Beowulf in the Business World

Regan Bloss

October 5, 2011

Hon English IV

Ms. Morrell

An Environmentally Informative… Yet Creative Essay/Story

About Beowulf Trump in the Business World

Shield Sheafson was once an affluent and powerful captain of industry. He ruled the oil industry using a combination of vertical and horizontal integration systems, or systems which sought to sell a type of product in a number of different markets. This market strategy gave him an almost complete monopoly over his competitors; and being that he could shift supply and demand, as well as the global economy’s productivity level, Sheafson became one of the most influential men of his time. He built a massive oil empire, which consisted of domestic and foreign properties and assets of exorbitant worth. In fact, he was the recipient of Time Magazines “Most Influential Person in the World,” award.

However, Sheafson was disliked for his planetary management worldview that he held. He said that “we are separate from and in charge of nature, and thus through technology we should manage earth’s life support systems to yield the greatest benefit to us.” In essence, Sheafson was a greedy, selfish, and uncompassionate human being, and to say that he had a few opponents would be an understatement.

With the global stewardship environmental movement well underway, Sheafson became the epitome of evil, and the direct cause for global warming and climate change. The global stewardship movement held that we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers of the Earth. Some call it the “tree-hugger movement,” while others call it “ethical environmental responsibility.”

Either way, Grendel Corporations was at the forefront of the stewardhip movement and led the way in environmental responsibility policies. Gredel Corporations was a facilitator of eco-cities, and eco-villages. It developed alternative energy sources, and proposed that Sheafson, with his oil empire, was directly killing the environment and contributing to the earth’s over ecological footprint through carbon dioxide emissions. Grendel Corporations did everything in their power to bring Sheafson’s empire down. They sued Sheafson for environmental irresponsibility, campaigned against him, and even published articles directly blaming Sheafson for global warming. For twelve years, Grendel Corporations targeted Sheafson as a mass murderer, and environmental eradicator.

Grendel Corporations made a few key attacks against Sheafson; but perhaps the biggest attack blamed Sheafson himself for oil salves and their contribution to global warming. Grendel, the president of Grendel Corporations explained global warming himself in a seminar to attack Sheafson’s oil product promotion. Grendel explains- “as the sun’s energy enters the atmosphere in the form of light waves, some of that energy warms the Earth and then is re-radiated back into space in the form of infrared waves. Under normal conditions, the atmosphere naturally traps a portion of the outgoing infrared radiation; however, a thin layer of atmosphere is being thickened by huge quantities of human-caused green house gases, which in turn do not allow the infrared waves to escape. These green house gases include Sheafson’s oil by products such as carbon dioxide.”

The second major attack that Grendel corporations made against Sheafson was one that called Sheafson out as a mass murderer. At Grendel’s end-of-the-year banquet, he claimed, “Sheafson has killed people all over the world as a direct cause to his exorbitant carbon dioxide emissions. These deaths come in two forms; one in the form of rising sea tides across the pacific, which were attributed to higher global temperatures; and the second attributed to extreme change in weather patterns which killed thousands, and was caused by a temperature fluctuation due to green house gas emissions.”

Grendel would give speeches like these explaining global warming, as well as global warming’s causes and affects, all over the world to raise awareness of the inclusive issue and Sheafsons wrong doings. Grendel claimed, “Sheafson was environmentally irresponsible and danger to the global society.”

After twelve years, Grendel Corporations was finally making difference. The global stewardship movement grew exponentially, and oil demand dropped because of the increased used of alternative energy. Grendel thought his mission was well on his way to success; but he was wrong.

The best thing that Sheafson ever did after that twelve years of attack was to hire the best lobbyist and his firm to aid his broken global image. Beowulf Trump was the most well-known and influential lobbyist in the United States. He had helped elect two presidents and convinced the public that smoking was not a health problem. Beowulf would convince people anything as long as the money was there.

At square one, Beowulf used “doubt,” as his biggest weapon against Grendel and all those who defied Sheafson’s policies. More specifically, Beowulf used the same tactics, namely creating doubt by asking unanswerable questions, to defend Sheafson’s environmental policy, the same way he lured people into smoking. Beowulf used this tactic because, as he put it, “creating doubt is the best mechanism to defend against fact.” Beowulf knew that there was strong evidence to suggest Sheafson was a major cause of global warming, however he would guard against the facts by instilling doubt in the minds of those who were not fully convinced but asking questions such as, “what is the real link between Sheafson and global warming?” And when that question was answered, Beowulf would just keep asking “how,” or “why,” or “by what means.” With all these questions being asked and the non-ability of Grendel Corporations and the other stewardship movement organizations and people unable to fully answer Beowulf’s questions, all credibility was eventually lost. And as soon as there was doubt in the minds of Americans, there was controversy in America, and then controversy world wide, and then doubt in the minds worldwide. Beowulf used this “snow-balling,” technique where one action causes a bigger chain reaction to cause psychological doubt. Beowulf’s mission was once again a success and he emerged triumphant in the battle of environmental views.

The only question now is what Grendel Corporation will do to gain environmental credibility. I can only guess that they will get some help from the person who taught Grendel everything about lobbying- his mother.