Scary Movie | Printer-friendly version: "Scary Movie
A Canadian documentary asserts that the modern-day corporation meets the criteria of a psychopath.

URL: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/82/cheatsheet.html



The Corporation is a documentary, but it's hard not to feel the rising terror of a horror flick while watching it. There are the stock, doomed good guys and a raft of sinister villains. Scariest of all is the premise that if left unchecked, the corporation, as the dominant institution of our day, will eventually be our undoing.

The Corporation , which has played to sold-out houses in (not surprisingly) Canada and opens in June in American theaters, is based on Joel Bakan's new book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Free Press, 2004), a title that isn't subtle about its intent. Like the book, the movie, by Bakan and Canadian filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, draws on a checklist from a psychological diagnostic manual to argue that the corporation--recognized under U.S. law as a 'person'--meets the criteria of, you guessed it, a psychopath. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others? Check. Reckless disregard for others' safety? Yep. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors? Uh-huh."