The Corporation

Lengthy, but still yet incomplete, The Corporation develops the psychopathic role of corporations in recent society like no other movie.Our vigilant government duties, that which ensures a government by, of, and for the people can now be done without involving the people. We can call corporations people and real people can stay home and ruminate in thoughtlessness.People have little voices that are lost in the atmosphere, so their message goes unheard, and their real wishes and intentions are substituted by a very few gruff corporate white men (aka elitists) who only see how easy life is for them. They imagine, with good intention, it is their role to help other people, so they design a system that takes working-class money and labor, and gives back to them but a small portion of what they had before - much of it as debt. They give it God's blessing and spend their time in celebration of their own righteousness - that they have given people the right to compete with the slaves of other nations which they call free trade. Nowhere to be found is there an indication of representation.Although investors may hold substantial capital they are often deluded by the corporate executives. Yet, by law, corporations are obligated to the investors, to the point where consumers, labor, and the benefit of the community can be ignored. As suggested by Joel Bakan, as a person corporate behavior is psychopathic - that is, marked by mental disorder. Corporations maintain such power by producing powerful government lobbies and attorneys to represent them. And with this a government can become composed of individuals with close association to the corporations. Here, there is no secret.The movie does not address the death of the Meritocracy, but I believe it is essential to consider how we define free trade in conjunction with the psychopathic corporation. As individuals we believe in Meritocracy - we believe that people work, and are rewarded for their efforts. In the western agrarian society, such as 18th century America, a person could cut logs to supply their home with energy. They could grow food, become bakers, blacksmiths, traders, and writers. They could then sell their wares. It was a day when ordinary clean homes lined ordinary streets, where people lived happily in community.But, with corporations and NAFTA the situation slowly became complicated. Peddling wares meant competing to sell wares with larger companies that may not exist within the community, the state, or even within the nation. Today, one must peddle their wares in competition with corporations hiring people that have never known health, environmental, safety or labor standards. Of course, near slaves need not be paid much. There are no logs to be cut to provide energy for homes - these have been awarded to privitized corporations that hold nature's resources as their own right. The apparent reward for labor becomes increasingly smaller, more illusive, more tenuous and abstract. People are reminded that corporations have every right to seek anyone who will work for lower wages. Few people say they feel rewarded for their labor, or see relation between work and pay.Instead people are paid for image, and personality. They are paid because they are family, relatives or friends with someone having the power to employ. Once employed people become numbers to investors that speculate in widespread layoffs. Once laid off, elderly or sick, people become liabilities and are seen as a plague to a corporation. Corporations want young go-getters that have not become accustomed to disillusionment. However, today young people experience the constant stream of deceit faster than they can learn their jobs, often find themselves owing more money for their education than what they can make in their field of work. Corporations prefer desperate workers willing to work for less. A desperate life situation becomes an integral requirement of a good job applicant.While people must look good on the outside people hurt on the inside, and are crying.Why is image so important? Because people have become obsessed - literally stupefied - over the appearance of the body - evidence the boom in cosmetic spending, the obsession over an American President caught in lust, the rush to nudity in entertainment. The result is stupefaction. Stupefaction is rapidly becoming one tool for corporations and government, because it distracts people from what is really going on - that is, the death of the Meritocracy. In its place is a system of methods allowing stupefaction, so that corporations can operate with full control - that is the Pornocracy.The Corporation briefly addresses commercial advertising and media news (a rather weak link), which indoctrinates and permeates society with stupefaction. The root of the word stupid and stupendous comes from the Latin verb stupere. Stupendous means amazing or astonishing. Corporations are obviously trying to stupefy us with amazing products.Another convenient tool that the movie missed is petrifaction. Conveniently, politicians use fear as a tool so that voters will observe fears over a stumbling economy and terrorism. Our leaders find these fears translate into votes, so they pass out messages such as "your nation may be attacked" during Presidential campaigns in effort to acquire votes.Stupefaction and petrifaction are alike in that each makes thought seem unnecessary. People can spend without thought, make important life decisions without thought, vote without thought... lives go by wholly without thought. Thoughtlessness is never a positive outcome for a society.While there is much more going on than the results of some court decisions made years ago as it seems to imply, the movie does bravely venture into new territory, thus five stars.

