Part One:THE PATHOLOGY OF COMMERCE
In law, a corporation is deemed a "person". But what kind of person is it? Like people, corporations have complex "personalities". With a "personality" of pure self-interest, the past 150 years saw its rise to dominance made possible by a single-minded drive for profit. Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, demonstrate harm to workers (sweatshops), harm to human health (the cancer epidemic), harm to animals (synthetic hormone rBGH), and harm to the biosphere. Concluding this point-by-point analysis, THE CORPORATION delivers a disturbing diagnosis: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath.
Should the institution or the individuals within it be held responsible? What is the ethical mindset of corporate players?
Part Two: PLANET INC.
Things considered precious, vulnerable, sacred, or important for the public interest once had protective boundaries. But this started to change in the 1600s when the enclosure movement began fencing public grazing lands so they could be privately owned and exploited. Oceans and airspace came next. Today, every molecule on the planet is up for grabs; corporations own whole towns, patents on plants, animals, our DNA, even the song Happy Birthday. When they own everything, who will stand for the public good? Corporations invest billions to shape public and political opinion. Corporate-produced messages reach all of us hundreds, if not thousands of times a day. As one executive states: "You can manipulate consumers into wanting, and therefore buying your products. It's a game". New targets are children from the age of 3.
The ad industry's "Nag Factor" study shocked child psychiatrists when it exposed premeditated manipulation of infants to "nag" for new products.
World disasters can be profitable too. As the Twin Towers collapsed, gold traders doubled their clients' money. And when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991 commodities brokers were elated as the price of oil skyrocketed.
Part Three:
RECKONING Democracy is a value the corporation doesn't understand. Corporations have often tried to undo democracy if it is an obstacle to profit. In 1934, a business-backed plot tried to install a military dictator in the White House. It failed thanks to one honest man. Corporations will take advantage of democracy's absence too. One shocking story is the 'cozy' relationship between IBM and Nazi Germany.
Corporations are increasingly challenged. The charter revocation movement took on oil giant Unocal; sweatshop activists moved labor standards; seed activists beat corporate patents; and Bolivians defeated Bechtel corporation's attempt to privatize their water system. Will people regain control over the corporation? With cautious optimism, we are invited to reconsider our relationship with the dominant institution of our time.
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