U+ZINE #2 - Do Corporations have a future? - Plurality University

CORPORATE DYSTOPIAS (FUTURE/PRESENT)
Arts and science fiction rarely describe corporations as positive agents in society. Is
any resemblance to real legal persons present or future purely coincidental, or is art
pointing at what may happen in the absence of a major rethinking of what corporations
are about?
EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE
14
«Jennifer Lyn Morone,
Inc has advanced into the
inevitable next stage of
Capitalism by becoming
an incorporated
person. This model
allows you to turn
your health, genetics,
personality, capabilities,
experience, potential,
virtues and vices into
profit. In this system
You are the founder,
CEO, shareholder and
product using your own
resources.»
✷ Jennifer Lyn Morone, 2013-present
AMORAL, POWER-HUNGRY MEGACORPS
Wall-e, Andrew Stanton, Disney/Pixar, 2008
«According to The History of Buy n Large, the corporation
got its start as a maker of frozen yogurt. (…)
Later on, the business eventually acquired Large
Industries, a men’s suit company. The combined
entity became known as an internet marketing
service corporation named Buy n’ Large (…) By the
year 2057, as shown on the Buy n Large website,
the conglomerate became a worldwide leader in
the fields of aerospace, agriculture, construction,
consumer goods, corporate grooming, earth transport,
electronics, energy, engineering, finance,
food services, fusion research, government, hydro-power,
infrastructures, media [etc.]
After BnL took over the government, the BnL logo
was added in the flags of countries around the world.
Buy n Large continued to expand its efforts for
control so much that by the year 2105, Buy n Large
(…) had finally become a world leader in every
conceivable field including world leadership. (…) By
giving the entire population on Earth «the right to
spend», humanity went into a state of mass consumerism
which covered the entire planet in un-recycled
refuse. By the time the movie WALL•E takes
place, Buy n Large had built the Axiom, an executive
starliner (among thousands of others whose
names have not been disclosed), as a temporary
refuge outside Earth while millions of WALL•E
units and smaller number of huge mobile incinerators
attempt to clean up the planet. Originally its
cruise was only to be five years long until the BnL
CEO proclaimed Earth unable to support life due to
extreme toxicity. After Buy n Large officially abandoned
Earth in 2110, Shelby Forthright and all other
humans supervising the cleanup had everything
shut down and left. By the time the story in WALL•E
takes place, Buy n Large (…) no longer truly exists
in a corporate sense. All Buy n Large activity on the
Axiom is the same as it was 700 years before. It still
has the same advertisements, but the corporation
is just run on a defunct, continuing cycle by robots.
Babies are taught how Buy n Large is their «very
best friend», there are BnL logos on everything,
and there are still automated announcements
about Buy n Large (…)»
[from ✷ PixarWiki]