The first Apple product I ever coveted was Elle Woods’ orange iBook in “Legally Corporations.” The signatures were replaced with logos, including Amazon’s and Microsoft’s. Apple’s logo was absent, though corporate personhood is what allows it to protect its patents and so effectively make us want to buy its very sleek products.
We’re often willing to get behind the accomplishments of the people we love, even if our feelings for them are not entirely rational. We want them to succeed and we celebrate their accomplishments. Loving people makes it hard to recognize when they are taking advantage of us. It even makes it hard to recognize when they really are doing something that’s illegal or unethical. When we don’t love someone, we’re less likely to celebrate his or her success. We might even resent it. But it makes no sense to write off every successful person we do not happen to love as inherently evil. You probably see where I’m going with this, but this might be another case in which we should apply the same standard to corporations.
Note: This column has been edited to read “The Constitution” instead of “The Declaration of Independence.
Ali Elkin is a Medill senior.
She can be reached at originalgangster@u.northwestern.edu