Notes on workplace spirituality

PS hey guys I know I'm johnny-come-lately to last page's discussion but like, a big chunk of what we celebrate and find amusing here is basically these absurd things that were created by capitalist interests trying very hard to get people to buy and consume products by tickling our brains just right.  the stuff that is really interesting to me personally is the degenerate sort of creations that are the product of failures in this endeavor, like bubsy or bizarre pirate pokemon games or whatever that inspire uncanny fascination rather than consumer impulse.  thecatamites aptly has described these things as cargo cult projects, efforts to ape the qualities of financially successful franchizes by imitating or outright stealing some of their signifiers and mashing them together into something grotesque.  but this inherent grotesqueness can be found in anything from those eras that tried hard enough to be taken seriously as a saleable commodity, but fundamentally failed somehow; it is the mutagenic quality of memes manifested in the corners of consumer culture.

it's intriguing because this phenomenon is by its nature ethically and artistically bankrupt, and yet the effort to capitalize on it is somehow repugnant.  I think it's because we sort of got this weirdness despite the intentions of salesmen, not because of them. this aesthetic was almost anti-commodity, but now some salesmen are trying to make it into a regular consumer product, and I guess I can't help but find that kinda gross. -neuopath

RE: Capitalist cultural backwash.

I have an interest in the "workplace spirituality" movement, which evolved as a distinct entity in the 20's, basicly a spiritual justification for capitalist myths as it jettisoned it's protestant nursemaid. Mostly taking the form of little catch phrases promoting "just world" idealism, positive thinking and the virtues of hard work. Things like "The man who is hauling the oars has no time to rock the boat" "weather you think you can or think you can't, you're right" etc.

The other form early manifestations of it took (based on old corporate diaries I've studied) Is long winded missives on things like salesmanship, the details of warehousing, how people should go about their jobs etc. that are filled with unspoken assumptions culled from the "business wisdom" in the form of these proverbs they've accrued.

It's growth paralleled the growth of the "self-help" genre, (the lasting impact of the popularity and influence of the 1849 book "Self Help" in Japan would be interesting to investigate).

In the 70's it started mixing with the "human potential" movement, which is basicly the love-child of scientology and the new age movement. You can become highly effective, nay, superhuman... and what better way to use your superhuman powers but to climb to the top of the bussiness world and reap mad profit. EST is a good early example of this.

As an aside that will probably interest people here the precursor to team building exercises was something called the "new games" movement, a project to create "games" with no winners or losers that had it's genesis inthe late 60's.

Somewhere in this mix "workplace spirituality" like other subcultures and spiritual movements became commodified (not that it was ever something good or worthy but I'd argue it began as a genuine effort amongst the ownership and management classes to come up with a metaphysical justification for capitalism, through the amassing of anecdotes and just so sayings). The interesting thing about this (as opposed to the commodification of say, punk, or buddhism in the west) is that there is absolutely nothing in workplace spirituality that resists this commodification, since it's entire essence is in dealing with how the universe justifies capitalism.

This is allowed it to grow into a truly aestheticly repugnant monstrosity, hollow to it's core, doing everything possible to present a smiling attractive face that appeals to "everyone" (presents nothing disagreeable to the mainstream, doing whatever it thinks will ingratiate you and offering you the carrot of success within mainstream society if you earnestly adopt it's precepts.) that it's managed to create something that no one actually wants in a way that nothing else parallels in the west (though it's easy to imagine creations similarly lacking in appeal springing up through the process of soviet bureaucracy).

My interest in the topic was sprung when I went into a McDonalds and found the wall covered in motivational quotes, flatscreen TVs playing bland top 20 pop videos, an environment so morally antiseptic, so devoid of the controversial,  there could arise no objection, no nagging doubt, about getting your kid that happy meal with the transformers toy.