JENNIFER ABBOTT ON THE CORPORATION, THE DOCUMENTARY ON HOW PSYCHOPATHS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE WORLD, AND HOW TO STOP THEM (MF GALAXY 040)
Corporate
crime wave on a global scale that corporate media doesn’t want you to know about
The Canadian feature The
Corporation is one of the most acclaimed and electrifying
documentaries in recent memory, which examines corporations as one of the most
dangerous institutions on the planet.
Beginning with the legal principle in the United
States and Canada that corporations are “persons,” the documentary then asks
the question, “If they are persons,
what kind of persons are they?”
According to the fourth Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association, corporations as
persons meet the definition of psychopaths, that is, people unable to
experience remorse.
Such a psychological defect turns such individuals
into parasites and predators. A smaller number of them become killers. While
the word psychopath and its one-time synonym sociopath have been replaced by
the wordy phrase “Anti-Social Personality Disorder,” the
meaning remains the same, and as the documentary explores, a potent and
revealing way to explain and predict corporate behaviour, and perhaps to
curtail and punish it.
In March 2004, Jennifer Abbott, one of The Corporation documentary’s directors, came to Edmonton to unveil
her film which features interviews with major figures such as political analyst
Noam Chomsky,
documentarian Michael Moore, economist Milton Friedman, CEO Ray Anderson,
journalist Naomi Klein, labour crusader Charlie Kernaghan, and commodities
trader Carlton Brown, each of whom defends or attacks corporations.
During
our conversation, we spoke of many of the film’s most dramatic moments,
including the sequence depicting the attempt by the transnational corporation
Bechtel to privatize the water supply of an entire country—including by making
illegal the collection of rain water—and the inspiring revolt against that
attack on national sovereignty and natural rights.
One aspect of the conversation you may find jarring
is our eleven-year-old perspective on some events such as the illegal US invasion
of Iraq, or political figures such as then-Prime Minister of Britain
Tony Blair, then-President of the United States George W. Bush, and then-Prime
Minister of Canada Paul Martin.
Throughout the show, you’ll hear clips from the
documentary. Go to MFGalaxy.org to see some clips. Visit The Corporation.com to purchase a DVD of the film,
and to contribute to the film-makers’
crowdfunding effort to give the film for free to one thousand schools.
To hear the special extended edition of this
episode of MF GALAXY with 20 bonus minutes of my conversation with Jennifer
Abbott, become a patron of MF
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