(et al. – from the latin et alia (neuter pleural), st alii (masculine plural), and et alii (feminine pleural) meaning “and others”.)
The Big 4+1 are (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, & Google) + Microsoft.
These are the tech giants which will be dominating the digital landscape for years to come.
They control a vast amount of our personal data – everything from our credit card information, out purchases , our video rentals, our Google searches and physical location.
And from a healthcare perspective? There’s also a reasonable chance in the near future they will have access to all of our medical information.
Therefore, whether or not they will be moral actors may seem like a reasonable question.
However, I would suggest it’s not.
You see, you can pose the question whether or not the leadership of these tech titans are moral, and, you could then make the case that, since the the leadership of a corporation is moral then the corporation is moral.
But this is not true.
These entities, these corporations, are legal constructs which last both outside of and beyond their founders.
The only appropriate question to ask about their actions – which is the only question they ask about themselves as corporations, is whether or not an action is legal and profitable.
Mission statements, core values, and beautifully written principles aside, corporations as legal entities are not moral.
They are not immoral.
They are amoral.
Once you clearly recognize this, you will be able to engage them on the right playing field.
You see, you and I have morals, some good and perhaps some bad. But, for a corporation acting as a corporation, morality doesn’t exist either way. It is neither good or bad. It is neither right or wrong.
It is irrelevant.
Once we recognize this fact of amorality, it becomes clear that when we choose to balance and check the growing power of these corporations. (power we are giving them as they become more intertwined with recording our lives), it’s necessary to use and engage our moral organizations: governmental institutions.
Imperfect as they, governmental institutions are based on basic principals morality.
Words like freedom, equality, liberalism and democracy are the vocabulary of a citizenry with moral underpinnings, and to varying degrees these words permeate our government.
We forget this at our peril.