Citizen or Consumer?

On July 4, declare independence from corporate rule.

Citizen or Consumer?

A corporation is not a person. It is an abstraction: an organizational structure that feels no remorse and has no morality, no life, no soul. Yet the modern corporation – still just an arbitrary legal entity – enjoys the same rights as you or I. It has the right to free speech, to own property, to lobby government officials and protect against self-incrimination.

Today corporations run rampant, controlling our political, economic, environmental and cultural agendas. These globalized conglomerates are able to commit grievous environmental and societal crimes with little fear of recourse, tipping the scales of power to leave civil society in the dust.

But it wasn't always this way. Early Americans treated corporations with distrust. Corporations were kept on short leashes – their powers limited to specific and necessary functions. Citizens still retained and exercised the right to revoke corporate charters. The people – not the corporations – were in control. Many of these checks and balances have since been destroyed by decades of deregulation and laissez-faire capitalist ideology. Profit margins have ballooned to unimaginable dimensions, and in turn our democratic freedoms have been replaced with market selection.

Our oppression under corporate rule has lasted long enough.

We need a contemporary insurrection to reclaim our democracy, our freedom and our country. Flying the corporate American flag as a symbol of our rebellion, let’s make this July 4 the beginning of the second American Revolution, where civil society reasserts its power over corporations.

Support + Share

Help us spread the word. Share it online with your friends or subscribe to the print edition.

