Heart of Darkness

A quick note:  The following piece was publishing nearly three years ago.  Prescient?  Judge for yourself, and then, read J.M.H., regularly, so you can remain three years ahead of current events.  - J.M.H.

Heart of Darkness

By J.M. Hamilton (9-5-11)

“Mistah Kurtz — he dead.”

For thrills and chills, I have never been much into fiction.  The cold hard realities of this world provide all the excitement, drama, and surreal energy I’ll ever need.  Why just open up your New York Times, and be prepared for shock and awe.  However, on occasion I have come across a piece of fiction that hits home.  The story puts the hook into me because of the core truth it exposes about the human condition.  Such a work is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which I believe is the greatest story ever told.  This story has everything: empire, anthropolatry, mass murder, and capitalist excess.  

Oh, did I mention cannibals?

And of course, ultimately, it’s a love story!

Heart of Darkness is a study in what Carl Jung would refer to as the “duality of man,” unchecked power, and the megalomania that often follows.   Having studied power for decades, the story rings true on many levels.   A wunderkind goes into the jungle to seek his fortune so that he can marry above his caste.  Driven by this love and his passions, Mr. Kurtz loses himself, and with his tribe of warriors in deepest dark Africa begins cutting off heads, so as to gather more ivory.  As more ivory accumulates and is sent back to Mr. Kurtz’s corporate masters, his fame and reputation grows, often to his business colleague’s dismay. The more Mr. Kurtz enriches others the greater the license he is given.  Sound familiar?

Heart of Darkness was published in 1899, and the story is set in the colonialism of the period, but examples of Mr. Kurtz and his behavior can be seen everywhere at the genesis of the twenty-first century.  The troubled times we find ourselves in amplify and magnify these figures as they stride across the business and political landscape, indeed across the globe.   Many of these figures exhibit myopia that excludes nearly all social conscience, an all consuming goal, great economic or political power, and in some instances enjoy a cult following.  Often some or all ethical and moral restraint is abandoned so as to achieve “the dream,” even at the expense of the destruction of others, and ultimately, themselves.  That pretty much defines what I like to call Heart of Darkness syndrome or HDS.   Please read on, as the blog offers up examples of HDS here in 2011.

$$$  Mr. Lloyd – Doing God’s Work – Blankfein exhibits many of the characteristics of HDS.  His problems are legendary, but to sum up include selling short the American Dream and the American economy, and of course, client double-dealing.   His singleness of purpose is manifest to all; his ethical bypass complete, as he continues to fight and lobby for the very rules and regulations (or the lack thereof) that brought this nation’s economy to its knees.  Not content to having enriched his company, Goldman Sachs, and his management team many times over, he has insured his and Goldman’s success by purchasing all the politicians Goldman’s money can buy, and placing his employees in the highest chambers of global government.  And he probably believes he is doing “God’s work,” after all Mr. Blankfein does his best to operate within the confines of the rules Goldman’s attorneys lobbied for, created, and helped to legislate.   Mr. Blankfein and his cadres seem oblivious to the human toll and suffering he and his banking peers on Wall Street have created.  And my favorite thought from Goldman, recently released, was the assurance that the hiring of Reid Winegarten, criminal defense attorney, was “routine.”

$$$  Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner -  Mr. Geithner, as the former head of the New York Fed, we are often told helped save this nation from ruin and another great depression, with a little help from his friends Messrs. Henry Paulson, Fed Chairmen Bernanke, and Larry Summers.   But three years into the economic quagmire many Americans and businesses find themselves in, Mr. Geithner and his colleagues appear not to have saved the American economy so much, as have bailed out the banks, repeatedly.    And the trickle down from these banks just hasn’t happened, just ask Shadow Government Statistics, who show true unemployment and underemployment creeping north of 22%.   By not restructuring the Wall Street banks and not writing down home loans, when America had a chance, Mr. Geithner and his colleagues have consigned the U.S. housing market, and indeed the Western economies, to years and years of economic turmoil and malaise.  Trust me, the fun is just beginning. However, the ultimate cost will not even be borne by this generation, but rather, it will fall upon our children and future generations.  It is they, and ourselves, who will have to deal with a devalued currency and debt piling ever higher, as good money is thrown after bad – all for the enrichment and aggrandizement of a few, and at the expense of virtually all.

