GoldbergBlog

Special Comment: The United Corporations of America

See, this is the Olbermann I like.  A strong, well-made argument that hammers home a single point.  And his point is chilling.  It is the nightmare scenario concerning the Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations and unions can spend as much money as they want.  Olbermann doesn’t even mention that Max Baucus, who was bought by health care insurance companies, almost put a screeching halt to health care reform this fall with his worthless bill, penned by health care lobbyists.  Now imagine every senator like that.  Pretty terrifying, right? It is not, however, pre-ordained. Here’s Olbermann’s Special Comment and my response is after the jump.

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The biggest problem with corporations is that they have one goal: make money.  All else is irrelevant and to not make every effort to fulfill that goal would be to hurt the shareholders.  Shareholders lose money, CEO votes out, new CEO voted in to make more money.  Social conscience is fine as long as it serves a bottom line.  It’s nice that Coca-cola offers scholarships.  It’s nice because it makes Coca-cola look nice.  But every action comes back to one simple mandate: make money.

But, as with all things, “this too shall pass.”  As bad as this ruling is, we know change.  We know that President Obama has barely delivered on it.  But we also know that Google and cell phones and a world unrestrained by geography cannot be shifted overnight or even over decades.  We bemoan reality TV, but people used to go to public executions for entertainment.  We have evolved.  The Printing Press changed the world because it gave the world the chance at literacy.  That knowledge could be power.  We are not in the dark ages.  We will find a way.  Look at our country and then look at Haiti.  They had nothing and then nature happened and now they have even less.  We have not forgotten them.

I’ll admit that sometimes one of the most chilling exchanges in cinematic history comes to mind:

Jake Gittes: How much are you worth?
Noah Cross: I have no idea. How much do you want?
Jake Gittes: I just wanna know what you’re worth. More than 10 million?
Noah Cross: Oh my, yes!
Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can’t already afford?
Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes! The future. Now, where’s the girl? I want the only daughter I’ve got left. As you found out, Evelyn was lost to me a long time ago.
Jake Gittes: Who do you blame for that? Her?
Noah Cross: I don’t blame myself. You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they’re capable of ANYTHING.

And then, I think of what Edward R. Murrow, the man from whom Mr. Olbermann took his sign-off cue, once said: “We will not walk in fear of one another.”  We have no choice but to live, and even if Olbermann’s nightmare scenario comes to pass, we will find a way.  We are not doomed.  We never have been.  Corporations cannot control our minds, our imaginations, or our hearts.  We will find a way.

I’ll leave you with another movie quote, albeit one from a much nerdier movie:

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

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