This film is a masterpiece, and my only criticism being I wished it could have been longer. However, the film has a purpose and it serves that purpose well- it is an attempt to shatter the hypnotic daydream we all live within (maintained by trhe ideological state apparatuse, repressive state apparatuse, and our media cocoon) and expose us to a devastating critique of our current socioeconomic situation and its suicidal tendencies.It is meant to show to others, to entertain and inform, to help raise consciousness and change paradigm. Oh, and did I mention it is a gorgeously edited and conceived work of art with a chilling central thesis that any fair minded viewer will have to confront (the corporation is psychopathic- in the clinical sense that its actions conform with the diagnostic criteria).So, in its intent and construction and execution, it is brilliant- the type of film I would sacrifice 100,000 typical films if only we could encounter its type more often. I dream of seeming and sharing this type of film and in this instance, my dream has manifested.It is meant to share, and for that reason, it has to be short, if one can conceive of 2 hours and 25 minutes as short. I can only imagine the 35 hour rough cut that Director/Editor Jennifer Abbott alluded to- if only this were a mini series, and each box passed by (factory farming, toxic waste, etc) could have been explored more fully. However, as the directors say in the commentary, their film encompassed the world, and their task was monumental and they should be extremely pleased with their creations.The filmakers include interviews with the likes of Noam Chomsky, Niaomi Klein, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Milton Freidman as well as CEOs, corporation shills, corporate spys, right wingers and privatizers, as well as third world activists from India and Boliva, as well as industry insiders along the lines of covert advertising experts and commerical psychologists. I have to give a shout out to Noam Chomsky who is so clear and decisive in his exposition, so percise in his moral positions and informed in his knowledge, I likewise command that those of you reading this purchase Mark Achbar's likewise brilliant, informative, moving, inspiring, visually dynamic, paradigm flipping masterpiece of a documentary Manufacturing Consent- Noam Chomsky and the Media.The extras on this 2 disk set were obviously put there with much thought and care. 2 highly recommended commentary tracks, one in particular by writer and cocreator and author of the book Joel Bakan which is so engaging and informative it is an education in and of itself, and it is very moving to hear someone speak who is so passionate about his topic, at the same time so knowledgable, I can only envy those lucky enough to take some of his courses.There is also a mammoth section (five hours worth) which includes many additional interviews with everyone (40 persons) whom were in the film.This is a muscular, dynamic, lovingly and carefully crafted work of art made by persons whom are passionate about this topic, passionate about social change and ending what one interviewer calls "intergenerational terrorism," not to mention what I call interspecies terrorism.The most important function of the film is that it helps the viewer create a "cognitive map" of our current place in history, and it helps to place this stage within a larger framework of historical change. This helps create the understanding that contemporary economic reality is not monolithic, not inevitable, and not beyond transformation. It was created and it can be changed. It helps the viewer locate the driving motors within society which create our situation as we currently know it, to comprehend how things are and why they are the way they are. If one learns where we came from, and where we are, then perhaps we can use this information to understand the potential futures that are possible. Without this map, one is a feather in the wind, blown about without any understanding of what is forcing this change- and just like wind, capitalism is invisible to most people, it simply is and there is no-way to conceive beyond it. If we fail to understand history, we will almost assuredly be utterly anihilated.The time has come to step up, so buy the dvd, buy 2 or 3, share them with friends and enemies, watch it again, and then change the world.

Everyone in the reviews has largely already stated the case for why this is worth watching. Historical and global perspectives alone are worth it. There's a modernized sequel as well - that's next on my list.Corporations are NOT people. If they were people, they would be in a straight jacket, severely medicated due to the high probably of being a danger to themselves and others. Which they are and have been from inception. The fact that corporate lawyers have been able to pervert the spirit every existing law to allow increasingly aggressive and oppressive profit machinery to masquerade as anything but that is the greatest shame and failing of our society. We can selectively ignore reality based on our ideologies all we want but it'll come for us all the same.

