The language of commerce is the language of war. When a new product is launched the marketing department speak in terms of launching a campaign to promote the product, or of launching a new campaign to invigorate sales of an already existing one. These are military terms. The campaign is a plan of action on the battlefield. There is no sense of service in this towards the customer or potential client. They are incidental to the main goal which is to increase market-share and, at the end of the day, to accumulate increasing wealth. The goal of the product is to increase wealth. There is no sense of it serving a purpose but rather ‘filling a market niche’ or exploiting a hole in the market.
We speak of branding a product. Forgetting that branding was originally an act of violence burning a mark on to the body of another. While language is used like this in commerce is there any chance of leaving the violent and rapacious nature of exchange behind? How then can we hope to find a place in Nature that is not exploitative and invasive? We crush up mountains to make throw away cans and wonder why the world we live in looks ugly.
We hear phrases such as ‘poised to make a killing’. No-one thinks twice about using this language. Yet the very words themselves reveal the violent intent. The entire mind-set is forced into combat and a combative approach to life.
Is it any wonder that wives leave their husbands and even their families when this is the approach to life that is taken? The men, fearing abandonment, choose trophy wives and make believe they are happy, while in themselves wondering what the wife is doing while they are working in the office. These are not conditions to improve happiness in a person nor wholeness. These are the conditions that lead to separation, deceit and suspicion. Resentment lies at the heart of such a lifestyle and this makes a successful salesman, or so we are lead to believe.