The Great Stromboli! (Blog # 11)

I've never wondered about what a corporation is. Bakan describes a corporation as "a legal institution, one whose existence depends upon...[pursuing] relentlessly...its own self-interest" (1). They are abominations and they have as unnatural a relationship as a puppeteer and a puppet. A puppet master animates the tool of his trade, he does not imbue it with life. Perhaps that is why Louis Baker refers to corporations as “Frankenstein monsters” (19). The corporation does not follow the "natural order" of things. The conventional business hierarchy would have the government at the helm, but with the advent of the corporation, the government had to answer to something other than itself, something less worthy. It essentially handed over its power when it upheld the machinations of the corporation. In doing so, it made a monster.

Take the tobacco company for instance. Nowadays, there is a campaign against the tobacco company called truth. Through humor and shock they have been trying to bring that particular corporation to its knees. When you think about it, the CEOs of Marlboro and other brands are marketing death. What is even more sad is that people buy into it. Between 1930 and 1950, the side effects of smoking were not extensively studied. In literature and media of the time, everyone had a neatly rolled cig between their fingers. But since then, some of the glamour seems to have worn off.

The corporation is like a Frankenstein monster. Frankenstein was given eternal life. Though the tobacco company is not at its prime anymore, it has not gone under. Why is that? Is the corporation immortal? One thing is for certain: it already pulls the strings of the world's political leaders.