Watt is power!? Ohm-mmm is for resistance.
March 19, 2020
Power! Forgive me a cruel chuckle. Power, mhhh
Foreword - skip me, if you want
As you will probably be aware of by now, I get right to the point in my posts - usually, between a third and halfway through. Part of the reason for that, on the one hand, and the fact that my train of thought may appear scattered at points on the other is that I’m a strong believer in intersectionalty. I don’t restrict the term to discrimination against gender, race or sexuality, though. To me, the meaning extends much further. It oddly enough is to be taken more literally - pointing to out that matters intersect or in other words things overlap and interact, influence each other. Of course, just like in mathematics or physics for example one has to make some simplifying assumption for things to work. At the same time, when we don’t opt for such simplifications, we often need to limit the domain to which our broader assumptions apply correctly. As a tendency, and rule of thumb, the more broadly and loosely we make statements about things the less precision ships with these statements and more precisely we we are about the statements the smaller the domain they apply to. Point being is that the difficulty often is not in not having much to say about one topic, but to stick with a topic or a certain narrative because we live in this complex system, our globalised world, where things are connected and influence each other. In fact, this is one of the biggest reasons for me to write this. It’s not for you to read in the first place, to change people’s minds or to claim correctness in certain views. It is first and foremost that I find the process of writing things down helps a great deal with structuring and ordering my thoughts. Writing them down in an online blog kind of way just turns out to be more helpful in that process for me than writing it down by hand in a journal or having a rant in a video, at least in my case.So, if you read this I hope you take that into account. Here we go…
It’s all paradoxical
Capitalism is like cancer. The modern world and in particular the capitalist world, systems and societies puzzle me. From my limited perspective and self-inflicted narrow-mindedness. But here are some things that puzzle me:
How can we possibly want seemingly infinite economic growth on a finite planet with finite resources?
How and why is wealth now essentially based on dept?
How do we have an almost exponential increase of global money?
How come this money is evermore in the hands of a few rather than the many?
Why is there seemingly no real alternative to capitalism alive these days?
How come that:
a. In the age of machines we still have to work 40 hours. Many work even more, for more money,
b. Mental health issues are on the rise,
c. We seemingly have to work more for the relatively average lifestyle?
d. In times of surplus and greed, so many struggle to accomodate for basic needs, i.e. food, water, shelter, love?
e. (…and yes, love is a basic need)
So, grab yourself some biscuits and let’s get down to business.
Not saying I agree with everything Suzuki says, but essentially he is correct. According to some newspaper articles like this one , 2017 was the year we, yeas, we, all of us, together as humans, apparently started using more resources than the (natural) world produces. And that might even be a euphemistic point of view because, despite suing resources it also depends on in how toxic a way one uses the existing ones.
Let’s consider two basic assumptions that are held to be true and self-evident these days: Countries want constant economic growth (otherwise we face a dire recession). The climate crisis that has been building up for decades eventually shows such strong impacts on the planet that we can no longer ignore it and need to be more considerable consumers.
Call me backwards, but my grandparents, who like decent quality things and going on holiday and certain forms of luxury, didn’t buy a new car every other year. If cloths had a hole, they would fixed up. Food was not to be wasted, how sinful. Trust me when I say I personally may hold way more radical views, but essentially what is all this buying about these days? Of course, innovation is nice and enjoyable. And in some fields like computers or medicine possibly more vital than in others. If we look at food for example. So called innovation in the food industry has done what? It has presented us the all-mighty GM food - processed, preserved, flavour-enhanced and wrapped in plastic. How come rich first world countries like the US, and threshold countries economically catching up with that great super power America, have an increasing problem with nutrition. One of the most visible impacts of these problems is obesity and malnutrition leading to decreased quality of life and earlier deaths. Another one aspect is litter - there is a growing amount of food waste, plastic waste and pollution from food production.
How can society and politics justify advertising and brainwashing you into buying a new laptop, phone or car all the time whilst the one you currently have might be perfectly fine (or just broke because of planned obsolescence)?
How come that with time you might make more money and get slightly nicer gadgets, but people have more mental health problems? How come people subjectively struggle a lot more, are more stressed?
How come people still struggle so much and essentially worry to not have a job for a month or two when everyone apparently just has so much more money than say 40 years ago.
OK, alright, here comes the brainwashed wage slave praying to the system: But that’s just due to inflation. People are just weak these days… lah-dee, lah-dee. If you give me your neo-liberal, liberal-democrat arguments, you might save both of us some time and keep them for yourself. Been there, done that. You may want to emancipate from this folly.
There are two overarching aspects to this folly. One of them is the our stone-age, scarcity driven brain in a consumption-based world. The other one aspect is access and distribution. To the conservative or neo-liberal reader: No, equality of opportunity is different from equality of outcome (I’m not a commie!), in-equality is inevitable and even good or desirable to some extend and yes, some people are better doing thing A than others, and also yes, here comes a real controversial one, some people are smarter than others. The last point, is only true though, measured by your definition of smart aka the IQ test. Being smarter than others also might be advantageous in terms of “outcome” in modern society, but has very little say about many aspects that make life worth living. If I may a give a brief example: Put Jeff Bezos on a lonely island without access to the outside world, but his wallet. I’m sure all his wealth will serve him dearly. Or how much of this feeling of superioroty and greatness and ego would you feel if everyone was just as rich as you and no one would be richer to look up to and want to have more?
