“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,