この映画は、「ヒバクシャ―世界の終わりに」、「六ヶ所村ラプソディー」の監督鎌仲ひとみさんに教えていただきました。カナダでは大ヒットし、サンダンス映画祭海外映画ドキュメンタリー観客賞など、二十三の国際映画賞を受賞しているそうです。　マイケル・ムーア、ノーム・チョムスキーをはじめ、Shell石油の元ＣＥＯなど多くの企業関係者等の証言を中心に構成された、強烈な見ごたえのあるドキュメンタリーです。　Corporation（会社・企業）が司法と結託しlegal person（法人）の地位を得て、（生身の）人間の「生命、自由、幸福の追求」の権利を定めた憲法修正１４条を、自らの利益の追求のために利用し歪めていくところとか、corporationの特徴を分析していくと、典型的なpsychopath（精神病質者；反社会的あるいは暴力的な行動をし、それに対して罪悪感を持たない傾向がある（ジーニアス英和辞典の定義））の特徴とぴったり一致する、というところなど、「民営化＝私企業化すればすべてはバラ色」と信じ込まされているすべての日本人に見て欲しい内容です。　なお、リージョン 1 (米国、カナダ向け　※日本国内（リージョン 2)用のDVDプレーヤーでは再生できません）とありますが、我が家の（普通の日本の）ＤＶＤプレーヤーで試しにかけてみたところ、ちゃんと見ることができました。（そう言えばパッケージのどこにもregion 1と書いてありません。）商売よりも、世界中の一人でも多くの人に見てもらいたい、という製作者の心意気なのでしょうか？　英語字幕も出すことができますので、英語でも（字幕があれば）、という方はぜひ一見をお勧めいたします。そして、映画関係の経験・コネクションのある方は、ぜひ何とかしてこの日本語版を日本で製作・上映できないか、ご検討いただけないでしょうか？

Zur Vorbereitung eines Seminars zur Managerhaftung, recherchierte ich ausgiebig in der Wirtschafts-Geschichte. Dabei stieß ich auf diesen Film. Besonders nach Krisen und der Frage, wer wohl die Verursacher waren, kommt es sehr oft dazu, den Managern die Schuld in die Schuhe zu schieben. Sicher, es wird welche geben, die wirklich ohne weiteren Auftrag handeln und dabei Mist machen, aber das sind Ausnahmen. Dieser Film geht etwas mehr in die Tiefe und legt das System frei, in dem die Managerentscheidungen eingebettet sind. Ich setze den Film auch heute noch in Seminaren ein und die Reaktionen der Seminaristen bestätigen mich. Sehr empfehlenswert.

