They shape our cultures and communities, define what is of value and what is not, what news we hear and what we won't, what we trade and what we can't. They define our work, what is produced and consumed, where investments are made, what technologies are developed. They subject the natural world to assault after assault until it can't rise up in the springtime. They craft our laws and policies. They dominate our politicians.
Corporations are in charge of our lives.
It's critical for all of us to realize that this enormous power belongs to a thing, a legal fiction. In this country, corporations were originally a creation of the people, intended to be subordinate to the people. Corporations were kept on a short and closely watched leash in the 18th and early 19th centuries and their charters revoked by the courts if they exceeded their authority or violated the common good. But the corporate form has taken over. Corporate lawyers, their arguments clothed in the garb of freedom, liberty and all manner of property claims, manipulated federal legislators and corruptible judges, bludgeoned opposing voices, and eventually gathered unto the corporation a potent mix of property, political and civil rights.