The Corporation

[nadinbrzezinski]

rent it, buy it, watch it.

Yes, it is that important. I finally managed to watch it... and it was a hell of an angering ride. On the bright side, the cyberpunk world many of us have described is here, but unlike the fantasy... yes there is hope and small battles are being won these days. Yes, they are small... but how do you think victory will come? From small acts of defiance that build up.

[Petrushka]

1. K & R

:patriot:

[coti]

2. Or watch it right here for free:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/118169/the-corporation

[RandomThoughts]

3. The corporate person.

No soul and born of war, greed, and deception.

And the worst part, it is a training system to make those that serve that master be like that master.



A personal story of my best corporate moment. while working for a company years ago, I went to a management training group. The first couple days were the usual team building and group pride exercises, lots of cult techniques like no information positive affirmations for the company, and high energy positive ideas about how great the company is.

On the next day, one of the managers was asking how she could handle an issue. A women that had worked 30 years at the company as a cake decorator had her hours cut to 20 hours so that they could hire a younger worker since new employees are cheaper then her wage. The Cake decorator, trying to make money was slowing her work to try and get a little overtime each day.

The question was how they could get her to be more productive and motivate her. The answer completely ignored anything about her years working there, or the fact that she had worked for years doing a good job and was being phased out, it was about profit. The response from the instructor was that to meet labor numbers such workers need hours cut, and that the manager should find ways to write her up, suspend her and then fire her.

In the meeting were about 30 of us, mostly people age 20 to 30. After hearing that advice, I added my opinion, and told all those managers, to remember that at any time in the next 20 years, if the company can make more money by firing you, they will. As a person you mean nothing to them, and all that stuff they told you over the last two days about how important you are to them, is shown to be not true by the example of how they handle employees. They are trying to make you think they care about you, when it is only about the money, and if firing or treating you wrong is profitable they will.

There was a silence, and I could see every single young adult in that room had that concept click. Two days of ra ra cult techniques exposed as untrue in one simple statement. To be fair, the person running the meeting tried to defend her comment, each time she again spoke how if the company is not profitable it can not pay wages, or keep employees. My response was to say that it wasn't it was firing a 30 year employee for a buck an hour improve in profit. Finally the instructor said, "its just business" LOL.

That was a good day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. And that is a classic of what is wrong with the thinking

for many companies... or all for that matter.

[mdmc]

14. God bless you!

My God, if you really spoke those words.. God Bless!
I've met many silly consultants that give the advice of your "meeting facilitator". I once worked for a company that got rid of all the executives, then brought in a consultant to try to make us work harder. "If you don't like these changes, go work at Walmart." he said on his first day of "setting us straight".

We all decided to go along with our old executives and start a competing company. Worse, we did it while employed by the idiot consultant. We never listened to him, and eventually all got fired (and hired at the new firm that the old executives set up). Eventually the old firm lost its contracts and went bankrupt. The consultant, of course, got paid..

Thank you so much for your story. My only regret is that I didn't say to that consultant, "I don't like these changes. You can fire me if you want." We all were fired in the end anyway. Those that were not fired ended up having no job ..

[marmar]

4. Gotta start somewhere......

www.reclaimdemocracy.org

www.poclad.org

[Echo In Light]

5. The film's web link:

http://www.thecorporation.com/

[omega minimo]

7. people can be warned, the messages are great, the filmmaking not so much.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Did you notice this was a CANADIAN Film?

[omega minimo]

10. possibly affected by AdBusters' style?

IMHO the film was very choppy and hashed together, perhaps for a ADD audience.

The info is very important.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I actually liked it

but then again I have ADD... so there

:-)

To me the info is very important though, and unfortunately you will not have that go into wide circulation in the US... I mean it did not.

[omega minimo]

12. yes, understood. that's fine. it's been shown broadly if not widely

:hi:

[Echo In Light]

8. Bump

[asdjrocky]

13. Seen it, own it, know it.

Everyone should.