A critical analysis denounces that the Good, Truth, or Justice have been colonised by the logic of profitability, transforming into competencies serving productivity.
The Good, Truth, Justice, and Beauty no longer defend themselves. According to an analysis published by the magazine Ethic, these values have been degraded to effective business management tools. Those defending economic or political interests no longer need to question them; it is enough to translate them into the language of profitability.
The colonisation of values by the market
The article recovers the concept of "repressive tolerance" coined by Herbert Marcuse in the 1960s. With it, the philosopher referred to the capacity of institutionalised power to exert its dominance through an apparent horizontalism. Society unfolds in a theatre where there are no authentic virtues, but rather aptitudes that the productive system makes available to individuals.
In that scenario, entrepreneurs, politicians, and media owners observe how citizens play a game whose rules they do not know. All of this is served under a cosmetic docility thanks to aides like corporate coaches, emotional well-being gurus, or motivation shamans.
Any criticism of the established order is presented as a lack of emotional intelligence. Complaining is shown as a symptom of an immature personality unable to adapt. Thus, discomfort or suffering is resolved in the field of individual emotional management, isolating subjects and preventing them from forming a community.
From empathy to leadership: the instrumentalisation of virtues
This systemic manipulation of affections is effective because it does not destroy values: it colonises them. For example, the Good ceases to justify itself to become a tool for achieving greater productivity. If you are kind to your colleagues, the corporate culture benefits by generating "happy" teams that are proud of themselves.
Empathy is promoted as a tool to weave a good work environment, ceasing to be a disposition for cooperation to become a leadership strategy. Creativity drives innovation and, therefore, the ability to generate new market niches. Contemplation and pause reduce stress and optimise performance, promoting workshops on mindfulness and business coaching.
There are no longer values, there are competencies. Truth only matters if it is profitable; beauty if it generates an impact and enhances personal and institutional branding. First, values are colonised and then transformed into metrics.
KPIs as new cultural bastions
The Good, Truth, Justice, or Beauty have been replaced by indicators. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) dominate as the new bastions of a culture unable to recognise everything that cannot be measured. Everything that escapes the logic of data —friendship, love, contemplation, reflection, art, disinterested pursuit of knowledge, silence— is considered superfluous or absorbed by business dynamics.
The Good, Truth, Justice, or Beauty have been replaced by indicators
In parallel, individuals are urged to accept sacrifices in the name of efficiency and utility: constant availability, greater flexibility, continuous adaptation, salary moderation, acceptance of uncertainty, ongoing training, and above all, resilience. From institutional politics, collective effort is demanded to move forward as a society, while profits are privatised into fewer hands, increasing the capacity of economic powers to monopolise decisions.
For the reader interested in social and business critique, this analysis invites reflection on how classical virtues have been instrumentalised by the market. The next time a corporate coach speaks of empathy or a motivation guru of resilience, it may be worth asking whether we are not facing a new form of affective colonisation in the service of productivity.
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