Tools of the Powerful

My previous post was a somewhat lighthearted reminiscence of a tumultuous corporate merger I weathered some years ago during a previous incarnation in the business world. If you’ve not yet read it, please check out A Parable of Two Power Structures. In it, I sketch out two contrasting organizational structures and their respective cultures—one hierarchical, traditional, and methodical, the other one flat, entrepreneurial, and nimble.

Both structures have potentially positive and negative aspects. A hierarchical structure might better lend itself to stability, predictability, and a higher-quality product, but it might also be stultifying or even oppressive for the workers. A flat structure might be more dynamic and empowering for the workers, but it might also be more chaotic and result in a product of inconsistent quality.

That said, my time in the “corporate jungle” burned into my brain an image of what I’ll call the “archetypal corporate empty suit” (ACES). Sure, I’d encountered such colleagues in the work world before, but as the aforementioned corporate merger progressed, I found myself working with them on a regular basis.

ACES wear their entrepreneurialism like a badge of honor. They’ll send you and others emails at all hours of the day and night, and even on weekends, as if leaving evidence of their dedication for all to see. On occasion, they’ll play a well-earned round of golf. But, except for that and watching “the big game” over brews with bros, they have few discernable outside interests.

You may also realize you’ve met one of these ACES when you find your business presentation has been stolen without attribution and used at a meeting to which you’ve not been invited. Yes, ACES are bold, brash, abrasive, braggadocious, and something other than truly ethical. Whether it’s “borrowing” a presentation from a colleague or skirting state regulations, they play fast and loose whenever it serves them. The CEO merely has to vocalize his admiration for those who “do whatever it takes” and the ACES on his staff will take it as far as it needs to go.

ACES will say things in meetings like: “The only way I could have hired a better worker was to clone myself.” They seem to know a lot about business, and they certainly do a good job of advertising their exploits, but their thought process and attention to detail is not so deep that they couldn’t use a little oversight. If you really dig into their work product, you’ll find they talk a much better game than they play.

Having said all that, as long as they’re White—and they do tend to be White—they’ll likely be quite successful. They fit in well with any good old boy network. Yes, they do tend to be boys. They can schmooze and talk sports and carry on about business for as long as it takes to simulate meaningful connection. And as long as their paychecks keep getting bigger, their loyalty to their work and their enthusiasm for the industry will not fade.

Yes, I’ve been harsh, but I’m not without compassion for my erstwhile corporate brethren. I ache just a little whenever I see someone as empty as they seem to be. And I don’t mean empty in the Buddhist sense. I mean vapid. Sure, I was a little vapid as well during that part of my life—motivated by that which the ego craves. I understand the strokes you can get from being a “player,” marketing a successful product, earning a good salary, being on a first-name basis with the CEO, etc. I remember all too well what it’s like to live out my karma largely lacking in self-awareness. Sadly, it’s a form of death.

Thankfully, I’ve awakened just a little bit since then. Unfortunately, though, some ACES live out the entirety of their lives as if dead—squandering this precious human existence while never engaging in even the most perfunctory self-examination. They never move beyond being mere tools of a system that they only understand in terms of what it gives to them.

You may wonder why I’m I talking about such, sad, hollow men all these years after having worked with them? It’s because I’m reminded of them on a daily basis as I learn of the work being done by the current Administration. However, whereas the ACES that I’ve described were merely tools of an amoral capitalist system, the work of this current Administration is being performed by tools of an immoral and unconstitutional authoritarian system.

It's as if the ACES of a bygone day woke up to their own vapidity, but instead of being motivated to alloy their lifeforce with the life-enhancing values of compassion, empathy, equity, understanding, and peace, they’ve allied themselves with forces of darkness, destruction, cruelty, and death. Of course, they’ve not really awakened in any spiritual sense at all. They’ve simply found a path to greater self-aggrandizement, to the detriment of all that is good within them, and to the detriment of all the world.

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This post is in the Power, Practice, and Peace series.

Find a running list of all posts in this series by clicking here.

 

Images

Portrait of the Secretary of Defense by Chad J. McNeeley via:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pete_Hegseth_Official_Portrait.jpg

Public Domain image edited by the author.

 

Copyright 2025 by Mark Robert Frank