....................... بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم .........................
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
There is a great documentary film, also referenced in Patel's book, called
The Corporation (2003). The film explores the idea of corporate 'personhood' and its morally irresponsible character. As you will see, the corporation exhibits disturbing behavioral abnormalities, reflective of a social psychopath. Patel lists some of those abnormalities below:
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(The symptoms of a psychopath; Source: Patel Raj, "The Value of Nothing:
How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy", p. 42) |
Incidentally, the "Occupy Wall Street" (OWS) movement has waged an anti-corporate personhood campaign in several states across the US. It is a big step toward regulating and restraining the biggest psychopaths in our system, and hopefully make our socio-economic environment a little safer.
4 comments:
Selam alaikum sister Nida. This post is quite interesting, because last week I had an exam which overlaps some of this topic. Castells (sociologist) has a great analyses of social movements. He says that governments try to find national solutions for international problems, in this case the economic exploitation. This is not possible since we are living in a network society. The Occupy Movement had a great potential to make a real differences worldwide with regard to the economic situation we‘re currently in. Unfortunately this movement has lost some of its power because their purpose is not very clear, and it has to some extent become a “talk-group”. But this trend will not be over, more and more unconventional political participation like protests will arise. Especially when corporations and corporatist governments do not change their attitude. When it comes to the description of corporations as psychopaths, it is pretty scaring because their portrayal does not much differ than psychopaths in psychiatric hospitals except they wear suits. It is obvious they also need to be put in re-socialization programs. The book seems interesting, I will see if I can get it in my local bookstore. Wassalaam. Badr
@ Badr – I am not sure how strong the Occupy movement is in European cities, but here in the US it’s still pretty strong. The media does not cover most of their breakthroughs and accomplishments, but I think they are very well organized here in the US, and are pushing forward quite strongly with regards to specific economic issues. And I agree with you, although not a potent force at this time, protests will spread and grow as the global economy deteriorates.
Occupy has its obvious shortcomings and problems (like choosing political ‘sides’), but it’s a step forward. An awakening.
Nida:
What accomplishments have been made by OWS?
~Casey
Hello Casey,
If nothing else, it has succeeded in awakening a largely misguided and dormant public consciousness. It brought awareness of the many endemic and pandemic issues that we ought to be concerned with as a local and global society, namely issues surrounding economic justice (or lack thereof).
On the smaller front, it effectively organized assaults on the corporate system, targeting the big corporations and ‘too big to fail banks’. “Bank Transfer Day”, though under reported, was actually a great initiative in which I also participated in. I closed my bank account and transferred my money to smaller, local banks. Inherently, it was a very symbolic act.
Also, in several cities across the US, including LA, activists have been pushing to revoke ‘corporate personhood’, and actually gained the support of many other unions and groups in this initiative. The idea is that if we can influence laws locally in the short term, we can also move towards a constitutional amendment in the long term. Not sure how successful this will be, however.
OWS is not without its problems. I think it is turning into just another liberal/progressive social movement. It is trying to address so many problems at once, that is falls short on almost every one of them. I think it is loosing momentum because it is focusing too much on special interests, like abortion and gay rights for example. Instead of sticking to its core message it has become scattered and divisive. Some branches of OWS have even been choosing political sides, which is tragic, since this movement is supposed to be critical of the entire system and not just the conservatives within it.
The movement is still relatively young, and I can’t predict where it will go from here, but I do hope it will shift people’s priorities and make them more responsible citizens.
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