How corporate relates to nihilism & our way of life.

With such a vast tv landscape nowadays, it’s so easy for many hidden gems to slip through the cracks or simply not even register on your radar, for that matter, & one of the best jewels out there is corporate. Set at the multinational conglomerate, hampton deville, the series primarily follows our two protagonists & junior executives in training, matt & jake, as they try not to let their white-collar existence suck every last drop of life out of them. The weird thing is one of the namesakes of the company, christian deville, is a main cast member on the series but we never actually meet hampton. I think there is actually an episode that explains away his absence.

But anyway, getting back on track, the series is never afraid to go to the darkest places imaginable & push the envelope as far as it will go which is one of the things I most admire about it. If nothing else, the series is relatable to so many people who feel burned out at their jobs or, to take it a step further, dead inside. But how exactly does this relate to nihilism & life as we know it? Well, clearly the series takes a bit of inspiration from amazon (to say the least) but there is another company that it’s more predominantly based on. Reportedly, the series was inspired by the actions of Bridgewater associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds headquartered in Westport, CT. The firm has often been likened to a cult with many employees referring to it as a “cauldron of fear & intimidation” & reportedly there’s even footage of a confrontation in one of their offices that lead to a woman breaking down crying.

Despite this, they still have about 1,500 employees on staff although that doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of the company itself. It’s not uncommon for employees to cling to their position, no matter how abysmal it may be, knowing how arduous it can be to find a new (& hopefully better) one. The series depicts one of its employees offing themselves after being fired & though there is no known instance of this occurring at Bridgewater, it certainly would not be surprising. An employee did end up filing a complaint with the Connnecticut commission on human rights & opportunities back in 2016 complaining the company was way too aggressive in its efforts to succeed.

So where does nihilism come into the picture? Well, it’s pretty much everywhere in this series. It drives nearly everything the characters do. In Jake’s case, he’s always going on about offing himself because he knows in the grand scheme of things, he doesn’t think anything matters. On the other end of the spectrum, you have chris who does pretty much anything he can (no matter how morally unjust it may be) to ensure the success of the company because he knows he can get away with it. That’s the thing: with no moral compass guiding the ship, it’s only a matter of time before it crashes & though we don’t see that onscreen, I guarantee you it happened at some point after the final season concluded. Much like theranos, this was clearly a company doomed from the start. One of the things that parallels the series is the fact that Bridgewater is one of the only hedge funds in the world to hire kids straight out of college & not only do they take it because it’s the only offer they can get, they hold on to it because they doubt they’ll ever be able to get another one (at least not one better than this or at least not in a short enough turnaround time). As such, they get trapped in this vicious cycle of corporate monotony that threatens to drain every last drop of their souls. & when you get caught in this hellish loop, it can be really easy to think nihilism is not just the correct interpretation of existence but, rather the only one.

Only by breaking out of that cycle can you save what’s left of your soul. I know it’s not always easy to get a job at a company that sees you as an actual human being in lieu of a slave but that should never stop you from trying. Because life is too short to be beholden to some faceless corporation that only cares about how much backbreaking work you can do for them without keeling over. But if you do end up at one of these places, just remember to hang in there & know that it does get better. You just have to hold on to a spark of hope & take life one day at a time.