Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Supreme Court's
"Corporate Personhoods":
Treat The Felons Among Them
Like The Felons Among Real People
Betrayal of some sort often occurs before the final parting of ways.
Without a doubt in my mind, we can kiss We The People democracy goodbye. The Supreme Court ushered in a mega chapter of Corporate Rule with it's 5 to 4 decision last week to give personhood status to non-living entities. They may not be "natural persons", but they are now "legal persons".
Their track record of having our interests and that of the environment at heart is thin. Many, if not all, are multinationals, and many of them have already hurt us in more ways that can be counted.
Their flag, if they had one, would represent not country, but profit.
It isn't like they haven't already done more harm than good for us, but now they have the same rights as a citizen. Given that so many have committed felonies, I say they treat those ones like felons - strip away those new personhood rights, just like the trailer park thugs or ghetto gangstas who have been a menace to society.
Yep, if felons named Hank, Jose, and Ray-Ray can't influence an election, I want to know why should (you fill in the blank) be trusted with our democratic process.
As an ordinary American person, I don't write the fat paychecks for a powerful lobby group to influence the way our politicians votes on laws and regulations. The Fortune 500 does, to push laws and regulations that benefit their agendas, which are too often blind, deaf and dumb, not to mention criminal, to the needs and desires of the ordinary majority.
A child knows that a business is not a person, but somehow, these ultra pro-corporate Supreme Court Justices ignored that simple truth, just like lawmakers long ago ignored the truth that people with African ancestry were 100% human, not 3/5 human.
Thanks to last week's ruling, there are new "persons" occupying the planet, and now they have the same rights for unlimited corporate spending in elections that a real person does, except they never sleep.
What many of these "corporate personhoods" do determines the quality of our lives from the cradle to the grave, and they often exploit us. They are as bloodless as they are obsessed with the desire to profit by any means necessary - and that's where their lobbyists come in. They've been around a long time, so long that even our first President, George Washington, who loved democracy as though the concept were his lover, warned We The People about them.
It's official: the groundwork is laid for them to be our new masters.
By default, Democracy is also a "person" now, and with this new ruling in place, she will be only 3/5 human.
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I'm not big on fear mongering, but THIS is some ish to be worried about.
ReplyDeleteBasically the Supreme Court just said: "This ish Obama did, we can't let that happen again. We can't let some random guy with no serious political backing come in and take the White House. That is not good, because then reform happens and we can't have that..."
So do you now have to complete an application to be a legal person. Can I make my house a person? What about my car. Hey I know how about all of my crafting supplies as a unit. They are as much or more of a positive contributing factor of my life than any other non living entity.
ReplyDeleteKit,
ReplyDeleteYou brought up an excellent point about the many disenfranchised citizens who are without a voice politically. Yep, many of these Corporations have committed felonious acts themselves but yet they have been granted some form of diplomatic immunity unlike Ray-Ray.
A. Smith, You're so right.
ReplyDeleteReal Hustla, Girl, you crack me up!
Rippa, I haven't read of anyone bring up the idea I had of treating "corporate personhoods" with a history of felonious crimes like felons, and thus strip them of the right to "vote" via influencing elections. They can begin with Exxon, who contaminated Alaska with that major oil spill from a drunken captain's neglect.
Otherwise corporate giants will be unstoppable. Maybe this idea will spread through word of mouth and various medias.
In Germany, there has long been a status of "legal person", but that is just a figure-of-speech in legalese; I guess at some point someone thought if you drag someone to court, it has to be a person of some kind. Just because you are a legal person concerning trade and commerce does not mean you have voting-rights and similar things... the status exists so there is an address connected with a transaction and possible lawsuits. Please, don't quote me on the details, I thought all of this very confusing too when people tried to teach me this.
ReplyDeleteGiving a corporation THAT kind of power is definitely scary... brings to mind the "Company" in the SciFi-Sense: The all-powerful company that employs you, runs your life and if you are fired, that's basically it for you (not that this is too farr from the truth these days anyway...).
Concerning the comment of RealHustla: I prefer making me the gouvernment of my own country to making my stuff legal persons: As a gouvernment, you can get into a debt of a few millions in year one... and proudly announce how much better you did the next your if the increase of your debt is below the few millions of year one... even with voting-rights for all your nails and screws, you will be hard-pressed to get THAT luxury ;).