The first time I watched The Corporation was in my first year of university in a sociology class. At the age of 18 I found the film very much enlightening and thought provoking. Much of the content brought to light new issues and ideas I had never thought of before. I really felt like I was getting my tuition’s worth of money. Since seeing it I have thought about it often as I expand my knowledge of companies and develop a more thought out opinion.
Watching the film again I’m reminded of how interesting it is and the amazing ability of a documentary filmmaker to use a variety of cinematic techniques to make their argument. While I agree with some of my colleagues about a need for distinction between a corporation person and a person person, I see the point being made by the film and find it compelling. Why is it that we allow a corporation the rights of a person and yet don’t seem to hold it to the same responsibilities? Those who exhibit psychopathic traits or antisocial personality disorder (the official term used in the DSM V) are often highly regulated by society. Sometimes that’s in a formal way through the justice system but it may also be in an informal way in that most people are wary of people who exhibit these traits and they are often somewhat ostracized because of it. This is not how we treat corporations which too demonstrate these traits. Instead of ostracizing them for the psychopathic traits they exhibit which are harmful, these traits are labelled positively “good business strategy,” “efficiency,” and “profitable.” For the most part these corporations can go unchecked until catastrophe happens. At that point they are fined an amount which may seem exorbitant to us but obviously isn’t having such a tremendous effect on many corporations as we see them or companies like them in the same position not long after.
Typically people we have diagnosed as psychopaths have done something terrible and therefore have lost many of their rights as a person because of that. Corporations seem to be able to have their cake and eat it too with the rights of a person but the liberty to act like a psychopath.
