Synopsis of The Corporation
Sypnosis Sypnosis of “The Corporation” The documentary, “The Corporation” was written by Joel Bakan, Mark Achbar, and Jennifer Abbott. It starts off by describing corporations as jig saw puzzles, saying that if one piece of it is removed or lost, it will not function properly. The documentary describes that everything in a corporation has a place and a common purpose. It states that everything and everyone works together for a common end. Corporations are then compared to “monsters” trying to obtain as much profit as possible.
In the film, corporations are defined as “one form of business ownership” and as “a group of individuals working together to serve a variety of objectives. ” A corporation’s most important objective is profit and it will not let anything stand in its way of getting it. The documentary explains how the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution created enormous growth in corporations. Corporate lawyers started to realize they wanted more power. The 14th amendment was passed to give every “person” equal rights.
This amendment was meant to free slaves, but corporations manipulated it in a way to apply to capital and property. Corporations were given rights as “special persons’ that were designed to be concerned only for their stockholders. All they want is to make as much money as possible at any given time. To corporations, there is no such thing as enough profit. All of them are designed to complete certain characteristic to deliver results as soon as possible.
The characteristics of corporations are callous concern for the feelings of others, incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit, incapacity to experience guilt, and failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors. These faults of corporations have put life of all species in a constant decline. Most CEO’s of corporations do not realize the bad that their companies are doing to the world. Many have not even been to the sites of their main actories to have the opportunity to see the horrible conditions of workers. Corporations manipulate our minds through media to buy their products starting at a young age. It is a terrible thing for them to do, but unfortunately it works. Most children start begging their parents for toys they see on television at a very young age. Parents seem to give in as their children explain that they just “have got to have” the new toy. Towards the end of the documentary, it starts to reveal some real life situations where corporations have tried to break the law.
It shows when the RGBH hormone was being put into milk without consumers knowing the true health issues it could cause. Another corporation was trying to charge citizens in Bolivia a fourth of their income for water, even though they only made two dollars a day. In order for Coca-Cola to continue making money during Hitler’s dictation, they came out with a new drink called Fanta Orange. They continued to make millions of dollars even while millions of people were being killed. During the same time, IBM, along with other United States corporations were trading with Germany to make profits during the Holocaust.
Many corporations have grown global and the government has lost total control over them. Capitalism has become the new “high-priest” of all systems. In order to have more power, industries and the government work together. As everyday people we do not realize how the things we do can harm our environment. Even just doing our jobs can be hurting the people around us, depending on the companies we work for. The best thing to do is if you do not agree with the actions of a corporation, then stand up to them or do not buy or use their products.
