Our Humanity, Naturally

Citizens United had nothing to do with corporate personhood. The idea was not addressed, established, or discussed in the ruling.

The tea party movement will never challenge corporate power since it was CREATED by corporate power and FINANCED by corporate power. It's basically just the John Birch Society for the post-communist era. If you are a politician and you want to challenge corporat power, be prepared to end up like John or Robert Kennedy or Paul Wellstone.

I have seen a recent convergence of Humanism and Libertarianism, particularly from the Center for Inquiry. This was exemplified by the recent editorial "The myth of surplus wealth".
This, in part, reminds me of why I reject the association.

What makes me laugh about the Tea Party is that the anti-war movement has basically been saying the same thing since the Bush era. Where were these people when the Patriot Act destroyed the constitution? I guess political identity is more important than the constitution. As long as a Rep is doing it, it's okay.

I was horrified to see that you linked the term "psychotic" to narcissism and psychopathy. Psychopathy isn't the same thing as being psychotic. I believe you meant to say "psychopathic" in your title, *not* "psychotic".

You're contributing to inaccurate and dangerous stereotypes, as I discuss here:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201102/where-are-all...

Best,
Scott

Although I agree with most of what the author of this blog said about corporations and governemnt , I think he forgot to mention the other "entity" that has become too big and too powerful;

Unions.

Unions contributed more money to the Obama campaign than all corporations combined.

I repeat.

Unions contributed more money to the Obama campaign than all corporations combined.

Don't believe me ?

Do your own research.

And don't be surprised if Democrats return the favor by supporting anything favorable to unions. ( like leaving their posts and refusing to vote on anything not good for unions...Wisconsin anyone ?)

Unions have contributed more than corporations to the Obama campaign.

Unions have bought themselves a candidate and have paid to get him elected.

My comment has to do with government, corporations and not having the best interest of the people at heart.

It is HIGHLY relevant.

Thanks for a very insightful piece. I feel that this is definitely something I can share with my wife and/or others in order to help explain some of my positions politically.

Feel free to try to interest the Tea Party in this issue. I find it hard to imagine they'll join in. Consider Warren Buffett's statement the effective tax rate on his $46 million income was 18% and the effective tax rate on his $60,000 secretary was 30%. Even if Tea Party members advocate a "flat tax" one might suppose they'd be in an uproar about paying a higher rate than billionaires. But to the best of my knowledge, the Tea Party's motivations are such that they haven't made an issue of it.

Corporations are created by government edict, not by consent of the governed.

Should citizens be able to put the renewal of the charters of some or all corporations to a vote?

Thomas Jefferson and the "thing of wax":

http://tinyurl.com/mdx5b6

"Thus, ironically, at their essence corporations are a creation of government meddling."

Who are those institutional investors? So, corporations and government both were viewed in a skeptical light by the founders. And yes, there were corporations in the early days, take the East India Company, the one that sparked the real Tea Party in Boston.

Is it just me or do other see that the 'left" blames the corporations and the "right" blames government while the reality is they are joined at the hip. Both Tea Party activists and Progressive activists make the same mistake of "not considering the question fully" and as long as the R/L parameters hold sway the dialog, such as it is, will stay the same.

I was disappointed that you marred an otherwise important analysis by confusing psychotic with psychopathic. The two are completely different.

Citizens United expanded the rights of corporations so extensively it essentially crushes the rights of natural persons. The Court went far beyond any case or controversy before it to sweep away about a century's worth of laws and allow corporations to give unlimited amounts of money anonymously. Furthermore, there are almost no laws against lying in political advertising, and this flood of money has been used largely to inundate campaigns with false flag organizations - make believe populism - touting alarmist and untrue claims.

The result has been that candidates who support the interests of the people over corporations lose. Our government is so lopsided in favor of corporations two of our industries - health insurance and firearms - cause nearly eighty thousand unnecessary deaths a year. Can you think of any living dictator killing nearly eighty thousand of his people every year? And yet we are virtually powerless to do anything about it, the corporations have that much sway over both our elected officials and our corporate media.

Unions on the other hand exist to make sure people who are otherwise powerless have a voice. When corporations give money, it's somebody else's money - your and my retirement savings for example - and it's to protect only the interests of their largest shareholders and their executives at the top, often times diametrically opposed to the interests of rest of their shareholders and employees as well as the public at large.

It is an untenable situation, as the operation of corporations and the wealthy people who control them can be very well understood by reading up on Robert Hare's work on psychopaths.
The behavior of corporations (and the wealthy people who control them) in the public and political realm is very much like the behavior of psychopaths as described by those who study them.

Though the terms psychopaths and sociopaths are used interchangably, strictly speaking psychopaths are worse, more organized, more congenital, more diabolical, completely without empathy. Sociopaths are more cultural and environmental in origin, more disorganized and have some capacity to feel empathy for those within their intimate circle. http://bit.ly/aMwSSx

I suspect bigots will someday soon be treated as a third level of the same phenomenon, as they also involve dehumanizing and abusing others. It's appropriate, too, because corporations today, like psychopathic leaders in history, flagrantly foment hatred and bigotry as part of their campaign to control the political process and fatten their profits.

Of the three levels, psychopathy, the worst, fits corporations best.

OK, Here's the thing. If corporations are "legally" people with "rights" why aren't those "legal" people in jail for stealing so much of "OUR" money?

Corporations, if they are deemed 'persons', are not exempt from criminal laws which protect the individual (real-person) from coercions, violence, deceits and forced 'agreements' by any other person, or entity. This means if a 'corporation' acts in ways harmful to a real person, then it must be held to the same laws as are for natural persons, which means they may not coerce, deceive, or violate that person's natural rights, such as protected by our Constitutional laws. Our Bill of Rights should apply to both individual-persons and corporate-'persons' equally. Then, if either acs in ways that are harmful to others, ie. coercive to others, then let them be held responsible for their actions. Moral behavior, in that case, is held equal for both, wether a natural person or corporation. There is no need for a Constitutional Amendment, if the laws protecting individuals from criminality apply to corporations equally.