|
|
Imagine living amongst a race of immortal,
super-human creatures with superior intellect, abilities, resources and
power. Further, imagine that these alien creatures enjoy all the same rights
as citizens, but are burdened neither with the responsibilities that come
with citizenship, nor a moral conscience that would give them some measure of
forbearance from using their full power to their own advantage against us. What
would it be like to live in such a world? It would no doubt be treacherous,
fraught with an assortment of
possibly life-threatening dangers.
Yet we needn't imagine it, for we live in such a world today -- right now --
in the United States of America.
All we need do is open our eyes. The alien beings are technically known as
"juristic persons," but they are better known as corporations.
For all intents and purposes, corporations have the same legal rights as you
or I. While they cannot vote, they can use money to buy votes. They have the
right to free speech (including advertising), they can buy and sell property,
contribute their opinions to the political process (even though they are not
citizens and in some cases are majority foreign owned), conduct business
(obviously). They can own other corporations and sue other
"persons" including lowly humans. However, unlike you or I, they have a different set of priorities. Human beings
are multidimensional, sensitive mortal creatures with an
inherent sense fairness and a variety of motivations for action. On
the other hand, corporations are single minded in their pursuits. In fact,
they are required by law to 1) maximize profits and 2) place the financial
interests of their owners above all other competing interests. They
have no conscience to interfere with these goals, and theoretically need
never die.
If you knew a human like this, you most certainly wouldn't trust him, would
probably fear him, and would definitely steer clear of him (if you knew what
was good for you). Technically, he would be considered a sociopath. But most
people rarely think of corporations in this way due to a lack of
understanding of their true nature. Corporations have tremendous PR budgets
to manipulate people - notably children - into thinking of them on their
terms.
For more information, check this short clip from the Canadian film The
Corporation. (10 minutes might be a bit long, so just watch the first two. You'll
be hooked.)
Listen to Lucy, the corporate consultant, starting
around 2:10: "Anywhere from 20% - 40% of purchases would not have
occurred unless the child had nagged their parents. That is, we found that
one quarter of all visits to theme parks wouldn't have occurred unless a
child nagged their parents. Four out of ten visits to places like Chuck-E-Cheeze would not have occurred. And any parent would
understand that. When I think of Chuck-E-Cheeze -
oh my god, it is NOISE! And there are so many kids. Why would I want to spend
2 hours there? But if the child nags enough, you're going to go. We saw the
same things with movies, with home videos, with fast food...You can
manipulate consumers," she says cheerfully, "into wanting, and
therefore buying your products. It - it's a game."
Do you like that game? Are you consciously aware of it? How do you feel about
having that game played on you, or worse -- on your kids? Kids are not little
adults. They're minds are not fully developed. And marketers play to those
developmental vulnerabilities.
The consultant continues: "[Kids] are tomorrow's adult consumers. So,
start talking with them now. Build that relationship when they're younger,
and you've got them as an adult. Somebody asked me Lucy, 'is that ethical?
You're essentially manipulating these children.' Well - is it ethical?
Yeah, I don't know. But our role at Initiative is to move products. And
if we know that you move products with a certain creative execution placed in
a certain type of media vehicle, then we've done our job."
You can watch the entire documentary The
Corporation on YouTube here.
The fact that corporations are required to maximize profit at all costs
creates a peculiar characteristic: As part and parcel of maximizing profits,
it is in their interest to externalize as many costs as possible. One result
is that corporations will lie for profit. Is lying illegal? Not if you have a
good enough lawyer, who can help you redefine what the definition of
"is" is. But even more importantly, obeying the law isn't a matter
of fear of punishment or moral obligation with a corporation. As Jim
Hightower puts it in his most recent book, Swim Against
the Tide - Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow, "The
corporation itself has no feelings, no conscience, no heart, no soul, no
morality, no shame - no butt to kick and no body to put it jail." Obeying
the law is therefore a matter of cost/benefit analysis. If the penalty,
weighed against the chances of being caught
is less than the cost to comply, it is in the corporation's interest to break
the law. It is simple, logical, calculating and cold. Nothing personal - just
business. This is part of the reason that the list of
corporate criminals is so long.
