The Corporate Zombie Apocalypse
"We are here to awaken from the illusion of separation" Thich Nhat Hanh.
A corporation is a legal structure to concentrate
capital and protect irresponsible business practices by limiting
liability, creating externalized costs. These are expenses that
someone else is expected to pay, such as a mining company that
leaves huge piles of toxic waste, and then moves on to a new area.
The nuclear industry is another lasting example, creating toxic
waste that will last for over 100,000 years in order to boil water
for 40 years. The illusion that costs not accounted don't really
matter, allows massive fiscal profits, while degrading the value
of nature, the infrastructure, and society.
When the United States was founded, English
corporations were part of why we revolted. The Boston Tea Party
destroyed tea from the East India Company, a corporation owned
by the king of England. Americans understood the risk of corporates,
limiting them to specific projects for the public good, requiring
legislative approval, with steep fees and clear term limits.
However, corporate money making potential eroded
these early precautions, and states were allowed to define corporate
requirements. By 1886, through a legal trick, the first notion
of corporate personhood was introduced, and the 14th amendment,
which was supposed to protect the rights of slaves, was used to
expand corporate rights. In 2010, the Citizen's United decision
defined the corporate right to free speech as unlimited financial
political expenditure. Corporations now have no limit on their
actions, and can be created online for a fee of only $47.
Republicans claim to be Constitutional purists,
yet champion the civil rights of corporate personhood, not mentioned
in the Constitution, while denying equal rights to actual people
like women and minorities.
Real people have need for such social values
as clean air, food, and water, safe housing, and adequate education
and health care. The corporate "person" requires none
of these, so destruction of real social values has no effect on
them. Corporations are not really "living", but destroy
real living people, just like zombies. Other characteristics of
zombies are remarkably similar to corporations. It is no coincidence
that there is an increase in zombie awareness these days.
We are living in a corporate zombie apocalypse
since a few of these zombies control every aspect of civilization,
degrading the real values of society while creating increasing
wealth disparity between them and actual people. Corporations
were once national entities, with modest commitment to our nation,
but are now international in scope, with no allegiance to any
country, so there is no place on the planet that is not fair game
to be despoiled. They act like a parasitic life form, hostile
to the host.
To kill a zombie you destroy the brain. For
corporate zombies, arresting and incarcerating the corporate board
and chief officers might be sufficient. Another approach would
be to revoke the original charter, destroying the legal foundation
of corporate zombie existence. But the "life" blood
of a corporate zombie is cash flow, so seizing assets might be
required. The proceeds could be used for victim restitution.
If we don't act soon, the survival of our civilization is at risk.