All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to say, It's a business. A phrase I’m obligated to borrow from a phenomenal writer whose present ethical status I’m uncertain of. Whether David E. Kelley is good or evil now is of no relevance to this piece. His articulation is artistic. It provokes emotion, stimulates thought, and has inspired me to create.

Perhaps you haven’t fully grasped what I did just then. I outlined a three-point argument similar to a three-point plan that is universally and antiquatedly adopted in any business setting. Directors and middle managers of corporations feel the rush of blood flowing straight towards their “dirty south” over the mere utterance of three points. Those corporate lapdogs, although submissive to their “top dogs,” devour the discourse and are smitten by Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Simon Sinek, and the other business gurus.

Because business culture is about adopting an urgent street understanding, involving basic localized academic learning, and galloping on a dopamine high. It doesn’t represent the complexities of physics, the discipline of engineering, or even the creative magnitude required to produce true art. Business is the “greedification” of currency. The gratification and amplification of greed are determined by those who generate the most in their dog-eat-dog world.

While everyone in the business landscape aspires to be the king of the concrete jungle, there are those minions who will ambitiously serve those kings. And those snakes serving those corporate kings will threaten the worker bees with a binary option: to demonstrate value or to face termination. Whereby some of those bees are designated as cockroaches. The metamorphosis is Kafkaesque by sentiment but Hitlerian by nature. The dehumanizing aspect stems from a submissiveness to the business hierarchy. It’s a verticality fostering an intense and toxic culture of internal politics and is mostly present only when there is a total absence of external competition.

Much like in nations where a government-owned company creates a clone to give the appearance of competition. A copycat version of their company to appease the Western economic ideology of avoiding the scrutiny of businesses being monopolies in a particular industry and sector (a fair market, empowering consumers, and business improvement). It keeps the capitalist clock ticking. Even though it is my estimation in 2024 that we are experiencing the limited iteration of capitalism.

Whereby there is an agenda to shepherd the herd towards a three-point focus of the 3-Fs: Fame, Fortune, and Fornication. Yet, not to worry, the familiar mantras are ever-present: “time is money,” “it’s not personal; it’s business,” and “it is what it is.”

The only way for limited capitalism to be sustainable is for people to adopt those mantras with the delusion that they are the sole undeniable truths. They are not. At least, not when it concerns humanity. In fact, those mantras engineer a permanent conveyor belt motion where dehumanizing attitudes and behaviors are justifiable given the business context.

This dismissal of the essence of the individual is evident when a fundamentally unimportant project is rendered imperatively crucial and must be delivered—not for a noble good but towards the preservation of concrete jungle status. Urgency is a characteristic of capitalism, as it serves to inculcate the masses to be immediate in the act. Promotional phrases such as “limited-time offer,” “fire sale,” and “this offer is only valid for the next X days” are second nature in the capitalist vernacular.

Therefore, when the top dogs press their stubby fingers on their marble tables, instructing that they have an immediate want, the snakes slither and shift the responsibility to the worker bees. And those competent worker bees, fully acknowledging and respecting the verticality, designate the less influential bees to be cockroaches. The cockroaches’ scurrying is a result of the weight from all the pressure the beasts above them have placed on their souls. Again, all in the name of business self-preservation.

No matter how absurd, counterproductive, and unfair the system presents itself to be, it remains the preferred game setting. To preserve the fragile ecosystem, human resource managers are aware of cunning cats who will pinpoint the weaknesses in the canary cage. Foxes who will expose the fragilities and shake up the chicken coop. Wolves harming the verticality by devouring the flock.

Those HR reps are instructed by the top dogs to avoid hiring those who don’t acquiesce to the present corporate culture. A narrative that opens the floodgates to double standards, mixed signals, and incompetence. The hypocrisy occurs when what is communicated to the public doesn’t reflect the internal company's day-to-day culture.

Let’s say a public company motto would clearly state that they “drive the digital future to empower societies” when they have absolutely no desire to empower their own employees. The mixed signals of wanting their cockroaches to practice independence but also trampling on them because their independent thinking and initiatives have not gone through the “proper protocol communication channels.” The incompetence of hiring is not based on meritocracy but solely if they are domesticated and obey the flow of the culture.

It all relates to the conditioning of bowing, submitting, and treating the verticality as their God.

Business is easy. Stripping the soul, corrupting the spirit, damaging the mind, and rotting the heart of individuals. Please! Do not misunderstand! Currency is important. Money is essential for access, movement, and survival. But we are experiencing a tired business model with no motion. We have seen all it has to deliver, and its metaphorical body has left an imprint on the proverbial couch.

Since most societies have a strong inclination towards adopting business as their cultural philosophy, or even in some nations it is the only philosophy, people are fed up. The fatigue has caused hypersensitivity to be ever-present with people. The dehumanizing has led to a lack of faith in humanity. And our species is on the verge of accepting that we are meant to be only perceived as commodities. It’s the economics of primal barbarism. Monkeys in suits throwing feces.