Based on the Joel Bakan’s Best Seller

The Corporation: The

Pathological Pursuit of
Profit and Power
THE BEGINNING The Corporation (First Film)

● What is a corporation?
○ In simple terms: A group of individuals that work together
to serve a variety of objectives.

● How it came to be…

○ Started in the industrial age - productivity, manpower,
efficiency.
○ Transparency of Chartered Corporations
○ The idea of corporation was a “gift from the people to
serve the public good”

● A legal “Person”
○ Legal rights and protection of a person.
○ Immortal - company’s don’t “die” like humans.

● Early 2000’s
○ Corporations are taking advantage of this “right” for
PROFIT and POWER.
○ Companies are scrutinized by the public for unethical
practices.
 If large corporations were a person they would be a
THE CORPORATION PSYCHOPATH
DIAGNOSIS OF SOCIETAL DISORDER:
PSYCHOPATH Personality Diagnostic Checklist:

✓ No concern for people's feelings, or wellbeing

✓ Deceives and manipulates consumers and employees
✓ Disregard for the Safety of others
✓ Deceitfulness; lying & conning others for profit
✓ Incapacity to experience guilt
✓ Failure to conform to social norms with respect to
lawful behaviours
✓ Primarily motivated by profit, influence, and growth

Environmental Impact, Social Responsibility, Morality

“Large corporations are guilty of pursuing profits

over the interests of people and the environment”
 Consumer realization: Corporations have the ability to make change
The New Corporations have rebranded themselves as environmentally
Corporation friendly, socially aware, and morally motivated in more recent years

We add one more category to our personality diagnostic checklist…

Personality Diagnostic Checklist:

✓ Use of seduction, charm, glibness, or ingratiation to

achieve one’s ends

Companies seducing consumers through:

- “Giving Back”
- “Going Green”
- Being Morally conscience
You can have democracy or
large accumulation of
wealth, but you can't have
both.

This wealth gives these

corporations immense
power- both in promoting
their political leaders and a
legislative agenda,

They are able to control

those who try to control
them
Organizing Resistance → Change for the FUTURE

Ex.
Fight over the Adani Carmichael coal mine became a symbol of how
corporations cannot continue to ignore the wishes of the community
and create a future based solely on their financial interests alone.

We can come together and push back against corporate agendas

and demand a safe and sustainable future.