Earth-side Down

Sometimes if you want to create a masterpiece you have to turn your vision upside down. Instead of staring into a Degas and trying to reconstruct his ballerinas, you have to turn his canvas upside down and try to paint the inverted lines.

French Impressionist, Edgar Degas, was more interested in movement than color. Disregarding classical rules of composition, Degas changed the realm of impressionist painting with his use of the oblique angle. Perhaps our modern world can pull a page out of Degas' book, challenging the role of multinational corporations by prompting these behemoths to lead our environmental revolution instead of running counter to it.

As an aspiring environmentalist it’s easy to detest multinational corporations. Walmart, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, you name it, they pretty much rock the gamut of every environmental, social, and political injustice out there, BUT that’s not a fixed certainty. For example, mixed in its arsenal of selling the cheapest, shittiest, and dirtiest products, Walmart also sells organics. Then there's Pepsi Cola, which recently announced it’s aim to do away with plastic bottles.

The beauty of these massive corporate entities is that they predictably peddle goods as cheaply as possible to turn the greatest profit. Yet, with people everywhere waking up to the havoc these goods wreak on their fellow citizens and the earth, MNC's now have to sell socially responsible products or consumers will turn elsewhere.

And that’s where the painting starts. That’s where our world can come together like George Seurat’s dots and construct a masterpiece.

Our citizenry is beautiful on the whole. Americans require justice like it were oxygen. However, we have a phenomenal disconnect when it comes to knowing the effects of the things we buy. But that disconnect is shrinking. Even in a climate of campaign contributions, political favors, and lax regulation, the consumer’s voice and choice is spreading. It’s a battle of information and once the individual learns how the goods they consume affect their social, political and environmental justice, the individual will consume to the best of their budget constraint.

I’m blessed with being poor right now. I get energy subsidies which allow me to purchase green energy, food stamps which I will get to use at the Farmer’s market starting April 3, and a budget constraint which pushes me toward purchasing second-hand clothing. Some people aren’t as fortunate to have these rationale choices aligned so readily before them.

But then again, some people with crazy-wealth purchase the shiza of the world because they have yet to learn they can be better, freer, and engage in the pursuit of happiness while upholding the citizens of Gaia’s natural rights.

Special thanks to Ileana Vink for the inverted painting motif and Erin Givarz for the Pepsi Cola link.