For the latter, as many attempts of socialism have shown, equality of outcome tampers with human nature, mood and feeling of being alive. However, looking at monks of various religions, a self-inflicted equality of outcome, at least materially, appears to contribute to finding great joy in existence.
So, you might argue, but what about the economy, what about all the progress and achievement of capitalism. Actually, I don’t deny them. But I dare call you a fool if you belief that no progress or less progress would have been made in any other form and shape of society. I do admit there are forms where less progress would have been certain. However it on the one hand depends on how one measures success (dollars vs happiness) and on the other hand, it certain forms of living together have been denied to us so far due to capitalism being a bully (also topic of another post). One counter question here to undermine the interrogators question about blah-blah economics that may come up here is actually a huge reason why I am not a Tesla fan boy. And, I know this is an oversimplified example, but for the sake of a gedankenexperiment: Imagine all the people working in the car industry, working in public transport. That is not only as conductors. As engineers, designers, customer service… Who would ever want to take a car again? Inner cities filled with green spaces instead of cars. Possibly public transport being free. And sure, you still might be eligible for a self-driving taxi every now and again. But more on that in another post.
You see, or maybe don’t because you’re fuming with anger for me undermining your well-indoctrinated world views, but I shall not bow to your god of material things, fear and constant envy anymore. Here comes another thing that dazzles me greatly, particularly because I enjoy technology in many ways. So many smart people, in a world of so many complex problems, join some startup to make money out of money or from some bullshirt that no one needs and causes even more pollution. I’m not entirely against money or think it’s evil in itself, not do I mind someone making a profit per se, but this is just ridiculous and selfish. But money is increasingly about power and dominance over others rather than a means to an end. Technology at the same time is more and more a means of power, subjugation, control and money rather than a means to benefit society and liberate the individual from certain chores. Of course, some great inventions like the internet and video editing software have been made. But we must not hide behind and seek comfort in the little perks we get fed with a spoon whilst few people are cashing in. Especially not when this technology (and money) can easily be used for the good of all of us. It can decrease our need to work in set jobs whilst maintaining the same standard of living. It can help us decrease poverty and increase people’s well-being if we learn to share (a great example is open-source and free, as in freedom, software). Yet we live in the illusion of increasing wealth and standards whilst eating the crumbs the rich 1 percent leave us and allow the rest slightly more and more, just enough to keep oneself going strong in the hamster wheel. It is also that 1 percent on the top that is feeding you, whilst cashing in on it, unhealthy sugary food, numbing your brain with dumb shows on tele and Hollywood blockbusters. It is also that top percent that doesn’t really pay taxes like everyone else. It is that top percent, that causes by far the most pollution to the planet. And that is in many ways. They cash in on you and the planet on so many levels it’s absurd. You are made to want that new smartphone car and laptop you don’t need. You are brainwashed by advertising into and sugar to eat all this food that is not good for you. You are made to by the latest fashion to feel a little bit less crap about yourself. And few people are cashing in on that. You, the tax payer has to pay with their money and their health for ever increasing pollution. You are made to pollute the environment avoidably by having to drive your car to work and back for an hour each day. Blaming others is easy - I know. And no one is a saint and free of polluting or making terrible life choices. But I belief in humanity in the sense that I think people wouldn’t be quite so horrible as a collective if we were better educated, differently brought up morally and would understand to see us as brothers and sisters.
Capitalism is keeping us hostage. We live with constant Stockholm syndrome and constant brainfooock of our primal wiring. Of course it has brought us some great achievements, of course, there is a correlation these days between having more financial means and having “better” life. But honestly, who in their right mind believes that a system that is based on inequality, constant fear of financial impotency, a system that has evidently caused insane amounts of environmental destruction and pollution, is going to lead us out of the misery it has created. I bet you it’s none of the startups around these days. I bet you it’s not Elon and it’s not Bill. It’s us who have the power to change. It’s us who have the liberty to wield that power. It’s hard work. Things will go wrong> Conflicts will arise. Yet, it is us as a collective who should stop fighting each other, killing and torturing each other, putting each other in jail and destroying our gorgeous planet. It is us as a collective who need to re-socialise the billionaires and power-hungry, power-grabbing 1 percent. It is us who can impose limits on how much power an individual can hold over many others. That will take away the illusion of freedom that exists in looking up to the most successful and wealthy, glorifying them, envying them. It will rid us of the false feeling of severing off personal liberties. We have to make small commitments in giving away some personal liberties to ultimately gain more of them and to gain more freedom. Not least because it is much better to have the freedom and liberty to walk around at night fearlessly of other members of society than to have the liberty to carry a gun because one constantly has to keep in mind you could get mugged by someone carrying a gun. Power should be held by the many, the collective, the notion of us-ness, not the few greedy rich, it should be held by you and me and the rest to more or less equal amount. You, me, we have the freedom, right and power to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, no one but ourselves can free our minds (Bob Marley).