Are Big Corporations the Puppeteers of the Working People?

In a political blog written by Shamus Cooke entitled “The Smirking Chimp,” I found an interesting article called “The 1% and the Capitalism” dated October 13, 2011. Upon skimming the article I found a main point that stood out where Cooke states “...giant corporations monopolize production, markets, and government...” I have found most articles describing monopolies generally mean someone is being taken advantage of or controlled by a bigger person. This made me want to continue reading.

Shamus Cooke is making the argument on his own personal blog, which includes his biased, left-leaning, and liberal opinions. Being that this is his personal blog, his intentions are to give readers something to think about. Cooke also wrote this article to give a voice to the smaller man in a large working environment.

The intended audience is clearly the “working people.” I assumed this from Cooke’s main focus being the working class. He cleverly includes himself when stating how to solve the problem by saying “we” numerous times throughout the article. He is a social service worker, which shows in a job such as that a person generally cares for the rights of another and wants to see justice served for the oppressed. He is also a writer for Workers Action which proves his main view or concern being the workers.

As a result of Cooke’s experiences and selection of audience, he can be trusted among left-leaning working Americans. Readers can rely on their source if they agree with his political stance and point of view. For these reasons the author has a high credibility among everyone in that category of thinking.

The basic argument of Cooke is that corporations and politics should not be seen working hand in hand as they currently are. There should be some line between the two. The general assumption the argument relies on is making a large profit and giving power to corporations. The article holds the value of workers being more important than they currently are. It also lies on the value that the government should unite the “working people” and provide them with a “strong message” and voice too.

The evidence Cooke provides stirs emotions by making claims that corporations destroy people’s right and benefits as well. I believe the argument is a good one because he successfully points out resources used against workers. The political significance of the argument is that corporations have a hand in many areas of our lives, by controlling media, politicians, banks, technology, etc.  They play with us as puppets when they want to sway our political opinion, by employing politicians into their “cozy retirements” within a corporation.

In conclusion, the argument is successful because Cooke makes a call to the working people to unite and make a stand. The argument confirms my previous belief of the wealthy people getting ahead, more so than the average person. By my accepting the argument I join in his call to unite the “working people” and get more information out to the public. Let us “working people” take a stand and cut the links from big corporations by breaking the ties they have on us. Let us no longer play the puppets to their “pro-profit” policies.