In the Republic, written some 2400 years ago, Plato tells the story of the Ring of Gyges. Gyges was a shepherd who found a dead man lying in cave wearing nothing but a gold ring.Gyges helped himself to the ring and wore it to the next monthly meeting of the local shepherds. Idly playing with it during a dull moment, he discovered that by turning the signet of the ring inwards,he became invisible, since the others spoke of him as if he had gone out. Turning it back, he became visible again. Dreams of unlimited power danced in his head. Gyges got himself appointed an emissary to the king. When he arrived in the capital, he seduced the queen, got her help in murdering the king, and became king himself. What Plato want to know, then, is this: Is there any human being so just that he would not take advantage of such a device? Is it only the surveillance of others that keeps us from running amok?
The fantasy of invisibility occurs also in fairy tales and science fiction. The Invisible Man in H.G. Wells'novel finds his invisibility more of a burden than a benefit. For one thing, it was irreversible, and this made going about in public very difficult. Only his body, not his clothing, disappeared from view, so that he had to cover his face and hands no matter what the weather.If he went naked, dust or moisture would make his body visible in a ghostly way. His footprints would appear in the dirt. He would create quite a scene if he picked up anything, even food. Thus we are know not merely by our faces, but by our impact on the world around us.
What might you be tempted to do under the cloak of invisibility in the global society at the turn of the century? Sell life threatening addictive drugs to children? Peddle powerful weapons to feuding parties around the world? Profit from the barely-paid labor of children, prisoners, and other victims of poverty? Poison and pillage the air, the water, the forests and the farm land? Bribe politicians elected by the public to work for you against the public interest? Control the flow of information and entertainment so that the interests of the few appear to be the interest of the many? Turn public services like schools, welfare programs, and prisons into private industries with no accountability but to the biggest stockholders? Arrange to strip states and nations of any power to protect their people and their resources so that you and others like you can act freely without public oversight? Let me suggest that all these acts of injustice are being carried out by invisible men, those who control the global economy from corporate board rooms. What ring did they discover to make them invisible?Nothing but the legal form of the corporation, a mask that permits some rich and powerful individuals to perform actions which are attributed to such entities as McDonnell Douglas, Chase Manhattan, or Nike. With very few exceptions, like Phil Knight and Bill Gates,today's major perpetrators of injustice are invisible to us. We read that Kodak or First National Bank is laying off a few thousand workers, or that Corrections Corporation of America backed by money from Kentucky Fried Chicken, is running prisons in Texas. But the individuals who made these decisions are unnamed and unseen. The surest sign of their invisibility is that we forget they even exist:we talk as if the company were the only responsible party. The real people behind company actions own the modern Ring of Gyges with all the effects Plato foresaw of pure injustice.
Perhaps it is true that almost no one could resist making use of the ring Gyges found to rip people off. Perhaps the right thing to do on finding it would be to destroy it. Given what we know today of the modern corporation, the time has come to destroy it, or at least to break its power to provide anonymity to its power holders.
As matters stand, single individuals--we who are workers, consumers, inhabitants of the planet earth, have to contend against these legal leviathans who bear all the rights we do:the right to sue, the right to speak, the right to make campaign contributions, and the right to own and manage their property in their own private interests. But corporate property and corporate interests are not private: they are inseparable from the property and interests of all of us, and they should be recognized as public entities.
There are proposals abroad in the land to change the terms on which corporations are formed and operate. Here are some of them: Corporations should be stripped of the constitutional rights of persons, a right they acquired only by a supreme court decision in 1886. They should not have perpetual existence, but should have to be periodically re chartered in a process requiring public review. Charters should be revised to limit the powers of corporations and to subordinate them to the sovereign people. There should be a conscious, deliberate act of approval by communities and workers for corporations to continue beyond the initial time in which they have been chartered. Corporate managers and directors should be made personally liable for the crimes and damages committed in the name of the corporation.
For more information on corporations and the movement to control them, you can check out the web site at www.ratical.com/corporations.
If Gyges had been a just man, perhaps he would have destroyed the ring, knowing that no one, not even one most inclined to justice, could use it justly. Justice requires public accountability, not just individuals committed to justice. Today the time has come to melt down the modern ring of Gyges, the legal personality of the corporation.
I'm Clayton Morgareidge for the Old Mole Variety Hour.
February 14, 1998
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