Good, scary bedtime stories cast an unfavorable light upon the villain - it’s the nature of the story. The cannibal witch is painted with warts and decaying teeth instead of portrayed as a troubled old woman with self-esteem problems. Without hyperbole, the moral would be hard to decipher. “Stay away from strangers with candy” would become, “The stranger is really just someone who needs some companionship and they may be an alright person if you give them some time.” The bad guys are easy to identify and therefore avoid.

A couple of weeks ago we rented a video called The Corporation. It is one of those alarmist documentaries that is supposed to alert you to the evil that lurks beneath the public skin of corporations. It worked. Like a scary bedtime story, I wasn’t expecting this to provide an un-biased view (they interviewed Michael Moore, for Pete’s sake!). It wasn’t. I thought I would be bored out of my skull. I wasn’t.

Through a series of interviews with scholars, CEOs, businessmen, activists, and government officials, the history of corporations is laid out and then dissected. The likes of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Mary Zepernick unfold the Supreme Court decision that allowed corporations to abuse the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The particular passage of the amendment used in the corporate argument is:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The 14th Amendment was intended to protect freed slaves, but company lawyers were able to argue that a corporation is a “person” and therefore cannot be denied life, liberty, or property. This led to the government granting corporations new legal rights to twist privileges previously only extended to human beings in order to own other companies and have unhindered growth.

Each successive interview provided a different vantage point of the corporation as an ominous entity in American and global history. Disturbing facts and figures were laid bare. Warts, decaying teeth, and cannibalistic tendencies were highlighted to make sure that I knew who the bad guy was.

True, there are probably some responsible “corporate citizens” out there who are watching over the environment, their workers’ well being, global economics, and the little guy. But there are many more who seem incapable of caring for anything but the bottom line. In the end, is it worth it to grant corporations so much freedom, just because there is a little good being done? What is a responsible solution (besides disbanding the government entirely and dismantling all corporations into easily digestible pieces)?

I could go back-and-forth on this with myself for quite some time. But, ultimately I would encourage you to check out this documentary. You should keep a grain of salt on hand, but what is learned is worth having to forge through a little opinion.

Note: Watching this movie with Maria was like sitting in on a Pentecostal Revival. Every few seconds she would whoop and holler or punctuate a speaker’s remarks with, “Yes!” or “Exactly!” We’re still watching the hours of extra interviews on the 2nd disc, but have to take breaks to calm down.