All Comments

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
July
22, 2009
11:44 pm
Link
“Invisible Person with Enormous Power.” Here is my take on what a Corporation is: http://electrodes.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/an-invisible-person-with-enor… Thanks. — Loup Kibiloki
July
18, 2009
07:18 pm
Link
Dare I say it: there are reasons why governments should be larger and govern more. This is one of them. — Anonymous
July
03, 2009
05:19 pm
Link
turn on Faux Noize Chunnel and Amerikan Idle and go back to f**king sleep, you stupid proles! after all, you’ve always been at war with East Asia, and your chocolate ration just got increased from 5 grams to 3 grams a week. double good you stupid f**king dorkus brain dead idiots who will celebrate the 4th. of A LIE tomorrow! — to be an Amerikan is to be a brain dead arse hole
July
03, 2009
05:08 pm
Link
If a Corporation is an *invisible* *person* with *enormous power*, it is a god. Literally. I mean: literally, not metaphorically. — Anonymous
July
03, 2009
06:32 pm
Link
http://electrodes.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/an-invisible-person-with-enor… — Anonymous
July
03, 2009
12:26 pm
Link
The public is to blame for the state we’re in. We allowed checks and balances to be gutted and happily embraced the consumer lifestyle. To ask “the people” to revolt against that which they have created is absurd. Ben Franklin was quite prescient when he remarked in 1776 “Now you have a democracy, let’s see if you can keep it.” The answer is “no.” — Anonymous
July
03, 2009
12:24 pm
Link
We need corporations, but they don’t need to control everything, everywhere, all the time. Corporation rights over individual rights was never intended in the Constitution. They have all of the power because of their financial strength and there is no end, ever. Not so with individuals. Phil — Phil Mink
July
02, 2009
06:10 pm
Link
Nationality does not matter. Mindset does. Let’s all relax, realize we’re all human on one planet Earth, and help one another by calling for the entities we supply with our hard earned pay to be fully accountable to our needs. — Angela000
June
29, 2009
01:22 pm
Link
Curious, why is it that everything you buy on this site uses Mastercard and Visa? I understand that AdBusters is still very much a business, but isn't this a tad hypocritical? — Anonymous
June
29, 2009
01:32 pm
Link
Online shopping would be a huge pain in the ass if you couldn't use credit cards. I don't feel like ordering something, then mailing in a check, waiting a week for it to clear, then another week to actually receive my order. Like you said, this place is a business (albeit an anti-corporate one). Their job, as a business, is to appeal to their audience. Their audience is a lot more likely to make a purchase if it's easy to do so. With the state of the modern world, you can't really run an effective online business without a little bit of corporate stink. — darcdante
July
08, 2009
11:49 am
Link
The audience of Adbusters seems then to be self-defeating. If even the advocates of change are unwilling to be inconvenienced what hope can there be for the general mass? The modern corporations is what makes life convenient. — Anonymous
July
07, 2009
01:48 pm
Link
99% of the shit you buy online you don’t need. — Anonymous
June
29, 2009
09:43 am
Link
Thank you for creating a website that reminds us that, as citizens and as consumers, we need to live our values, not just give them lipservice. I thought there was a time of a social contract between business and citizen-but maybe I am wrong. If we imbue corp. with the same rights as a person, then the responsibilities of a person should be required as well. We only have to look around us to see what this heavy reliance on corporate culture has done to this country. — olrichde
June
28, 2009
05:37 pm
Link
Thank you so much adbusters for marketing economic revolution at only thirty dollars a tee shirt! — flow
June
28, 2009
07:45 am
Link
I believe in Adbusters, I have a subscription but to here them say fight consumerism buy this flag seems hypocritical! — Anonymous
June
26, 2009
07:49 am
Link
I'd like to see an end to corporate lobbying and corporate political donations. Unfortunately, the law makers who'd vote on such legislation are the very ones who are financially benefitting from that money! I doubt they'll vote to cut off the spigot. Corporations buy off our elected officials for purposes that benefit their profits, it does not benefit the public. While there may be some legitimate use of lobbyists by corporations or industries, it has gotten way out of hand to the point where we are truly ruled by corporate special interests. This has to stop. It was hardly in the public interest to lobby for things that led to the current economic bust. Clearly, whoever pays the most, gets their way w/our elected officials. Consumer groups and individials lobbied, too, but didn't get anywhere with their facts and logic, because corporate special interests paid much more money. There were all kinds of warnings from eveyrone from consumer org's to the FBI that something had to be done to avert an economic crisis due to fraud being done by the housing/finance industries. If our govt officials were not being paid off by industry lobbyists, they would have acted in time to avert the damage. They didn't, now everyone's expected to bail out corporate America, corporations that paint themselves as 'victims of the economy,' in a wreck they caused. It is obscene. — Cindy
June
24, 2009
02:03 pm
Link
Thank you and the Rev. Billy for bringing some sanity into the lemming rush to consumer ruin. As you both make clear, when we are what we possess then our possessions own us. Andrew H's statement, "You say what you want but in the end you really want these corporations to make things for us to be able to afford and keep prices low with competetion (sic)" reveals his own addiction to stuff more than a defense of the addictive system itself. Maybe he can buy a cheap dictionary at Walmart (made in China) which will help him articulate his oral fixation with consumption. Bob Sauerbrey S.E. Indiana — bob sauerbrey
June
24, 2009
01:36 pm
Link
I would love to know how you people can actually write about hating the corporations and not gag? You people who drive a car, wear clothes, eat food, have a cell phone, watch television, wear makeup, and comment on a computer all made by corporations!! You say what you want but in the end you really want these corporations to make things for us to be able to afford and keep prices low with competetion. Just look at all the television brands out there, all of which happen to be corporations. If you want to pick a fight, do something useful and pick it with yourself. Do the right thing, be an AMERICAN, or get the FUCK out!! — Andrew H.
August
02, 2009
01:08 am
Link
You choose to celebrate the prison, and the prison is not “American” or “US”, it’s planetary. I don’t live in the US. And I don’t care about “all the television brands out there”, I got rid of the lying box eleven years ago. It’s a small and significant step I never regretted - and I didn’t have to “pick a fight.” Happy celebration to you, but I won’t be at the party, you seem too nervous, and my impression is that it won’t be fun, I mean real fun. Here’s my take on what a Corporation is: http://electrodes.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/an-invisible-person-with-enor… And a fundamental question you could ask yourself is: Do I really know what I’m celebrating? — Loup
