Comments on: The Corporation

By: Prudence Goodwife

Prudence Goodwife — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:08:23 +0000

I agree with your criticism that there was 2 or 3 movies trying to get out of the 1 film but i disagree with your criticism of treating the Corporation as a “person” You said “I think we can all agree that corporations aren’t people”
but that is not what the gov’t agrees on. Under the law the Corp. is a person so why not examine exactly what type of person it is? Corps. want to be treated as persons when it suits them & as an entity that blame cannot attach to.

By: BigAl

BigAl — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 01:39:35 +0000

In order to get to a solution, people have to know that there is a problem. Most people don’t question that corporations are entities and have the same rights as people. Most don’t question that corporations only duty is to the stock holder of the company – not the employee’s, not the cities and towns where they are located. First, you’ve got to get people to admit there is a problem before you can get them to say yes to a solution.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:36:13 +0000

I’ve read the book “The Corporation” but haven’t seen the movie. From reading your criticism of the movie, it sounds like the book did a much better job at getting it’s thesis across.

Regarding the corporation as psychopath: the book lays it out in a sober way, not sensationalistic, and believe it or not, it makes a lot of sense. The idea is that since a corporation is legally considered a person, then why not apply psychological terminology to it? Absurd? of course. That’s the point. A corporation is not a person, but is treated as one by the legal system. So, if we do apply psychological thinking to a corporation, the diagnosis you get is: pychopath. Self-interested to the point of disregarding possible harm to others, manipulative, incapable of empathy, etc.

The basic premise of the book is that a corporation, because of the way it is constituted, is unable to do anything but seek profit, and to try to externalize at many costs as possible. The corporation is legally obligated to maximize shareholder value, by whatever means necessary. Harm to others is simply not part of the equation, unless they will be fined more money than they make by doing that harm. Corporations try to put on a friendly face, but only so that they can appeal to consumers. They are unable to actually care about anything.

It’s a shame the movie sounds so crappy, because the book was actually pretty good.
I recommend reading it.

By: josephleon75

josephleon75 — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:46:09 +0000

Shout out to Glendale!

With that out of the way…

First off, there’s no way you can compare Robert Greenwald to these guys. Yes, I have problems with the construction of both this and Manufacturing Consent, but overall they’re pretty entertaining and informative I think. If the movies as a whole may not work, there are definitely some inspired scenes to make it worth the while. Robert Greenwald, however, is just an annoying, untalented, sloppy amateurish hack. Sorry, but Outfoxed fucking sucks, and it kills me he’s got the highest profile Wal Mart documentary coming out.

By: almostinfamous

almostinfamous — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:38:43 +0000

as to your FN #6, there is a good deal of crony capitalism going on in the current war, and especially given the M-I complex that runs any war, it is by far a capitalist venture. i’m not saying that the anti-capitalists are helping, i m just saying that they do have a point to keep in mind.

By: almostinfamous

almostinfamous — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:36:00 +0000

i’d actually like to see lobbyists tarred, feathered and banned from even thinking aout interacting with politicians. but heaven knows i’d probably be enjoying a snowcone with lucifer before anyhting like that ever happens.

By: Dr. Pants

Dr. Pants — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 13:54:48 +0000

I’m tired of representative punishment. Because the people who commit these kinds of crimes are generally very rich, but we can’t just be throwing rich people in jail, can we? Maybe if we single out one or two, hopefully somebody famous, give them a year in a joke prison maybe and then rejoice when they’re released, like it’s Nelson Mandela or something it’ll pacify all the people getting fucked by the system.

I want to see them all go down, every single one, so corporations know they can’t get away with shit. And what I’d REALLY love is for people to start suing the lawmakers who take the lobbyist money and then change laws in direct opposition to the benefit or well-being of their constituents.

Forget CEOs, I want some Senators in Oz.