I wish we lived in a world that self-regulated.
I wish we lived in a world that produced abundant free food by itself.
I wish we lived in a world where you can litter because everything biodegrades.
I wished we lived in a world of infinite beauty and mystery, and peace.
A world that cleans its own pollution, and where my body heals itself.
A world without factories or weapons of war.
A world without chains.
Oh wait, we do.
Stupid corporate pablum. What does that even mean? Doesn’t that sound like something a facist dictator would say regarding some kind of mass execution? And why are they telling average employees, the grunts, about srategic goals? It’s some misguided attempt to get us interested in the broader funtioning of this company. But no one cares about that, you know why? Becuase if the comapny saves $50million this year, do we see any of it? Not a dime. We still get our regularly schedualed paltry raises. When ____ was talking about all these savings and thanking us for our hard work in achieveing them, I really wanted to say “So, we all get big raises now right?” Becuase that’s how it should be. Somehow the rich man convinced the poor man that helping him get richer was good for him. It’s not, the rich man is greedy and he uses people. The poor man should see that. It’s as plain as day. WE ARE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF. Ownership essentially boils down to taking things and keeping them through violence. And it leads to exploitation. It’s a platform for exploitation.
Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of them in his log:
They…brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bell. They willingly traded everything they owned…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, the took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.
-Christopher Columbus, from A People’s History of the United States.
I wonder why as a society we don’t work less: then we would merely have less things, but we would gain more time…. Personally, I’d choose time over things. But it seems that human society actually reveres the creation and peddling of crap wares. If we’re not doing that we might as well not be alive. But why? What is everyone afraid is going to happen? Why must we build everything and anything above and beyond basic food and shelter? I’m not saying I’m completely against doing this, I’m simply questioning that we MUST do it, or do it to the extent that we do now. Why do we put so much value in such valueless things? “You get to have a home and food becuase you make ipods or websites” but not “you get to have a home and food because you are a human being“ that never happens. It’s as if we posit material goods and the destruction of the planet as more valuable than human life. Can someone please tell me why it’s this way? Why does our society seem only to function on and reward the consumption of more resources when it seems obvious that we need to be using less resources? Maybe it’s the elites that put us on our empty task; an army of workers shoveling gold into the mouths of a few elite capitalists…
