What does it mean to have value? Who decides what is or isn’t valuable?
Welcome once again to another ‘Tip from Nick’, it is the 26th of January and the month of love ( and the much welcomed reading week) is just around the corner. These last two weeks in ASTU have been filled with discussion about The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. This novel, perhaps my favourite of the assigned readings of both terms, Is one that leaves the reader with many open-ended questions and assumptions. Our main character, Changez, is a Pakistani native living in New York City. Having just completed his undergraduate at Princeton, Changez applies to work at Underwood Samson, one of America’s most esteemed valuation firms. At first excited and motivated to give his all to the company, Changez undergoes a transformation after the 9/11 attacks due in part to America’s racist view towards muslims due to a rising fear culture and its political policy towards India-Pakistan tensions. However, another influencing factor in Changezs’ is his assignment to valuate a publishing company in Chile run by Juan Bautista. During a conversation over a meal, Bautista tells Changez his job at Underwood Samson is similar to that of a Janissary. In Changezs’ words, “I was a modern day Janissary, a servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with kinship to mine and was perhaps even colluding to ensure that my own country faced the threat of war.” (pg.152).
Underwood Samson In my opinion can to a degree be representative of the power and strength of America’s voice (at the time a unipolar super-power) and stance on an international scale. In the novel, Underwood Samson’s valuations are what make or break a company’s chance to continue to thrive and compete in the business world, a position of power similarly held by the United States when it comes to both foreign and domestic policy. Of course, Underwood Samson is a fictional company, but I was curious to find a real world equivalent. After little searching, I settled upon one of the most well known and trusted business figures on the planet; Forbes Magazine.
Although it is not, in itself, strictly a valuation firm; it does hold power similar to that of Underwood Samson’s in the business sector. Forbes’ opinions and values are held in very high regard, so much so that it would not be radical to assume the majority of people take Forbes’ word regarding topics in the business world as downright factual. A strong example of this, one that led me to chose Forbes as Underwood Samson’s parallel company, is the ‘Forbes Global 2000’.
The Forbes Global 2000 is a list made by Forbes analysts which ranks the top 2000 companies on a global scale. While this is purely an interpretation based on publicly available information, holding a spot on this list is as prestigious as it gets in the business world. Forbe’s view of the business world (pardon my analogy) is god; it holds power that is’t rivalled by any other competitor, and as such has the ability to dictate just how far a business can ‘make it’.
It is important not to forget that Forbes Magazine is an American company, and knowing this, is it really anything more than an extension foreign policy when it comes to the global market. It is thrusting the view of an American Empire out to the entire world, deftly manipulating the business sector through valuations they feel fit.
Perhaps this is one of the things Changez realizes about his work with Underwood Samson. By taking a job at Underwood Samson, was he really just a servant of America, comfortable in his Financial world to dictate how the lives of others will turn out. As English Scholar Joseph Darda writes in his essay “Precarious World: Rethinking Global Fiction in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, “Changez has, in Chile, broken from the American frames of life that had earlier con- strained his “arc of vision.” (pg. 118). By throwing away his career in America and returning home, Changez show’s a resistance; a rebellion against a frame of mind that companies such as Underwood Samson and Forbes magazine push out to the rest of the world. One in which finances, opportunity, and wealth trump all else; a view on the world which Darda refers to as a “Fantasy of Mastery’, something in which valuations companies such as the ones above feel comfort and control in the power they hold.
Personally, I believe Changezs’ shift away from this ‘fantasy of mastery’ is one that is needed in the world today. While many see’s his actions as anti-American, I see them more as an anarchic stand against the American superpower, actions that decline American policy as the basis for our global infrastructures and markets. A hegemony(a global superpower) is something that should not be strived for, not if we aim for an egalitarian world, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist reflects this viewpoint. Luckily, the world is at a drastic point of change, and with the next couple years ahead with Trump at the helm of American politics, we will see just how much power companies like Forbes Magazine will really hold(or perhaps lose) on the global stage.