Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia and Lucy Prebble’s Enron both examine the progression and the ramifications of society within a capitalist system. In the former, Le Guin portrays two seemingly utopic societies—the capitalist Urras and the Odionian experiment of anarachism and communism, Anarres—to demonstrate how communities of pure individualism and pure collectivism function. Prebble, on the other hand, depicts the inner works of Enron and the mentality of Enron employees as they struggle to succeed in the capitalist system. In both texts, the cultural power of capitalism as an innovative, success-driven social force creates the impression of a utopic society. However, when unraveling the interactions between capitalism’s mechanisms and certain aspects of human nature, we reveal the dystopian characteristics of society: the self-serving nature of individuals, the abandonment of morality, as well as the dysfunctional and socially harmful corporate actors.
To thrive in a capitalist system, institutions must prioritize innovation, leadership, and ceaseless progress; this creates a foundation for exceptionalism and, in turn, the culture of American society. Exceptionalism is the belief that the institution possesses values worthy of universal admiration and consequently bears the responsibility to serve as a leading example for the rest of the world. The ideology can be deconstructed into three central tropes: boundless frontier, which emphasizes geographic and economic (capitalist) expansion; city upon a hill, which reasserts America’s role as the beacon of freedom and the leader of technology and progress; and personal liberty, which creates the homo economicus subject. Since America adopts this belief, they take upon the role of spreading capitalism and freedom to the world.
The emphasis on opportunity, social mobility, and technological superiority portrays capitalist societies as that with utopic traits. When Shevek, the Anarresti protagonist in Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, first arrives on Urras, he realizes the sharp contrast between life here and back home in Anarres; feted by the Urrasti government with lavish clothing, leather shoes, alcohol, and other countless indulgences of luxury, Shevek initially feels suspicious and intimidated, but finds this lifestyle nonetheless alluring. Whereas every citizen must participate in hard labor and occupational rotations in Anarres, Urras allows Shevek to concentrate solely on his research and even provides unlimited access to Ieu Eun University’s resources. As a scientist, and especially as an Anarrasti whose society practices anti-materialism, collectivism, and restraint, Shevek initially envies Urras’ hedonistic culture and views the planet to be a more magnificent utopia; he realizes the flaws existent in Anarres and grows disillusioned by the once seemingly-utopic, but now bleak and desolate society.
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Similarly, Lucy Prebble draws a parallel between Enron and the United States in her play to demonstrate how the energy corporation adopts American exceptionalism into the corporate culture. Enron’s “Why?” commercials depict the successful rocket launch into space, alluding to America’s dominance in the space race and the trope, city upon a hill: the prioritization of innovation and technological advancement. Another advertisement portrays men as blind mice wandering—referencing the existing, blind, dark system—and contrasts the imagery with Enron’s exceptionalism-esque nature: as the innovator, Enron aims to change the market landscape to one of openness and transparency. The voiceover also expands on the connotations behind why: the word conveys a sense of vision, nonconformity, challenge, and progress. By instituting itself as the leader of change, Enron ingrains the ideology of exceptionalism into its company mission.
However, by internalizing the claim of superiority into corporate culture, organizations reduce self-reflection and individuals adopt a myopic attitude towards the world. In Enron, Prebble provides another take on three blind mice to expose the irony; rather than eliminating the dark, deceptive aspects of the market which blinded consumers and society on the inner works of each corporation, Enron executives believe they could outsmart the stakeholders and exploit the market’s lack of transparency to commit fraud. On one hand, Jeff Skilling believes his complex, energy-trading business was risky, but nonetheless executed within the confines of the law and not illegally. On the other, Fastow pleads guilty and agrees to assist the investigation, but clearly does not see the error in his actions. Their inability to recognize how their profits were made at the expense of societal good reveal their blindness and ignorant, self-serving, and narrow-minded mentality.
Furthermore, when cultural values of economic power are overly weighted, individuals wrongly equate possessions of economic wealth with possession of virtues. As a result, they strive to become the king of the mountain rather than the city upon a hill. Employees quantify all business decisions to evaluate self-worth. Since stocks are tangible and comparable, Enron employees equate higher stock prices to an indication of their superiority and higher status. Meanwhile, Enron discards the wellbeing of stakeholders as societal and common good is intangible and cannot be measured immediately nor accurately. Consequently, Enron aims to dominate the stock market and demonstrate the extent of their abilities.
The executives want to prove their worth as the “smartest guys in the room” by reigning as the biggest energy-trading corporation in the United States. To do so, Enron focuses on polishing the company’s surface image to attract shareholders, drive up market strength, and increase stock prices. In response to his daughter’s incessant questioning, Skilling also claims that his dedication to Enron is to prove his own worth. Her repetitive “why?” further exposes the irony of the situation; while Enron’s “why” embodies exceptionalism-esque ideals such as progress, liberty, and virtue, Prebble contrasts her innocence with his lack thereof to lay bare Skilling’s lack of moral principles and willingness to exploit others for personal pride.