I say this not to be "mean" or to spite
corporations -- nor would it do any good, since corporations have no
feelings. This is simply an explanation of how these legal fictions are
designed - it is embedded in their "corporate DNA." There is no
question of evil or malevolence. Like robots, they follow orders to the
letter - orders that have been programmed by our laws and judicial system.
Once upon a time, corporations were subordinate to human people and to the
state. State governments granted charters to corporations for specific
functions, and shareholders were liable for the actions of the corporation. Those
days are long gone. The corporate form has now taken over and overwhelmed the
society we live in. It is the dominant institution of our age, overshadowing
and even controlling our government.
As Hightower
continues:
Big corporations are
purposefully structured to be hierarchical, autocratic,
regimented, secretive, antidemocratic, extractive, exploitative, avaricious,
self-aggrandizing, absentee organizations that are out to grab as much profit
as quickly as possible. Not that their mission is to do intentional harm
(whether by downsizing workers, polluting our air and water, cheating
consumers, crushing competitors, deceiving shareholders, corrupting
government, stiffing communities, or generally running roughshod over society
at large). But such harm is as inevitable as it is prevalent, due to the
inherently selfish nature of these giants. If anyone or anything happens to
be standing between top executives and an extra dime in profit, the
"corporate ethic" commands that the executives bolt for the dime. Tough
luck for whoever and whatever gets caught
in the stampede.
- The
corporate role in the subprime mess
Subprime mortgage originators (corporations)
made quick, fleeting bucks by externalizing hundreds of billions of
dollars in costs, which are now coming due. The originators were not
interested in helping people achieve the dream of home ownership, though
we know that many of them told customers they were. Nor were the
originators interested in long-term relationships or future revenue
streams, since they were going to package and sell the mortgages anyway.
They were most interested in one thing: Short term profits.
This point has been made clear numerous times, and one question
inevitably arises: Who is to blame? Was it the companies? The
shareholders? The hapless borrowers themselves? The concept of
securitization? The Fed? What I have never heard questioned is the
corporate form itself. But is simply in the nature of the corporation to
do such things. Now that there are greater costs to be paid - costs that
were originally externalized - who can be held responsible? The salesmen
and managers that originated the loans are long gone - they got laid
off. The companies themselves are bankrupt. The "smart"
shareholders sold out long ago to some new suckers who got stuck holding
the bag. And now, both the federal government and the Federal Reserve
are bailing the corporations out that created the mess.
Think we don't have a responsive government? Think again. It is simply
that they respond to their constituency - the corporations. This means
it will be you and I - the lowly humans, the foreclosed homeowners, and
the decent taxpayers - who will be stuck footing the bill, yet AGAIN. The
subprime crisis is not the first mess -- nor
will it be the last -- that Corpgov (as George
Ure of UrbanSurvival calls it)
has created for us humans to clean up.
Growth is not - or should not be - an end in itself. Growth is a
means to an end. The end is -- or at least should be -- a higher
quality of life for us, the human persons. But somehow, growth has
become the end for corporations, the juristic persons. They're just
following their corporate orders, like robots. But they are using us to
achieve their ends. The tragedy is that most of us also follow along,
like robots, even though this strategy of growth at all costs is now
reducing the quality of life for all of us.
It is time to rethink the role of corporations in our society and reign
in what has become excessive power. In reality, corporations are nothing
more than groups of individuals, bound together by contractual
obligations. They are the ultimate special interest groups.
By :
Michael A.
Nystrom
Editor, Bull not Bull
If you are
interested in exploring this idea further and finding out how to preserve a
sane, real life, please sign up to my low volume
email announcement list. I will be
discussing these issues further in the coming weeks and months.
* The title of this piece is borrowed from and inspired by a song by Remo Conscious from his latest album, Infliltraton
Any and all comments, observations and other feedback welcome here.
- News & charts tracking the unfolding second great depression
- updated daily on the home page.
- Subscribe to my low-level email announcement list, maintained at
my other site, Bull! Not bull, to receive
notification to site updates. Click here
|
|
