"Don't be evil"
There has been much hand-wringing lately in the halls of congress and on the editorial pages about the willingness of software companies like Google and Yahoo to yield to censorship demands by China. Many have pointed to the way that Google, for example, has not conformed to its own corporate motto, "Don't be evil".
What is really surprising about this is that anyone is surprised. Corporations operate to serve one simple goal--profits. There are huge profits awaiting internet companies who participate in the world's most populous nation. No corporate can ever take seriously a motto like "don't be evil" if it conflicts with the profit imperative. It is really as simple as that. That is how the capitalist system operates. The inexorable demands of making a profit determine all decisions that corporations make, and most apologists for our economic system actually praise this as a beneficial aspect of our economy that reaps benefits to society. Many of those same apostles of the virtues of profits as the engine of capitalism have suddenly changed their tune with respect to China, and claimed that profits should not precede human rights as a fundamental consideration of corporations. Republican Congressman Chris Smith, for example, has said, "Human rights should trump profits."
One has to wonder what rock all those people who claim that "human rights should trump profits" have been hiding under. Profits have always trumped human rights, and always will. The reality is that US imperial foreign policy has proved, time and time again, that it will support dictatorial regimes as long as they protect US corporate interests. When Chilean leader Salvador Allende was overthrown with CIA support and replaced with the brutal Pinochet dictatorship--a dictatorship supported by the US--we learned the cold, hard, brutal lesson about what trumps what. The US government has always acted to support profits, even at the expense of human rights.
It's time to recognize the truth of the matter. "Don't be evil" is a meaningless corporate motto. No corporation, driven by the capitalist system to engage in the ruthless pursuit of profits, can ever ask itself not to be evil if there are profits to be found. Maybe we have to ask ourselves what the real evil is in this world. I would suggest that the answer to that question lies in the very system in which we live.
What is really surprising about this is that anyone is surprised. Corporations operate to serve one simple goal--profits. There are huge profits awaiting internet companies who participate in the world's most populous nation. No corporate can ever take seriously a motto like "don't be evil" if it conflicts with the profit imperative. It is really as simple as that. That is how the capitalist system operates. The inexorable demands of making a profit determine all decisions that corporations make, and most apologists for our economic system actually praise this as a beneficial aspect of our economy that reaps benefits to society. Many of those same apostles of the virtues of profits as the engine of capitalism have suddenly changed their tune with respect to China, and claimed that profits should not precede human rights as a fundamental consideration of corporations. Republican Congressman Chris Smith, for example, has said, "Human rights should trump profits."
One has to wonder what rock all those people who claim that "human rights should trump profits" have been hiding under. Profits have always trumped human rights, and always will. The reality is that US imperial foreign policy has proved, time and time again, that it will support dictatorial regimes as long as they protect US corporate interests. When Chilean leader Salvador Allende was overthrown with CIA support and replaced with the brutal Pinochet dictatorship--a dictatorship supported by the US--we learned the cold, hard, brutal lesson about what trumps what. The US government has always acted to support profits, even at the expense of human rights.
It's time to recognize the truth of the matter. "Don't be evil" is a meaningless corporate motto. No corporation, driven by the capitalist system to engage in the ruthless pursuit of profits, can ever ask itself not to be evil if there are profits to be found. Maybe we have to ask ourselves what the real evil is in this world. I would suggest that the answer to that question lies in the very system in which we live.
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