The Corporation (2003) (must-see)

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Dandelion Salad
Originally posted Dec. 16, 2007

Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance. Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe.

This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in its behaviour, this type of “person” typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

www.thecorporation.com

You’d think that things like disasters, or the purity of childhood, or even milk, let alone water or air, would be sacred. But no. Corporations have no built-in limits on what, who, or how much they can exploit for profit. In the fifteenth century, the enclosure movement began to put fences around public grazing lands so that they might be privately owned and exploited. Today, every molecule on the planet is up for grabs. In a bid to own it all, corporations are patenting animals, plants, even your DNA. Around things too precious, vulnerable, sacred or important to the public interest, governments have, in the past, drawn protective boundaries against corporate exploitation. Today, governments are inviting corporations into domains from which they were previously barred.

JohnXavier1975 on May 27, 2012

The Corporation (2003)

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation’s grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a “person” to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics – including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore – plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Winner of 24 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, 10 of them AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS including the AUDIENCE AWARD for DOCUMENTARY in WORLD CINEMA at the 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. The long-awaited DVD, available now in Australia and coming in March to North America, contains over 8 hours of additional footage.

The film is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.

From the archives:

Society Is In Decay by Ralph Nader

Abby Martin and Peter Phillips: Corporations Rule the World

Peter Phillips: The Global Power Elite: A Transnational Class

Caleb Maupin: Neoliberalism: A Study in Evil

Capitalism: A Crime Story

Chris Hedges and David Harvey: The Ideology of Neoliberalism is a Con, Part 2

Chris Hedges and David Harvey: The Ideology of Neoliberalism is a Con, Part 1

Chris Hedges: Late Stage Capitalism Is Killing America, Parts 1-3

The Take (2004)

Neoliberalism: The economic model: origins, theory, definition (2005)