"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers." -- Mignon McLaughlin

READER CONTRIBUTION: Ahem...

...as Principal Weatherbee would say.

I visited a certain Fox news website (www.foxnews.com) for curiosity purposes and noticed a huge ad for hats being sold with "W" on it. The ad said to show your support for Bush this election year. I propose the question; "Are ethics still involved in Journalism" and if so, why the f-ing ad? Is bias a matter of the wallet? Does shopping on the web continue politically on news sites? And if so, is Canada still open?

My last question, which could be the most important, is that how can a network that has had politically ambigous programming such as the Family Guy and The Simpsons glide so far one way when it comes to news? Now I wanted to be anti-rebel rouser when sending this, so I sent to people on both sides. Good and wrong.

Discuss

--Contributed by Jeff Williams, 22 May 04

Capitalist Dogma, Part 1

By now, I am sure you have heard the liberal theory that our foreign policies may be economically driven. The obvious connection pointed out is usually the simplest and most memorable. In our case it's the connection of our president, check that, our entire administration's ties to oil and defense corporations that clearly profit from efforts such as the "liberation of Iraq." This is frustrating enough. My frustrations are motivating me to dig a bit into our country's history. The more facts I find, the more I realize what most of us were taught was not fact. It's clear that the "winners write the history books." This I will elaborate on in later blogs. For now, I will focus on a recorded history of economic motives cloaked in the public appeal of human rights and liberation.

Rather than clouding the site with a time line, I will also choose the simplest and most memorable. Prior to World War II we depicted a horrible villain to our public, Adolf Hitler, who was on a familiar quest for what he felt was just. The quest was for a rapid spread of his culture and economy by conquering surrounding cultures using (among other methods) murder, slavery, and economic strangulation. The "free" world clearly saw this as a cause for liberation, and America (knowing a good deal) jumped on board at all cost. This sounds familiar already, no? So, eventually we cause an increased hell for all cultures in eastern Europe until finally we "liberate" them. The horrible terror is gone, and now Europe is presented to America as a pathetic mess. The Marshall Plan (the European Recovery Program) was then enacted. In the next four years, 12 billion US dollars was selectively pumped into war-torn European countries willing to participate in the "rebuilding" process. We are so generous to others in hard times...god bless us. This Marshall Plan can also be described as "an extension of a capitalist plan for American economic domination."(Kenneth Davis) Just as it is today, "if there was no organized Europe to sell to, who would buy all those products the American industrial machine was turning out?" As the common American saw it, we did wonderful things and gave life to those in torment. As big-business saw it...chaching!

How does this relate to our current conquests? How does it not? For me, it is clear. War, especially in the middle-east, yields an obvious profit to companies such as defense contractors, oil/energy corporations, and private security agencies. More importantly to our system, and less obvious, is the spread of a strong "capitalist plan for American economic domination." The modernized Marshall Plan continues to aid us on our present-day conquests funded by a mis-lead general public. The majority of the American public, like in earlier times, is happy to contribute in order to promote "peace, life, and liberty." I, however, feel that this "blank check" has been over-drawn.

Let us see how capitalism survives without spending American lives and tax dollars in order to promote it. And to this administration: Please stop organizing a personal profit through foreign affairs and unnecessary warfare. The world is watching!!

The World At Large

by Isaac Brock

Ice-age heat wave, can't complain.
If the world's at large, why should I remain?
Walked away to another plan.
Gonna find another place, maybe one I can stand.

I move on to another day,
to a whole new town with a whole new way.
Went to the porch to have a thought.
Got to the door and again, I couldn't stop.

You don't know where, and you don't know when.
But you still got your words, and you got your friends.
Walk along to another day.
Work a little harder, work another way.

Well uh-uh baby, I aint got no plan.
We'll float on maybe would you understand?

The days get shorter and the nights get cold.
I like the autumn, but this place is getting old.
I pack my belongings and I head for the coast.
May not be a lot, but I feel like I'm making the most.

The days get longer and the nights smell green.
I guess it's not surprising, but it's spring and I should leave.
I like songs about drifters and books about the same.
They both seem to make me feel a little less insane.

Walked on off to another spot.
I still haven't got anywhere that I want.
Did I want love? Did I need to know?
Why does it always feel like I'm caught in an undertow?

The moths beat themselves to death against the lights.
Adding their breeze to the summer nights.
Outside, water like air was great.
I didn't know what I had that day.

Walk a little farther to another plan.
You said that you did, but you didn't understand.
I know that starting over is not what life's about.
But my thoughts were so lound I couldn't hear my mouth.
My thoughts were so loud...

Bratwurst and Labor -- Who Knew?

