[SimpleLife]

The Corporation

I believe it is a great documentary. Take it or leave it: it reaches us all whether we are working for them or pay for their services.

Not something negative, but rather, a thorough analysis of what they are and the implication of their existence.

As one of the interviewees said: "The Science of exploitation".

[Millennium]

The site's own description of the film would seem to show extreme anti-corporate bias, both by overpersonifying an inherently non-human entity (though, to be fair, the law does this too) and by a very... interesting... selection of interviewees.

[SimpleLife]

Originally posted by Millennium:
The site's own description of the film would seem to show extreme anti-corporate bias, both by overpersonifying an inherently non-human entity (though, to be fair, the law does this too) and by a very... interesting... selection of interviewees.

Well, it is like everything i life.

You take some, and you leave some. Whichever is your fancy.

Then you make a judgement call on it.

I am not forcing anyone to watch it; I am only sharing my enthusiasm for it. Do as you like; everyone is old enough to make their own decision on what is useful for them or not.

Your own impression of extreme anti-corporate bias may also reflect your own insecurity regarding criticism towards your own beliefs. Yet, nowhere in the movie are they asking the abolition of corporations, or asking or hinting that corporations are full of evildoers.

It basically looks at some important issues. Yet, even Michael Moore admits that many Corporations are doing a lot of good. That is a proof that the whole movie is not oriented toward the destruction of Corporations...

But in the land of freedom, one looks in the direction of his choice, wherever that leads...

[Mithras]

I saw that movie in the theater last year sometime.
It was pretty interesting. I was pretty ignorant of the history of the corporation as a legal entity in the US, and liked that part.
I didn't like a good chunk of the middle, which indeed was a laundry list of "bad stuff that has happened in corporations". I found it directionless.

However, the truly wonderful and must-see part of the film is about Ray Anderson and his company, Interface Inc. The film is worth watching (even if you're right-wing) for this segment.

Here's a Fast Company article about the guy:

Ray Anderson has spent most of his life as an environmental vandal. He has devoted his career - the better part of four decades - to mastering the black magic of the 20th century: He takes huge lakes of petroleum and spins them into elegant brocades...

Indeed, Anderson's success has been marked by a kind of galloping enviro-gluttony. He is the 63-year-old founder and CEO of Interface Inc., an Atlanta-based company with 7,300 employees. Its business: turning petrochemicals into textiles. In 26 factories on four continents, Anderson's looms produce a million pounds of synthetic carpet and fabric every day - along with more than seven tons of air pollutants every year....

Four years ago, Anderson made a decision that changed the course of his carpet company, and that could transform the nation's economy. He decided that Interface would become, as he put it, "the first fully sustainable industrial enterprise, anywhere." Anderson decided that his petrochemical conglomerate would become 100% environmentally benign.

He's an incredibly well-spoken an interesting figure.

[Mithras]

Also, SimpleLife: If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend the documentary "The Take" by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein (of "Logo / No Logo")

It's about a group of Argentine factory workers who attempt to take over their factory after the owner goes bankrupt and locks them out. It's an amazing story.

[SimpleLife]

Originally posted by Mithras:
I saw that movie in the theater last year sometime.
It was pretty interesting. I was pretty ignorant of the history of the corporation as a legal entity in the US, and liked that part.
I didn't like a good chunk of the middle, which indeed was a laundry list of "bad stuff that has happened in corporations". I found it directionless.

However, the truly wonderful and must-see part of the film is about Ray Anderson and his company, Interface Inc. The film is worth watching (even if you're right-wing) for this segment.

Here's a Fast Company article about the guy:


He's an incredibly well-spoken an interesting figure.

Thanks for the link.

Regarding the middle part, I believe the point was to sustain the idea that Corporations, being legal person, have no moral bounds. The example of the marketing company doing research on nagging kids, so that they could improve the nagging of children to put pressure on parents and ensure a cohort of consumers in the future is an example in point. There are ethical dilemma regarding the use of kids in marketing, but just as much as the use of kids as object of research to influence their behaviors at a time when their brain is not completly formed so that they could a stance of their own when facing their environment.

That is certainly one aspect I care a lot for and disagree totally with.

[SimpleLife]

Originally posted by Mithras:
Also, SimpleLife: If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend the documentary "The Take" by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein (of "Logo / No Logo")

It's about a group of Argentine factory workers who attempt to take over their factory after the owner goes bankrupt and locks them out. It's an amazing story.

I am not too much on such documentaries, but I have to say it triggers my interest.

I also note the need of these workers to be working in a capitalist arena, respecting its rules, yet ensure that the profits could aim at creating more jobs than profit for one individuals. I think that is a good idea, a good capitalistic project as well. The problem being that a high concentration of profit in some areas may be detrimental to the development of the markets.

But I am no economist.

Thanks for the info.

[Dimethyltrypt]

GREAT movie.

Now reading No Logo.


Incredible how much power corporations have nowadays. It's frightening. But it doesn't scar some people like Millenium who likes to think rich men are good men. And that they will never put profit before life or happiness, etc. Gullible people.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Originally posted by Dimethyltrypt:
But it doesn't scar some people like Millenium who likes to think rich men are good men. And that they will never put profit before life or happiness, etc. Gullible people.

That's odd, it's not Millennium who comes off as a mindless zealot, making sweeping self-righteous generalizations of entire groups based on some illogical factor such as being 'rich' or not.