Building One's Life on Soap?

I believe it is helpful to think of this process as a series of stages by which new recruits are initiated, socialized, and in turn recruit others into the Amway system. Given the high turnover rate within the Amway Corporation (upwards of 80%), many recruits never reach the advanced levels of the Amway recruitment. Indeed, it should be reiterated that many new recruits first enter the corporation simply to develop an extra source of income and then drop out over differences with the corporation's ideology, marketing style, financial/economic constraints, etc. It is only upon reaching the advanced stages of incorporation that an "evangelistic" conversion is achieved. When a recruit becomes a distributor who not only consumes and distributes products, but is also able to promote the belief in the corporation and support enthusiastically its politico-economic interests&emdash;the final constitution of the Amway distributor/person is accomplished. Indeed, much of the advertising of the corporation is done via these very recruits who go out to their families and friends showing the plan, selling products, marketing the Amway system to "all who have ears to hear" the message. In order to illustrate how this process may occur, I have sketched out the following diagrams.³⁴

The Amway Corporation effectively capitalizes on the potent force of kin and familial bonds making the system an extremely powerful medium to continually renew Amway's particular niche in the household-and-personal-use products market. Coupled with this strategy however, has been an ingenious use of religious metaphor in order to consolidate the closely-knit group of 'believers,' in a not too vague sectarian manner, who then constitute the Amway distributor force. The words 'belief' and 'faith' are reiterated time and again ("The secret of success is Faith. Have Faith in your upline"), indeed co-founder Rich DeVos entitled his bestseller Believe![Butterfield. 1985: 172]. While the degree to which particular uplines use such language varies greatly depending upon the context and individual distributor. This language does find explicit expression even at Amway rallies in which high level speakers are brought in to motivate and inspire new and longtime recruits. In the following example Crown Ambassador and multi-millionaire Dexter Yager is speaking to an Amway rally.

"If you Beleeeve," said the voice, echoed and amplified by the sound system until is came back from every tier. If you just Beleeeeeve..." "You know," he said," it's just a simple thing, even a college minds often can't understand. This business is not complicated. It will do whatever you want. But you gotta have a Dreeeeem. You gotta Beleeeeeeve that you can have Diiiiiimonds." Man was not born to be poor. Jesus said Whosoever believeth in me shall have eternal life. And Thomas said Unless I touch his wounds, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe. And Jesus, when he rose from the dead, he told Thomas touch my wounds, and put your hand in my side. And Thomas said Lord, I Believe. And Jesus said you Believe because you have seen, and yet Believe. Faith will move mountains. The apostles cast out devils, and healed the sick; what did they do? Belief. They Believed. "Set your heart on Diiiimond! Dare to Dream! The Bible says that a man without a Dream is a dead man!³⁵ You will be a Diamond if you Beleeeeve. You gotta Beleeeeeeve." [Butterfield, 1985: 173]

Aside from the fascinating and repetitive use of 'Diamond!' 'Beleeeeve' 'Dream' and 'Faith,' it is interesting to note the way in which Yager attempts to ground his capitalist narrative in a religious text. He not only references a religious text, but also appears to attempt to reclaim and adapt a significant religious experience in the United States in order to not only legitimize the Amway system, but also indeed bestow upon it a sacred presence. The close affinity to religion is also seen in who may be 'evangelized' into the business--no constraints are placed on who may join the business. As Weber remarked in relation to Protestant sects in the United States, "Membership [is] not based upon apprenticeship or upon the family relations...of an occupation. The sect control[s] and regulate[s] the members' conduct exclusively in the sense of formal righteousness and methodical asceticism" [Weber, 1970 (1946): 322]. Furthermore, the Amway message, is diffused not only via distributor networks, but indeed through Amway media texts (i.e. The Amway House), books, videos, tapes, rallies, seminars, and workshops. Motivational speakers for Amway, in seeking to inspire fellow distributors as well as new recruits, often use religious metaphors of belief and an altruist need to share the message. Note the following examples:

Terry Krom, in "I Will Until," [title of a motivational tape produced by an Amway distributor] emphasizes the need to believe in order to succeed. She says belief is the "driving force toward our goals." (15) Terry says to visualize what you want to be, what you want to attain in life&emdash;see yourself there&emdash;and eventually you will be that person. Terry also says that with positive thinking eventually you will develop a compulsive improvement attitude that will help you get ahead in life. [Scheible, 1981:15]

Friendship and sharing....Bunny Williams, in "Why get started," says, "Amway is a way that we benefit ourselves by helping others benefit themselves." (18) Jim Janz, in "Six Things People Want," says you do not succeed by "chasing the buck, you get there by chasing people, loving people, wanting people involved, wanting to share prosperity with other people." (14) [ibid: 14-15] (My emphasis).