Just read an article in today's Wall Street Journal about VW's woes this year, coming on the heels of a miserable launch of the pricey '04 Golf, nicely equipped for $24K... (Wealthy Drivers Wanted)... and the obvious horrendous sales of the luxury Patheticon... did ANYONE really pay $70 grand for a VeeWee? C'mon...

In any case, an interesting side-note about German law. Noted in the article is the fact that all corporations must adhere to a strict law stating that half of seats of the board of directors must be filled by employee representatives. Take that US labor unions! John Gotti would role over in his watery grave for the opportunity to reek such havoc!

In my truly humble opinion, this is such a wonderful idea. Talk about checks and balances. Imagine if American corporations were required to fung-shuai the same way? No more crack-head multi-millionaires wheeling their swords like a friggin nut-job in an hall of mirrors! Seriously, do you think that MCI, no wait, WorldCom, no wait, back to MCI, would ever have gone bankrupt if some rich assholes on the board were able to make such asinine decisions that could crumble a telecommunications giant in a few short months?... perhaps it still would've happened. But I doubt it, if Joe Blue Collar would've been sitting at the table asking, "What the fuck are you prep-school Ivy League assholes thinking?! Sit down and take another one of Mommy's valuum!"

Peace in Greece... hardly

That's What Friends Are For

As is the case with any newly budding collaboration, sometimes the creators disagree. In this case, I feel I must poor some light on the shadows casted by my fellow "co-editor" (who I respect dearly).

I am sure he too would agree that it is our right to form our own opinions, especially when it comes to such trivial things as primetime entertainment. In these confusing days..."opinions are like kittens, always giving them away" (for all you early modest mouse fans).

I, for one of 50 or 60 million, watched the finale of Friends tonight. Although the last season to 10 years of front running television left me visualizing the short arms and deep pockets of the nbc writing staff, I felt I had to pay my respects. I believe the Wu Tang referred to the Simpsons and Seinfeld in his antipop revolt. I also put these two shows far above Friends, but am blessed with the time and curiosity to open my mind to other well written powerhouse network television. Americans have every right to watch and enjoy shows like this. Comparing any of these shows to each other is like apples and oranges. The bottom line is that people (an arguable majority) can relate and find comfort in characters such as Ross, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Monica, and Pheobe (thats right I named 'em). We, as AMERICANS, are entitled to our simple comforts, however disliked they are among the minority that has to try hard not to watch an episode or two.

So, in closing, I encourage everyone to watch what you want (just not the commercials...fear the neuromarketing). Be happy when you can, these writers and programs are the best of the best given to you in short, easy to swallow tablets of comfort. That sweet warm glow of the tele. Even the Simpsons can't deny their love for the warm glow of pop culture. Live on, whatever, whenever...who cares.

Friends Sucks

"Aight, yo, this goes out to all my boys who are goin' to be stuck watching the final episode of a shitty sit-com tonight!"

Face it. Its a ridiculous show that "jumped the shark" a long, LONG time ago, not that it was ever good to begin with... alright, when Jennifer Aniston kissed Winona Ryder that was awesome... but besides that, what the hell was that show about? A bunch of people that were so completely obnoxious that they never could make any other friends except for themselves? Get real...

Now, take for instance, the two greatest television shows of our time (no offense, Baywatch), Seinfeld and The Simpsons were pure, unadulterated comic genius, and in the case of The Simpsons, still is. The names Kramer and Homer are buzzwords of not only their respective hit television comedies, but those two characters have developed an entire language (albeit body-language in Kramer's case - and Homer too) for gen Xers, if that's what we're still called. The creators and writers of The Simpsons took a would-be plot about a boy with a potty mouth that likes to skateboard and turned it into a running political, historical and even theological (on more than one occasion) commentary. Pure brilliance to the masses that could comprehend such genius.

And so I say, in parting words, Friends sucks... but I'll probably have to watch it anyway...

The Corporation

Familiar Villain Emerges
In Dark Documentary Film

By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN and DENNIS K. BERMAN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 6, 2004; Page B1

CEOs in handcuffs march across the screen. Bolivians riot in the streets to wrest control of their drinking water away from a business consortium. Cows with inflamed udders walk by, allegedly harmed by growth hormones. Even Kathy Lee Gifford appears, expressing her dismay that child laborers made clothes sold under her label.

The scenes unfold in "The Corporation," a Canadian documentary creating a stir with an unusually harsh critique of big business. Between vignettes, the screen fills with a white page from the World Health Organization's Manual of Mental Disorders. A big red check mark appears next to symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, or psychopathic behavior. Soon, all the boxes are checked off -- from "callous unconcern for the feelings of others" to "an incapacity to maintain enduring relationships."

On screen, Robert Hare, a psychiatrist who consults on psychopaths for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, concludes: "In many respects, corporations are the prototypical psychopath."

