Separation of Corporation and State

I am disgusted by the information I learned about corporations this week in the chapter “The Rights of Businesses” of Paul Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest”. The efforts of small groups such as the Luddites who were trying to ensure security in their field of work against the textile machines and child labor who were overwhelming their professional abilities are inspiring (Hawken 60). They fought against the profit-greedy textile giants and were framed by spies in burning incidents, which led to their deaths (Hawken 61).  The way this group was treated by young corporate giants in response to industrial changes in society is embarrassing for anyone who has ever bought clothing from an industrial corporation (all of us).

How should we approach corporations? What can we realistically do? Corporations are a major component of our everyday lives as Americans in the 21st century global economy. It’s awkward to cast all corporations in an evil light when some have different goals. It’s nearly impossible at this day and age to do away with all corporate influence in one’s life. However, if one corporation is capable of swaying the history of the USA and ultimately the fate of the globe for its own interests and profits, then anyone could possibly have influence. This is a serious problem to humanity and the well-being of life everywhere. 

I was very much struck by this sentence on page 67: “That person would question the rights of businesses and would ask that the concept of the separation of church and state be enlarged to include the separation of corporation and state”. Our country’s government is here to serve the interests of the people. We have removed the influence of the church (which is still trying to hold on as much as possible, *cough* gay marriage *cough*) and now we face the challenge of eradicating the influence, corruption and control by corporations and their never-ending flow of money. An America that only serves to better the lives of its people would rid itself of a fossil fuel-based economy because it would know how harmful and detrimental oil, coal, and the energy demanded by their presence is on the lives of future generations.

America is already starting to see less of corporations and their profit-driven quests. Today, my mother and I walked around Portland’s Saturday Farmers’ Market in the Park Blocks. We hopped from tent to tent where we picked up wild fiddlehead ferns, organic milk and cheese, and beautiful flowers for Mother’s Day. I inquired into the official Farmers’ Market tent where I learned that they are a non-profit organization of people and farmers who care about eating healthy, nutritional, and delicious food while not sacrificing the integrity and stability of the environment by spraying pesticides, seeping nitrogen fertilizer into the ground, and mistreating animals. They have asked themselves tough questions that pry at their values of health, community, and life. They have answered with a wildly successful, farmers’ market that serves the city and the land. They have made non-profit possible.