It has taken me a long time sifting through the details of what strikes me wrong about corporations-cum-citizens to articulate what that is. It finally came into clear view in relation to the movie Red Tails, a film whose release was postponed from the end of the 20th century until the second decade of the 21st.

The specific moment which cleared the smoke from the rhino in the room is a respectful camaraderie between accomplished pilots of differing squads and cultures meeting in a bar under the general fraternity of God and country. It was a moment of social evolution, where the fallacy of otherness was described and negated in good humor. Such social moments whether on the screen or off are what lead us to this moment under an African-American president.

This one business decision illustrates how such social or community evolution can be postponed and/or eliminated. This is precisely the crux of the matter with corporate decisions; they limit the growth of civil society in preference for profit. To entice customer patronage is within the purview of commercial raison d'etre, but to be allowed or empowered in any way to authorize, approve, eliminate, disapprove, or obfuscate social evolution is outside charter designs, outside any bequeathed constitutionality, and beyond any social contract. The results of funneling such power is the anathema to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, neither of which were ever written to enslave human beings for any reason. It is only through sustained, concentrated legal effort that such warping of original intent has brought us to our current moment with the Supreme Court. This is what makes government big, pendulous, and costly, not welfare to the poor, elderly, and destitute.