While the preceding narratives would almost have you believe that the organization may be interested in a fair distribution of wealth, this is not necessarily the case. As I have noted previously, those who do not succeed are consistently encouraged to work harder. They must just almost by there--or maybe (and much more serious) they are not dedicated enough. A distributor who decides to leave is often ostracized by fellow distributors, and looked on as "losers" whose state is considered far worse than someone who does not know of the Amway free enterprise message, for such people have turned their backs on the dream and the faith [See Streiker, 1984; Butterfield,1984; Kerns, 1982; www.amwayinfo.com/success.html;www.teleport.com/~schwartz/]. These beliefs reflect upon heavily salient American myths. Green and D'Aiuto write:

The myth which supports the Amway religion parallels that of the larger society. The notion that free enterprise and hard work lead to success forms a significant part of the American myth and Amway's as well. The Center for Free Enterprise which includes Amway's Corporate headquarters, houses an institute dedicated "to sell the American way of life and the spirit of free enterprise" (Amagram 1974: 5). Amway extols this myth of free enterprise and hard work: the phrase "work hard" is repeatedly mentioned in Amway material....Complacency is viewed as the reason most people do not get ahead....Rich DeVos described Amway distributors as those who make the "extra effort to get ahead rather than sit at home and wait for the government to hand them a hand out (DeVos n.d.). [Green, 1977: 313] (My emphasis)

We hear echoes of these beliefs in the Founders' Fundamentals (see Endnotes) which are carefully reiterated in Amway literature/media, seminars, workshops, and speeches. "Each individual is responsible for achieving personal goals, as well as giving 100 percent effort in helping achieve corporate or team goals" [www.amway.com.br/english/oque2.htm]. This ideology then translates into a very particular understanding of socio-economic issues within the more general social world.

There is little sympathy among Amway adherents for failure. For example, Rich DeVos rejects the idea that there are 'a lot of people in this country whose needs are not being met' and insists that residents of areas like Chicago's South Side slums live there because that is 'the way they choose to live' (Morgan 1981: A2). The path to success involves a variety of proscriptions as well as prescriptions for living that reflect traditional American values. [Bromley, 1995:144]

This world-view and ideology does not remain static within the Wide World of Amway. Indeed Amway shares an affinity with "...movements that seek to remake the world&emdash;to shape the families and schools, economies and polities in which we live. And yet they are also movements made by the very worlds they seek to remake. As they interact with the cultures and institutions around them, their own ideas about themselves and their mission evolve" [Ammerman, 1994:13]. In this manner Amway could perhaps best be compared to a quasi-religious sect that draws upon deep religious metaphors, justifying and elevating the capitalist mode of production to a semi-sacred status, yet draws back from drafting any specific religious doctrine per se. Weber's analysis of Puritan cults is quite illuminating in this context. He writes:

To repeat, it is not the ethical doctrine of a religion, but that form of ethical conduct upon which premiums are placed that matters. Such premiums operate through the form and the condition of the respective goods of salvation. And such conduct constitutes 'one's' specific 'ethos' in the sociological sense of the word. For Puritanism, that conduct was a certain methodical, rational way of life which&emdash;given certain conditions&emdash;paved the way for the 'spirit' of modern capitalism. The premiums were placed upon 'proving' oneself before God in the sense of attaining salvation&emdash;which is found in all Puritan denominations&emdash;and 'proving' oneself before men in the sense of socially being one's own within the Puritan sects. Both aspects were mutually supplementary and operated in the same direction: they helped to deliver the 'spirit' of modern capitalism, its specific ethos: the ethos of the modern bourgeois middle classes. [Weber, 1970 (1946): 321]

Weber's observation highlight some issues I believe quite useful in understanding how evangelical consumption may work in the Amway Corporation. That is, Weber discusses the ways in which Puritan sects sought out to 'prove' themselves not only before God, but also other members of the sect. This dual dynamic, I believe, forms a critical aspect of the Amway system. Amway distributors must in a sense prove on multiple levels their worth, ability, and/or 'grace.' By actively building their business they must prove not only to themselves that they are truly one of the 'blessed' (with grace that is), but indeed they must also show to the community of fellow distributors that they are doing everything in their power, "110%," to make the business (and Amway) succeed. In addition, competition between distributors is not encouraged or viewed as a problem that would necessarily arise out of the system. Rather, if and when a distributor (be it a couple or distributor) succeeds, it is celebrated and recognized. Again Weber's work on sects seems to strikingly applicable:

