I recently came across some stories about a mythic monster called the Golem. According to Jewish folklore, the Golem is a creature built of dumb clay by a rabbi for the purpose of protecting his people. Animated to life and unnatural powers through careful ritual and kabbalistic spells, it eventually, in some stories, grows too powerful to control and turns on those it was created to serve. Hmmm. The soulless hulk as ravaging juggernaut. It is an old image but is, I think, a very apt description of the modern corporation.After seeing the film The Corporation awhile back and reading Ted Nace’s Gangs of America, this idea of the act of incorporating being akin to creating a Frankenstein is not far off. A corporation enjoys the rights we as individuals do and yet it has superpowers, can shape shift (into new and diverse businesses), has an insatiable appetite (for profit), is immortal and cannot be held accountable. When you start to look a bit deeper at the nature of the corporation, it is frankly terrifying.
So, in the legend, when it becomes clear that the Golem must be destroyed, the rabbi can return the monster to earth by “removing the word of God”. When a corporation crosses the line, what recourse is there? That’s where the “revocation of charter” action starts to sound very interesting.
In the good old days, that’s what we Americans did. Revoked charters. Slam. Firstly, corporations back then were limited to the state where their charter was issued and it was so only with the clearest of terms and purpose, with a built in expiration. So when a corporation stepped out of bounds (by causing public harm, for instance), we the people revoked that corporation’s charter and it died. Slam. Death penalty.
Yes, let’s move beyond anemic slap-on-the-wrist fines. Gross polluter? Slam. Violation of human rights? Slam. Repeat offender? Slam. Could the modern day corporation, so different a creature from its early American predecessors, be kept in line with stricter limitations and the threat of death? I really don’t know.
It's a grim business when an able body has no soul.
2 comments:
Who's doing the slamming? The American government? Our judicial system?
If you dislike a corporation's business practices, don't buy their goods and they'll go away. If they don't go away it's most likely because somebody wants cheap tennis shoes or chicken nuggets. Some corporations that I view as yucky are pretty popular with other people. It seems my neighbors are all clamoring to have a Target within a shorter SUV drive. This is not my choice, but it is theirs.
People. I’m thinking it’s people doing the slamming here. Through the judicial system. I would like to see people empowered to hold some of these transnationals accountable. That’s my main gripe. There is just no accountability.
I truly wish the act of just not giving a corporation your business were effective. Maybe in the long run it could be but what about the havoc wrought in the meanwhile. I mean, they are taking down the world in a maelstrom of greed. This is big business, more powerful now than nation states. Making decisions behind closed doors that affect us all…mostly negatively. Problem is, when corporations own the media where people get their information and that media downplays or says zero about say Coca Cola (www.killercoke.org)and anti-union violence in Columbia, how do people know whether they want to give Coke their business? Hey, it’s a good tasting soda with a kick. When corporate-owned media draw the boundaries of the debate then people go blissfully unaware of the issues that may actually affect them: Wal Mart’s fallout on the small community, GM killing the electric car, Big Pharmeceutical’s cozy collaboration with the FDA to bring us more expensive and dangerous drugs. On and on.
Optimistically, I do see change on the horizon. Maybe stronger corporate laws aren’t necessarily the answer. Maybe ultimately people will make it or break with their own dollar bills, like you say. Take away the lifeblood and shrivel it will. The Internet and the indie documentary are two new and powerful agents of transparency and knowledge which just might start tipping the scales in a new direction.
Anyway, blah dee blah blah. I just think about all this a lot.
Hey, Happy Birthday, by the way, five days late. We’ve been sick with sore throats over here but I did think about ya on the 10th. Hope you had a good one!
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