On “The Corporation”

Having jumped into this discussion relatively late, I appreciate that a lot of my peers have rather succinctly captured my first impression of the film.  I find one of the most interest parts of the film is that it has been 13 years since the film premiered and basically nothing has changed.  It is an even more disheartening version of the effects of “An Inconvenient Truth” – the issues raised by any alarmist (be it justified or not) message will evoke change for as long as the public can be bothered to pay attention, and then as the movement fades towards the periphery a new social issue will take the spotlight.  There will of course be people who continue to care, just not enough social pressure to actually bring about change.  Ironically the movie points this out itself when discussing the Kathy Lee Gifford brand’s use of sweatshop labour to manufacture clothing and goods.

In reacting to the Corporation, I am forced to consider how the movie functions with the above in mind.  I don’t personally demonize corporations because I believe that is an excellent way to shift the guilt of damage being done to our communities onto a legal third party.  The reality is that humans are externalizing machines, and the corporation is a mere form through which humans do this.  We are especially gifted at reaping the benefits of what is immediately near us and not worrying about unseen consequences, likely because impulsively taking advantage of an immediately beneficial situation yielded some evolutionary advantage in a context far removed from our own.  It’s embarrassing, but the same type of mental short-circuiting that causes us to eat a chocolate bar even though we know they are unhealthy may lead us to do horrible things when the consequences are (at least seemingly) intangible.   It is easy to say that corporate form is evil, but much harder to say that corporate form was created by, is propagated by, and is championed by humans because we are as a whole an intelligent yet near-sighted species.

Because this flaw is so fundamental in who we are, I have a hard time thinking about how to address it.  We have always had the ability to change laws and regulation but somehow that never occurs, and a pessimistic view may attribute that to the exact same flaw I’ve addressed above.  I think that change will occur once things can no longer be externalized, and the effect of a given action is felt immediately by those choosing to make the action to such a degree that it outweighs any benefit that could be derived.  I don’t know how to do this, I just hope that a rise in global temperature beyond 4 degrees is not what is needed.  Alternatively, as the Bolivian water privatization example demonstrated, revolution by those who receive the externalization can happen in limited contexts as a way of holding people accountable and ultimately making invisible damage visible.  In summary, my reflection on the Corporation is that it is a fair critique of some issues inherent in corporate form, but I don’t feel it sufficiently situated the corporation within broader patterns of human behaviour.

 

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