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[justinkick]

Corporations such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot make billions of dollars a year, serving millions of customers all across the planet. They hold tremendous political sway, influencing what we buy, how much we pay for it, and where it comes from. Super-corporations such as this pursue many programs focused on benefiting the community as a whole.

Comments

[thehopelesscaus]

back in the old days (middle ages, the renaissance, etc), western society was a theologian society.
we enlightened; we moved away from the church, and moved towards capitalism. big business, ruled by fickle economics, governments with personal agendas, and mass media.
so, yes. the mega-corporations, along with the all-consuming media, are our new "church," in the medieval sense of the world. our moral and ethic fibre; where we get our viewpoints and opinions; the new opiate of the masses. of course they have their own agendas, trying to re-moralize the country and create some facade of "decency," even though their idea of decency may be nowhere near what the world really means.
america: one nation, under starbucks, with consumerism and complacency for all.

[justinkick]

so the question remains, is this a good thing?

i highly doubt there is anything we can do to stop this trend, but do we really want to? the catholic church held power in europe for hundreds of years and was like the u.n. of its day only infinitely more effective. so, do you want some mega-corporation choosing what you see, hear, talk about? or is humanity ready to choose its own destiny on a person-by-person basis?

[thehopelesscaus]

i wish humanity was ready to run itself, but only a few of us are capable of that.
and, therefore, we must follow the sheep mentality while a choice few hold the power (which is usually a good thing, until these people become corrupt), and somehow get power of morality in the process (which is never a good thing).

[justinkick]

so what youre saying is that these mega-corporations are doing is actually good; that by choosing what we see, hear, and influencing what we watch, feel and think, they are making society better. while disgusting on the surface, it makes tons of sense once the brain wraps around the idea.

think about it. for several hundred years before the 19th century and the rise of big business and the fall of the church, europe and thus the rest of the world lived in relative peace. yes, occasional bloody conflicts flared up but these were mostly localized to one or two countries. industrialization rolls around, big business becomes the catch word, church attendance falls, and we have two world wars, and millions die everyday from conflicts around the globe.

so the question is, do we trust these mega-corporations to run our lives the same way they would run lives in sub-saharan africa? or even more importantly, do we have a choice at all?