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WORKING HYPOTHESES IN CLEVER AS SERPENTS
Major Hypotheses
1. The economic phenomenon of competition resembles the religious phenomenon of idolatry.
2. The behavior of financial markets and office politics parallels sacrificial rites.
3. The human ambivalence towards authority figures is portrayed in the
Management Complex.
The Myth of the Free Market
1. "You’ll excuse me, gentlemen. Your business is politics. Mine is running a saloon." (Humphrey Bogart)
2. Since all markets require the enforcement of property and contract rights, there is no "natural" free market. Government activity defines the property and contract rights on which markets depend.
3. Regulation, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Government regulation tends to favor big business over small business.
4. Adam Smith’s myth of the "invisible hand" hides the "iron fist" of government regulation. "It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of valuable property can sleep a single night in security." Witness the reluctance of Western capitalists to invest in the Soviet Union.
5. "The free market that economic conservatives champion undermines the moral character that social conservatives desire." (Bill Bradley)
6. The Democratic party offers a contradictory platform of economic
regulation and laissez-faire morality. The Republican party offers
a contradictory platform of moral regulation and laissez-faire economics.
The Myth of Competition and Social Darwinism
1. Competition does not lead to productivity (new and creative products), but leads to conformity (an obsession with one’s competitors or "doubles"). [This hypothesis is called into question by Steven Schnaars’ marketing research study, Managing Imitation Strategies: How Later Entrants Seize Markets From Pioneers.]
2. Competition does not ensure the best chance for survival. Cooperation
ensures a better chance of survival. "Natural selection [favors] the individuals
and the species whose genes provide the most inventive and effective ways
of getting along." (Thomas Lewis)
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Clever as Serpents
The Phenomenon of Borrowed Desire
1. Borrowed desire (mimetic desire) provides a more satisfactory explanation for the profit-motive than greed (which explains consumerism), fear (which explains investment), or pride (which explains risk-taking).
2. The phrase, "borrowed desire," illustrates the fact that the subject in Girard’s mimetic triangle is a "debtor" while the model is a "creditor." The subject "owes" his or her desire to the model. The model attracts the "interest" of the subject and charges "interest" on this desire.
3. There are two solutions to the problem of scarcity: increase resources OR decrease demand. Economics focuses on increasing resources. Ethics focuses on decreasing demand.
4. The problem of wanting is prior to the problem of getting. "There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it." (George Bernard Shaw)
5. Advertising research shows that the reason advertising "works" is because of the "modeling instinct" (e.g. the Marlboro Man).
6. Market formation is rooted in the multiplication of mimetic triangles (e.g. pet rocks and Beanie Babies).
7. Borrowed desire provides a more satisfactory explanation for stock market analysis than fundamental analysis (stocks have an intrinsic value), technical analysis (future stock prices can be predicted by analyzing past stock prices), or random walk theory (the market is too efficient to consistently outguess).
8. The Management Complex is analogous to Freud’s Oedipus Complex. The triangle of boss, subordinate, and promotion mirrors the triangle of father, son, and mother. The boss is both the subordinate’s path to promotion and obstacle to promotion.
9. The subordinate is stuck in a double-bind. The boss communicates contradictory double-imperatives to the subordinate: "Be assertive. Don’t be assertive." "Take initiative. Don’t make a mistake." "Make me look good. Don’t upstage me." "Take risks. Follow the rules."
10. The boss is stuck in a double-bind. If the boss delegates too much responsibility, the boss loses control. If the boss micro-manages, the boss hinders productivity.
11. The mimetic struggle to be "like the boss" hinders the productivity built into the "division of labor." Specialization suffers when everyone in the business hierarchy "tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence." (the Peter Principle)
12. The fact that mimetic rivalry produces value leads to the dilemma
of competition. The left horn of the competitive dilemma is a loss of desire
after winning (buyers’ remorse). The right horn of the competitive dilemma
is an increase in desire after losing (Groucho Marx’s "I never want to
be a member of a club that would have me for a member!").
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Clever as Serpents
Conflict Resolution by Sacrifice
1. The triangular drama of the Management Complex moves from: (1) a desire for the same object to, (2) a preoccupation with rivalry itself to, (3) the search for a scapegoat to resolve the crisis.
2. "Sacrifice was originally a simple business transaction of du et des ("I give so that you will give in return"), an activity without moral significance." (Mircea Eliade)
3. The "Catch-22" of business culture: People are told that if they work hard, they will succeed. The fact is most people (by definition) will not succeed, no matter how hard they try. This insight undermines the legitimacy of the business hierarchy. Sacrifice helps restore order to this unstable situation.
4. The conference table at a business meeting functions like an altar. Issues and agendas are put on the table, most of which will be sacrificed by making decisions.
5. The boss is in a particularly precarious situation in an office, a true scapegoat with a suspended sentence.
6. The "tort" system in our legal structure institutionalizes scapegoating through a system of punitive damages that are awarded above and beyond compensatory damages (e.g. the lady that spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap).
7. There are two kinds of conflict in the business world. "The first is generated by people fighting to pin blame on each other when money is lost. The second is generated by people fighting to claim credit when money is made." (Michael Lewis)
8. The blame game of office gossip significantly raises the cost of doing business by (a) consuming countless employee hours, and (b) raising the personal cost of risk-taking.
9. Office gossip is mob violence, "evaluative talk about a person who is not present," and therefore does not pose a threat of retaliation.
10. The more removed from its original source a rumor is, the more powerful it becomes. Each movement of a rumor away from its source gives a rumor the credence of authority (the authority of the mob).
11. Gossip is a concrete manifestation of the frustration created by the Management Complex.
The principle of social proof states that "the greater the number of
people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct."
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Clever as Serpents
Nonviolent Office Politics
1. Compliment your employees behind their backs (this magnifies the compliment) and criticize them to their face (this diminishes the criticism).
2. Practice preemptive humility by detaching from blame and credit. Take blame for things you are not responsible for (especially to your subordinates) and give away credit for things you are responsible for (especially to your boss).
3. Practice creative incompetence. This provides justification for others’ negative attitudes and dissipates that negativity. An occasional blunder in dress or appearance works nicely.
4. Institutionalize your own eccentricities. Create a caricature of your own eccentricities for others instead of letting them do it behind your back.
5. Make your boss look good. If everyone did this, the world would be a more peaceful place.
6. Do not imitate your boss. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but also the deadliest.
7. Always follow stupid orders cheerfully unless doing so would cause serious harm to someone.
8. Buy time to resolve conflicts by the "political/technical switch." Blame technical problems on politics and political problems on technical issues.
9. Build trust by being loyal to those not present. "When you defend those who are absent, you retain the trust of those present." (Stephen Covey)
10. Embrace gruntwork. Real productivity is in the details, not in the glamour of management.
11. Scapegoat concepts or decoys instead of people. Blame problems on a "lack of communication" or a "faulty process." Present your proposals with a "scapegoat" built into the proposal.
12. Practice the "second-person" technique. Empirical studies of gossip
show that the second person to talk in a gossip episode has enormous influence
in determining the outcome of that episode.
Frequent Objections to Our Application of the Theory of Mimetic Desire
1. Mimetic desire is an exaggerated description of office behavior.
2. The free market is NOT a myth.
3. The theory of mimetic desire/scapegoating is too negative. (If people are imitative, this theory presents a negative model for them to imitate.)
4. Clever as Serpents does not provide a rationale for distinguishing
between the moral use of mimetic theory and the manipulative use of mimetic
theory.