(Originally published in the October 2007 issue of Look Magazine in Taiwan)
At the end of the 19th century, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was passed after the American Civil War, expressly protecting individuals Property and life are not threatened by others and the government. However, this bill was originally intended to protect the emancipation of black slaves, but it was extended by corporate lawyers at the time and applied elsewhere, chanting "Enterprises are also humans!" So the concept of legal persons was no more than that. Spawn. In this bloody civil war that killed 600,000 people, the ultimate beneficiaries were hundreds of emerging companies. This group of "legal persons" have the right to buy and sell real estate and file lawsuits, but they are different from living humans. They have no established concept of moral conscience, no beliefs and ideals, and only care about the business interests of shareholders.
"They" believe in only quarterly earnings in the financial statements, and the ultimate goal of profit is even written in the legal provisions. Relatively speaking, companies do not need to be loyal to the public interest. As the British Baron Thurlow said: "They have no soul to redeem, and no body to imprison." The 2003 documentary "Corporate Personality Diagnosis", which was screened at the Iron Horse Film Festival this year and released on DVD by the Wild Ecology Society. They led the audience through the history of more than a hundred years of enterprise development and the scale of behemoth today. From the industrial age of mining how to use steam machines to increase the output value and efficiency, it has been talking about the current era of microchip and semiconductor dominance.
The most bloodthirsty and ferocious shark
For thousands of years, people have believed in religion and government, regardless of monarchy, democracy or communism. But in today's era of rampant capitalism, companies are the most pious religions people believe in. In fact, under the large-scale invasion of globalization, multinational corporations have occupied a certain territory earlier than all parts of the world, and are no longer restricted to the power of any single government. They have surpassed the political leaders of various countries and become the most powerful substance in today's society. leader.
The movie compares the modern multinational corporations with Frankenstein. Although they were able to fall to the ground with the help of human beings, they have already surpassed the grasp of human beings and become a wild horse that is out of control. A ferocious shark driven by the smell of blood (banknotes). But while blindly pursuing prosperity and benefits, companies have also created devastating consequences that will eventually swallow the entire planet and human civilization.
"Corporate Personality Diagnosis" was filmed based on Joel Bakken's "Character and Destiny of the Enterprise". Many entrepreneurs, professors and scholars were invited to show up in the film, and it not only invited the pushy documentary director Michael Moore and anti-hegemony objections. Scholar Chomsky, Nobel Prize winner Milton Freeman, author of the book "No Logo" Naomi Klein, and even Moody Stewart, the former chairman of Shell Petroleum, and other famous market players Also accepted interviews in person.
The most commendable place is to invite Lei Anderson, the chairman of Interface, the world’s largest carpet tile manufacturing company, to personally describe how he has become the most conscientious entrepreneur who has spared no effort in defending environmental protection and sustainable operation of the earth from a business man who originally did not care about corporate responsibilities. Talk freely about the mental journey of change during this period. At a corporate symposium included in the film, Lei Anderson's first sentence was to address his colleagues in the field as "My fellow predators." The words were full of regret and grief introspection, and the camera swept across the audience. Several people could see tears in their eyes, listening attentively to his speech.
Applause for the tragedy and applaud the
film Zhongfen analyzes the pros and cons of today’s enterprises one by one from the aspects of social justice, environmental conservation, marketing and advertising. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, companies attach importance to the figures in the financial statements, reduce costs as much as they can, and increase productivity and profitability as much as possible. This is the supreme goal of the company; as for employee well-being and People's livelihoods are not valued by enterprises. It is also the reason why companies often do everything in order to achieve the goal of profit. Vicious layoffs, suppression of labor unions, and labor squeeze all kinds of despicable methods. Multinational companies that set up factories in developing countries have hired local underworld, or Joining hands with the totalitarian government to suppress labor, not only drove laborers’ self-help protests, but even conspired to assassinate against labor leaders. Such oppression is indeed endless.
The "fair trade" campaign strongly advocated by Coldplay once called on chain coffee brands not to be backed by strong corporate power, forcing large amounts of coffee beans to be purchased at low prices and exploiting poor coffee farmers. I believe people should be familiar with this; In the film, we will travel to developing countries such as Dominica to capture the true face of sweatshops. The audience will discover how large companies that put on enthusiastic charity hypocrisy in the media can use excessively long working hours and unreasonable work in a harsh working environment. Low salary exploits its employees. A secret document was proposed in the film to prove that a glamorous brand-name sweatshirt requires employees to sew in less than seven minutes. The actual remuneration paid to employees by the company only accounts for three-thousandths of the retail price. On the contrary, However, they are willing to spend huge sums of money on advertising. The comparison between the two is really infuriating the viewers.