If President Obama loses his bid for re-election in 2012, he will have to thank Tim Geithner for the outcome.   By the way, the transparent assurances of Mr. Buffet aside, it’s never too late to nationalize and restructure the banks, starting with Bank of America.  Why look at GM, who was nationalized and restructured, and just reported record sales figures, up eighteen percent!

$$$  The Republican Party and the Politics of the Heart of Darkness – The Republican party’s disdain and visceral objection to the President taps right into the Heart of Darkness.   What does it say when the Senate Republican Leader’s primary goal is not the betterment of his home state of Tennessee or the country, the job for which he was presumably elected, but rather unseating the President of the United States.   This party of which I was once a proud member, has completely run off the rails, and now is run by megalomaniacal billionaires, the intolerant, and those who politically exploit the evangelicals and Christian community.   Ironically, the party of Christ, as the Republican Party would have you believe, worships money and is the lap dog of corporate interests, often at the expense of all other considerations.   If the GOP was really adhering to the teachings of Christ they would be providing aid and assistance to the poor and the elderly, not shutting down government assistance or attempting to privatize same.  Governor Rick Perry’s connections to the plutocracy and fund raising capabilities are legendary, and yet, he wants to kill social security.

There’s just one problem, the Republican Party and the Chamber of Commerce are rapidly finding themselves turned inside out, by the alleged extremes within the party tent, many of whom are anti- multinational, anti-Wall Street, and anti-Fed.   Seems that some of the elements within the party can appreciate, greatly, American business and capitalism, but don’t share a similar fondness for cartels and monopolies who exploit government largess, tax loopholes, and the legislative process.   This party claims the mantle of fiscal responsibility while often presiding, from the White House, over the greatest Keynesian raid heretofore known to man, from Reagan through Bush (W).  Hypocrisy defined.

$$$  Steve Jobs and Apple Computer.   Talk about singular focus, look no further than Mr. Jobs.  The man truly is great, and has changed America and the world in so many different ways, often for our betterment.  But could Mr. Jobs be greater?   By hiring U.S. labor, instead of exploiting labor on foreign shores, one economist estimates Apple’s profit margin on the iPhone would drop from 60% to50%.   Not a terrible price to pay for helping out your home country, right?  Or by insisting that Apple’s vendors in China pay a fair living wage, with a normalized work week, Mr. Job’s would set a standard for multi-nationals, and bring the differences between U.S. labor and China’s labor market one more step closer to parity or equilibrium.   Mr. Jobs could also insist that vendors in the Pacific Rim not hire child labor, or pollute.   Mr. Jobs will go down in history as a tremendous talent and inventor, but might he have been greater?  Instead of employing more American’s we have a company that exploits U.S. tax law and is sitting on more cash than the U.S. Treasury presently has on hand.

With great power comes great responsibility; U.S. corporations want to be treated like royalty, but often eschew a great deal of the social responsibility that comes with that privilege.  That is to say, corporations often enjoy greater privilege and deference under the law, than any single citizen would ever be accorded; and yet, often get away with crimes that no citizen could ever escape, individually.  If corporations want to be accorded great privilege should they not be held to a commensurate standard?

The annual drive for the United Way is great, but could Corporate America do more?   Apple computer, and the cult of personality that follows Mr. Jobs, could change the corporate/social responsibility dynamic if they so choose, and with a minimal hit to their bottom line.  In fact, this blog argues that any short term reduction in income – as a result of a renewed commitment to the United States and its citizens – could be made up for, in terms of profits, many times over in the intermediate and longer term.

Speaking of great works of fiction, probably the greatest lie told over the last three years has been that the Obama administration is anti-business.   

Take a look at the productivity gains of the American corporation, the increases in net income, and the mountains of cash many of these entities lay upon, and convince me that this administration is anti- business.  Meanwhile, American labor has not seen a real increase in income over the last two decades.

$$$  Exxon Mobil:   This story is priceless, but first a little history.   On August 23, 1939, Adolph Hitler signed a deal with the devil, Joseph Stalin.  Also known as the Molotov –Ribbentrop Pact, the deal basically carved up Poland and Northern and Eastern Europe between the two ambitious men.  The “deal with the devil” eventually disintegrated with Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa, and the Russian winter.   (Hitler apparently learned nothing from another person exhibiting HDS, Napoleon Bonaparte, who made the same mistake in attacking Russia too late in the summer, and was also fighting wars on too many fronts.  We can all be thankful that Hitler was apparently not a student of history.)

Fast forward to this week, when Rex Tillerson’s Exxon Mobil signed, perhaps, another deal with the devil, Ex- KGB and now Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.   For a look into what Exxon stockholders can come to expect from a deal with Vlad, examine the tough love dished out to a present Russian partner, British Petroleum, from this week’s N.Y. Times:

MOSCOW — Police officers armed with assault rifles Wednesday raided the Moscow offices of the British oil giant BP, carrying out a type of ritual armed search of white-collar premises that is common enough here to have a nickname, “masky show.”