But the capitalist success of a sect brother, if legally attained, was proof of his worth and of his state of grace, and it raised the prestige and the propaganda chances of the sect. Such success was therefore welcome,....Only the methodical way of life in the ascetic sects could legitimate and put a halo around the economic 'individualist' impulses of the modern capitalist ethos. [Weber, 1970 (1946): 322]

These ideas have found their most public expression and impetus within the realm of politics. While Amway founders early on sought to consolidate close ties with such highly placed public figures such as Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush, Mike Wallace, Bob Hope (to name just a few), since the 1970s Amway has developed steadily expanding ties with special interest groups across the nation, as well as involvement with party politics.

Amway and Politics

In the opening passage of this chapter, Ronald Reagan is speaking to an Amway convention where he voiced his admiration and respect for the people of the Amway Corporation whom he views as exemplifying capitalist market ideology in the United States. In an age of trickle-down economics, steep hikes in military spending, and deep cuts into social programs, Amway stood solidly by "their" man. As had Ford before him and Bush after him, Reagan carefully maintained close ties with the company, publicly acknowledging his support of the company as well as speaking on numerous occasions at Amway festivities. The ties between neoconservative politicians and Amway goes much deeper, however, than the occasional speech by a Republican party candidate or public official (albeit these are themselves indicative of these relations). These ties reveal again some of the complex ways in which Amway attempts to incorporate the political and socio-economic aspects of distributors' lives into a totalizing system.

While it is not uncommon for a business or corporation to pursue a course of action benefiting its own economic interests, the Amway corporation has gone to great lengths to accomplish this. While Amway's participation in politics dates far back into the early days of the corporation, its more aggressive political action coincides with the rise of the New Right in the 1970s.

As incipient allies of the New Right during the 1970s, neoconservatives had also become joint beneficiaries of the political mobilization of big business....Just as corporations sought partisan influence by pouring millions of dollars into New Right political action committees, they also financed the growth of "free enterprise" think tanks [Amway founded its own Institute for Free Enterprise during this time period], university programs, and journals. These outposts were precisely the kind of institutional bailiwicks most hospitable to neoconservative intellectuals. [Diamond, 1995: 198]

During this period, Amway founders Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos began not only to participate in political, economic, and social interests groups lobbying the Congress, but they also began to participate in fund-raising for the Republican party. While Jay Van Andel has taken a more 'behind-the-scenes' approach to this, Rich DeVos and his successor-son Dick DeVos (recently published author of Rediscovering American Values) have taken a much more pro-active stance in politics. These activities continue to involve a wide range of activities. Bromley remarks:

At the national corporate level, Amway and its leadership also support a range of conservative causes that champion traditional capitalism (Morgan 1981). In 1977 the corporation purchased the Mutual Broadcasting System, to air more "balanced" coverage of political events through its network of radio stations, and it funds the Institute for Free Enterprise, to offer teachers instructional materials for communicating basic economic concepts to schoolchildren. Amway distributors were a major influence in establishing Citizen's Choice, a conservative equivalent to the more liberal advocacy group, Common Cause. DeVos and Van Andel have given substantial financial support to conservative foundations such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Economic Foundation. Both have also made substantial donations to conservative religious groups such as the Christian Freedom Foundation, Gospel Films [the Council for National Policy&emdash;or CNP], ...and Robert Schuler's Hour of Power. DeVos and Van Andel are closely connected to the Republican Party, as evidenced by Ronald Reagan's speaking appearances before Amway audiences and DeVos' appointment as the Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee. [Bromley, 1995: 141]

Hence, Amway's own economic and social interests have increasingly coalesced with those of powerful interest groups and have found increasing voice within the political arena. Thus, social, economic, and political efforts of Amway come together in a single space defined by a conservative ideology. This move towards increased political involvement has taken on renewed impetus in the 1990s with the rise of the New Right and the election of the 104th Congress. There is even an Amway caucus now in Congress. For example, when Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) was elected to Congress "...she joined an increasingly powerful team: the Amway caucus, an informal group that includes Amway distributors Dick Chrysler (R-Mich.), Jon Christensen (R-Neb.), and Richard Pombo (R-Calif.)" [Burstein, 1996]. Moreover, the Amway corporation and its founders have risen to rank as some of the top corporate and private political donors in the country. While Amway representatives may assert that these donations have been made solely out of the desire to participate "in the political process" and not "to gain access" to government leaders, Rich DeVos himself has been more explicit in expanding upon his motives in contributing to the GOP [Guullo, 1997]. Vlasic and Regan comment:

Government, Rich DeVos says, "has the power to sink you, destroy you--and you better pay attention." According to a BUSINESS WEEK analysis of contributions, Amway, along with the founding families and some top distributors, has donated at least $7 million to GOP causes over the past decade. Last year, Rich DeVos and his wife, Helen, gave $1 million to the Republican National Committee, the second-largest soft-money donation ever, behind Amway's 1994 gift of $2.5 million to the RNC.

