Aah!  The power of the metaphor:  “corporations are people.”  Not only can a mere metaphor become a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it has overturned a century-old Montana ruling that restricted the proven, corrupt effects corporate spending has on politics.  But our U.S. supreme court has taken a decidedly literary turn favoring metaphors over the wisdom gleaned from history and legal precedent.

If corporations are people, it seems like a pretty uneven playing field when it comes to the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  And if money is free speech, more power and influence to those who can afford the megaphones.  And what about people-people in this grand poetic?  If corporations are people, then do real people, in this poetic scale-shift, become the mere blood vessels and neurons? – flowing the nutrients and oxygen, transmitting the dopamine and endorphins to keep those corporate bodies happy and functioning and in the game?  No doubt the supreme court ruling permits corporations to be the player and sidelines the real citizen, the voter.

If court rulings are reasoned by metaphors, then our U.S. Supreme Court is comprised of poet laureates.  Wisdom lost.