A Crazy Idea

Why do we do things? What drives us to get up in the morning and get things done? And I don't mean you and me personally; we all, as individuals, have our own reasons for wanting to see another sunrise and accomplish stuff for ourselves and our loved ones. That's not what this is about. This is just a crazy idea about the reasons why we get things done as a society.

The first questions that needs answering is this: do we indeed strive to get things done as a society? Have we ever? And if so, do we remember? We live in the age of capitalism, we've been raised in it, just like our parents, grandparents and several preceding generations; we don't know anything else, it's like the air we breathe. The history we're taught at home and at school isn't any different; it's a bunch of narratives and story-lines that are compared to our current systems, explaining how they were all inferior to the current day splendor of late stage capitalism, and how we've always been destined to end up where we are now. And where we are now is the true state of mankind; we do not do things as a society. Instead we've invented a system that harnesses our innate drive to do achieve individual goals, for ourselves, and transforms those countless individually driven goals into the force needed to get things done as a society. All this makes it hard for us to even imagine there ever being a time when we did indeed act as a whole, as a group of people working towards common goals.

But we did, and it wasn't even that long ago. Living in this man-made world clouds our eyes to see past the utterly atomized lives we've been raised to accept as the norm. We've reached a point where we have stronger ties with some faceless stranger we're debating on an online platform than with the people who live next door. And it's hard, nigh impossible for us for to imagine things were ever any different. As individuals we've never known any different, and as a society we're doing our best to forget that there was ever a time when things were different. We've surrendered our hearts, minds and souls to a system, a way of living that pits us all against the rest of the world, against our neighbors and against our co-workers. And we've been made to believe that this is the natural state of the human condition. "It's our nature," defebders of the status quo proclaim. "It's suvival of the fittest, it's evolution," and how can we argue against evolution? "It's God's will," and how can we argue with Holy Scripture that dictates we be meek and submissive, lead poor lives in the name, and in service of the Almighty God? Why do we get things done? In the name of the Almighty Dollar or the Almighty God, that's why.

And we're wrong, as a society, on both accounts. We have to struggle against centuries of taking these motivations - God, money, profits - for granted. We find ourselves in a dire situation where there's one overarching motivation for our actions as a society: profits. If something isn't profitable, it simply doesn't get done. And we're so blinded by capitalist propaganda that we don't fully grasp how destructive a reason this is to get things done. It's ravaging not only our planet, but our bodies, minds, souls and cohesion as human societies as well. Defenders of capitalism say, and have most of us believe, that profit-seeking combined with free trade in a free market is the most efficient way to use and distribute natural and human resources. It is beyond me why anyone would buy that nonsense; tell that to the millions that are dying of hunger and despair, not to mention pollution and wars for resources. In a world where we produce more than enough food to feed 10 billion people, why does hunger exist? It's because we do not produce food to feed people. We produce food to make a profit instead. We steal resources from parts of the world that are too poor to maintain an army, and transport them to parts of the world where people can buy the goods that are produced from them.

On several occasions in the past I've shared the story of William Painter and King Camp Gillette; I'll summarize it here once more. Painter was the inventor of the crown cork, the disposable sealing still used for many drink bottles. Making a widely used and disposable product made his company, now known as Crown Holdings, one of the richest in history and is still ranked in the Fortune 500. Gillette was a salesman for Painter and Painter told him this: "King, you are always thinking and inventing; why don't you try to create something like the ‘Crown Cork?’ Something that's thrown away after it is used... The customer keeps coming back for more. Each new customer becomes a permanent foundation of profit." And, as you know, Gillette became the inventor of the safety razor with his name, and is also ranked as one of the Fortune 500 companies. To make things for a profit means to make things that keeps the customer coming back for more. Why sell a product once when each new customer can become "a permanent foundation of profit"? All major players in our late stage capitalist world have taken that message to heart. We're perfectly capable of producing everlasting razor blades and reusable sealings for bottles. But we don't produce razor blades to shave, nor do we produce bottle sealings to seal bottles...

Planned obsolescence in its many forms is a natural outcome of the profit-motive, and it's the reason why we're flooded with shitty products that break down months or weeks after the warranty period has expired. It's the reason why Apple, and adjacent companies, have developed ingenious marketing and advertisement ploys to make us want to throw away perfectly good mobile phones in order to get the latest model; Apple is the world leader in perceived obsolescence. We all know this to be true, but we somehow accept this to be "just the way things are," and rather debate a complete stranger on the other end of the world on whether Apple or Samsung is "the best." They're both out to make a profit man, they're both "the worst." But let's not stop here. Let's apply this reasoning to healthcare, shall we?

With a pharmaceutical industry that's out to make a profit just as much as Apple or Samsung, why would they sell us a cure? A cure can be sold only once after all. Nah, they'll sell us treatments, right? For the medical industry a cured customer is a customer no more. They'll rather fight the symptoms than the disease, right? Right. Treating cancer is a billion dollar industry, so in a world where we treat rather than cure, where's the motivation to ever win the "war against cancer"? In a world where billions are made by waging war, where the wheels of the economy are kept churning through endless cycles of destruction and rebuilding, where's the motivation to build things to last, or to end war as a concept? We've traded a world where we waged in the name of the King, for a world where we wage war in the name of corporations' profits.

So, here's a crazy idea: let's stop doing things for a profit. Let's make food to feed people. Let's make medicine to cure people. Let's make mobile phones to communicate with people. I know, it sounds crazy, but just for a moment entertain the idea of doing and making things for their true purpose. Let's stop sacrificing our humanity on the altar of the almighty dollar. Let's make transportation of people the focus, not selling a car to every individual. Let's be true to ourselves and each other, let's help ourselves by helping each other and making sure everyone has access to everything we need. Capitalism is the crazy idea, and it's tearing our world apart. The small ray of light I see for the future is that our time is the time when the failing of capitalism is most apparent. But then again there are still way too many people who can't, or won't, see through the smoke and mirrors generated by a lifetime of being raised by and in capitalist realism. Way too many people for whom it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

One of those people is Tim Pool, who rants against a plan from the mayor of Chicago to institute a government-run grocery store in order to combat food deserts. Large grocery- and supermarket chains are closing their doors because they claim they can't keep up with rampant crime, when in reality they simply move out of areas where they can't sell enough because the average customer can't afford their products; just another example of doing stuff for profits instead of making sure food is available everywhere for everyone. Tim Pool says this is "communism," playing on America's collective fear for that word... Watch the below linked video for a response to Tim Pool's rant against an idea to provide food to people in defiance of the destructive profit motive. Like I said: it's not because we can't, but because we believe, truly believe the crazy idea that doing things for a profit is somehow rational...

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