Frightening Future Vision in Copenhagen’s New Architecture
Travelling around newer parts of Copenhagen, the architecture speaks of what a future would look like as more and more of what we need and how we work is controlled by corporations. What would the world look like if corporations became so powerful that democracy ceased to function in effect? If you are like the author you won’t find it pleasurable at all.
Going to some parts of Copenhagen is like stepping into the world that some have warned us against – the world run by corporations given free rein. Nowhere else in the world have I seen such physical manifestations of how a fully corporatist mindset would design our living spaces. And spontaneously I don’t like it. I would like to hear your views. Maybe I was just in a bad mood, but now I have to ask you: do we really want to – unwittingly – submit to a corporacracy? (1)
Please do not get me wrong and think I am advocating – say – communism or dictatorship or some other solution. And please do not think I am railing against free markets. I am just asking the question – am I the only one that finds corporacray creepy?
Those against corporacracy mean that a world run by corporations is one where the power of the voter in a democracy has been overridden (maybe it was the result of a democratic decision to do so) or made ineffectual by the power given to corporations.
This world would possibly have some rather negative implications. But first, to understand the darker side of our love affair with the corporation, we need to understand the framework. Let me just explain that corporations in law are given the same rights as people, except they cannot vote (2). In the US they are now allowed to contribute as much as they like to political campaigns so they can and do certainly influence voting. The corporate model of organising our living entails individuals organisations or banks buying shares in the corporation. This capital is used by the corporation to buy, manufacture, market and sell at profit. Usually shareholders will expect a return yearly on their investment larger than that offered by banks. Or they hope to be able to sell the share at a later date and make a profit that way.
So we have a system. All corporations get income directly from the individual pockets of citizens (nowadays called consumers) or indirectly via authorities spending on behalf of citizens (like selling arms to a nation’s defence). Now, in this system corporations line up to compete for capital to invest and to compete for the income from consumers. They also need to compete by pressing prices down and income up. This gives corporations several interesting characteristics.
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