'The Corporation' Movie



'The Corporation' Movie

Introduction

In our discussion, we will be focusing on the movie 'the Corporation'. The movie is a Canadian film documentary realized in 2003. It was written by a Law professor Joel Bakan of the British Columbia University. It was directed by Jennifer Abbot and Mark Achbar. This documentary simply scrutinizes the corporation of the modern day. In doing so it unfolds the legal status of the corporations as a person and then evaluates deeply, the behavior that it plays in the society and the world, for that matter. It does it in a way in which a psychiatrist examines and evaluates a simple ordinary person. The documentary is based on the book written by Bakan himself, 'The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power'.

This documentary displays the development of the corporations. It does so as an entity that originates as an institute which is federally chartered, with the purpose of influencing the various functions of the public for giving a rise to the latest commercial institution which entitles to the legal rights of an individual. This documentary focuses largely on the corporations of the North America, mainly that of the United States of America. One of the themes of this documentary pertains to the assessment of a corporation as having a personality, which resulted due to the statement given by the Chief Justice in a case that was held in 1886, that the corporations are living persons, and they must be treated as such. This reflected the 14th amendment of the constitution of the United States of America.

The movie unfolds various documentaries and stories illustrating the concepts of Marx. In our discussion, we will be discussing three concepts; alienation, labor theory of value and exchange value. In light of these three concepts, we will be talking about the important concepts and theories, in general by Karl Marx.

Discussion

Alienation

Alienation is a process by which individuals become alienated to the world in which they live. This concept is engraved in various religious beliefs, political and social theories and concepts. The idea is that people were once living in peace and harmony, (Marx, 2013) which was later followed by a disaster that led the people feeling like a complete foreigner in this world. However the people held a strong belief that in the times to come, things will get back to normal where there will be peace and harmony, (Marx, 1972).

This experience of alienation was deeply understood by Marx, (Marx, 2005) found in the modern bourgeois society. This understanding was developed by Marx through Hegel. Marx originally suggested that history and culture were a creation of the human nature. He opposed the opinion that nature and culture are influenced by the human nature, (Marx, 1994). In simpler words, the spirit was a product of humans, (Tucker, 2001). According to Karl Marx, history spoke about the control that man had over nature, and at the same time it was about the alienation of the man, (Marx, ...