Corporate brainwashing and AIESEC
Today I came to think of the following.
When AIESEC was created, it started with the simple enthusiasm of several people, who wanted (rather naively and idealistically) to change the world. It is good to have such people, yet nowadays it seems to me that they getting less and less...
Maybe AIESEC is one of the last places where you can find so many of them together.
I was thinking - we did change a lot as an organisation through the years.However - did we change into the right direction, did we manage to be flexible enough to deliver to society the "positive change" we promised.
True, a lot of corporate leaders may be influenced by AIESEC, yet isn't AIESEC influenced too much by corporations?
We, as an organisation are so proud of the people we are producing - yet - are they really changing something? Or we are just boasting ourseleves on being "the best, the most, the biggest"?
AIESEC is so simple, as all great things.Yet, during my years in the organisation I saw a tendency that is gaining more and more influence. Things have been complicated, strategies have been developed, difficult terms used, words ruled over actions.We have become the BIGGEST YOUTH-RUN BUSINESS NGO.
Yet, if we are produsing the people that the busenss needs - how NON-CORPORATE are we?
Isn't the whole idea of AIESEC experience and vision 2010 just a preparation for the big CORPORATE BRAINWASHING that we are preparing ourselves for?
Because - let us be honest - we are not staying in AIESEC and striving for excellence only to "save the world", but to make ourseleves better and easily sold to our PARTNERS.
When this thought dawned on me...I was shocked.
I am not against AIESEC Brainwashing,nor against brainwashing in general.
I was just shocked to realise the complexity of the world I am living in. And my inability to change something drastically.
posted by Sve @ 6:34 AM
3 Comments:
Hi Sve,
so glad to find your blog through grace's blog. And i really like the comment that you wrote there :)
And on the last part of your post where you said :
I was just shocked to realise the complexity of the world I am living in. And my inability to change something drastically.
I just wanna put a quote related to that:
"Life's about impacting the world, not be impacted by it"
cheers honey,
ali
I think its great that we have such good relationships with companies, I just think its a pity that we dont have equally good relationships with other segments of society.
From my experience, the UN is basically impossible to work with at most levels, and it is rapidly becoming an irrelevant organisation, so I'm not dissapointed about our lack of a relationship there.
It is a pity though that the leadership of orgs like Amnesty International, the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch do not share the spotlight with leaders of Cadbury Schweppes, PwC etc...
My dearest and most romantic Sve, it's true, AIESEC is a brainwasher. But everything else is... Rules that tell us not to throw garbage on the street and not to swear on public place are brainwashing too :) Brainwashing is an essential part of our mental health - imagine how stressed and overloaded we would be without it :D
I would also like to advise you not to trust paranoid and conspiracy theories. Speculating on people's fears and doubts is a business too and many people have no hesitation to benefit from it.
Your dearest Wolfy :)
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