Unjust Blaming in Focus
by Tibor R. Machan
In the philosophy of Plato, which has had enormous impact on much of Western thinking, everything in the actual world in which we live has a form in the ideal world, one that is related to the actual but distinct from it. For some interpreters of Plato the ideal world is something entirely separate from the actual, so they believe, say, that perfect societies, human and any other beings are real in that world, even if they aren't in the actual one.
From this rather complicated idea we get such familiar notions that some people love humanity but dislike individuals. Or, alternatively, they may hate some human groups even if some of their best friends belong to them. As if these could be kept apart.
This came up recently as I reflected how so many people hate corporations, which are companies of human beings who have legally united for some purpose, quite often economic. Among those on the Left of the political spectrum there is indeed a great deal of energy spent on denouncing business corporations, even what is referred to as "industry." Ralph Nader and his allies remain perhaps the most vocal among these corporation or industry bashers, although there are many in the academy, led by the likes of Paul Krugman at Princeton University (who rarely writes anything without attacking either "the rich" or "the elites" or some other group).
These attitudes remind me of Plato's idea because Nader and Krugman no doubt see themselves as lovers of humanity, in some cases, and of individual human beings in others, all the while disliking either individuals, in the one case, or the groups in the other. They exhibit this kind of muddled thinking whereby one can separate the groups from the individual people who comprise them.
How can one claim to be a champion of human beings when one also hates corporations? This would make sense if by the act of incorporation one were to achieve what one achieves by, say, joining the KKK or the Nazis, but that just is not the case. Incorporation simply amounts to registering with some legal authority to let it be known that a group has formed to pursue certain perfectly decent, legitimate goals in unison, governed by certain articles or terms. There is no commitment in such groups as corporations to any morally insidious end, as there is in the Nazi party or the KKK. So, how can it be justified to keep denouncing corporations as such?
Moreover, the same folks who make up corporations are also the consumers who Ralph Nader is supposedly devoted to protect - he is known, after all, as a consumers advocate! Corporations are owned and managed by individual people who are, of course, also consumers, voters, parents, children and all of what human beings can be, quite apart from wanting to unleash ill will upon the world. Yet in the form of corporations they are treated and denounced constantly by Ralph, Krugman & Co., as if they had such ill will.
This is encouraged by the artificial separation of the group from its members - of humanity from the individuals, of corporations from its owners and managers, of a country from its citizens, and of a racial or economic class from its members. The fact is that if one hates or loves any of these groups, one is unavoidably committed to hating or loving those who comprise it.
So the next time you denounce The South, please do not declare that many people who live in the south are your best friends - one cannot have it both way. The same goes for gays, blacks, Hispanics, corporations and countries. Of course, one can find fault with individuals as the behave in various capacities, and one can also consider certain particular institutions in a society - which really means the people in them - as blameworthy. But it is helpful, indeed, to be clear about such things, otherwise unnecessary confusion, misunderstanding and, indeed, injustice are spread.
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