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Show 302 render violent judgment to the corporate subject by reducing it to a humanist structure of representation. As Marco Abel argues in Violent Affect, representation relies on a logical impossibility where "it judges itself by necessity and thus can never assume a moral place outside said representation," (p. 84) and it performs violence by reducing objects to moralist modes of thought that negate new ways of existing. Thus when bp constructed a persona that eventually "represented" the corporate subject that publics desired (a singular, moral corporate subject that was accountable for its actions and sorry), it served the ultimate purpose of allowing publics to cathartically inflict violence upon bp for its corporate crimes and potentially forgive bp through a Western, humanist, Christian cycle of rebirth. To Transform Magazine, bp eventually rebuilt its brand reputation precisely because it did display moral character, which led the author to conclude that "corporations that act as if they were individuals - politically correct ones who see all their behavior as a manifestation of their inner beliefs, emotions and ethics - will recover from crisis well" (para. 30). This statement illustrates the point that publics think they want corporations to exist in the image of humanity, especially when corporate crises occur. bp thus constructed a persona that met this humanist criterion by changing its subjective form from an affective, irrational subject during its "beyond petroleum" campaign to a rational, scientific, realist corporate subject that was both responsible for the crisis and taking measures to restore the community, the economy, and the environment to full health. While some, such as Transform Magazine and Clifton (2013), contend this strategy works during times of crisis, it nonetheless put bp in a |