The abandonment of moral, ethical principles leads to rapacious business decisions and social detachment. Even worse, due to the variable of human nature and the susceptibility of individuals to greed, capitalist systems cannot function without causing societal harm. Only as Skilling tries to conclude his daughter’s probing of his conscience does he state that his dedication for Enron is for the betterment of her future. In reality, he neglects his duties as a father to satisfy his individual desire to gain status and recognition. The disregard for his family also exposes his detachment to society. Hence, Skilling, Fastow, and Lay can easily sacrifice their customers’ future and other long-term benefits in exchange for short-term profits. The upper echelons of Urras in The Dispossessed also reflect the same social detachment: amidst the path towards societal collapse due to civil war, the wealthy Urrasti society continues to spend shamelessly and lavishly. Their every-man-for-himself mentality rids individuals of all guilt and conscience that their success lies on the exploitation of others.
Horrified by Urrastis’ individualistic, self-serving behavior, Shevek describes the planet as Hell in a box: the outside is a gift wrapping of beautiful landscapes and awe-inspiring cities. However, inside rests dust, darkness, and a dead man who lost his hand for holding it out to others. The metaphor reveals that Anarres, once what the protagonist has considered a great utopia, is nothing but an empty, cruel world. There is no brotherhood, no empathy, no clear intentions; because the culture of capitalist society promotes self-interest, manipulation, and profit maximization above all, even emotions are quantified or neglected. Thus, men who try to help others will only be exploited by others and left for dead.
In the end, these romanticized utopias remain—just as the word suggests—an imagined world and therefore unattainable. Utopia represents a stable present with no worries for the past nor the future. Indeed, many living on Urras still believes the society is as perfect as any could be. To Keng, the Terran ambassador whose planet was destroyed and the population decimated from nine billion to half a billion, the capitalist society is the closest embodiment of paradise than all other inhabited planets regardless of all its evil.
Yet, beneath the beautiful, blissful, luxurious image lies turmoil. Social inequality and unbalanced wealth distribution are byproducts of Urras’ economic system, and the lower echelon incites rebellion to protest against the inevitable injustice. While the government enforces order to crush these so-called terrorists, they cannot change how individuals ultimately react to capitalism’s mechanisms. Capitalist expansion also requires constant advancement and progress (though concerning corporate decisions and market expansion—not necessarily regarding human rights). As seen in the fall of Enron, organizations always possess the possibility of failure; the reality remains far from the promised American exceptionalism and utopic stability.
Le Guin and Lucy Prebble respectively wrote The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia and Enron in reaction to events occurring in their lives during the 1900s and early 2000s. Le Guin largely modelled her 1974 novel on the political structure of the United States and the USSR in the Cold War as well as the downfall of American exceptionalism due to the failure in Vietnam War. Prebble wrote Enron based on the actual corporate scandal of 2001 and after experiencing the global financial crisis of 2008. Yet, events described in both works still occur today. Wells Fargo created millions of fake accounts without their customers’ knowledge in order to match the company’s unrealistic sales goal: the Gr-eight initiative.
Identical to Enron’s corporate culture, the overemphasis on results caused Wells Fargo employees to discard moral principles in hopes of maintaining job security. Their self-interested motives and neglect of long-term gain and social good for temporary relief proved futile; 5300 employees were fired for their immoral sales tactics and their short-term profits transformed into permanent loss. This only reveals the endless cycle of human nature’s interaction with capitalist systems and the toxicity of top-down corporate culture; government regulations cannot prevent individuals from desperation and greed, and thus cannot prevent their actions as they try to eliminate their fear of loss.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s commentary on society is also, arguably, more relevant now to our world today more than ever. She illustrates the inevitable inequality of Urras and the United States. Wealth and success may be possible for all, but so is the fate of poverty and injustice. In the United States now, the wealth distribution has only grown even more unbalanced: the top one percent of American households own 40 percent of the entire nation’s wealth. Consequently, unemployment, education, gender equality, and other issues are brought to light. To address these bones of contention, society now look towards transforming economic landscapes through politics and public policies. Individuals have become more desperate and thus more radical in their approach, seeking to implement extreme methods and solutions.
Yet, Le Guin warns us of a world which adopts a singular ideology. The Dispossessed draws contrast between two different systems—capitalism and communism—to highlight the flaws of both realms. Just as Shevek has realized, the solution is not the isolation of each world, but the slow incorporation of both ideologies—by taking the valuable qualities of each—to find harmony and bridge the imbalanced. Otherwise, inequality will remain, and we will stray further from the utopic societies every nation hopes to achieve. All in all, Le Guin and Prebble both expose the indictment of our society and culture as well as the unattainability of utopia where the entire community embodies success, greatness, and exceptionalism-esque ideologies.
Work Cited
- Coskuner-Balli, Gokcen, and Gülnur Tumbat. “Performative Structures, American Exceptionalism, and the Legitimation of Free Trade.” Marketing Theory, vol. 17, no. 1, Mar. 2017, pp. 31–50, doi:10.1177/1470593116657919.
- Le, Guin U. K. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Print.
- Prebble, Lucy. Enron. Methuen Drama, 2009.
