to the troops.
I've been through a number of such affairs, and one thing about them is certain: they are carefully scripted and rehearsed events. "Questions" from employees are carefully screened and filtered for their fit with the scripted Message. Corporations know damned well that some reporter from Bloomberg or Marketwatch will inevitably obtain login credentials (usually, via an inside connection with an employee, to a WebEx or similar platform) and listen in. Therefore, they go in knowing that they are delivering a very public message.
So last week, Robert Benmosche decided to take an aggressive, blame-the-US-government rant to his employees, that, in classic Alice-in-Wonderland fashion, shifted blame from AIG to America. "It's not your fault, it's theirs," he told the AIG faithful, and on the topic of the company's debt to the nation, he added, "if they want out so badly, they should never have come in in the first place."
One natural question that arises from this brand of corporate bloviation is, "why do these corporations and their executives, who have been made unimaginably wealthy thanks to America, seem so anxious to smear our country with both their rhetoric and action?" It's an especially good question to ask in the era of offshoring, outsourcing, and domestic downsizing as we approach 10% unemployment.
The answer, actually, has been under our noses for many years. What follows, incidentally, also explains why poets and visionaries deserve a voice in our nation's discourse; for I now offer a quote from the American poet, Robert Bly's 1996 book, The Sibling Society:
Some of the feeling of abandonment goes back to the economic fact that the transnational corporations are abandoning the United States. A vice-president of Colgate-Palmolive observed: 'The United States does not have an automatic call on our resources. There is no mindset that puts this country first.'.. The president of NCR Corporation told The New York Times: 'I was asked the other day about United States competitiveness, and I replied that I don't think about it at all.'
As Bly goes on to point out in this chapter ("Benjamin Franklin's Pig"), this attitude applies to all nations: corporations feel as numb about European nations, Asian nations, and especially so-called "developing nations." To a corporation, a nation is merely a place where profit may be made; beyond that, every nation is valueless, meaningless. The corporation, being a legal "person" under U.S. law, is now the ultimate "Man Without a Country," for it equally rejects them all. Bly shows us both the reason and the result of this cold reality: "business has effectively become our government, and now rules American life on all levels." And remember, this was written over a decade ago; the only revision I would make to that statement is that corporations now rule the world on all levels.
Thus, Robert Benmosche's insult-laden tirade against the government and the taxpayers that pulled his company out of the grave is not strange or the least bit distinctive. He is merely reflecting the general consciousness that rules his universe. This is about much more than mere "Arrogance, Insolence, Greed" (AIG) -- for the moral weakness and depravity of conscience that drive this attitude are themselves driven by the power that we allow them. When you effectively rule the world, you owe no nation or region of it the least portion of loyalty, gratitude, or any other human feeling.
We will give Robert Bly the poet the final word on this phenomenon of corporate monarchy, which is so tragic for nearly every person living on this earth. This is also from The Sibling Society, a poem from "Poems for the Ascension of J.P. Morgan":
Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters,
Dropping bits of paper engraved with Hegel's name.
Badgers carry the papers on their fur
To their den, where the entire family dies in the night.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.