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An evil corporation is a trope in popular culture that portrays a corporation as ignoring
Sample list of evil corporations in film
at '' MTV''
Sample list of evil corporations in science fiction
at ''
Sample list of evil corporations in science fiction books
at Barnes & Noble {{Science fiction Science fiction themes Cyberpunk themes Anti-corporate activism Tropes Fiction about organizations Dystopian fiction Corruption Corporate conduct
An evil corporation is a trope in popular culture that portrays a corporation as ignoring social responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the community that will inherit the world that individual leaves behind.
Social ...
, morality
Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...
, ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
, and sometimes laws
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
in order to make profit for its shareholders. In rare cases, the corporation may be well intentioned but extremist, engaging in noble cause corruption.
In fiction
The notion is "deeply embedded in the landscape of contemporary culture—populating films, novels, videogames, and more." The science fiction genre served as the initial background to portray corporations in this dystopian light. Evil corporations can be seen to represent the danger of combiningcapitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
with larger hubris.
In real life
In real life some corporations have been accused of being evil. To guard against such accusations, Google at one point in its history had the official motto " Don't be evil", however they abandoned that motto for being too obviously frivolous. ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' wrote that "many food activists consider Monsanto
The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...
(which later merged with Bayer) to be ''the'' definitively evil corporation".
''The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility'' wrote, "For many consumers, Wal-Mart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
serves as the evil corporation prototype, but record numbers shop at the stores for low prices."
In Japan, a committee of journalists and rights activists issues an annual "corporate raspberry award" known as Most Evil Corporation of the Year Award (also called the Black Company Award) to a company "with a culture of overwork, discrimination and harassment".
See also
* Anti-capitalism * Anti-consumerism *Anti-corporate activism
Anti-corporate activism refers to the idea of activism that is directed against the private sector, and specifically against larger corporations. It stems from the idea that the activities and impacts of big business are detrimental to the p ...
* Big Pharma conspiracy theory
* Business ethics
* Corporate crime
In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a corporation (i.e., a business entity having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals acting on behalf of a corpo ...
* Corporate warfare
* Criticism of capitalism
Criticism of capitalism ranges from expressing disagreement with the principles of capitalism in its entirety to expressing disagreement with particular outcomes of capitalism.
Criticism of capitalism comes from various political and philoso ...
* Criticisms of corporations
* Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...
* Ethically disputed business practices (category)
*
* Karen Silkwood
Karen Gay Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American chemical technician and labor union activist known for raising concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety in a nuclear facility.
She wor ...
* List of corporate collapses and scandals
* Megacorporation
Megacorporation, mega-corporation, or megacorp, a term originally coined by Alfred Eichner in his book ''The Megacorp and Oligopoly: Micro Foundations of Macro Dynamics'' but popularized by William Gibson, derives from the combination of the pref ...
* Military–industrial complex
The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...
* Multinational corporation
A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...
* Organized crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
* Prison–industrial complex
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is a term, coined after the " military-industrial complex" of the 1950s, used by scholars and activists to describe the relationship between a government and the various businesses that benefit from institutio ...
* Psychopathy in the workplace
* Shareholder primacy
Shareholder primacy is a theory in corporate governance—especially when dealing with United States corporate law—holding that shareholder interests should be assigned first priority relative to all other corporate stakeholders. A shareholder ...
* State crime
* State-corporate crime
* ''The Corporation'' (2003 film)
References
Further reading
* *External links
Sample list of evil corporations in film
at '' MTV''
Sample list of evil corporations in science fiction
at ''
PC World
''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication.
It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...
''Sample list of evil corporations in science fiction books
at Barnes & Noble {{Science fiction Science fiction themes Cyberpunk themes Anti-corporate activism Tropes Fiction about organizations Dystopian fiction Corruption Corporate conduct