Steve Mills - Online Entrepreuership with the SPOKE system

Large organisations are not rational entities

One of the major paradox’s of the modern world is that we are supposed to live in an age of rationality, yet the very things that control our modern society are completely irrational.

A modern western government may look like a coherent structure, will clear aims and goals (at least at some level), yet inside  the belly of the beast it is ruled by people’s emotions, hidden agendas, factions and also a deep need to appeal to un-rational people who will get them re-elected.

They make reactive and not pre-emptive decisions; they do a lot of things that are not in the interest of the people, or even the government of the time.

The same can be said of corporations. They have corporate charters and directives, but they function like a hive mind, with thousands of employees each having competing sub agendas. The sum total of these sub agendas is the direction of the organisation. The only “rational” thing that an entity like a corporation can do it is to look after its shareholders and get profits, which it will do at the expense of everything around it and within it.

We really have a troubling history on this planet, of whenever a large group of people come together, and form any kind of organisation unit larger than a few hundred people.
The interests and characteristics of each individual member, including their compassion, common sense, and love for each other are all lost inside the crazed irrational direction of the organisation. It has happened time and time again, from religions to ideologies, scientific movements to empires. Things that start of with the best intentions by a few are quickly subsumed and become the antithesis of the original intention when the many become involved.

The current world financial crisis is just one example of allowing non rational entities (corporations and governments) to set the agenda that the rest of us need to live by.