What does Amway get for its largesse? "You buy access to the point where at least you can be heard," says Rich DeVos. Issues Amway has successfully backed include most-favored nation status for China and a provision in the 1997 tax bill concerning passive foreign investment companies that saved it from having to build plants in Japan. Dick DeVos says Amway is committed to its political involvement. "We are not going to run away and hide on the issues," he says. [Vlasic, 1998: 70] (Emphasis added)

What is clear, however, is that Amway's political clout would be dead in the water if it were not for the organization and active participation of Amway distributors themselves. Notwithstanding the large donations given by Rich DeVos and his wife Helen, the incredibly potent force of Amway lies then in the way in which it can not only channel financial resources to key political figures, but more importantly, Amway is able to mobilize a very large, often highly motivated, and active group of people whose support and participation can be called upon to donate funds, vote, donate time, campaign at the grass-roots level, etc. Indeed as early as 1982 the government noted that "There is no question that with 1 million [now over 2 million] distributors that go door-to-door, basically, that that could be a tremendous political organization which would certainly be your right under our free society" [(U.S. Congress, House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures., 1982a, pp. 104-106) qtd. in Juth-Gavasso, 1985 ( Aug): 232]. While it is difficult to asses precisely the degree to which individual distributor downlines attempt to shape and mold Amway distributor political activity, it is clear that participation in political activities does play a significant role in the lives of active Amway distributors.

In preaching the message of free market laissez faire capitalism as well as a conservative vision of social and political life, Amway forms unto itself a very particular world that already has currency among particular sectors of society in the United States. And yet, contrary to what DeVos may assert about free enterprise as exemplified by Amway&emdash;allowing "the people to own privately the tools of production"&emdash;Amway distributors produce nothing nor do they own any of the tools and machines of production. They do not farm the foods that go into the NUTRILITE® Vitamins that they sell, nor do they participate in the manufacturing of SA8®, SATANIQUE®, Glister® mouthwash, etc. and neither do they participate in the manufacture of the thousands of products offered via Amway's many catalogs. Indeed, the business as a whole depends upon active evangelistic consumption on the part of its distributors in order to reproduce its market for household and personal care products. In this sense then Amway is distinctly a product of the present historical moment of advanced global economic capitalism. Bromley remarks:

The nature of the economy Amway is an active participant in creating also bears faint resemblance to the laissez-faire capitalism it claims to resurrect. For example, the economy that Amway idealizes was rooted in production while the contemporary American economy is driven by consumption. Amway celebrations feature conspicuous consumption of consumer goods, and self-fulfillment is defined through choice of leisure-time activity. In a similar fashion, the form of community Amway invokes is distinctly modern. Adherents do not form Gemeinschaft associations on the traditional axes of ecology, ethnicity or kinship but rather form Gesellschaft limited scope networks based on mutual economic interests. In essence, then, Amway refashions in contemporary terms the tradition it purports to restore and maintains a symbiotic relationship with the modern world that it purports to reject. In classic sectarian style, Amway is both rooted in and opposed to it societal environment. This contradiction engenders persistent tension with the larger society. [Bromley, 1995: 156] (My emphasis)

Hence, though Amway may seek to resurrect this particular free enterprise and/or production based ideology, it is itself a product of the present consumption based economic and political system and in this sense is solidly grounded within the present day socio-economic discourses. As Bromley remarks, the system upon which Amway is founded is dependent upon consumption for its very existence. I would argue then that the system that Amway advances must thus be viewed as having much more to do with a more central question of meaning. As I have argued earlier, Amway does in fact provide to a select few the opportunity to literally become part of a unique elite group of individuals who have made it to the higher levels of the business. To the vast majority of distributors, however, Amway will not lead them into the Promised Land. Nevertheless, Amway does provide the individual with the sense that they are part of something whose appearance is very appealing exuding an image of stability, tradition, power, and above all endless possibilities and excitement. It is this totality which I believe is responsible for the high numbers of new recruits in domestic and foreign markets, as well as the those people who decide to stay within the company even though their own particular business has not gone "Diiiiimond!"