Enron Flashcards
what is Stein’s view of Enron?
It is ‘familial trauma’- relationship with daughter etc.. breakdown of marriage mentioned at end- ‘you didn’t know me at all’…
what have critics observed the use of the spectacle of blind mice, raptors, ventriloquist dummy and the Lehman brothers as conjoined twins help Prebble to do?
‘explore the absurdities of life in neoliberal enterprise’
what have Currel and Epstein observed?
trust was excessive in and around Enron- ‘Employees were willing to sell their trust to aid their careers’- highlights trust is a commodity- ‘we’re going to sell it to you as the truth’ -there is no absolute truth…
What have critics observed about Skilling’s end speech?
causes audience to question ‘our own involvement in the hubris of finance’- links to ideas of plays encouraging us to question own sense of morality/beliefs/values
what have Guardian critics observed from the West End performance in 2009?
Enron could be interpreted as a play about faith- the need to believe. Links to Lay’s religious justifications and ideology…
what does Lay state on CNN in 2006?
‘I believed the balance sheet was strong. I believed it then and I believe it now’-links to Guardian critic/trust as a commodity/no absolute truth or reality…
How many died in California?
at least one man- yet ‘burn baby burn!’- all traders.
what is the irony of the corporate value statement?
‘openly, honestly, sincerely’- yet no cash flow statement ‘asshole’ etc
what line was removed from the corporate value statement in 2000?
‘ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don’t belong here’- Prebble encourages us to critique neoliberalism through lack of care for California despite what Skilling states- links to ‘sell it to you as the truth’. Also lack of care for Irene Gant at the end- ‘what do you expect me to say to that?’ , wilful blindness of Lay and employees ‘just here for the champagne’ and ‘deliberately oblivious’ to raptors…
what does J. Clifford Baxter’s death link to?
line within lawyers prologue ‘men jump to their deaths’, sold stocks before the company’s demise and shot and killed himself in 2002. Highlights reality of events- this actually happened!
how many employees lost their jobs?
20,000
what does George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language link to?
how employees found loop holes in the law to make money out of California’s deregulated state - ricochet, fat boy, death star etc. Equivocate people
what does Samuel West state in 2009, who played Skilling?
‘it is difficult to evade the charisma of the protagonist and the seductive nature of his vision’- highlights Skilling’s clear ambiguity…
What does Rockwell, the director, state about Enron?
‘I think the audience will be shocked by the hubris that was Enron’
what does Foucault state?
‘global corporate power keeps the masses in spectacle allusion’