It's an exceedingly dim view of modern companies, and it has helped a Canadian documentary win the kind of international momentum most independent filmmakers only dream of. Since opening in Toronto in January, "The Corporation," which took six years and nearly $1 million to make, has packed theaters in Canada and broken domestic box-office records for a homegrown documentary. It has aired on TVOntario, the broadcaster that helped bankroll the film. It won the Documentary Audience Award for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is set to open in 19 U.S. cities next month. Distribution deals are lined up for Europe, Japan and Australia; a tie-in book was published in March.


'The Corporation' includes news clips of globalization protests.


After three years of corporate scandals and executive prosecutions, "The Corporation" is only the latest movie to put big business on the barbecue. Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" skewered the U.S. gun culture, the defense industry and the media, and it went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature last year. "Super Size Me," a low-budget film diary of one man's experience eating exclusively at McDonald's for one month, is set to open tomorrow on 37 screens, an unusually wide release for such a film.

"Documentaries are more exciting than canned fictional stories," says Alex Gibney, a filmmaker who is writing and directing his own entry in the genre, a documentary on Enron Corp. called "Black Magic" that is set to be released later this year.

"The Corporation" is a 145-minute fusillade of clips of present-day newscasts and interviews, juxtaposed with old black-and-white newsreel footage, corporate ads and cartoons. Painstakingly edited down from hundreds of hours of raw material by the film's third creator, Jennifer Abbott, it is a fast-moving collage, an ironic, surreal visual riff.

Parts are funny. One sequence that gets a laugh features a string of talking heads pronouncing the words, "Bad apple." Other sections are more pious. "What kind of a person is the corporation?" a woman's voice asks, at one point. A faceless man answers, "Persons who have no moral conscience."

Joel Bakan, a 44-year-old Canadian law professor, and Mark Achbar, a 48-year-old Canadian filmmaker, came up with the idea to illustrate how corporations have supplanted the government and the church as the dominant societal institution. Mr. Bakan was intrigued with the U.S. legal idea that corporations are like people, with rights to borrow money, buy and sell property and sue in court.

Predictably, the premise delights Noam Chomsky, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist and long-time anticapitalist activist who appears in the film. "This is the first time I've heard the word 'psychopath' applied to corporations," he said in an interview, "and it's exactly right."

But others don't care for it. Toronto's Financial Post called the movie an "evil, ugly and dishonest pack of lies" by "cultural welfare recipients." The Winnipeg Free Press gave the film 3½ stars out of a possible five, taking the film to task for its "unremitting grimness," adding that it "might not be enough to get audiences out of the shopping malls and onto the streets."

Most of the companies mentioned in the movie declined to comment because they hadn't seen it. Pfizer Corp. comes off relatively unscathed. The film crew interviewed a vice president about the company's community involvement, including the donation of turnstiles at a subway station and an security intercom. The executive pushes a button to demonstrate and gives a huge smile. Nobody answers.

Bryant Haskins, a Pfizer spokesman, says executives haven't seen the movie, but he bought the book. "Had we known that this was about portraying the corporation as a psychopath, we wouldn't have cooperated," he says.

Still, the movie has found its audience. The University of Western Ontario's business school has made "The Corporation" the subject of a study group. A business school in the South of France, the Theseus International Management Institute, last month screened the film at its annual alumni conference and flew Mr. Bakan in to speak. "There is a very important change taking place in what society expects of the corporation," says Ahmet Aykac, the school's director. "We assigned rights and privileges yet none of the moral constraints of physical persons."

Actually, "The Corporation" does have a hero: Ray Anderson, chairman of Interface Inc., an Atlanta rug maker whose shares trade on the Nasdaq stock market. The movie shows Mr. Anderson close to tears while confessing that he was a "plunderer" of the Earth. A few years ago, he read Paul Hawkens's "The Ecology of Commerce," an indictment of modern industry's effect on the environment. Interface, with $924 million in sales and 5,500 employees, began recycling and taking other steps to protect the environment.

"The film makes us look pretty good, doesn't it?" Mr. Anderson says. When he showed up at a question-and-answer session after the Sundance screening in Salt Lake City, he got a standing ovation.

At one point in the film, Milton Friedman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, makes an appearance. "A corporation is simply an artificial legal structure," Dr. Friedman says in the film, "but the people who are engaged in it -- whether the stockholder, whether the executives in it, whether the employees -- they all have moral responsibilities."

In an interview, Dr. Friedman disagreed with Mr. Bakan's notion that more regulations are needed for corporations to behave more ethically. "The problem is that we have too much regulation, not too little," Dr. Friedman said. "The best punishment for a corporation is open competition."

--this article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, May 6, on the front page of Marketplace