The Corporation–A Mind F$ck by Joel Bakan

Alright, Dear Readers… This one is a nine thousand headed hydra and I don’t know how funny I can be.  The topic today?  “The Corporation.”  This is a documentary film by Joel Bakan, directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott.  Apparently, it was made in 2003 and is Canadian.  I didn’t know films could have a nationality; but we’re trying to be serious here so relax and let’s get mad calmly, okay?

So… Yeah… Wow…

I never tried to classify a business as a human; but you can’t fault them for using this tactic–corporations did the same thing after the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution was passed.

(The 14th amendment prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness.)  This was intended to protect African American peoples from unfair treatment.

Sounds like a good thing, yeah?  Well, corporate lawyers figured a way to get their cheddar and manipulate the system a bit.  “Of the 150 cases involving the Fourteenth Amendment heard by the Supreme Court up to the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896 that established the legal standing of ‘separate but equal,’ 15 involved blacks and 135 involved business entities.”  (Thank you, Doug Hammerstrom)  They basically argued that a corporation should be treated as a human.  It should have human rights.  Enter drama…

.

Believe it or not, I’m not here to preach at you.

I want to tell you MY reaction to this film.

As my darling wife Vicki and I watched this documentary, we paused the flick numerous times (as we are wont to do).  We talked, we talked and we talked some more.  We watched protesters stonewall globalization meetings.  We noticed they weren’t wearing burlap sacks and riding horses.

We noted that after the rally, if they weren’t jailed or in the hospital, they would walk back to their corporate car, in their corporate clothes and maybe get a corporate big mac attack on the way to their corporate home.

Yeah… We noticed that.

A little info on your boy Jas and his lovely wife, V-diddy:

We recycle.  We use longer-lasting lightbulbs.  We keep the heat low and the air conditioning at a higher temp when hot–so it’s hot in the summer.  We use canvas shopping bags.  We conserve gas as best as we may.  We bring recycling home from work so it doesn’t go to a landfill.  We make our cats separate the glass into clear, green and brown.  We make sure we turn off lights.  We try to eschew plastic when possible.  We slay dragons and use every part of the beast for needlepoint and dragon-bacon.

Everything about that last paragraph is true.  Dragon chitterlings are excellent with stove top stuffing.

Yes, you are correct, we hardly go out of our way at all and only do the bare minimum… (thought I was preaching again, didn’t you?)

We do not make our own clothes.  We do not have any solar panels, electric cars or water conservation machines/rain barrels etc.  (Although we did install these shower nozzles that have been tremendously great at helping to cut down the amount of water used in a shower–they also lower your bill dramatically.  They can be purchased here.)

The point is simply that Vick-tron and I, while we try our best, are as plugged into the “system” or the ‘machine’ or the ‘mill’ (or whatever the hell you want to call it) as anyone else.  We do not live sustainable lives.  We want desperately to not have this be the case; but we’re not free yet–so we do what we can.  We understand it’s not enough; but the foundation idea of both the movie and this blog is that unplugging is not something you or I can do alone.

Now, why would you want to unplug?  Corporations are not evil.  They provide services and give me the rubber dog poop and tasty nom nom’s I need to survive, right?  And hell, when my ass gets fat from the tasty nom nom’s I can always get me some stretchy pants with cute sayings and quips to further decorate my expanding tracts of assland.  Corporations have all the good movies and all the cool gadgets.  Corporations are your cool friend that gets all the girls, has all the right connections and totally gets to do whatever he/she wants cause corporations’ parents are WAY cooler than your parents.

It’s absolutely a conundrum.  Now I realize that my imaginary readers (I’m not crazy because they’re not imaginary “friends”) may fall into one or the other as far as ‘camps’ go; I only again, wish to state my reaction to the film.

Some of you may be of the mind that corporations rock and yeehaw capitalism and all that.  The others may be more of the mindset that your matched glassware should come only from tribes of indigenous peoples.  Now where you both come together is in your love for reality TV, salsa cookie-dough bread from Chili’s and lots and lots of porn.  BAM!

I kid, I kid.  But I’m actually not kidding.  I am literally always at war with myself over this exact point… So don’t feel as though I’m picking on you from my “holier than thou” cloud or something like that.  The question stands and make no mistake that I am with you in practice and in spirit:   How can you change/remake/improve the system if:

1.  You don’t even know what the fuck the “system” is…

2.  You are UTTERLY dependent on the “system” in your present state…

3.  You hate lists of 3′s as we all do…

4.  You may not have the fund-a-lations to just live off your patents and be a hippie millionaire… (heated tepee’s/teepee’s/tipi’s with a built-in jacuzzi are fucking expensive, brah)

5.  Netflix rocks

Where is a brother gonna get his Warcraft on if there’s no corporations right?  I mean, to get your Warcraft on, you need:  a shelter, a computer, electricity, the internet, warcraft installed on your puter, a montly fee, chips, mountain dew, patience with griefers, people providing electricity/interwebz/mountain dew/chips and so on and so forth.  You simply cannot get your Warcraft on without at least the basics of modern human requirements.  I often think about how people in third world countries get their Warcraft or even their Facebook on without these basic human essentials… I shudder to think…

We are all dependent on the things that own us… Er… The things we own.  You’re not an evil person for having stuff.  Your stuff isn’t evil.  Where we run into a problem is the way we acquire, maintain and requisition stuff; this is where we find some dire consequences.  Damage to the environment, sustainability, exploitation of (too many factors to list), consequences to this and future generations and the list goes on.

I feel the need to point out, I have two cars.  I am typing on a nice computer.  I am never cold unless by choice or making snow angels.  I drink low calorie beer or somewhat decent wine.  I have the privilege of feeding my family, playing video games and writing blogs way outside of my depth.  I am lucky.  If you’re reading this, you are lucky.  Now trust me when I say, you wouldn’t trade places with me… If you have phat cash, that is.  I ain’t ballin’, yo.  But the question persists…

What are we to do?

We are so inextricably (seemingly) tied to the system… What do we do?

A brilliant and intrepid blogger would now list a ton of shit you can do to better yourself, your environment and the whole of the world.  I suck.  I’m just a musician, homie.  I don’t have the answer.  But maybe… Just maybe… Recognition of a problem is the start in the “right” direction we need, yes?  No?  Dude!  Stop updating your facebook and listen to me for just a moment longer!

Now, sneaky mofo that I am, I have just “Inception” style planted a seed in yer noodle.  Here’s the idea, in case you’re half as dense as I am… Watch the movie “THE CORPORATION.”  You can stream this on Netflix.  You may come up with some nice ideas on how to do a little more for all of us.

At the end of the day, I tried to console myself in the fact that I am not a person to throw a garment out just because it is a week old or bears the mark of pizza drippings.  I do my best to recycle and be environmentally sound.  I am kind to animals and old people.  I can’t afford a sweat shop; so I went ahead and had my cats do all the sewing.  I’m doing alright, right?

Seriously though… I wrote this just in hopes that  you’d watch this movie.  You don’t have to agree with any or all of it… No lie.  Walk in as you are, walk out as you were.  Just maybe come out with an appreciation of the fact that we must one day preempt a reckoning lest the reckoning bust a cap.  Things cannot continue as they are.  We have to strive towards sustainability.

Turn off a light.  Reuse a container.  Support a cause–any that sound good.  A step in the right direction is a step back from the brink.