Monday 4 August 2008

The Corporation

Yesterday, Deb and I watched The Corporation, which I realise is five years old now, but it did get me thinking. I liked the analysis of the mindset of corporations in general that likened them to psychopaths - if they are legal persons, they need to be treated more like a responsible, thinking adult, and the shareholders need to be accountable for its actions.

The other idea that hit me was that of going "carbon neutral" as an organisation. It may be a noble goal, but if everyone else is producing carbon on balance, and you're neutral, well, you're not actually helping, are you? You're not making it worse, but that's like standing to the side of a street fight pointing at yourself to say "See? I'm not fighting!" while doing nothing to break it up.

In general, I think the film did a good job of demonising corporations, which I assume was the goal. I didn't expect even-handed treatment of the subject matter, of course, so I don't consider myself well informed now, but maybe I'm half informed.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I don't know where you'd go for even-handed treatment of this subject.
PPS - Maybe an encyclopedia.

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