The Corporation

I’m surprised this movie has not gotten more play in the United States. Anyway, here is a description of The Corporation from Wikipedia:

The film charts the development of the corporation as a legal entity from its origins as an institution chartered by governments to carry out specific public functions, to the rise of the vast modern institutions entitled to some of the legal rights of a person. One central theme of the documentary is an attempt to assess the “personality” of the corporate “person” by using diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV; Robert Hare, a University of British Columbia Psychology Professor and FBI consultant, compares the modern, profit-driven corporation to that of a clinically diagnosed psychopath. The film focuses mostly on the corporation in North America, especially in the United States.

I have always been very critical of corporations, and this documentary puts it all in to one nice, neat little package. As the description explains above, it looks at the history of corporations and examines how the destruction they have cause in our modern day society. The arguments are compelling. The examples are jaw-dropping. Although this is an historical example, I was surprised to learn that IBM used to sell tabulation machines to Nazi Germany so they were able to keep track of people in the internment camps during the Holocaust. Or, that Coke could not actually sell Coke during that time so they specifically created Fanta Orange to sell to Nazi Germany. It makes me shudder to think what corporations might get away with today…oh yeah, environmental dumping, sweat shops, corporate layoffs…