Save Our Souls

It is not by accident that almost every atrocity committed against humanity has found refuge within capitalism. Racism, colourism, sexism, exploitation, and slave labour all found a home within the capitalist system. The face of the villain has changed from European nations to multi-national companies that are coincidentally from those same countries, but the rules of the game remained the same, capitalist in nature.

We’ve been convinced that it is no longer Western nations that pillage and plunder the world but greedy multi-national companies with no soul. Periodically, someone is chosen as the face of this corporate greed; first, it was John D. Rockefeller, then Bill Gates, and now it is Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. The actions of companies have been divorced from the foreign policies of their homelands and they are painted to be acting of their own accord without state encouragement or influence. What is often not mentioned is that it was not the Dutch government but a private company, the Dutch East India Company that was looking for a route to India and landed in South Africa. They laid the foundation for racial discrimination that was central to the laws of the land on a scale never before imagined. It was under private ownership of the Congo, albeit by the king of Belgium, that a tragedy dwarfing the Holocaust in brutality befell the Congo with 10 to 15 million people killed and countless more mutilated. It was private companies that were at the forefront of the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Royal African Company, from England, shipped more African slaves to the Americas than any other institution in the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade. British banks such as Barclays and HSBC even had plantation mortgages that they offered to slave owners where the property that was of value wasn't your land but the number and value of slaves instead. Private enterprise financed the slave trade. Private companies and capitalism have been at the heart of colonialism and every terrible horror that spawned from it. So this sudden faith in “free markets” and private enterprises having the best interests of society and the world at heart baffles me because they have no track record of doing so. 

A pandemic that coincides and has worsened an economic downturn, injustice, and inequality has brought society to a point where a blind eye can no longer be turned and people’s cries can’t go unanswered. There is something fundamentally wrong with the current systems that govern the world.

A system that encourages farmers to throw away excess food in a world where around 9 million people die from starvation and hunger-related diseases every year is not one I want to be a part of and neither should you. To point the blame at countries or companies is lazy, it’s time we grow a pair and address the elephant in the room, capitalism. It isn’t broken but rotten and rot cannot be undone nor washed away; it needs to be cut out and removed to save whatever is left, only then can healing be found. The oceans need to be saved from capitalism. The rainforests and all their inhabitants need to be saved from capitalism. The planet needs to be saved from capitalism. We need to be saved from capitalism. 



Comments

  1. onebellowall September 13, 2020 at 2:37 PM

    An amazing piece that has left me with much to think about about.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 13, 2020 at 2:46 PM

    True and governments are supposed to keep companies from overstepping and keeping it competitive while representing the people, but now the companies have essentially bought the governments that are meant to police them. In this system who protect and represent the people

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't applaud a fish for swimming

“Don’t applaud a fish for swimming.” It’s a saying that I come across often on social media, and I get it, fish are supposed to swim. With that being said, good behaviour is to be rewarded, and in a world where things can take a sharp turn very quickly, relatively smooth sailing is nothing to scoff at. People are ashamed to speak about the small things they appreciate in life, be it from loved ones or their own accomplishments; because how dare they make a mountain out of an ant hill? No matter how small it is to other people if something makes a difference in your life; you have every right to celebrate it. You don’t applaud a fish for swimming, but in an ocean where many have fallen victim to the perils of the deep; one that is alive and kicking is cause for celebration. It is the responsibility of a parent to provide the best life possible for their children, but you can still feel a sense of joy and pride when you see how your parent makes an effort to be there for you. You can...
Read more

If you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen

In an interaction, where there is a recipient and a donor (yes that is the antonym of recipient), the burden of responsibility, of proof, is on the donor. It is the donor’s responsibility to ensure that the recipient actually receives what they are giving. It isn’t the customers’ responsibility to buy your product; it is yours to sell it to them. So sell it. It is the artists’ responsibility to reach their audience, not the audience's to accommodate the artist. It is the comedian’s responsibility to make the joke land, if the crowd doesn’t laugh then the comedian failed.  There is a pandemic of donors who forfeit their responsibility to the recipient, and then cry woe when the recipient doesn’t pick up what they dropped. Comedians from the last decade, and the one before have expressed their disdain for the “current generation” for being too sensitive. They say that the audience has lost their sense of humour, and they take everything too seriously. The people, whose job is to use ...
Read more

I am the captain of my own ship

I suspect that we don't have as much control over our lives as we believe that we do. Sure, we aren't helpless beings at the mercy of a predetermined algorithm, but we also aren't the all-powerful titans we sometimes convince ourselves we are. When things are going well, we over-estimate our contributions; and think highly of ourselves because we've done this Incredible thing. Feelings of pride, and confidence are warranted after an achievement; however, there's often a lack of acknowledgment of the factors, circumstances, and people that played different roles in getting you to the mountain top. When things aren't going well, there are often feelings of anxiety and despair due to the lack of control we have over our lives. It starts feeling like life is happening to us without our permission, and all we can do is react to each new thing that life throws at us. This is a dangerous place to be, because it can demotivate you from taking care of things that you cou...
Read more