The Corporation

[CHIMO]

Big business has been put on the psychiatrist's couch and the result is enough to make even the toughest of company PR spin-doctors weep over their glossy brochures.

Applying World Health Organisation diagnostic criteria, documentary filmmakers have been taking a peak at the personality of the world's top firms and it seems the average corporation shares entirely the same characteristics as the average psychopath.

Self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; the corporation is prepared to breach social and legal standards to get its own way and demonstrates an inability to suffer from guilt, the filmmakers say.

All the psychopathic checklist boxes are rapidly ticked with case studies showing disregard for life, law, and the environment.

http://www.rnw.nl/amsterdamforum/html/041002af.html

[punpirate]

1. That's one of the neat things...

... about "The Corporation," treating the corporation as they want to be treated--as a real person. :P

[papau]

2. A Great Companion to "The Corporation" is "Head Office" - I swear I

worked there long ago!

:-)

[Gyre]

3. For those who care about democracy losing to

"Gangs of America" is a necessary read that's well-written. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1576752607/qid=1096822439/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-3636036-4960635?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Gyre

[Raster]

4. Lincoln on corporations...

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

[TwentyFive]

5. I disagree that corporations are akin to psychopaths.

I haven't seen the movie....and am wondering if the issue of public vs corporations is addressed.

Doctors, coffee shops, plumbers and florists are usually incorporated....does that mean they are psychopaths too?

Large publicly held corporations are another matter. A classic example was Ford and the Pinto with the exploding gas tank. However, the people responsible for giving the go ahead to the Pinto worked in finance/accounting. They figured it was cheaper to pay off lawsuits of dead/disfigured people, than to redesign the gas tank.

I think the problem is a combining a large institution with amoral people who have decision making ability. Maybe a large corporation lets people reveal their inner psychopath?

[Lisa]

6. it's being shown on Vision TV on Wednesday, in Canada

I've already seen the film -- there's a lot of ground covered (much more than in Michael Moore's movies, actually). Definitely something that requires repeat viewing.

[orpupilofnature57]

7. THOMAS JEFFERSON 1816

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our MOINED corporations,which DARE already challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

[orpupilofnature57]

8. MONIED!! MONIED!!GOTTA LEARN HOW TO TYPE.also

F.D.R The liberty of democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power, to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state it self.

1938

[IrateCitizen]

9. The part on "child branding" was quite chilling, IMHO...

There was an interview segment with a woman who works for an advertising/marketing company that was instrumental in the development of strategies of marketing products directly to children -- specifically involving the "nag factor". In essence, it was the development of strategies that were most effective in getting children to "nag" their parents to get them a specific toy or product.

The woman discussed at length how it was such a great thing to get children to identify with certain brands, because the children would then become life-long consumers, loyal to those specific brands.

Then she said that some friends of hers had asked her if she ever questioned the morality of what she's doing. She laughed that assertion off, saying that her job wasn't about passing moral judgements -- rather, it was about maximizing profit for her clients, a job that she did with great enthusiasm.

This one piece was a perfect statement on the breakdown of values that surrounds the commodification of our culture. Children should one of the sources of our greatest investment. Traditionally, societies throughout the world have sought to keep their children safe, and to pass down to them the values that will help sustain their culture and identity. In our society, children have become simply one more commodity to be exploited, to be packaged and bought and sold with no regard for "externalities".

The scary thing is just how NORMAL the way of thinking expressed by this advertising/marketing exec has become in our society. If this is the road that we're headed down, I often think that the only alternative option we have for salvaging some kind of decent society is to turn its wheel into the ditch so we can take a moment and re-evaluate ourselves....

[Maeve]

10. The trouble(for them) is...kids don't always stay "bought"

Loyalty to stores/brands is disappearing, thanks in part to the success of the marketing efforts--today's trend is tomorrow's old news. "Been there, done that"

This from a mom who taught her kids early...when they asked for something in the supermarket, it was usually phrased not "can we buy that?" but "do you have a coupon for that?"