Microsoft recently lost the antitrust law in the European Union, which has attracted the attention of the world, but in fact it includes GE, Mitsubishi Motors, Pfizer, Kodak Film, IBM, Hills Department Store, and many other large and bright advertisements. Companies have been fined millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars for crimes of antitrust laws, environmental pollution and even defrauding the government. In the small calculation of corporate accountants, compliance with the law is not the primary consideration, but whether cost reduction is cost-effective compared with the risk of illegality before deciding whether to comply with government laws. In contrast, it is not surprising that labor welfare and social justice are ignored by companies.
If a rich person can make a dollar by selling rope, even if the rope is used to hang him, he will still sell it happily. ──The documentary film director Michael Moore
may have seen how traders create blackouts to drive up electricity prices in "Ann Long Storm", and there is also a futures trader in "Corporate Personality Diagnostics" when facing the camera. To tell the truth, the first thought that came to his mind when the 9/11 tragedy happened was: "How much is the price of gold now? It must be a big win!" It was the same group of people during the Persian Gulf War. Reaping huge profits from soaring oil prices, while watching enthusiastically the bones of children burning on the TV news, while calculating the thickness of the purse. Many large companies have used fraud and seizures to seize water resources all over the world, privatize them and mark them at prices, so that the poor and unaffordable third world people have no clean water source and cost a quarter of their income. Purchase domestic water.
Behind the scenes of fascism
If you look back at the history of the rise of emerging multinationals over the past half-century, it is inseparable from the rise of fascism. Fascist parties such as Mussolini in Italy and Nazis in Germany have received many corporate funding. It can be said that the fish helps the water and the water helps the fish. The documentary "I used to be a slave labor" pointed out that many German auto industries, such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and the chemical company Faben Company, relied on the Nazi regime to provide nearly free slave labor during World War II. Today's scale.
The "Corporate Personality Diagnosis" was even bolder. It turned out that even the American companies at the time, such as Coca-Cola's Fanta, General Motors' Op, Ford, etc., regardless of hostile positions, cooperated with the Nazi government, fortunately to continue in Germany during World War II. Profitable. Even the Nazi concentration camps relied on IBM's early check-in system to manage the wealth data of millions of prisoners. The abusive IBM also sent special personnel to the concentration camps to repair these rented equipment every month. To this day, American companies are still keen to deal with and profit from authoritarian regimes, terrorists and dictators.
The U.S. government, which should have put people's well-being as its primary consideration, has often turned its backside to act as a corporate thug, and is diligent in sending troops to safeguard corporate interests overseas. Of course, the Iraq War, in the name of anti-terrorism but for oil conquests, is of course not a problem. Over the past 100 years, the U.S. military has sent countless times to Mexico, Haiti and other Latin American countries, just to protect the local sugar, oil, etc. of U.S. companies. Industry interests. But even so, these insatiable black-hearted companies cannot be satisfied. The reason is that they are dissatisfied with President Roosevelt’s populism. Large companies such as Goodyear Tire, General Motors, and U.S. Steel tried to fund the military to overthrow the Roosevelt regime in the 1930s. , In the end, the deeds were revealed but nothing happened.
The executioner of chronic murder
Since the invention of chemical synthesis in the 1940s, it has drastically changed the face of human life over the past thousands of years. All kinds of petroleum products, plastic utensils, and chemicals that did not exist in nature can be manufactured in test tubes in the laboratory, but what is spawned in this alchemist’s small medicine furnace is endless and poisonous. Waste and environmental pollution. While cruel living experiments continue to be carried out, countless natural habitats have also been destroyed, and excessive carbon dioxide emissions have profoundly affected the natural climate. This is a chronic murder of all mankind and the planet, and the real culprit is the major companies that have turned a deaf ear to this cruel reality.
Herbicides and DDT insecticides that can cause birth defects in babies are naturally well-known, and growth hormones, which are banned by Europe, New Zealand, Australia and other countries, continue to be used on cattle on American pastures today. Although this growth hormone can increase milk secretion, it also causes mastitis and various unnecessary pains in dairy cows. It also allows inflammation pus, drug-resistant bacteria and carcinogenic chemical products to be mixed into the fragrant milk and served on the table together. The unsuspecting child swallowed it. The stories of "Fringe of the French Open" and "Never Compromise" not only live on the movie screen, but are also staged around you and me every day.
They have no soul to redeem, and no body to imprison. ──In
addition to using false advertisements to create a good corporate image, the British Baron Thurlow also uses advertising budgets as a backing to threaten TV stations and intervene in freedom of the press to prevent negative images from being publicized. Yu Shi. In 1996, two news anchors under Fox Television had originally produced the aforementioned special program about the truth about growth hormone, but before the broadcast, they were forced to call for cards by the senior management, sometimes expelling threats and sometimes enticing them to benefit, hoping that the two would dispel it. The idea of broadcasting, at the end, he did not hesitate to tear his face to court to prevent the truth from being revealed.
