Corporate Conformity: The Suffocation of Individuality?
Understanding modern conformity and embracing individualism in spite of stifling corporate demands and increasing political tensions.
Corporate America and western society today are increasingly resembling modern day slavery, but not because of wages. Behind the scenes of big business is a projection of control, not only over the lives of individuals who work there, but also over how they behave outside of work, and what they say. This silent expectation of having to align with increasingly political corporate narratives designed to sell more goods is contributing to the suffocating of individuality in America, or is it?
It's increasingly common to hear of people getting fired for their controversial takes being expressed both in and outside of the workplace. In younger generations especially, there's many social interactions taking place online for the world to see. Employees have become extensions of corporate brands, reflected by the old trend of seeing "views are my own" in social media bios, as if there is any expectation otherwise. This has lead to an issue that's much more complicated, one which government policy cannot truly fix.
There are differing opinions on this phenomenon. On one hand, some believe that companies should retain the right to fire an employee for any reason, and on the other, some believe that basic employee free speech protections ought to be in place, in not only the government sector, but the private sector as well. Typically, government jobs are more protected by the constitutional right of free speech, but private companies are not obligated to follow the same rules since they are not government entities.
What's also disturbing is that companies often conduct a substantial background check on individuals who apply, sometimes leading into the zone of their tweets or behavior on social media. Companies which are more strict in what kind of candidates they are looking for will usually not tolerate individuals who seem too controversial, opionated or abrasive. It's comparable to dating, and just as we discriminate between certain types of people we like and dislike, companies do this as well. It's almost as if corporate Amercia is looking for cogs for their machines, rather than human beings. This penetration into our lives by companies is like a probing eye, searching for the slightest remnants of non-conforming behaviors and beliefs. The system wants tamed, obedient animals who will not ask questions, and not rock the boat. It's not a coincidence that many high achievers in the corporate world fit this stereotype.
If you work in a big company, have you ever felt pressured to NOT say certain things online, or to NOT behave a certain way in public? Most have, but not only people who currently work at big corporations, it’s also students or people aspiring to break into corporate America. Considering the things we do in public or say online can fall into someone else's awareness years into the future, it makes sense that many choose to tone down their expression in public spheres.
The modern corporate environment as a whole has completely commodified humanity itself. This is a manifestation of conflicting human desires, which will NEVER go away, but it will change. Rather than advocating for policies to solve these issues, there's a different transformation that needs to happen.
Even if there are policies to protect individuals from being fired or discriminated against based on their beliefs and free expression outside of work, it does NOT change the fact that companies may secretly not favor you anymore. This is human nature, something that the government will never have much control over.
Cancel culture is commonly cited as the cause for these issues, but it is far from a new phenomenon. In Ancient Athens around two thousand year ago, citizens would vote to exile influential people who were viewed as a threat to the democratic system for 10 whole years. The witch hunts that took place in the 16th to 18th centuries are another historical artifact of cancel culture, where women who were believed to have practiced witch craft were often executed or exiled. By comparison, our modern day concerns of being “cancelled” are trivial.
Our pull toward conformity is not a CORPORATE problem - it's an INDIVIDUAL failing. To prove this point, ask yourself these questions:
Who runs companies?
Who works at companies?
Who makes government policies?
Who formed the United States of America?
All of these human structures are created and maintained by INDIVIDUALS or groups of INDIVIDUALS. Therefore, rather than being a corporate, or structural problem, this is a cultural problem. It's a problem that exists in our minds, driven by FEAR. Hence, it's the fear of being cast out of a group that stops many Americans from authentically expressing themselves.
If we assume the opposite stance, that the world’s problems as structural, as inherently rotten and bigger than we individuals can influence, it’s appeasing to criticize the systems and the people holding it up - but is this the optimal solution? If the current power structures are unjust, or go against your morality, it is a civic duty to do what YOU can about the problem. Regardless of what society thinks, or what your political opposition has to say about you, it is in BRAVERY that you take a stand for what you believe, and in FEAR that you comply to the opposition. From this perspective, even if the problem is a collective issue, the solutions start with individuals challenging their friends, family, acquaintances, and THEMSELVES to do more for what they believe in.
Societal structures are like the crop that grows from the seed of culture. Therefore, in order to change societal structures, you must cultivate the seeds of your most cherished beliefs and be willing to die, to suffer, and be outcast for them in order to influence culture. Our inability to take hard stances or meet in the middle is not a sign or progress, but of FEAR.
We westerners have grown too comfortable due to our relative wealth. Sure, we're not all buying yachts and beamers, and many of us struggle to pay all of our bills, but we have our basic survival needs met. This comfort itself is something that is taken for granted, since we were born with our freedoms. With the exception of those who have served in the military, we have not sacrificed anything of life or death equivalence for our very existence - and it shows.
Throughout history, the very "rights" people bang on about were not GIVEN. They were FORGED and cultivated, but by who? COURAGEOUS INDIVIDUALS.
Several Stoic philosophers were exiled from Rome, and countless other highly influential people have gone against the group think of their time. One of these philosophers, Seneca, was forced to commit suicide after being accused of conspiracy. Musonius Rufus, another Stoic, was known for his teachings on the role of women in society, and was thought to be exiled for associating with enemies of the Roman Emperor. Jesus is thought to have been crucified for being a revolutionary force, going against the moral grain of his time. Rosa Parks was a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement, who refused to give up her seat on a bus. All of these are courageous individuals following their deepest intuitions despite intense societal pushback, exile, and sometimes even death.
The Stoics had some valuable input on this topic.
"He who is brave is free." - Seneca
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." - Marcus Aurelius
Therefore, brave individuals are the foundation of every great movement, country and culture. While we may have large disagreements on how to run our country, the fact that we can live mostly peacefully is an innovation of OUR CULTURE.
Culture is shaped and impacted, even if only slightly, by all of our individual interactions with others. It is not formed in a VACUUM, and neither are societal structures. Therefore, we have a portion of responsibility to think about in what we do and do not support in this world. Hence, cancel culture is a fundamental force of morality, on BOTH sides.
Every day we are confronted with threats to our freedom of expression, but they are not outter threats.. They are INNER FEARS. Weilding our morality, we often say how things should be, but we do not move forward and build the culture which that morality becomes accepted in. If your most cherished beliefs are not ones you would be willing to die for, then it doesn't seem like they are that important to you, does it?
Where our ancestors often fought to maintain their beliefs with THEIR LIVES, we in modernity are scared to lose a JOB? We silence and sterilize our beliefs for MONEY and ACCEPTANCE? Our ancestors are probably rolling in their graves at this fact, and they should be. Corporations are not stifling individuality; rather, it is WE INDIVIDUALS smothering OURSELVES.