Thoughts on The Corporation

While the Corporation does reveal some disturbing realities about the way in which corporations operate, I found the documentary to be lacking in balance. No one would dispute that Monsanto, Exxon and other companies have perpetrated devastating and detestable actions on workers and the environment. But these companies must only represent a small fraction of the millions of corporations that exist in the world. What I would have liked to have learned is whether, on the whole, the “corporation” is an efficient, effective way of allowing most citizen entrepreneurs to realize their business goals and allowing most citizen consumers to obtain the products and services they need. Should the “corporate evil” practiced by the few largest companies, even if they produce an outsize effect, cause us to completely rethink the way in which much of the material world is organized? Following up on this question, I would have appreciated more of a discussion of possible solutions. For instance, should companies of a certain size and global reach, whose impact on a country is significant, be subject to a certain set of regulations that your average small company is not? Many brilliant people were interviewed for this film; I would have valued hearing their opinions beyond the one-dimensional “big corporation as evil sociopath” narrative to which they largely seemed confined. Even the clips of unabashedly pro-big corporation individuals seemed hand-picked to bolster this narrow viewpoint – if one can find an anecdote of a trader who was secretly elated of the events of 9/11, I feel that one could have equally found a trader who was simply devastated by the attacks on their home soil.

Moreover, the documentary did not highlight the role of the consumer in implicitly endorsing many companies’ actions, a role we have been made aware of more and more in the past decade since the documentary was released. We want things, we want them cheap, and we want to feel good about ourselves – therefore, we would prefer not to know if our things came from shady origins. Of course, one could argue that it is the corporation that convinces us that we want these things (as the film does), which may be true. But once we consumers are aware of the reality, it is especially hard to argue that we are completely blameless or powerless in the face of a sociopathic evil.

In all, the corporation plays a complex role in the world, and I would have liked to see the documentary explore more of the nuance, and potential ways forward, than it did.