I just watched "The Corporation" last night. Oh. My. Goodness. If you find it at the movie store, rent it. (Of course, be warned -- it's a documentary, and it's 2.5 hours long. But it is well worth your time.) I was incredibly convicted by the end.

Because I'd have a ridiculously hard time trying to explain it myself, I'll just quote the website for you:

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation's grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Winner of 24 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, 10 of them AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS including the AUDIENCE AWARD for DOCUMENTARY in WORLD CINEMA at the 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL...

The film is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.

But because I think it is a "well-worth-your-time" type movie, I'll provide a few examples of what was in it:

1. It described the fairly recent change in patenting laws that now allow genetic code to be patented and owned. Everything except for a full blown human being can be owned. There are companies today that literally own the genetic code to certain animals, diseases, disorders, etc. No kidding:

   Today, every molecule on the planet is up for grabs. In a bid to own it all, corporations are patenting animals, plants, even your DNA.
   

2. Did you know that the song "Happy Birthday" is owned by AOL-Time-Warner, and to use it in a movie you have to pay them $10, 000?! Wow.
3. One country (who's name I can't remember at the moment) actually had their water supply (including rain water) bought and controlled by an American corporation, to the point where the citizens were forced to make such choices as whether to feed their children or buy them water. Eventually, they revolted and took the water back, having to overthrow their own government to do so.
4. National disasters are profitable:

   The Corporation exists to create wealth, and even world disasters can be profit centers. Carlton Brown, a commodities trader, recounts with unabashed honesty the mindset of gold traders while the twin towers crushed their occupants. The first thing that came to their minds, he tells us, was: "How much is gold up?"

There are ton of other things I was going to say about it, but I'm thinking it could turn into a super-long post -- and I have to study for an exam tonight. Basically, I think the film is an important one. I was really convicted about how easily I allow myself to be controlled by advertising and, basically, big business. Not only that, but how unconcerned I am for the world in which I live. I feel ashamed at how little regard I have for the majority of the population on this planet. Not only is it un-Christ-like, it's overwhelmingly inhuman.