What is the difference between an artist and a corporation?
It seems almost ludicrous to put these two types of legal persons in the same category, but after watching the amazing documentary The Corporation, I can’t help but consider the similarities between artists and corporations.
Let’s understand some facts. As of the 1853 Supreme Court case Marshall v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, corporations (giant monsters located in large glossy skyscrapers in our world’s largest and most prominent cities) are considered full legal citizens. This means that they have the right to free speech. The problem with this (and I am over simplifying the minor legal limitations on free speech) is that we do not understand how much influence the words of corporations affect our lives.
But back to the documentary.
In a personality test for corporations, one of the traits identified is “breaches social and legal standards to get its way.”
Although “breach” may be an extreme way to put it, I think artists in a way do the same thing. Artists are meant to break rules and challenge the limits. The difference is that the artist (in theory) is working for the benefit of society without the intent of exploiting an individual for profit. The same is not true for a corporation. A subtle point, maybe, but if corporations did not exist, it is fascinating to think about how different our art would be.
For one thing, we wouldn’t need to be spending so much effort trying to save our own lives.
Reading through Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, it is only increasingly more disheartening with each chapter. It’s all a game. The chapter about Rachel Carson and the extreme battle that she faced when writing Silent Spring, about DDT causing cancer continues to replay in my mind.
The point that I repeatedly take away from each chapter, however, is that corporations are protected by the political and economic “systems” that our country is built upon. I feel like I can’t trust anything anymore.
This week I went to BareBurger with my aunt who was visiting and I couldn’t help but second guess everything that the company advertised. Organic, natural, eco-friendly are all great things, but how can we actually know if it’s true? I know that we have the Food and Drug Administration, but thinking back to Merchants of Doubt who might be paying who to help make a profit??
In my own short life, it has never been more apparent about the influence of corporations on our government, especially with this monster gaining some terrifyingly serious traction.
What if we all just cooperated and worked together?
It would literally save the world.