The Corporate Archipelago
How do people get to this non-clandestine Archipelago? Hour by hour planes fly there, commuters steer their course there, and trains thunder off to it — but all with nary a mark on them to tell of their destination because we simply do not care. And at ticket windows or at travel bureaus for business travelers the employees would be astounded if you were to ask for a ticket to go there — do you not have the app on your phone? They know everything, but have never given much thought to the Archipelago as a whole or any one of its innumerable islands.
If these lines seem familiar to you, it is because I nicked them from the Vintage Classics edition of The Gulag Archipelago which boasts a foreword by the esteemed classical liberal scholar and benzodiazepine aficionado Dr Jordan B. Peterson, written in 2018. Naturally, some changes were necessary to reflect on the absolutely overt nature of the Corporate Archipelago. Hopefully the late Mr Solzhenitsyn won‘t mind my little indiscretion.
To set the stage for our analysis, consider the political and economical purposes of forced labor camps within the Gulag system. First, they fulfill the very basic need to physically remove critical elements from mainstream society, preventing a spread of subversive ideas. Second, they spread fear of having to go (or to return) to such a camp, thus acting as a deterrent to potentially vocal dissenters. Third, forced labor had enormous economic significance for the continued growth and industrialization of the Soviet Union, both through provision of raw materials and an implicit colonization of eastern territories.
It should be obvious that the rationale behind these purposes is nowhere near exclusive to communist or socialist regimes. Each regime requires minimal dissent to preserve social cohesion, silencing critical voices or removing them from social discourse altogether. Every government ultimately relies on an economic machine and the means to continue its propagation.
So how does our Corporate Archipelago measure up to its communist cousin? Let us take a little tour of corporate life. It begins quite early — in grade school you may have experienced some days on which parents present their corporate job. Or the children may discuss it among themselves — X‘s father is an investment banker, Y‘s mother works as a marketing executive, Z‘s parents are in consulting. Later on, there will be job orientation weeks and you will get shipped off to college, where you spend the next 3–5 years of your life to prepare for your very own expedition into the Archipelago. Remember though, you need to focus on your passions — after all, you would not want to spend your time in the Archipelago doing something you do not love. So you better think of something to be passionate about — your first internship is right around the corner. Naturally, the island overseers will want their guests to be passionate about the internship. Now just repeat that process for 2 or 3 times, write your thesis and there you are, ready to embark on your very own journey to the Archipelago. Apply to one of the islands again, this time for permanent residence. Remember to make sure the HR administrators understand how passionate you are about this great opportunity. From here on out, things become simple. Just continue what you are doing for the next 40 years and you should be golden. Enjoy your stay.
That does not sound very frightening to you? Maybe even normal? Well good, that means everything is working as intended. You see, things in the Corporate Archipelago are working a little different than your average Soviet labor camp. Instead of designing the ultimate fearful punishment, liberal Western democracies have constructed a system focused on dependence.
Rather than the fear of being sent to a forced labor camp, dissidents are facing the fear of being excluded from the system‘s bountiful offerings. Inhabitants of the Corporate Archipelago are usually not exposed to hard physical labor to break their bodies and minds. Instead, they perform mental tasks which may be either mind-numbingly boring and repetitive or cognitively challenging but ultimately pointless. The need for physical removal vanishes, because corporate workers are doused with consumptive entertainment after their shift has ended — if it ends at all. They work overtime, commute, suppress their own thoughts with legal or quasi-legal drugs, have meaningless casual sex, watch sports or play video games. And in a way, they have to do these things in order to cope with the mental stress most corporate workers experience each and every day. Work hard, play hard. Just don‘t think too hard.
The Corporate Archipelago is undoubtedly much less violent than the Gulag system of forced labor. But on a grand scale, its effects are remarkably similar. Dissent is discouraged, not through fear, but disinterest and self-censorship. Physical separation of families and friends is achieved not through forced removal, but a mundane 40-hour workweek combined with long commutes induced by urban sprawl. Bodies deteriorate through inactivity and overfeeding instead of back-breaking labor. Minds are wiped clean through consumptive coping instead of savage beatings. Economic benefits are no longer based on the extraction of raw materials, but speculation, automation and the administration of a vast third-world labor force. It is fine if the vast majority of corporate workers achieve next to nothing while they are on the clock — the Pareto principle will take care of it. You will get to consume product just like everyone else.
In some aspects, one could even argue that the Corporate Archipelago is a much more severe and effective instrument. Sentences in the Gulag system were usually limited in their duration, although they could be followed by a lifelong exile. Our Corporate Archipelago essentially lasts a lifetime. Most retirees will be unable to break the habit of mindless consumption. And even if they somehow manage to develop some independence, their best years will be lost forever. Solzhenitsyn himself spent 8 years in the Gulag Archipelago. Would he have ever written his book if it had been a lifelong sentence?
Another aspect of the Corporate Archipelago is its vast reach — the influence it exerts over almost the entire Western population, either directly (through employment) or indirectly (through subcontracts, consumer goods and political influence). Maybe we should refer to the Corporate Continent instead.
Perhaps most importantly, it has managed to elicit a positive emotional attitude towards itself. While few people actually love the Corporate Archipelago (I am looking at you, Jeffrey Tucker), most consumers very much enjoy the material comforts it delivers to them.
The Corporate Archipelago is a much more subtle, creeping approach when compared to its Gulag counterpart. But as Christopher Nolan, himself a grand wizard of the Archipelago has told us: It‘s the slow knife that cuts the deepest.
