The Corporation

Just got back from seeing The Corporation and it was quite good. As a documentary, I thought it was well done but a bit long. There was a great deal of information, some of it I had heard and some I hadn't. About 2/3 of the movie is gloomy and depressing but the filmmakers do manage to squeeze in a little bit of light so you don't leave ready to commit suicide. I did enjoy a lot of the footage from the 50s - it was extremely interesting to see some of the early publicity clips from what have become today's behemoths.

There are some ideas that the film brought out that I think are worth a mention:

• Corporations (the corporate mindset) have entered the realm of institution in the company of religion, education, politics, and a variety of other social constructs.
  
• Corporations are monstrous but the people who work for them are not necessarily monstrous.
  
• Corporations are NOT who should be setting standards for appropriate behavior (i.e. the police should not police themselves)
  
• Corporate greed is flawed and those flaws can be exploited (a la Michael Moore's documentaries)
  
• There are many many many people who oppose corporate institutions - Americans do have allies around the world in this regard.
  

This list of themes/ideas could go on forever but those are the few that sprang up foremost so they're all I'm mentioning. The one I thought was most helpful and most depressing was the idea that corporations have become institutionalized. In a way, it makes it easier to define the problem but it also makes it harder to fight because it's become so entrenched.

One thing that was glaringly obvious was that the filmmakers stayed away from stories about defense contractors or others that might be heavily involved with the American military. They talked briefly about GE, for example, but didn't mention companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, etc. My feeling on this is that the topic is just too big to include - it needs its own movie.

There is a lot to be concerned about because we're entering the homestretch to lose our race with natural resources and the environment. If corporate practices & consumerism don't make some radical shifts in the next few years then there's going to be nothing to practice and nothing to consume. As with most issues of extreme social relevance, it's often discouraging to realize that so many people, in America and elsewhere, have NO CLUE simply because they're too comfortable with their processed food and carefully sanitized media.

Lest this become a rant about the stupor that engulfs most Americans and others in the world, I'll end by saying that I came away from the movie with some hope. Leaders and scholars like Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, Ray Anderson, and Noam Chomsky are forcing the conversation into public spaces. A filmmaker like Michael Moore has a major impact, whether he's making a political statement or chasing down unethical practices in business, and also helps push the conversations into the mainstream. Although we don't have unlimited time in which to converse, I think these things are helping. I have hope that I can help.