August
02, 2009
12:40 am
Link
One can enjoy being a slave, “American”, or otherwise. One can hate being a slave, “American”, or whatever. Apparently, you made your choice: to celebrate the prison. — Anonymous
June
24, 2009
09:04 pm
Link
Quote : 'I would love to know how you people can actually write about hating the corporations and not gag? You people who drive a car, wear clothes, eat food, have a cell phone, watch television, wear makeup, and comment on a computer all made by corporations!! You say what you want but in the end you really want these corporations to make things for us to be able to afford and keep prices low with competetion. Just look at all the television brands out there, all of which happen to be corporations. If you want to pick a fight, do something useful and pick it with yourself. Do the right thing, be an AMERICAN, or get the FUCK out!! — Andrew H.' What does 'being an American' have to do with buying products? Is that what you've reduced your identity to,an atomised consumer? Most of the things you mention such as computers, cars etc. however useful were not invented by corporations, it's you American taxpayers who paid for it all through your Defence Department and through subsidies to the rich. Like another poster put it, these things don't have to made by private tyrannies for them to be made availabel to the citizen, they just are because of centuries of corruption. — Anonymous
August
02, 2009
01:16 am
Link
Good comment. — Anonymous
June
24, 2009
05:15 pm
Link
Of course most modern amenities are manufactured by corporations, but they don't necessarily have to be...they only are because thats the way the system is set up to be. And not all corporations are bad...just the ones that put their priority on profits while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the negative consequences of their actions and stupifying us through media sources to be ok with it. In Adbusters #83, I read that Honda has eliminated waste from their factory, and runs half of the factory on solar panels, and the other half on waste heat generated from the plant itself. This company is one which is taking money it's executives could pocket to actually make a difference and restructure it's layout to be more environmentally friendly... in other words, it's putting people and environment over profit. The above call for American's isn't necessarily to put an end to corporations themselves, it's to make them more accountable for their actions by being accountable to their shareholders and customers. And since this is how it was in the beginning, this idea could be called one that is more authentically American. So often we get so charged with emotions we don't really know what we are saying. Let's all relax, realize we're all human on one planet Earth, and help one another by calling for the entities we supply with our hard earned pay to be fully accountable to our needs. And yes, this was written by a proud American liberal arts dipshit. A little Plato never hurt afterall... — dharmadude
June
24, 2009
11:35 am
Link
this part is totally wrong__ We need a contemporary insurrection to reclaim our democracy__ we are not a democracy we are a republic thats how bad people are misinformed now a days and if you want to make a difference become a sovereign citizen like we all were intended to be flying a flag isnt gonna make a shits difference they will laugh at you or you can do some thing real and claim your naturaul right to be sovereign and become a freeman do some hard research you'll find the truth not that wikipedi bullshit THE TIME IS NOW — Anonymous
June
24, 2009
10:47 am
Link
Hey ak, Maybe you need to be enlightened, and I will gladly do that for you. These liberal arts "dipshits" you speak of, are at least thirty times more intelligent than you, considering the fact your intelligence level is at that of an eigth graders'. Maybe you should read a newspaper, and possibly a book or two before you decide to run your mouth about anything, you incompetant fuck. — ari
June
23, 2009
09:59 pm
Link
What you can do? If you don't like the answer "shop," consider REVOKING the corporation's charters! "Quo warranto: by whose right do you exercise these powers?" Corporations were originally chartered only for "public purposes." By gaining the status and rights of a person, the corporation effectively has transformed itself into a true frankenstein- a monster that can't die, has no morals and is designed to make continual profit, at any cost to people or the world. A CEO who makes a choice to NOT make a profit can be sued for failing to uphold his "responsibilities" to his stockholders. Until our legal system reflects that people are more important than laws, words that exist to allow certain people to injure others and not pay for it, we will continue to be slaves of the corporation kings. The future war will be people against corporations. — jrdavis
June
23, 2009
02:19 pm
Link
Wow, lots of angst here. First of all, corporate rule of the resources in this world, along with the body politic, and other things like insurance, healthcare and food is not free market at all. It's actually a form of communism, when you actually think about it. It's also not fair market either. Yet we the people do have the power to take the market back from these fascists and oligarchs. We have to vote with our money. It's not enough, as one mentioned earlier, to just get off the couch and scream in protest. This is a strategy that requires action and for some lifestyle changes. And that means getting out of your comfort system. Make one small change today. Don't settle for peasant mentality or imprisonment. — clvngodess
June
23, 2009
02:05 pm
Link
protests by hippy sudents do nothing, we all must understand how what we buy is the only thing that effects the world. Buy used, buy things that you can trace the production. we empower the corporations with our money. — Anonymous
June
23, 2009
12:29 pm
Link
Exactly people! Adbusters is good at rabble rousing, its up to everyone to actually make change happen! If its through the laws or whatever other means, use this opportunity of July 4 to stand up and say what you think! Just being cynical isn't going to start any fires... — tms
June
23, 2009
08:35 am
Link
I all for making sure the little people (collective of individuals) aren't taken advantage of by the remorseless corporate whores of this world, but come on, get real. Your gonna have to do better than that (flag with corporate logos). It's not gonna change anything Look what the French do when companies try to screw them over. What about Iran? That's a new twist, wouldn't you say? And what about the Tibettans who tried to tell the Chinese to stop f*cking with their lives. If you want to stop the bastards (Monsanto, A.I.G., McDonalds, Exxon, Walmarts, etc.), you're gonna have to stop being pansies and get your hands dirty. Remember what happened in Seattle during the W.T.O. meetings way back when? They won't listen, unless you make them listen. — Anonymous

We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.

Now 83,841 strong!

Join Us >>

TOOLS FOR ACTIVISTS

Blackspot Shoes

An experiment in grassroots capitalism.

Media Empowerment Kit

High school teachers! Inspire, inform, excite and challenge your students with this multimedia literacy kit.

What's This?

RECENT ADBUSTERS MAGAZINES

SUBSCRIBE BACK ISSUES
Logo Small