The Golden Arches

    Hello, I'm Arnold Carpet. I'm a writer, columnist, and a proclaimed philosopher. Today, I will be examining a Banksy sculpture of Ronald McDonald and relating it to corporatism. I believe we will be seeing each other often. 

The persistent march of corporatism has suffocated the people with a creativity-draining occupation while drowning them with a flood of debt, convincing the working class that money and "hard work" are they key to the desired lifestyle.

    Satire is defined as "a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn" and it fits the Banksy sculpture of Ronald McDonald very well. In a country governed by companies and corporations where lobbyists sway politics, the working class is convinced that the poor are the main enemy; the working class is constantly being told that their hard-earned money is being depleted by social welfare programs. The reality is, politicians and news outlets have purposefully misidentified the problem for the working class, keeping the upper class as an above-all, benefiting spectator of the increasing wage gap. And with power in the palm of the rich, the wage gap will continue to widen for why would they fix an issue that suits them so well? Taking that stream of thoughts and applying it to the Banksy piece, it's evident that the working class (represented by the young man in the filthy clothes) blindly serves the upper class (represented by the clean, scornful clown) because they're told that this is the only way to success. 

A further look on Banksy's piece reveals the comfort Ronald feels with expecting the working man to clean his shoe, rather than being thankful or moderate. It's as if Ronald is saying "I'm compensating you so you better do a good job." 

    Banksy washes the happy, colorful, delicious, inexpensive, friendly, plentiful canvas of McDonalds with a bleak, yet eye-opening, interpretation of the fast food chain controlling its underpaid adolescent workers, secreting and exploiting the energy and individualistic aspect of the workers' young lives. Moreover, the tone of the piece is dreary. The piece screams "corporate slavery of the mind", highlighting the depressing thought that the working class works for the sole purpose of money; for the sole purpose of serving their institutionalized masters who will reward them with a weekly paycheck. And the working class thanks their masters, for they are providing them with money, the main source of freedom. Those masters then mingle with the politicians and cut a beneficial deal between themselves, which then fuels the news articles bashing on social programs by saying "this is the problem, this is who is taking your money and freedom (not the one working you to your death)." In short, the dismal tone of the piece isn't dismal for the sake of being dismal; it calls for a change. People must work with their energy and freedom. They should work because they want a purpose. They should work because they can channel their energy into a creative outlet at work. They should work freely, with the ability to master several aspects of life. They should work with happiness. 

With mass production prevalent now more than ever, workers no longer work with their hands. Take a simple table. Today, companies mass produce furniture and the workers are only in charge of a certain aspect of the chain of production. In contrast to today, wood-workers in the past had full control over their product. They designed and made it with their own soulful purpose.

    But how do we achieve the utopian view of what Banksy calls for? By redesigning the vision of labor. Taking a couple pages out of the history book, it becomes clear that corporations and governments don't mix too well. Furthermore, the constant idealization of financial freedom means something is clearly wrong with corporatism. With millions living pay check to pay check, it's concerning to think that companies are filling their pockets with their workers' work. Workers should be able to channel their creative individuality, not suppress it with a autonomous job, meaningless to them. Therefore, a lot can be learned from Banksy's satirical view on corporation exploitation of the working class mind.