Lego Movie Globalization

Great Essays
Topic: Combating Corporate Globalization Step-by-step

“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all” - John Maynard Keynes (Quote investigator)

Introduction
Multi-national corporations seize their unregulated political power to maximize profit via unfair trade agreements and deregulating financial derivatives at the expense of human rights and tax paid by the general public. Corporate globalization reduces restrictions on the people who are already rich and powerful, and strengthens the walls which imprison the poorest and the most vulnerable, which is plainly an immoral fact. This large contrast between rich and poor in terms of quality of life is not
…show more content…
This dark side is reflected in many ways, showing an inequality between different classes. For instance, a corporation could hire workers and force them to work from dawn till dusk every day and lock them in stores as if they were slaves. More generally, business elites, representing a minority in their society, can have the authority to manipulate the weak and powerless majority which are primarily the “victims” of corporate globalization.
Similarly, the Lego Movie primarily portrays the conflict between business tycoons and victims of corporate psychopaths. It begins with the evil Lord Business (the President), who perceives the Lego World as a chaotic place and plans to manipulate people with “Kragle”. However, an ordinary Lego character Emmet who is prophesied as “The Special” has an outstanding caliber to motivate a “Master Builder Army” for combating the Lord Business by “Piece of Resistant” – the powerful weapon against “Kragle”.

The False Legitimacy of Corporate
…show more content…
The Lego Movie successfully shows how powerful business elites manipulate the weak and powerless people by brainwashing and victimizing them. It is not rare to see that tyrannical Lord Business encourages people’s unquestioning obedience to authority and a suppression of individual freedom. For instance, Lord Business brainwashes his people to get their reward by obeying his regulations, and even delivers a message that it is “good and normal” to drink overpriced coffee. Like the song “Everything Is Awesome”, the story demonstrates that the corporate’s world will be perfect if everyone follows the instruction manuals. The film succeeds in reflecting how corporate globalization indoctrinates people with corporations’ own beliefs. In the movie, Lord Business claims to “bring peace and perfection” in order to destroy the world by using Kragle. Similar to Lord Business in The Lego Movie, corporations claim to assist poor countries in developing local economy, but they engage in “bullying, assassinations of local authority, contamination in natural environment and abusive supervision”, concealing the real motive of maximizing profit from those Less-Developed Countries (Amanda et al. 2011, p.21-23). If something is out of their control, the corporations will seize their unregulated power to stop or change it. In the movie, Emmet is interrogated by Lord Business’ lieutenant,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In Geoffrey Garrett 's piece, Globalization 's Missing Middle, he describes how globalization efforts like the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have led to the elimination of the middle class (Garrett 204). NAFTA was a large contributor to the middle class jobs, in for example the United States, leaving to historically third world countries such as China and India (Garrett 204). These growing economies had large populations with minimal jobs so, as manufacturing positions that require no prerequisites, flooded third world markets, these countries were given the opportunity to gain a strong economic foothold in the global market (Garrett 204). The modernization of globalization lead to the demise of uneducated middle class jobs within first world, high paying, western societies and injected them into third world, low income societies (Garrett 205). To fix this economic discrepancy and to bring the middle class back into the competitive economic markets of the world, there will have to be political policies created to remove countries from globalist trade deals like NAFTA or TPP.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The globalization in modern America has effect in every one’s life especially the minority groups. Because of these globalization corporations had hard workers like me lay off from job without offering any benefits so they can make more profit by paying low wages to workers in India, Indonesia or any other third world countries. Conclusion After all the studies and researches has been done throughout the centuries, we still living in the world of struggle for comfortable life.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In LEGO’s early days, LEGO was meant to be a toy that inspired children’s creativity. You poured a bucket of bricks onto the carpet and began building what your heart desired. The question I’ve come to ask myself is, has LEGO lost its creative nature? As I saw The LEGO Movie, I began to find it ironic how LEGO contradicted its current modern standing. Contrary to its early days, LEGO sells all if not most of its products as sets.…

    • 2061 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The world we live in today is dominated by the outstretched hands of corporations that seek to influence and manipulate our every decision. The corporate world is leading a multi-pronged assault for total control over the consumer through deceptive marketing practices and relentless exploitation untapped markets, and a lack of government regulation. In “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society” by Joseph Stiglitz, we are presented with the concept of rent-seeking. It is an umbrella ideology that includes various unethical practices used by the wealthy to drain the lower classes of their wealth and redistribute it at the top. The corporations that are solely after monetary gain, are doing so at the expense of the poor and are taking…

    • 1859 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Persuasive Essay Globalization plays a bad role in contributing to sustainable prosperity for all. But we have a choice if we want to help or be lazy. In all the information I have gathered are bad ones. That will be the main subject I will talk about in this paper. Shipbreaking is hurting and killing people and our environment, I chose that one because it is a bad thing to ship break, yes u get back the parts and stuff but it is very dangerous because the workers have no experience and no protective equipment.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within the film, you will find a deep and fierce sense of power, stratification, and socialization. The film is a base for sociology that includes functionalism, symbolic interactionism and of course conflict theory. We will…

