Al Franken: 'I don't get BP's lack of remorse'

Still subbing for Keith Olbermann on Countdown, Lawrence O'Donnell had a segment on the BP vice-president of Safety, Steve Flynn. O'Donnell, of course, thinks Flynn should resign, especially after his evasive testimony before a congressional sub-committee recently. ("I'm not the VP of Safety, I'm the VP of Thoughts About Safety" — or words to that effect.)

But I'd like to focus on Sen. Al Franken's questioning, which is embedded in the Countdown segment:



Al Franken, mano-a-mano (well, "man to man" anyway) with BP's VP of Safety. Thank you, Senator.

Now my own point: Maybe the senator is saying that ("I don't get it") for show, as a way of making the point. Or maybe he really doesn't get it. But notice he's not making the real point, the obvious one, the one thought that a world swimming in Charmin ads finds it impossible to consistently think.

The obvious thought is this, and it's a statement: No corporate "person" will ever feel remorse.

How on earth could it? A corporate "person" has no heart, no soul, no head, no capacity to feel anything at all. It is simply a beast that feeds itself. (Well, ostensibly it feeds the stock-holders, but we're way past that stage of capitalism, aren't we.)

And the central fact of this new century is that we live in a forest of such beasts, surrounded by them, constantly feeding them. We are things to them, literally. They eat us and we feed them.

But they also feed us in return. They surround us with images of the beast as human — as the kind store-keeper in the Charmin commercial; that nice business-blonde who cares about our energy future; the horny frat-bro-next-door who brings Zima and twins to your next party.

It's really hard, in a forest of such images, to see the beast behind the we-care human simulations. But it's critical that we do; the BP oil spill has kicked the Beast War* into the next phase, and believe me, he who is confused, will lose.

(*Apologies to George Lucas; he knows I mean well.)

GP