We tend to focus in on our own little micro-verse making meaning out of chaos via the stories we are told over and over. We are free, they are not free. We are good they are bad. God and the Devil, etc etc Few people venture beyond this simplistic dualism the universe is divided into for our consumption. If one is to be truly free, he / she MUST always question these meaning making stories. Who gets to tell them, are they true and who benefits? So go ahead and and ask yourself friends, who benefits from the story of capitalism? Is it the starving in Africa and other third world locales? How about those being boiled alive by dictators supported by Neo-liberalism? Could it be the wage slaves right here at home? I'd have to guess these people are not beneficiaries of free markets. Who is? It could be these guys or these guys or this dude. Hell, I'd even include myself. I have a rare full time job with benefits (at least for the time being). I'm an evil faceless low level government bureaucrat. Depending on how the election goes, soon to be in the loser category. But at the moment, the current system is making me a winner! Winner and loser, more simplistic duality. But unlike most other so called winners, I realize the party cannot go on forever. We are hitting the twin icebergs of runaway climate change and geological limits. Our ship is just starting to list to one side more perceptible to some than to others. The size of one's bank account may adversely affect their perception of danger. Fat bank, 2.5 kids, nice house, cool car, hot wife what could possibly be going wrong? Well a lot.
Let's step back and look well beyond our small worlds of friends family and day to day stuff. Let's consider that there are more slaves in the world today than ever before. Lets stop the climate denial bullshit. It is changing Virginia and it is people who are causing it. Lets consider how much we are poisoning the oceans, the soil and the very air we breathe. Lets think about all the lives wasted already on resource wars with no end in sight. I think we can all agree something is very very wrong with our world. Well, the world is doing just fine. It will keep spinning around the sun for several more billion years. There is something very very wrong with us. We allow this to happen believing unquestioningly the simplistic stories we are told while in our hearts knowing better. As advanced as we are, can we not do better? There must be alternative ways of organizing ourselves that do not poison everything and lead to a bottom billion living in hopeless poverty. We need to find it or the ole Earth will find it for us. All we know of is capitalism, socialism and communism. The people who brought us these ideas are long dead. Capitalism is the dominant system now and it is clearly not meeting our needs (read needs of all of us) and in fact capitalism is doing us great harm. Communism has some cool thoughts (collective, worker ownership etc) but has never been implemented successfully. To say the least, it also has an image problem. The old USSR, Cuba and North Korea are not leading role models for a shiny happy world. Socialism, which to me, seems to be a mix of the two has done well for a few rich Western European nations but is still based on global capitalism and all the baggage that goes along with it. For each well to do type living in Western Europe or here, how many are living in day to day poverty? We HAVE the resources to take care of everyone. There is no excuse for starving people, people with unclean water and no health care. These things only exist because of the crazy-ass stories we tell ourselves that we then make "reality."
All I'm looking for with this series of posts is more options. I'm as guilty as anyone reading this. My success is on the backs of poor I'll never know, the faceless unpersons who made my clothes, my electronic gizmos and picked the fruit I eat. I like my nice cars, glad my wife has a good job and my cool little house. I benefit from the very system I CHOOSE to question. I'm willing to trade in some of this (all of it??) for all to have a shot at a decent, dignified and productive life. I cannot pretend everything is fine simply because everything is fine for me. To the greedy bastards out there who think life should be based on self-interest only, I'd like to remind you keeping the business as usual status quo is not in your interest. Where's the fun in driving that red Lexus convertible across a scorched, desolate Earth breathing hot poisoned air?
Some links / Evidence? I got yer evidence right here!!
Democrat Republican Duopoly
Boil the Opposition
Climate Change and Geological Limits
Modern Slavery
Fruit pickers
Lexus
All I'm looking for with this series of posts is more options. I'm as guilty as anyone reading this. My success is on the backs of poor I'll never know, the faceless unpersons who made my clothes, my electronic gizmos and picked the fruit I eat. I like my nice cars, glad my wife has a good job and my cool little house. I benefit from the very system I CHOOSE to question. I'm willing to trade in some of this (all of it??) for all to have a shot at a decent, dignified and productive life. I cannot pretend everything is fine simply because everything is fine for me. To the greedy bastards out there who think life should be based on self-interest only, I'd like to remind you keeping the business as usual status quo is not in your interest. Where's the fun in driving that red Lexus convertible across a scorched, desolate Earth breathing hot poisoned air?
Some links / Evidence? I got yer evidence right here!!
Democrat Republican Duopoly
Boil the Opposition
Climate Change and Geological Limits
Modern Slavery
Fruit pickers
Lexus
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