Influx

Last year’s documentary film, The Corporation presented a radical theory, that corporations are psychopaths.

This year, Alex Gibney’s film, Enron-The Smartest Guys in the Room, expands on the point and goes into detail on the excesses of corporate power. It will remind people of the significance of the Enron scandal, which has become something of a distant memory for many.

The film shows how we are all duped, even the brightest and best, into believing Enron’s story. Gibney goes as far as to suggest that it was culturally prudent to do so; the extremes of capitalism being so ingrained and celebrated in the culture.

Enron’s advertising plays a key part in the film, since the director was intrigued to learn that Enron’s advertising campaign was called “Ask Why?”

To quote Gibney

There is bitter irony, humor and unconscious honesty in Enron’s advertising slogan: “Ask Why?”

In the context of its surreal commercials, the slogan becomes a boast about Enron’s ability to question conventional wisdom. But given what we now know about Enron, “Ask Why?” is almost an unconscious dare to outside observers: ask why Enron is so successful. It reminds me of the way that master criminals always leave clues for detectives, as if the discovery of the crime is a kind of cat-and-mouse game.