Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Corporations: The Contemporary Monsters
Volkswagen was recently involved in a scandal that has unmasked some of the corruption that exists within a capitalist society. Their diesel engine vehicles were outfitted with software that would only lower emissions to an acceptable level during emission tests. This allowed for better engine performance at the cost of the negative environmental impact. In this way they cheated the laws in place to reduce pollution. The question then becomes does this make the company into a monster. It would seem that only a monster of capitalism could do something as irrational as harm the world it occupies. It seems as though the modern corporation has become the most relevant figure of the monstrous in our present day society. It exemplifies what greed and selfishness can drive us to. At a time when we are more environmentally conscious as a society than ever before, a flagrant disregard for the environment as seen in this Volkswagen scandal is easy to villainize. This allows corporations to serve a purpose that we have also recognized in monsters from class. Volkswagen can be seen as the Other. They are something to stand in opposition to. We as individuals are assumed to be stewards of the environment. We try to recycle and we try to keep our carbon footprint down, but the faceless corporations assume no responsibility for the environment. After the Volkswagen scandal broke, the CEO apologized on behalf of the company as per usual. Who can we really blame though? The corporation is the same tangled mess of various parts that can be found in the creatures of most monster stories.
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I really like the fact that you chose to write on Volkswagen, because my car is actually one of the cars that was part of this scandal. It is pretty pathetic how they had the nerve to do this. I agree with how this is a contemporary monster, the corporation lied and made money off of it. At what cost? Oh you know just the environment, not like that is important or anything.
ReplyDeleteI think corporations, such as Volkswagen, are not inherently monstrous but rather the system is, which is what I think you are getting at in the end of your post. These companies are forced to adhere to a very specific and possibly unrepresentative battery of tests to prove the quality of their product. In the case of car emissions, it doesn't really matter (within reason) what kind of emissions the car produces because the majority of the carbon footprint is from the manufacturing process. Unfortunately, these aspects are not what's considered by the consumer. A perfect example of this case is the many studies that show it is less environmentally harmful to purchase a used car than a new hybrid vehicle, simply because of the emissions associated with the manufacturing process.
ReplyDeleteWhen I though about this topic, I thought capitalism is monstrous too. To make profits, people can be a little bit more egoistic to make decisions. Not only Volkswagen but automobiles are interesting topics because they provide us the fundamental of the daily life. However, they damage the environment. Only focusing on the environmental effects and automobile, all human beings are on the same boat, we can be monsters if we do not consider about the solutions.
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