Benevolence in Control

Comments and discussions indicate it’s time to review a couple of fundamental principles.

Under the Covenant, the sole justification for engaging in business is to bless the employees first, and then the customers. Granted, this is ideally a matter of you employing your kinfolks first, but that is rather rare here in the US, in the sense that you are more likely to have outsiders in your business than family. Still, the moral principle is that by employing others, you provisionally adopt them as family.

Under the Covenant, your priorities will always be God’s glory, and we get our best clues from the Bible as to what He considers critical to His reputation. Read between the lines, particularly in the Old Testament, and you should understand that the whole point of doing anything is to bless your tribe. If you run a business, your employees are your tribe for the sake of the business.

This undercuts the reason workers might consider unionizing. Communism (the workers’ revolt) is nothing more than a secular tribalism that substitutes Mammon for God. If you as management include everyone in your tribe, keeping them informed and invested in the common welfare of the tribe, they have no need to engage in that particular idolatry.

At the same time, you as business owner are the elder, and this tribe is feudal. In accordance with ANE tribalism, your employees are also your treasure. They are the most valuable asset you have, and they warrant the biggest cut of your expenses. They are the only reason you can justify before God engaging in something that requires hiring employees. DO NOT embrace common business ethics and philosophy.

The same principle applies to any endeavor that includes participatory groups. In God’s eyes, they are all tribal associations under His feudal reign. What advice would I give a criminal gang leader? That’s easy: What you are doing is raising up a rival government, a parasitical shadow nation. The parasite the lives the longest is one that is symbiotic to the host. Your host is the folks within your territory from whom you make your living. There are no innocent bystanders; spread the love to everyone whose life you touch. Be a benevolent dictator.

Understand human nature: If you govern well, they will gladly pay tribute. Some of the most useless pastors I’ve ever met were fat and comfortable because the church members believed in that man. Yes, you can fake it, but in the long run that will fail. Far safer it is to simply be the best, most benevolent government your host has ever seen. You must do better than the official government against which you are competing. They are the plundering outsiders; you play the role as the people’s family savior.

Don’t run off of short-term calculations. It’s too easy to lose your plunder if no one has any vested interest in what you are doing. If the people love you, they will protect you. Cultivate their affection.

All of this can be done even when you are fighting common perceptions about morality. If you love them, they will tend to forget the mythology of democracy. You don’t even have to talk about it, unless that’s your forte. Just decide that you do love them and solve some of the problems that torment them most. Bring peace and security, and make it possible for them to prosper. When they prosper, you will, too.

Vice is a crappy business model. It kills all your clients. The most prosperous business is government. Everyone needs it and no one complains when it is better than what they have already. If you are trafficking in human vice, push that crap out away from the community where you live. Don’t foul your own nest. Decide where you want to reside and turn it into a fiefdom if you like, but don’t prey on your own. Do what government is supposed to do, and do it better. Solve human problems.

Also, only a complete fool will engage in the same vice they sell. Everyone knows that, but I see people who could make it just fine destroying themselves. And this is just the mundane truth of human experience without spiritual insight. We can debate what really constitutes human vice, but the whole idea of dealing in human moral weakness is serving the Devil. That is its own kind of stupidity.

My point is that, if you engage in the economy as any kind of provider, you become a defacto government for those who depend on the activity in any way. It may be limited to the specific domain of what you provide, but it is still government in effect. Act with benevolence and you are more likely to stay in business longer.