Laleh Khalili

Among​ the most peculiar alibis the world’s maritime powers used for their programme of conquest and occupation was guano – seabird excrement rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphates, sought after as fertiliser. As with other colonial enterprises, resources were extracted to feed the maw of capital in the metropole, in this case large-scale agricultural capital. ‘All...

The primary product sold by all management consultants – both software developers and strategic organisers – is the theology of capital. This holds that workers are expendable. They can be replaced by machines, or by harder-working employees grateful they weren’t let go in the last round of redundancies. Managers are necessary to the functioning of corporations – or universities, or non-profit organisations – and the more of them the better. Long working hours and bootstrap entrepreneurialism are what give meaning to life. Meritocracies are a real thing. Free trade, laissez-faire capitalism and reduced regulation are necessary stepping stones towards the free market utopia. There is also a faith that this work is helping ‘create positive, enduring change in the world’, as McKinsey’s mission statement puts it.

Green financing and newfangled (and sometimes unproven) technologies were promoted ad nauseam by corporations and lobbyists at COP27. Carbon capture is the biggest favourite at the moment because it makes no demands on the actual production of CO2 gas. The technocentric fantasy that a new invention will make it possible for us to keep consuming fossil fuels is a salve for the guilt of consuming countries, and a cynical nod at whatever international treaty the world’s biggest polluters have signed.

The​ #IdleNoMore movement against Keystone XL – a long-planned pipeline that would have carried petroleum from the oil sands of Alberta and the shale fields of the Dakotas to refineries in Illinois and Texas – began in December 2012. Three years later there were more protests, this time against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which crosses the Standing Rock Sioux...

Even more enticing than the life lessons of corporate executives are war manuals redeployed as business handbooks. For a time, Sun Tzu’s Art of War was required reading on MBA programmes. But even better than a millennia-old war manual is the wisdom of a charismatic four-star who can quote Marcus Aurelius, spout corporate diversity bromides better than Robin DiAngelo, and tell stories of hunting al-Qaida operatives with some of the toughest motherfuckers on earth. As an unnamed Deutsche Bank executive told the Washington Post, ‘senior management is much more likely to listen to military commanders because they’re cool and they’ve killed people than to a McKinsey guy in a pinstripe suit.’ The business world’s ardour for the generals translates into five-figure speaking fees and lucrative positions on corporate advisory boards. According to the same Washington Post article, Stanley McChrystal has made millions from sitting on corporate boards, including that of an engine manufacturer which defrauded the US Marine Corps by selling them armoured vehicles at an inflated price.