One thing about this whole N. Korea/Sony Picture’s fiasco is this: it really shows how spineless and corrupt Neoliberalism (i.e. global corporate capitalism) is. The irony of course being that it took the bullying of a rogue communist state to illustrate this. I mean, the government did not pressure Sony to shelf the release, nor were they much worried about the threats from the cyberattack. But because a corporation could not risk its image and its brand by upsetting or imperiling its distributors, theater owners, shareholders, and consumers it made a bold—some say, cowardly-- decision to capitulate to threats and pull the film. The real lesson to learn here is that free speech is not a sacred value when it comes to neoliberalism: your ability to watch a film is not a God-given right but a privilege granted by corporations assured above all that their interests are protected, not yours. They’ve set a precedent for sure. Threats work. Democracy matters less than brand image, than corporate interests, market share. Military dictatorships are going to act like military dictatorships. That’s no surprise. But when so called free, democratic societies are held hostage by corporate interests, who decide, without your consent, to make decisions regarding what you can and cannot see, then the moral high ground is lost, equivalency between terrorist and corporate states more closely align than we want to realize.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 20:12:18 +0000
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