Dr. Gary G. Kohls
“Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person.” -- Anonymous
In 2010 the NeoConservative, pro-corporate, anti-democratic Roberts’ 5/4 Supreme Court’s decided in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission ruling to grant personhood to corporations by allowing unlimited, anonymous monetary contributions to political campaigns and candidates. This ruling, called by many to be the worst Supreme Court decision of the past century, has emboldened the already powerful and corruptible multinational corporations (that now have achieved dominion over US politics as well as the economy) to “buy” any number of politicians and brain-wash voters by multi-million dollar ad campaigns that the rest of us can’t afford to counter in state and national elections.
The US Supreme Court has thus made legal the absurd notion that inanimate corporations like PolyMet and GTac (potential despoilers of northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin’s irreplaceable wetlands, aquifers and aboriginal land and water rights) deserve the same privileges (but not the same responsibilities) as living humans.
After the ruling came down, there was only a brief bit of outrage from the so-called national leadership of our essentially “one-party system” (one-party, that is, when it comes to the GOP and Democratic Party’s corporate and militarist agendas). What outrage was expressed was quickly drowned out by a well-timed, mainstream media-orchestrated “tempest in a teapot”, namely Toyota’s recall of tens of thousands of accelerator pedals (that had only infrequently been the cause of significant accidents).
What Should be the Punishment for Corporate Entities That Plunder and Pillage?
The following question about the consequences of the Supreme Court’s democracy-threatening decision must be asked:
If corporations are given the privileges
of personhood, shouldn’t they also bear the same responsibilities and
incur the same punishments as individuals when they commit crimes,
poison the water and air or rape the land?
Peace and justice activists applauded when the citizens of
Shapleigh, Maine protected their water rights last year from the
insatiable water-extracting corporate giant Nestle. (See video and more
information on this episode at: (http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40335).
Nestle, one of the many multinational corporate exploiters, has no
allegiance to Maine, Minnesota or Wisconsin or any other state where
this foreign entity tries to extract water or minerals that never were
theirs to begin with. But when the minerals have been depleted and the
water has been polluted or drained, Nestle, PolyMet and GTac will be
gone, and so will Exxon/Mobil, British Petroleum, Halliburton, Deep
Water Horizon, British Petroleum, Coca-Cola, Perrier or whatever other
corporate intruder that ruthlessly extracts or poisons the people’s
resources — all for the economic benefit of their faceless investors,
shareholders and CEOs at their out-of-state corporate headquarters, none
of whom will have to live with the poisoned environment that they have
left behind.
The good citizens of Shapleigh recognized the foxes that tried to get
inside their henhouse, and they did the right thing by vigorously
resisting; and another underdog David — with a lot of justice, a lot of
pluck and a little luck on his side — won a rare victory against another
evil giant.
Move to Amend: Overturning Citizens United
That small victory against injustice should illustrate what must be
done if American democracy is ever to thrive again. The outrageous
Citizens United decision must be overturned with a constitutional
amendment. (See www.movetoamend.org for more.) The
future of the nation, our children, the planet, our drinking water,
natural habitat and aboriginal rights are all at stake. And exploitative
corporations, just like other sociopathic entities, don’t seem to care.
It is important to understand that the allegiance of big corporations
is to its investors, shareholders, executives and management teams, and
not to the people whose lives and health depend on the sustainability
of the land, water, air and food supplies. Most corporate shareholders
and executives from multinational corporations that are part of Big
Pharma, Big Food, Big Agribusiness, Big Oil, Big Finance, etc are
motivated by profits and not the common good, and therefore they are not
concerned when local resources are used up and the struggling, degraded
communities are left behind to fend for themselves (after being fooled
into trusting non-human corporations that are inherently untrustworthy
[see below]).
”Trust us: We’re the Experts; Toxic Sludge is Good for You; We’ll Clean up After Ourselves” — and Other Corporate Lies
Conscienceless mega-corporations that swoop down on unsuspecting
people and naïve governmental bodies, usually ask them to “trust us” and
that — at some time in the uncertain future – they will un-poison the
often permanently-toxified environment that they secretly intend to just
leave behind. The people, understandably desperate for jobs, are
usually fooled into believing well-crafted disinformation that is
cunningly delivered — until it is too late and the mess that is left
behind is no longer the sneaky corporation’s problem. It’s an old con.
Promises made during the courtship phase are likely to be broken with impunity when these foreign corporations are forced to pull-out, merge with other entities or file for bankruptcy. Silver-tongued experts from out of state are very good at getting us rubes up north all starry-eyed over temporary jobs, jobs, jobs while discounting the huge risks of permanent dead and dying zones being created because of their poisonous chemicals.
Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Union Carbide/Dow Chemical and Henry Kissinger
A good example of the many tax-avoiding American mega-corporations is
Wal-Mart. A large portion of its profits go to a handful of Walton
family billionaires in Arkansas. Wal-Mart successfully — and legally —
avoids paying for healthcare insurance and other benefits for most of
their exploited, underpaid, part-time employees, who are also victims of
the corporation’s notorious union-busting policies.