Diese nach dem gleichnamigen Buch von Joel Bakan entstandene über zweistündige Dokumentation (englischer O-Ton mit deutschen Untertiteln) beleuchtet die Entstehung, Entwicklung und die heutige Stellung von Konzernen, und ihre Folgen für uns. Sie wurde in den USA und Europa mehrfach ausgezeichnet.Und das zu Recht. Als ich den Film im Kino gesehen hatte, blieben alle noch bis zum Ende des Abspanns sitzen -- so tief gehen die Erkenntnisse, die dieser Film vermittelt. Nach diesem Film ahnt man, was mit Konzernen nicht stimmt: Sie sind nämlich, rein rechtlich gesehen, Personen; doch im Gegensatz zu Menschen fehlt ihnen eins, nämlich jegliches Verantwortungsgefühl. Und sie sind dabei im Recht, denn Konzerne sind juristisch sogar dazu verpflichtet, Gewinn zu machen, um jeden Preis. Die denkwürdige These dieses Films ist, dass Konzerne, als Personen betrachtet, gemeingefährliche Psychopathen wären, da sie einfach nur die eigenen Interessen verfolgen, ohne Gewissen und ohne Schuldgefühle.Zwar ist diese Dokumentation auf die Bedürfnisse der MTV-Generation zugeschnitten -- schnelle Schnitte, ansprechende Musik, Video-Schnipsel usw --, doch hält ist der "Propaganda-Faktor" noch sehr erträglich; so kommen nicht nur die "üblichen Verdächtigen" (u.a. Noam Chomsky und Michael Moore) zu Wort, sondern auch andere, etwa ein Börsenmakler, ein Industriespion und mehrere Konzernchefs. Und oft sind es gerade Kommentare dieser Menschen, die im Kontext dieser Dokumentation nur noch Kopfschütteln hervorrufen. Oft weiss man nicht, ob man lachen oder weinen soll.Es gibt so viele Beispiele, die einem nicht mehr aus dem Kopf gehen -- die Privatisierung von Trinkwasser in Dritte-Welt-Ländern; die Vertuschungs- und Manipulationsversuche eines Milchkonzerns bezüglich einer Dokumentation über gesundheitliche Risiken in seiner Milch; die Patentierbarkeit von Genmaterial und deren langfristige Folgen für Mensch und Umwelt; die Zusammenarbeit zwischen IBM und dem Dritten Reich; die Manipulation durch die Werbeindustrie, und und und...Ach ja, die DVD enthält nur die englische Originalfassung, aber wahlweise mit sauber gemachten deutschen Untertitel (ist ja auch keine Selbstverständlichkeit...). Und im Gegensatz zu der englischen Fassung fehlt bei der deutschen Ausgabe die Bonus-DVD mit den ungeschnittenen Interviews -- grrr... --, also sich nicht von der unteren englischen Rezension täuschen lassen, die wohl für die amerikanische Fassung gilt.Fazit: Ich bin ein eher kritischer Mensch und kein radikaler Globalisierungsgegner, doch dieser Film zeigt, dass Konzerne tatsächlich nicht nur Wohltäter der Menschheit sind. Ich kann und muss diesen Film allen nur wärmstens ans Herz legen, die auch nur ein bisschen über ihren Tellerrand schauen und die wissen wollen, was Konzerne eigentlich sind und was sie für Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Natur haben. Der Film birgt ungeheuer viel Wissenswertes und regt zum Nachdenken an, und das ist es, was eine gute Dokumentation meiner Meinung nach leisten muss. Daher gehört dieser Film für mich zweifellos zu den besten Dokus der letzten Jahre. Fünf Sterne.

Dieser Streifen sollte - zumindest der erste Teil des Filmes mit der psychologischen Untersuchung von großen Kapitalgesellschaften und dem Hinzuziehen des DSM - zur Pflichtlektüre eines jeden Schülers werden, damit die wirtschaftlichen Grundverständnisse klar werden. Der zweite Teil der Doku wurde mir zu amerikanisch, die Inhalte waren zwar interessant aber irgendwie nicht mehr so packend informativ und knallhart wie der erste Teil.

In der Rezension von "schrottvogel" steht, dass es deutsche Untertitel gibt. Diese Rezension ist auch sichtbar, wenn man hier die UK_IMPORT-Version betrachtet, die aus zwei DVDs besteht und die ich bestellt hatte. Diese enthält jedoch spanische, französische und englische Untertitel (letztere habe ich benutzt und waren für mich hilfreich), jedoch keine deutschen.Nach der Hälfte des Films hatte ich ein deutliches Empfinden dafür, in welchem Ausmaß meine eigene Existenz der einer Marionette ähnelt; in welch großem Umfang uns seit frühester Kindheit unsere umgebende Welt prägt. Seltsam, dass wir als "Erwachsene" zumeist trotzdem den Eindruck haben, selbstbestimmt zu sein, ein eigenes, begründetes Weltbild zu haben und authentisch zu leben. Die Krankheitsstatistiken in der modernen Zivilisation sprechen eine andere Sprache und es ist nicht selbstverständlich, das im Zusammenhang sehen zu können. Dieser Film hilft.Ganz besonders beeindruckt hat mich die verblüffende und absolute Offenheit verschiedener CEOs und eines Börsenmaklers vor der Kamera bezüglich der eigenen dunklen Seiten. Beispielsweise hat letzterer unmissverständlich glaubhaft und vor allem nachvollziehbar(!) machen können, welche wahnsinnige Freude der Irakkrieg an der Börse hervorgerufen hat...