The Corporation - Documentary - My own review
Well I finally saw the Corporation myself last night. I had earlier posted a review from a early reviewer but feel compelled to add my own words today. But first a snip from the major review - "The Corporation will teach you things you never dreamed of. It will change you. It will ruin your day, but give you reason to get up in the morning - determined to make change."
My overwhelming response? That I had no idea how completely we have been captured by an idea before last night. As the images and the conversation flowed by I could only be reminded of what it must be like to live in a totalitarian state.
What I saw for the first time was the pervasive and well put together propaganda - the overwhelming resources and the reach into our young reminded me of Goebbels on a good day - that has been pumped into us for 50 years. When we are captured as babes we do not even know that we have been captured. It is easy for us to laugh at Soviet or Nazi propaganda but as I watched 2 hours of corporate propaganda - I began to "see" it for what it is - the same only smarter.
The corporate state is totalitarian in that it brooks not only no rivals but that it insinuates itself into all areas of life - not the least into our family and personal life. As man and woman we have developed corporate relationships where we become objective commodities. Don't like the current model, trade her in for a new one. Our children become fetish objects - we are proud to have them but we want them to be convenient - we don't want to invest our time and energy into them. After all we are too busy getting the money out there to buy the stuff. Wouldn't another toy appease them anyway? At work, we see all others as expendable - we vote them off the Island. We cheer when Donald says - "You're fired" We see the environment as a thing to be exploited.
We even betray our parents to the regime. Many of my friends came to PEI in the 1970's as back to the landers. None of them live like that anymore. Why? Because their children nagged them into buying the deal.
An epiphanic film - new word? Running though it are a number of brave people who speak out not the least my friend Ray Anderson. It is hard to watch this film and just continue with life as it is. The hopeful message is that social movements have a good track record in over throwing totalitarian regimes. Gandhi is a great model. It must have seemed as overwhelming to him to overthrow the Raj as it appears to me to overthrow this ideology that is killing our soul and the world around us.
The core question it raises for me is - what am I going to do I think the time is over for the question of what are they going to do. There is only the action that I take or not that is on the table. Will I be brave enough to step aside from the system? What does this mean? Can I live with myself now I know if I choose to remain?
