CHAPTER 1

The Bigger Ones

As humanity moves toward whatever our destination is to be, wehave constructed essential institutions to aid us with the journey.The oversized ones—church, state, and corporation—are astrong influence on us that we sometimes realize and at other times donot. There are other secondary institutions of considerable importanceas well. Education in its formal garb is a notable one. It weaves throughall the others. I call education secondary only in the sense that we do aremarkable job of ignoring it personally. When we finish our inadequateformal schooling, we can safely disregard any further educational efforts.And most of us do. We cannot ignore the other three. Like it or not,church affects us whether we are believers or atheists.

We have many ways of thinking about, or understanding, ourinstitutions. Much of what we "know" is belief rather than knowledge.Mythology is a great part of what we think about everything, includingourselves. The standard myths about the named institutions are oftenfar off the mark. Here I am going to examine some of the realitiesof these institutions, recognizing that I may only be attempting toestablish another set of myths. I hope not.

What must be understood about any institution, from the sacredto the profane, is that they most often serve the purposes of those incontrol. The people who are in control are not necessarily those whoare formally designated as being in charge. Adding to the mystery ofinstitutions, stated purposes and philosophies are secondary. Theseare masks to legitimize the institution that rapidly get atrophiedas mythology. A common example that has come, once again,dramatically to the fore is the separation of ownership and control inthe corporation. The legal owners are the stockholders, but rarely dothey have any control over the affairs of the corporation. As early as1932 Berle and Means, in The Modern Corporation and Private Property,provided us with the landmark study on this subject—the impotenceof stockholders in affecting decisions made by corporate managers. Isay as early as 1932, because the corporation of that time was neitheras powerful nor as extensive an institution as it has become today. Theearliest ones to resemble today's corporations were founded only in the1890s. The railroads in the United States were the first (Kessner, 96).The railroads molded the early history of corporate America. Indeed,the railroads were the early history of corporate America. Throughoutthat early corporate history, these railroads were virtually the only largecorporations run as private businesses. That is interesting for severalreasons. They were powerful monopolies. They depended on powergrants from government. This a pattern that is so common in corporatehistory that the role of free markets run as businesses in freewheelingcompetition on their own is a basic myth in our economy.

Yet not much has changed as applied to the character of problemsof control in the corporation since Berle and Means. The problemhas gotten worse as corporate powers have expanded and intensified.Other organizations are similarly split between ownership and control,or the ostensible aims and beneficiaries and the actual. There is aneasy explanation of why the divergence is always present. It is themoneypower continuum.

The moneypower continuum is the complete identification ofmoney and power. Even where the mythology suggests otherwise, suchas in religious institutions, this identity is pervasive. Acquiring one isthe same as acquiring the other. This was not always so with mankind.In early societies where there was no money, much less wealth, powerwas something apart. With time, the association became common. Theearlier societies did have the continuum, but it was vested in a verysmall group and usually was a local or regional occurrence. Even inmore recent times, apparently honest political leaders were not given toaccumulations of huge sums of money, or they had no access to them.Winston Churchill's widow had to survive on a very small pension. Wecan look at many political leaders, great and not so great, who neverbecame wealthy. The difference today is attributable to the existence,incredible growth and influence of that huge money machine, thecorporation. Its relationship to, and additional accumulation of,political power has changed everything. It has created the moneypowercontinuum. It is my thesis that it effectually has taken over politics. Itmay soon be the successor form to national governments, in fact. Itis strides beyond national governments. It has a global spread. It doesnot, of course, thereby offer anything of the goals of traditional worldgovernment advocates.

Huge numbers of people do not share in the apparent benefits ofthe continuum. At the same time, the numbers who do are larger thanever. Those who are aware of it in some way also have grown, as havethose who aspire to and lust for its benefits.

As the various institutions to be examined were created and grew,the continuum was also created and was integral to them. It wasembellished and strengthened with growth. Regarding the present andrecent history, the influence and pervasiveness of communications isthe theme running through much of the difficulties that I address. Thiswill be noted more than once. It is a critical distinguishing influence.It is without precedence. While money and power, and their closeassociation, are not altogether a recent phenomenon, their fantasticenlargement is.

Another aspect of the continuum is its threading through theinstitutions themselves. I roughly consider their relationships asbeginning with church, with academy following close on, then state,and, finally, corporation. They each operate in the moneypowercontinuum. Consequently, church, state, and academy become morelike corporations and corporations take on the methods of these threeas suits their purposes. In all cases, much is traceable to the basicmoneypower continuum.

The academy, mainly in higher education, has become nakedbusiness. The lofty goals of education once known and believed aresubmerged deeply into profit and loss statements, usually couched inother language, but not always. I looked at the website of a universityand saw something called an Integrated Marketing Task Force. Itsmission was to develop "a unifying theme that will serve as a referencepoint for our mission and values." That says a lot about what educationis all about. Points for naked honesty should be awarded here, but Inaively still think that university missions and values should be definedby something other than marketing. There should be at least a pretenseto loftier foundations for values. Have they no shame? Of course not.

Today you don't see many powerful politicians who are poor.Neither are powerful religious leaders or university presidents. Thereare few wealthy heads of corporations who disdain power. Their powerlust is not simply that which would be exercised within the corporation.It is much like government power in character. It often goes to otherplaces as well. The corporation is the apex of the evolution of thecontinuum. It is also the tentacled course of the continuum throughthe other institutions, such as universities, churches, operas, orchestras,and so on.

The associated money and power of the continuum are thecombined quest and objective of practically...