The Corporation

On our second try, we downloaded a version of The Corporation that would actually play, and we watched it--all three hour-long parts--tonight.

Of course it did not argue as well as I might like it to. One of the chief antagonists was a representative of the Fraser Institute, and his rhetoric really should have been dealt with in a more direct manner. Come on, people, it's not all that challenging. For example, the main argument for capitalist globalization (multinationals save third-worlders from starvation) could have been countered quite nicely with a bit of Amartya Sen, I think, which would have dove-tailed nicely with the theme of putting democracy first.

The aspect of the film that impressed me the most was how it featured corporate insiders. I don't know how the filmmakers managed to convince them to say so much on camera, but good on them in any case. A couple of these moments are my favourites from the film: more-or-less conscientious CEOs showing that they're people, too, and a Wall Street trader ironically describing his first thoughts when he hears news of war and destruction. All too often lefitsts waste their time demonizing the rich, so it's nice to see the blame clearly put on the system, where it belongs.