The wire puppet in the palm of the enterprise
Excessive consumerism prevails in society nowadays, and advertising and marketing are even more powerful tools. The United States spends 12 billion U.S. dollars on advertising and marketing budgets each year. Companies have long been familiar with how to use various methods and social surveys to manipulate consumers. Among them, children-oriented media marketing is the most effective. McDonald’s and Disney are all experts in children’s marketing. The documentary "Meat Fat Report", The report literature "Fast Food Republic" has thoroughly explored such phenomena. Companies realize that successfully shaping a corporate brand image is far more important than marketing a single product. Through marketing strategies, they can deeply implant a lifestyle (Lifestyle) in people’s minds, whether it is the wildness of Marlboro cigarettes or The noble luxury of brand-name leather goods, and the establishment of consumption habits from it, once successfully implanted, consumers will be loyal customers of the brand throughout their lives.
Disney is definitely the best company in marketing lifestyle, and even for this reason, it has even funded the construction of a new town near the world's largest Florida Disneyland. This celebration town accommodates 1,300 houses and 5,000 residents. It hopes to build American life value from the most fundamental point, deepen the brand spirit of "family magic", and extend the marketing brand image. It can be seen that the claim that the power of the enterprise has surpassed the government in the film is not a lie.
In this era of proliferation of marketing, everything can be promoted and everything can be sold. Not only air, water, land, aviation routes, pollution licenses, and even life (genetic modification technology) have been placed on the scales of merchants to scream and sell, and the two places are exchanged for green banknotes. In-place marketing is more like an ambush land. The team hides all around their lives and is ready to assault at any time.
It’s not just like the marketing cooperation between traditional cigarette companies and Hollywood, even the strong combination of FedEx and "Rebirth of Catastrophe" can be regarded as pediatrics by comparison. Now the marketing message is coming out of the movie set, and the eyes are hidden intently. In daily life. Companies will hire ordinary people like you and me, pay for them to use a certain product, so as to subtly spread these advertising messages like a mouse club, and they will be kept in the dark. People don't know anything about this, thinking that everything is a personal free will choice, but they have long since become a puppet in the hands of enterprises.
Proof: psychopath
As stated in the first paragraph of this article, if corporate legal persons are regarded as flesh and blood humans, what kind of personality do they have? Based on the WHO Mental Disease Diagnostic Statistics Manual, the film examines the behaviors of these companies item by item, and invites the FBI chief psychoanalyst to do a personality check. Finally, it is diagnosed that the company is a typical psychopath. in conclusion.
In addition to many scenes that make any conscientious audience unable to resist the flow of blood and blood, there are also moments that make people smile. Several protesters broke into the home of Moody Stewart, the former chairman of Shell Petroleum, and hung a "murderer" cloth strip on the roof. Unexpectedly, the two parties sat down on the lawn sipping coffee and tasting biscuits. , Talked about climate change and social responsibility; however, at the same time, Shell oil continues to cause air pollution all over the world.
Entrepreneurs are certainly not scourges. Although Microsoft President Bill Gates continues to be infamous, he is an enthusiastic philanthropist. He has donated nearly three billion US dollars since this century alone. The Rockefeller family is also involved in charity. The amount of donation by the stock master Buffett is compared with that of Bill Gates. Not letting too much. But after all, this is just the entrepreneur's own public welfare behavior. After all, entrepreneurs and presidents are not the same as the enterprise itself, and the behavior of the enterprise itself is not in line with social justice, and it has to be examined on another platform.
The moral conscience of entrepreneurs as individuals is actually submerged in group consciousness under the primary consideration of the corporate system and profitability. Enterprises composed of countless single individuals have long surpassed the control of individual human beings, and are restricted to become puppets of the system. Whether companies are competing to invest in social welfare undertakings is out of good intentions, tax-saving, or even trying to bleach and remarket their corporate image. This is a market strategy that seeks to gain a competitive advantage and sell more products. It remains to be seen Consumers continue to observe and supervise.
The government needs to supervise the fulfillment of social responsibilities by enterprises. When serious violations of social justice are committed, it can be countered by cancellation of licenses instead of lobbying by interest groups and amending legal provisions to meet the needs of enterprises and suppress labor. The people should come into contact with social issues through media reports or spontaneously from time to time. When injustices occur, they will stand up to boycott companies and gather public opinion against the power of the consortium.
The anti-sweatshop campaign triggered by Nike sneakers' exploitation of Southeast Asian laborers finally won an apology from the company after more than a decade of harassment by social activists and made some improvements to the harsh working environment; under the wave of "fair trade" protests, In recent years, Starbucks coffee has also begun to use fair trade certified coffee beans. Although it still accounts for a small proportion of the total consumption, it is already the largest purchaser in North America.
People have won precious victories in sporadic battles, but this war still has a long way to go.
Director's profile:
Mark Achbar is a
famous Canadian documentary producer. He co-produced the documentary "Manufacturing Agreement" with Peter Wintonick and won the (1992) Toronto Film Festival Best Documentary Feature Award and the Chicago Film Festival Golden Hugo Award. He started the filming of "Deconstructing the Enterprise" in 1997 and interviewed many corporate giants. The film won the Special Prize of the Jury of the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival in 2003.
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