The Corporation

I want to encourage everyone to go out and rent the documentary "The Corporation" based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan. I was absolutely enthralled watching this two-hour-plus exploration of the way in which corporations have become the dominant institution in our lives.

The movie is a bit overly-polemic at times, and repetitive, and I'm sure free market purists would scream that it doesn't show all the positive things that corporations have brought to our lives, but I thought that overall, the film was thoughtful. The filmmakers are not espousing Marxism and the abolition of corporations (they are too realistic for that). Many of the people interviewed, including anti-corporate activists, acknowledge that the corporation is probably here to stay, but we can expect it to function as a decent citizen in our communities and the world.

A companion DVD includes more in-depth interviews with dozens of folks featured in the film. Among those who especially fascinated me were Naomi Klein, the "Gen-X' columnist for the Nation, whose book No Logo explores the total human cost of globalized capitalism and alternatives to the current system, and Ray Anderson, CEO for the carpet company Interface, who describes his conversion to a sustainable corporate ethic.

The website for the film provides lots of resources for grassroots activism and next steps for those who are concerned about reigning in the power of corporations over our lives.
-G