Personal Log - 13 December 3306
13 Dec 2020Quriosyty
""I'll believe it if I see it," for dogs translates to "I'll believe it if I smell it." It's the same for mega-corpoations, who also see the world differently, where humanity and compassion have been equated with profit and power. So don't bother yelling at them for failing to perceive the world the way you do; it's their money and shareholders they pay attention to, not your words.”In the early twenty-first century, for perhaps the first time in history, the whole of humanity seemed united against a common enemy; an enemy which killed indiscriminately, hid in plain sight yet concealed in the world of the microscopic and displayed no more compassion nor empathy than a mega-corporation shows for anyone who does not have a direct financial interest in its activities. A virus - and a damned efficient one. In the aftermath, life would never be quite the same again.
One might argue that the virus was merely trying to survive in a competitive environment. One might argue the same case for mega-corporations. The problem is we've yet to develop a vaccine for them!
The mega-corporations made a difference. I'm not trying to demonise them, merely their motives. Vaccines were developed, lives were saved the enemy was defeated. But from the suffering of millions the ultimate victor was not humanity but greed. And, much as many corporations before them had set aside questionable ethics in favour of apparent success, the unscrupulous few who benefited most from the eradication of the virus congratulated themselves on their ingenuity and perspicacity, persuaded themselves that profiting from others misery was an acceptable compromise, and set their sights toward the next profitable opportunity free from the burdens of morality, compassion and ethics.
And when the next opportunity failed to arrive in time to satisfy the ever growing greed of their voracious shareholders, they took steps to rectify the problem. If the next crisis could not respect their quarterly profit report then perhaps it needed a little push.
The virus which followed did not roll over so easily. It was built of sterner stuff. Almost by design one might say!
This was the genesis of the rise of the mega-corporations which has culminated here in the thirty-fourth century with the Sirius Corporation; who some see as the acme of corporate success. If, that is, they own a substantial shareholding and are comfortable with a significant amount of grey area rationalisation. For the rest of us it is an enemy which kills indiscriminately, hiding in plain sight yet concealed in the world of the corporate.
The second star to the right set me on a course for Sirius Corporation. I did not know it at the time for it turned out to be a somewhat indirect route.