The corporation and the psychopath

Watch only if you have time to spare. It's more than 2 hours long.

I watched an intriguing documentary during sociology class this week. It basically defined the corporation as a psychopath, and proceeded to list out why it was so by checking off its characteristics on a psychiatric assessment sheet.

Just before the documentary got to its gist though, it had this entire section detailing why the corporation could not be personalised, despite people often attaching personalities to them. So it went like "McDonalds, what is McDonalds to you?" And people would go "young, energetic, outgoing, enthusiastic", and Nike would be "cool, hip, sporty...'" you get the idea. But I guess, that has a lot to do with branding, because to motivate you to buy its products, a corporation has to make you identify with them first, and people identify with like-minded people or people they look up to.

Then they went on to say the corporation was a machine that has no soul, it just wants your money, and so on. And hence, it is now humanising the corporation by comparing it to a psychopath.

But minor logical hiccups aside, the scariest part of the documentary was how they stripped the corporation bare for what it was, a profit-making machine, at all costs. It might seem a no-brainer, but the eye-opener was to at what lengths corporations would go to ensure they made a profit, including the blatant disregard for the sanctity and value of human life.

I found especially revolting how corporations would weigh the savings in cost of polluting the environment against possible litigation, and choose to pollute the environment by dumping industrial by-products into rivers if it cost less than potential legal damages, because the bottom line was key.

Never mind all the babies getting born with missing arms and legs downstream. Well, I guess the parents of these children could sue, but if I've made enough money I can hire the best lawyers to make sure you never get a cent, or I could pay a token sum to keep you quiet.

And some of the things these corporations do, is the cost really mitigated by the monetary payment? How much money can really take away the suffering that a family will go through when a deformed child is born to them? And, the amount of oil BP has released into the oceans following the Deepwater Horizon spill, perhaps no amount of money can buy back the loss in ecological diversity that must have already resulted.

Which was really the result of BP trying out a new revolutionary drilling technique while gambling on the possible risks, because the lure for higher profit margins was so great. The article for that is here, and it is also another good read. It really makes me wonder what kind of legacy we are leaving to those still not born, who will live much harder lives than those already living.

Really, money is nothing but a temporal asset. Its value changes with inflation, it is only accepted by people who recognise it, and it is just a promise by governments to give you something that you can use to exchange for something you really need. Have you ever wondered why money doesn't give you satisfaction sometimes? It's because what you want is not money, but what money can buy you. And the things you really want, money cannot buy.

The documentary likened the way we were living now to us taking off in a malformed airplane. We think we are flying, but really, we are in freefall. And some of us know that sooner or later we're going to crash, because they can see the ground rushing up. They are trying to warn the others, but they are too caught up "flying" to realise that it is a matter of time before the end. It is basically, unsustainable.

Anyway, I googled the documentary after watching it. It's like the natural thing to do these days. You see something interesting, you google it. And I found out it had won many awards, it was actually based on a book, and it can be found on Youtube.

I think it's really important to never stop thinking, asking questions and trying to know everything you possibly can about anything at all. The world gets dangerous when you start taking things for granted.