Corporate Anthems And Privacy Genies That Are Not Going Back In A Bottle

Back in the seventies I can recall being freaked out by the idea of a "corporate anthem" playing in the beginning of the movie Rollerball. It was a powerful image of a future that needed to be avoided and it was an early source of the concept for a young Murdock that our lives are increasingly influenced by corporations and people in positions of power outside of government. Schoolhouse Rock had been blowing smoke up my ass! Well, many years have gone by and other movies shocked us with dystopian futures run by uncaring corporations. Omni Consumer Products, Weyland-Yutani, at the time their fictional antics seemed so shocking... but now, after living a life in which I have witnessed the real life actions and negligence of the powerful, that aspect of those movies seems quaint.


Traditionally, our government has been a tool to protect us from overpowered corporations, but people don't seem to LIKE or TRUST the government as of late. They do however appear to pacified by the marketing, services and entertainment provided by corporations. This seems dangerous to me. People are getting very understandably upset recently about our government having access to personal information, but I rarely hear them speak about the fact that they GAVE the information being collected to corporations themselves without demanding it be absolutely private. Often times agreeing to share shocking amounts of personal data under questionable guidelines of privacy. We did it.
And why is the government worse than FB or Google? I think people are shouting about a big scary dog (which may or may not be friendly) while petting a hungry lion dressed as a clown (which was always planning to eat you).

So, maybe its time to drop the pretense, show our true allegiance and just write some anthems for the worlds largest corporations and most powerful individuals. We can sing them in schools and at sporting events. It will be fun! We can post about it.