The timing of the raid, however, highlighted this peculiar type of Russian risk for another company — ExxonMobil, which just a day earlier agreed to take over the very Arctic exploration deal that fell through for BP.

BP is still involved in a dispute with its Russian partners over that oil-exploration deal; the police search was related to a lawsuit pending in a Siberian court.

Russia is as important for BP’s oil production as the United States, so even though the company has had such problems here for years, its share price often nudges up or down in response to police raids or the arrests of employees.

The police raids on Moscow’s glassy high-rises where foreign banks and oil companies have offices unnerve employees and disrupt business. They are called “masky shows” for the balaclavas often worn by the black-clad police.

What makes Tillerson’s deal so unique is not that he is getting into bed with a reformed commie, after all President –“ I can do business with this man” – Bush was snookered by Mr. Putin, too; but Exxon must know that the prospects for any longevity to this partnership cannot be good.   Many multi-nationals have sought to do business in the former Soviet Republic, only to find themselves shaken down by corruption, subjected to police state tactics, and with little recourse in a country where the rule of law often does not exist.

Of course, the allure of drilling in the Arctic Sea has to be a huge draw for Exxon, what with the U.S. still concerned about the Alaskan coast and its environment, why not do an “end around” U.S. energy policy and hook up with the Ruskies?  Selah!  If there’s a catastrophe, who’s likely to know if a few million barrels of the sticky black stuff dumps into the Arctic Ocean during a period of endless polar nights?   (Polar bear au chocolat?  Exxon appears down with that.)  Since this deal will have to be ratified by the congress and involves giving Mr. Putin’s Russia a share of Exxon’s U.S. assets, how much of this “dance” by Exxon is sincere, and how much of it is a way to put pressure on the U.S. government to open up the Alaskan coast to Exxon? 

Only time will tell, however, one thing is clear:  If you thought the banking crisis threw a wrench in the global economy take a look at the economic and foreign policy ramifications of the largest U.S. corporation, and a key energy provider, doing business with the Russian Prime Minister.   Does the U.S. really want a Russian Premier (who often exhibits HDS) holding U.S. foreign policy hostage via his arrangement with Exxon?   Mr. Putin, said of the deal: “The scale of the investment is very large.   It’s scary to utter such huge figures.”   Scary, indeed.

The Heart of Darkness syndrome is everywhere these days, and you don’t even have turn on the news to see it first hand, why look right next door.  One might see HDS exhibited in local judges, politicians, school superintendents, and even teachers, anywhere where near absolute power has the potential to corrupt, absolutely.  Men and women will often make mistakes, and become entranced by a goal, mission or dream.   And it’s this passion that can also, if channeled correctly, drive men and women to achieve great things.  The question is can the person with HDS pull up before it’s too late, or like Kurtz will the situation end in personal destruction and substantial collateral damage?

Mr. Kurtz died before reaching his goal of being reunited with his lover, his “intended.”

She never came to know his final words, which were:  “The horror!  The horror!” 

At the end, Mr. Kurtz came to rest where all the indispensable men and women of the world ultimately come to lay, in a dark grave, and possibly answering to a much higher power.

P.S.  I know the economy sucks, but is President Obama kicking some serious tail or what?  I mean if these were normal times, this guy would be coasting to victory in 2012.   Let’s look at his foreign policy score card, shall we? 

Osama bin Laden:  Check.

Colonel Gaddafi, check.

Wind up Mission in Iraq, check.

Start and conclude a war in Libya with multinational political, economic, and military support to prevent genocide by a ruthless dictator, setting a new benchmark for U.S. foreign policy:  Check again.

Ushering in a new – hopefully less costly – age in the U.S. military, that of covert operations, drones, cyber-ops, and less dependence on standing armies:  CHECK!

Pulling the hell out of Afghanistan… Under Review/Pending.

Foreign Policy grade for the Commander in Chief, and showing the Republican Party how to actually hunt down scum bags and win:   A

Note: If Obama was a Republican, the GOP would be singing his praises right now.

Note, if the U.S. can exit Afghanistan, possibly as the election nears, we predict that the President’s poll numbers will enjoy a boost.  Then America can say, definitively, “mission accomplished.”   Coming soon, the Presidents score card on U.S. domestic policy.   This blog has seen some promise from this administration on domestic matters, like having the Justice Department take on the AT&T monopoly, and combination with Sprint. The government’s law suit against the banks, initiated this week, over the fraud associated with mortgage debacle is another great start.  Potential here is limitless, as an agent of real change.  Obviously, jobs is priority one!

Finally, see the film adaptation of Heart of Darkness with Mr. Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.  I highly recommend it.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2014