    • 1528 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many reasons why we have seen an uprising of populist movements, not only in the United States but all over the world. Despite the many different reasons, almost all, directly affect the middle class and lower class. These reasons include: income inequality, the outsourcing of jobs, lack of healthcare, social security, war, etc. and an overall dangerous lack of responsibility for citizens shown by the government. As citizens of a republic, we consent to be governed. However, when we elect those who represent us, both parties enter into a social contract defined by John Locke as an agreement giving up our natural state to protect life, liberty and happiness.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holly Cowper 1875 Words Marxism as an approach to International Relations is often analysed and discussed in regards to the significance of its contribution as a theory in International Relations. Criticism is present surrounding the weaknesses of the theory as well as its potential irrelevance. In order to critically evaluate the Marxist approach to International Relations, I will conduct a thorough analysis of both the significant strengths and weaknesses of the theory as well as its continuing relevance in modern times. This examination of the central aspects of Marxism in regards to International Relations will effectively allow me to develop an in-depth conclusion of the ways in which Marxist theory contributes to our understanding…

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel, Where am I wearing by Kelsey Timmerman, Timmerman travels around the world in search of the factories where his favorite clothes were made. He travels to developing countries such as Honduras, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China to see different factory workers, and the lives that they live. His main goal is to see if factory workers in developing countries live a life with good working conditions and make enough money to support themselves and their families. He tries to learn how globalization, which is defined as the interaction and integration of different countries, affects the lives of people nationwide. Timmerman shows mixed views on the impact of globalization in developing countries.…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” Katherine Boo argues that societies are becoming corrupt because of capitalism’s prevalence in modern societies. Capitalism is creating an economy where products and profits are owned by companies and individuals instead of the government. ("Capitalism" Merriam Webster) Having profits owned by individuals drive owners to create inequitable systems that take advantage of lower class citizens. The systems drive the lower class to compete against one another to create a small profit, that will soon be taken away by the individuals or companies that “own” the profit created by the system.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Micah Spegman D-Day 4 Sociology 6-10. 1) “Wilding” is in summary an activity by a group of youths of going on a protracted and violent rampage in a public area, lashing out at random. 2) Expressive wilding means wilding for the sole desire of indulging one’s own destructive impulses, wilding is instrumental as it involves varieties of ambition, competitiveness, charisma, and greed that are purely selish and at the cost of others. 3) Wilding is in many ways like individualism in the sense that it implies antisocial behavior.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Expulsions: Brutality and complexity in the Global Economy, by Saskia Sassen, grapples with the idea of “the new logics of expulsion,” and provides insight into the modern phase of capitalism. Logics of growth, the modern obsession with increasing corporate wealth gain, has created a world system of predatory foundations. The few can concentrate wealth more effectively than ever before in capitalist history, and the lower social standings bear the largest burden. Complexity and brutality go hand in hand to enable greater extraction and accumulation, and individuals who do not “fit” or challenge the logics of growth suffer expulsion. Accountability is lost in the complexity of the systems and steps necessary to complete even simple transactions.…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Friedman 's “Globalization: The Super Story” is a commentary on the constant connectivity of the world today that is based on the ever growing world wide global systems, such as the global market, the various ways to communicate and interact between nations, and the invention of the world wide web or as we now known as the internet. This new system is a way to replace the previous system that was already established ever since the end of World War II, the cold war system. The cold war system was designed to grow your nation’s power and a way to physically confront and balance between states. This turn into a minor conflict of power balance issue between what was considered the two superpowered at the time: the United States and the Soviet Union.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jackie Smiths speech titled, “Economic Globalization and Labor Rights: Towards Global Solidarity” is a speech that is centered among the effects that globalization have had on both workers and unions. The speech has three main arguments imbedded throughout. The first argument is that “economic globalization has essentially enabled markets rather than people to determine how the world’s resources will be used and distributed (874).” The second argument is that “the policies of global economic institutions encourage (and in many cases coerce) countries of the global South to open their markets to trade and investment while promoting export industries (875).” And the third main argument is as followed, “the technologies that facilitate global economic exchange also aid transnational organizing around alternatives to market-led globalization (877).”…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Globalization is Good Film Review – Krystle Carr The documentary “Globalisation is Good” by Johan Norberg, demonstrations the flaws in the anti-globalization theology. It illustrates the positive impacts and negative consequences of the lack of globalizations in Taiwan, Vietnam, and Kenya. The documentary is based on the findings in Norberg’s book “In Defense of Global Capitalism,” and his belief that globalized capitalism can end poverty as it has in Europe and the United States.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays