The issue of corporate personhood has been a pet interest of mine for many years (see my previous blog entry Corporate Beastie). The reality of big business being granted human rights has deeply bothered me and I recognize it as a major taproot underpinning and feeding much of what ails this modern world. The potential for far reaching change if this insidious cord could be cleanly cut is staggering. So much ugly reality would wither, finally clearing ground for the truly nourishing innovation and vital repair that needs to happen on this planet.
So, I when Stephen Colbert highlights this very issue in his segment The Word (Let Freedom Ka-Ching) on his show, The Colbert Report....I take notice. And when new Justice Sonia Sotomayor makes a "provocative statement" in her first Supreme Court session to the effect that perhaps the 19th century rulings on this matter should be revisited, well, I am downright excited.
Judges "created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons," she said. "There could be an argument made that that was the court's error to start with...[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics." Wow, am I dreaming? That pesky "court error" has sure wrought some havoc. I'm feeling just a little bit hopeful.
Still a long haul, no doubt. But the glimmerings are beginning.
Picture gleaned from Albo Jeavons' www.disincorporated.org.
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