On Psychopaths.

Yesterday, I watched one of those really eye-opening documentaries -- you know what I mean, like those Micheal Moore movies, or like "Supersize Me". It was called "The Corporation". Why did I watch it? Well first of all, it was part of my job description; working for alonovo.com meant that the first thing I had to do was to watch this documentary that truly embodied what the entire concept of alonovo.com is (maybe I'll write about that on a later date). A brief synopsis of the movie is available here.

There are several things that the movie really made me realize. We, as human beings have several social responsibilities, and as the human race progresses, that obligation to this important responsibility declines further and further. This progression of humanity arises first and foremost from the entities known as corporations. Although its pretty darn hard to describe exactly what a corporation is -- is it a person, is it a group of people?! -- the Merriam-Webster dictionary does a pretty good job in defining what exactly a corporation consists of: " a body formed and authorized by law to act as a single person although constituted by one or more persons and legally endowed with various rights and duties including the capacity of succession".

Although a corporation acts as a single person, although under the law it is supposed to follow the rules and regulations that average-Joe must, the fatal truth remains that it doesn't. The reason? Although the law dictates that a corporation must act as a person does, it cannot. It does not have the feelings of that average-Joe. It does not have the empathy, the righteousness. Because the corporation is made up of not one, but hundreds, maybe thousands, that social responsibility that the average-Joe feels full on, the corporation permeates through its many employees. As was the case in the American mid-west during the Great Depression, when the abstract entity, the bank just came and took away the land of those midwestern farmers. Those individuals who demolished the houses in the middle of Oklahoma did not feel any responsibility for what they did. They simply did it to earn their daily $3. Those Oklahoman farmers didn't know who to go to because the bank, the corporation, although was an entity and an individual, it didn't experience the same pains, the same sympathies, or the same remorse that an individual can. In fact, there's not even a way to communicate with this individual. Such is the power of the corporation -- we all know of it, we all are owned by it, every facet of our life is governed by it, yet we can do nothing about it.

The corporation is much like Lord Voldemort, from Harry Potter. It is psychopathic -- looking for only power, in the form of more consumers buying its products. But at what cost? At the cost of the environment? The cost of nature's beings? The cost of human beings themselves? In this frenzied rage of the corporation to reach the sky, it leaves behind a path of utter destruction. Without the concern of anyone or thing around it, the corporation takes on the role of the psychopath; it exhibits all the qualities of a psychopath.

The corporation is deemed psychopathic because it has a single streamed goal. It's thinking is linear. Our world is not. Earth is circular, but the actions of the corporation are not. It does not think to recycle, to recreate. It only thinks to create and dispose. But in a circular Earth, there is only so much one can dispose. The corporation fails to understand that simple concept and that is where it's downfall exists.

Although the corporation wishes to make life better for us, the entire model fails. There's only so far a corporation can go to try and salvage itself and help nature instead of harming it because a corporation is without that humanity element that defines human beings. Although considered a separate entity, it is impossible for it to truly be one. The corporation is an alien on Earth, and Earth's reaction is that to expel it from existence on Earth. Yet, the corporation fights and kills. As the war against Earth and corporation continues, who knows what more will be taken away. Already the atmosphere is in shambles, people and animals alike are dying from the remnants of the corporation.

Only the sands of time will tell what happens with this particular psychopath.